144 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART in 



to his statement of the basis of morals, but to his 

 scientific formulation of the process of evolution itself. 

 Morality is to be found somewhere in the region of sex. 

 Struggle for life is a fact, but not the whole fact ; it is 

 balanced by struggle for the life of others. Yet those 

 who so speak are themselves evolutionists, themselves 

 Darwinians. They accept struggle for existence as a 

 great fact and potent cause of progress. They deny 

 it to be the only fact ; and occasionally they are found 

 denying that it is the only cause of progress ; but that 

 topic is very lightly touched upon. Hence perhaps, in 

 part, one's perplexity, when one seeks to estimate the 

 value of this correction of Darwin's theories. 



With the wider Spencerian doctrine of evolution 

 Drummond takes little to do. Yet he seems to assume 

 its truth, or the truth of something of the same nature. 

 His lyrical outbursts of praise at the thought of evolu- 

 tionary science refer to something much more extensive 

 than any view of the origin of species. Speaking of 

 " evolution in general," he tells us that " Evolution is 

 a Vision, . . . which is revolutionising the world of 

 nature and of thought." When the workers of science 

 had whispered the name "Evolution," "henceforth their 

 work was one, science was one, the world was one, and 

 mind, which had discovered the oneness, was one." l 

 Again somewhat later we read, "Nature in vertical 

 section offers no break or pause or flaw." To study it 

 in horizontal section "is to study a hundred unrelated 

 sciences sciences of atoms, sciences of cells, sciences of 

 souls, sciences of societies ; to study it vertically is to 

 deal with one science evolution." : All this points to 

 Spencer's philosophy, or a cosmic philosophy of a similar 

 type. Yet such a system is nothing but ornamental 



1 Ascent of Man, p. 1. 2 Ibid. p. 59. 



