COSMIC AND ORGANIC EVOLUTION. e-jj 



cosmic and organic evolution. Let us examine this distinction more 

 closely. We know that an organism develops, much like a world, out 

 of an homogeneous and diffused state of its elements. Throughout its 

 course the organic aggregate behaves like other aggregates. From 

 the imperceptible it becomes perceptible. From the diffuse it becomes 

 concentrated. From the indefinite it becomes definite. From the 

 homogeneous it becomes heterogeneous. From the unstable it ap- 

 proaches the stable condition. Segregation, which is the selective 

 process, is more marked in the organic than in the inorganic aggre- 

 gate. Its parts are differentiated and rendered distinct and definite, 

 while through an increasing dependence between them the whole 

 aggregate becomes more and more firmly integrated or consolidated. 

 Growth, which is increase of bulk, is simply the absorption of diffuse 

 gaseous or liquid materials, which may theoretically be regarded as 

 having originally belonged to the aggregate in its most widely dif- 

 fused condition. Development, which is increase of structure, is the 

 same process which all aggregates undergo in their transition from 

 the homogeneous and indefinite toward the heterosreneous and definite, 

 under the laws of segregation and the multiplication of effects. Final- 

 ly, equilibration in organic aggregates is distinct and universal. 



Every organism must reach this stage, and that in a comparatively 

 brief period so brief as to be capable of repeated and easy observa- 

 tion. So plain does this stage of its progress become that it is feared 

 that the predication of a stage of equilibration, not to say dissolution, 

 for inorganic aggregates, is an argument from analogy, where the 

 analogy is taken from a very subordinate class of phenomena, viz., 

 from the observed equilibration of organic aggregates. A universal 

 conclusion is deduced from a particular case ; the law of the whole is 

 assumed from that of a part. This, according to Mr. Spencei-'s own 

 showing in his " Principles of Psychology," is the weakest form of 

 reasoning. It should be admitted, however, that while the doctrine 

 of the ultimate disintegration and dissolution of the celestial bodies 

 rests on very insufficient inductive evidence, there are strong a priori 

 grounds, beyond the domain of science, but clearly Avithin the range 

 of philosophy, which make it a legitimate object for the exercise of 

 the " constructive imao;ination." 



The most important truth which can be called in to aid us in this 

 difficulty and apparent confusion of phenomena is that of the per- 

 petual competitive operation of both the forces of evolution and of dis- 

 solution. Both these influences are at all times and in all kinds of 

 aggregates simultaneously at work. The history of every aggregate 

 is that of its struggle with these opposite contending influences. TJie 

 final equilibration implies this. It is the establishment of equilibrium 

 between just these forces. In the evolution of a star the forces of 

 dissolution are mostly within the aggregate. In that of a star-system 

 they seem to be wholly so. The process of evolution goes on against 



