vm DARWINISM AND HOLISM 185 



not be co-ordinated, and required explanation from the 

 new point of view. The Law of the Inverse Square, as laid 

 down by Newton, was completely effective. The phenomena 

 of falling bodies on this earth, the motions of all terrestrial 

 bodies, the movements of the solar system and of the 

 starry universe as a whole, many of the phenomena of 

 physics as known and understood at that time — all seemed 

 to find their correct place and explanation under this 

 all-embracing formula. 



Newton did not pretend to understand or explain gravi- 

 tation itself, and his lifelong meditations on this profound 

 problem afforded him no clue as to the nature of gravitation. 

 But the law of its action, the phenomena which happen on 

 its assumption, he formulated with a simplicity and effective- 

 ness which made it another instance of Columbus' egg. 

 In the way of all human matters the law itself came to be 

 looked upon as more than a law, as an explanation, indeed 

 as an operative factor explaining all the phenomena which 

 it covers. And it is only in our own day that gravitation 

 in this sense has been shattered, and its law as formulated 

 by Newton has come to have a restricted application. 

 Relativity has dethroned gravitation, and for the moment 

 Einstein's Ten Equations rule the universe, where before 

 the equation of the inverse square was the only and 

 unquestioned code. 



Immanuel Kant, himself one of the great kings and 

 legislators of thought, looked upon the Newtonian system 

 as final; he raised the vision of some future Newton who 

 would discover and formulate the laws of life, as Newton 

 had laid down the laws of motion and of matter. Beyond 

 all doubt Darwin fulfilled that vision, not perhaps in the 

 sense intended by Kant, yet in a way which has made him 

 perhaps an even more epoch-making figure than Newton. 

 Newton proved epoch-making for science, while Darwin 

 has become epoch-making in a far more fundamental 

 sense. He has changed our whole human orientation 

 of knowledge and belief, he has given a new direction to 

 our outlook, our efforts and aspirations, and has probably 



