DISTANCES OF THE STARS. 423 



mind there exists a unity of composition ; and the doctrines of innate 

 ideas, intuitions by gift of God, supernatural revelations, mysticism 

 of all kinds, have the ground cut^from under them. 



The very great extension of plan which Mr. Spencer's work re- 

 ceived between 1855 and 18T0-'72 was due solely to the creation of 

 his own philosophy of evolution. That in its turn had its initiative 

 in the theory of the correlation of forces advanced by Grove in 1842. 

 As the new philosophy conceived all existence to result from evolu- 

 tion through differentiation and integration, it was incumbent on Mr. 

 Spencer to show that mental phenomena, or at least the physical cor- 

 relatives of them, can be interpreted in terms of the redistribution of 

 matter and motion, and explained by a "series of deductions from the 

 persistence of force. This is the task of a Physical Synthesis, which 

 shows the structure and functions of the nervous system to have re- 

 sulted from intercourse between the organism and its environment. 

 And thus is laid the coping-stone of a treatise which has definitively 

 constituted Psychology a science. 



With the definitive constitution of the science our inquiry, w^hich 

 began with the differentiation of its subject-matter, comes to an end. 

 "We have seen mind slowly emancipating itself from the barbaric Cos- 

 mos, and raised into an independent object of speculation. Once " dif- 

 ferentiated " it begins itself to unfold, and at the same time to gather 

 round it the at first alien facts of sensation, appetite, and bodily feel- 

 ing generally. These are increasingly matter of inquiry, and theories 

 respecting them take the hue and shape of the sciences which relate 

 to the material world. The science of motion evolves, and the idea 

 of orderly sequence enters into Psychology. Natural Philosophy 

 rises from motion to force, and Psychology passes from conjunction 

 to causation. Chemistry tears aside a corner of Nature's veil, and a 

 shaft is sunk in a mysterious field of mind. The sciences of organic 

 nature receive a forward impulse, and mind and life are joined in in- 

 extricable union. A philosophy of the universe, incorporating all the 

 sciences, is created, and Psychology, while attaining increased inde- 

 pendence as regards the adjacent sciences, is merged in that deductive 

 science of the Knowable which has more widely divorced, and yet 

 more intimately united, the laws of matter and of mind. — Westmin- 

 ster Beview, 



DISTANCES OF THE STARS. 



Br CAMILLE FLAMMAEION. 



TRANSLATED FEO:^ THE FEENCH OF LA NATURE, BY J. FITZGEEALD, A. M. 



SINCE the beginning of this century, our idea of the universe has 

 undergone a complete metamorphosis, though but few persons 

 appear to recognize this fact. Less than a century ago, the savants 

 who admitted the earth's motion (some still rejected it) pictured to 



