LORD SALISBURY ON EVOLUTION. 581* 



answer to this question was suggested on observing the changes 

 passed through by every unfolding plant and animal. Immeas- 

 urably as do the multitudinous kinds of organisms differ from 

 one another, yet the unfoldings of them proceed in similar ways. 

 The detailed changes gone through are infinitely varied, but the 

 general change is the same for all. It has since become apparent 

 that the abstract formula expressing this transformation in all 

 living things, also expresses the transformation which is, and has 

 been, in progress everywhere. The Solar System, in passing from 

 its primitive state to its present state, has exemplified it ; and, if 

 we accept Lord Kelvin's conclusion respecting the dissipation of 

 its energy and consequent ultimate fate, it will continue to exem- 

 plify it. The transformation of the Earth from those early stages 

 in which its surface began to solidify, down to its present stage, 

 has likewise conformed to the general law. Among living things 

 it is conformed to not only in the unfolding of every organism, 

 but also, if we draw the conclusion pointed to above, by the 

 organic world in general, considered as an aggregate of species. 

 The phenomena of mind, in rising from its lowest forms in infe- 

 rior creatures up to its form in Man, and again in rising from the 

 lowest human form to the highest, illustrate it. It is again illus- 

 trated by the successive stages of social progress, beginning with 

 groups of savages and ending with civilized nations. And we see 

 it no less displayed in all the products of social life in language, 

 in the industrial arts, in the development of literature, in the 

 genesis of science. 



Is this inductive generalization capable of deductive verifica- 

 tion ? Does this uniformity of process result from uniformity of 

 cause ? The answer is Yes. As the changes universally in 

 progress now and through all past time have resulted in trans- 

 formations having certain common traits, so also, in the actions 

 everywhere producing them, there are certain common traits. 

 However vast or however minute, every aggregate is like every 

 other aggregate in being subject to the actions of outer things 

 and in having parts that act on one another. Be it the Solar 

 System, which by its motion through space shows that the Stellar 

 Universe around influences it, and which shows that its compo- 

 nent bodies influence one another, or be it an infusorium exposed 

 to currents and to living things in the surrounding water, and 

 made up of interdependent organs, we are equally shown that ex- 

 ternal incident forces affect everything, and that everything is 

 affected by the mutual actions of its parts. But if there is a fun- 

 damental unity in the relations of aggregates to their environ- 

 ments and of their components to one another, there must also 

 be a fundamental unity in the processes of change set up in all 

 cases. Hence, then, a certain community of character in the 



