396 PROCEEDINGS OF SECTION E. 



does not consist merely in the amplification or diminution of existing 

 qualities. It is a change in idea and in equilibrium. And this is as true 

 of theadventof Cabinet government in the 18th century as it is of the 

 new imperialism of the 20th century. The unity of constitutional 

 history is not to be explained in terms of " linear fluctuations," 

 rather it is a unity that manifests itself in successive forms that 

 differ fundamentally and qualitatively from each other. 



In offering these illustrations for your consideration I have 

 dwelt exclusively on the sudden change in equilibrium and idea, 

 because they are matters of paramount importance. It would be 

 ill advised in a lecture of one hour's duration to attempt to show 

 that they present all the other characteristics of a genuine mutation : 

 that they come unexpectedly, and that they come to stay— they are 

 stable and are not to be swamped by overcrossing. 



But while the mutation theory may be supported by reference 

 to any department of the history of human affairs, it forces itself 

 most frequently and imperatively upon us when we contemplate 

 man's ethical and spiritual development. 



It is clear from his " Data of Ethics " that Mr. Herbert Spencer 

 found no insuperable difficulty in applying the current theory of 

 evolution here as elsewhere ; but Huxley did, and I believe that, 

 of the more serious students of evolutionary thought, 99 out 

 of every 100 would agree that Huxley was the more reliable ex- 

 ponent of evolution. No man fought more strenuously for Dar- 

 winianism than Huxley in the early days of bitter and prejudiced 

 opposition ; but it was Huxley who in 1893 delivered the Romanes 

 lecture on " Ethics and Evolution," and the argument of that 

 lecture is well known to a majority of my audience. It would be 

 interesting reading for those who still argue that the current theory 

 of organic evolution is sufficient to explain man's moral and spiritual 

 development. In the last half-dozen pages of that lecture he scouts 

 the idea that " because animals and plants have advanced in per- 

 fection of organisation by means of the struggle for existence, and 

 the consequent " survival of the fittest," that " therefore, men in 

 society, men as ethical beings must look to the same piocess to 

 help them towards perfection " ; and he falls back upon a " fund of 

 energy operating intelhgently " witliin man, to wage battle with 

 this cosmic process in the interests of social progress. Whether 

 men profess to believe in this or not they have undoubtedly acted 

 up to it in recent times. In England and in the self-governing 

 dominions the doctrine of laisser-faire has been superseded by the 

 doctrine of state initiative. 



And if we turn from Huxley to a greater and more profound 

 thinker we shall find even stronger support for the argument of 

 this lecture. In his volumes on " The Evolution of Religion," 

 Edward Caird, the late master of Balliol College, Oxford, has taken 

 a general survey of the religions of mankind, and the argument 

 throughout is that the evolution of man's spiritual life cannot 

 be treated in the same way as organic evolution. Instead 



