CHAP, xx SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS 257 



guidance we may reasonably expect from " biological " 

 inquiry. And we must look more closely at the 

 definitions of evolution, especially at the question 

 whether evolution is or is not identical in meaning 

 with progress. 



In Comte, the appeal to biology occupied a limited, 

 almost a subordinate, position. Biology was the 

 science next below sociology ; it furnished the socio- 

 logist with suggestions ; but decisive guidance was 

 found in the wise man's inspection of human pheno- 

 mena, or in his study of past history. We have seen, 

 however, on how many distinct principles, and with how 

 large an infusion of arbitrariness, Comte read off these 

 lessons. In our opinion, such guidance as Comte 

 yields was due to the working in him of the rational 

 and moral nature of man. So far as biology in 

 particular was of service, it gave him only parables. 



Biology leaped into much greater prominence when 

 the doctrine of organic evolution was propounded, and 

 when evolution was further generalised (however 

 vaguely) as a cosmic process. We distinguish two 

 phases in this appeal non- Darwinian evolution and 

 Darwinian; and two forms of each, according as 

 evolution is appealed to for analogies bearing on the 

 social and ethical life of man, or according as an effort 

 is made to merge that social and ethical life in a 

 continuous evolution upon naturalistic lines. 



First, we have evolution without the assertion of 

 struggle applied to human affairs by way of analogy. 

 This is chiefly exemplified in Mr. Stephen's doctrine of 

 " social tissue," by which he serves himself heir to 

 Comte. The doctrine, however, is without authority. 

 It remains a hypothesis. We may, if we will, regard 



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