Herbert Spencer 163 



1. It fails to account for or harmonise with the dicta of 

 consciousness as to the substantiality and persistence of the 

 Ego. 



2. It fails correctly to interpret the ultimate and funda- 

 mental declarations of consciousness as to necessary truth. 



3. It denies the validity of that power of intensifying a 

 motive by a voluntary act of selective attention of which 

 power our own minds are conscious. 



4. It does not (as put forward by himself) accept as vaUd 

 the principle of contradiction, deprived of which our intel- 

 lectual state becomes necessarily chaotic. 



5. It negatives the declarations of ideaHst philosophers 

 upon grounds which would justify the popular beliefs as to 

 objectivity, and yet it denies to such beliefs all truth and 

 reality. 



6. It makes no essential distinction between the seK- 

 conscious intellect of man, manifested by a language express- 

 ing general conceptions, and the acquisition of sensible per- 

 ceptions, as cognised by the sentient faculties of animals 

 which are capable of expressing themselves by emotional 

 signs only. 



7. It takes no cognisance of our perceptions of truths 

 goodness, and beauty, as such, nor of our apprehension of the 

 relatedness of relations. 



[^ 8. It is absolutely fatal to every germ of morality. 



^K 9. It entirely negatives every form of religion. 



^B 10. It absolutely stultifies itself by proclaiming its own 



^Bpitruth, as included in its assertion that all our knowledge is 

 but phenomenal and relative. 



The theory of Evolution is of the very essence of Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophy. Seeing, then, the widespread accept- 

 ance of the evolutionary theory, it may well be asked, Is 

 there any necessary connection between that theory and Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophy? Do such consequences necessarily 



