time: the refreshing river 



in evolution we should consider "the hookworm's point of view." 

 Nevertheless, apart from the fact that the hookworm's nervous system 

 does not entitle it to have a point of view, we cannot seriously bring 

 ourselves to refuse to apply the concepts of higher and lower organisa- 

 tion to the animal world. Vertebrates are^ in general, of higher 

 organisation than invertebrates, mammals than other vertebrates, and 

 human beings than other mammals. Again, in social affairs, the vast 

 miseries caused by industrialisation and modern warfare were set 

 against the doubtfully happier conditions of ancient times, and 

 pessimistic conclusions adverse to the conception of progress were 

 easily reached. But the time-scale was here insufficient, the exceedingly 

 short space of time during which human civilisation has existed as 

 compared with the time taken in biological evolution was forgotten. 

 Post- Victorian pessimism mistook the development of a certain phase 

 for the whole of progress itself. Of a famous Edwardian statesman it 

 was said that he approached politics with the air of one who remem- 

 bered that there had once been an ice age and that it was very likely 

 there would be another. He was unnecessarily chilly. In the light of 

 biology and sociology, those who remember that there were once 

 autotrophic bacteria and that there will some day be a co-operative 

 commonwealth of humanity, are better politicians. 



So much for the theme of this disquisition. We shall naturally 

 have to consider some aspects of Herbert Spencer's own thought as 

 we develop its variations. But first it may perhaps be of interest if 

 your lecturer takes leave to run over a few matters of personal interest, 

 a few points on the intellectual travels which, in one form or another, 

 it is everyone's fate to take. If one thing is more fundamental to the 

 world-view outlined above than any other, it is the importance of 

 the concept of Time.^ And it was your lecturer's chance to become 

 convinced of it in more than one major field of interest. 



Time and the Theologians. 



Perhaps exceptionally among students of science, he came to find 

 theology, and especially the history of christian theology, one of 

 the most fascinating of subjects. The intense persistence of so many 

 minds, outstanding in their generations, to give rationality to the 



'^ Cf. Samuel Alexander {Space, Time and Deity, London, 1927, vol. i, p. 36 fn.): 



"I should say" (in contradistinction to Bertrand Russell) "that the importance 

 of any particular time is rather practical than theoretical, but to realise the 

 importance of Time as such is the gate of wisdom." 



236 



