84 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KWD PART n 



and societies, and ethical systems, and schools of philo- 

 sophy. All these are accordingly claimed and tabulated 

 among the workings of evolution. But the formula does 

 not point to them. It must therefore be improved in 

 some way. We may turn here to theism, using it as of 

 old in supplement to the formulas of science. God works 

 on nature from outside. Evolution causes nothing. It 

 may be God's method. He causes all these great results. 

 Or else the formula must be amended, and we must in- 

 terpret the process by its highest stages, not by its lowest 

 by life and thought rather than by matter and force. 

 This issue must really be fairly faced. Either life and 

 thought are an anomalous by-product (whatever that 

 may mean) in the story of a universe which is purely 

 and essentially material ; or life and thought are the 

 interpretation of nature the end for which it exists 

 the hinted justification of its age-long travail and agony. 

 The two opposing views come out very clearly in Mr. 

 Fiske's version of Spencer's positions, and one is glad to 

 know that, of later years, in Mr. Fiske's case, the higher 

 and nobler view has gained much ground at the expense 

 of the other. To merge these new orders of existence 

 under the vague heading of " growing complexity " to 

 assimilate them to purely mechanical redistributions 

 is not fair-play. The result is this : in his general 

 philosophical appeal, Spencer assumes that all existence 

 reveals a gradual ascent upwards upwards, i.e., to life 

 and thought. And the knowledge that life and thought 

 have emerged on this earth inclines men to regard 

 favourably the claim of evolutionism to serve as a 

 philosophy. But, when he comes to state his system in 

 detail, the very attempt to trace unity of process is 

 abandoned. Instead of that, we have a number of 

 parallel developments; material simplicity (homogeneous 



