OF SOCIETY. 



27 



not in his early years come under the dominating 

 influence of other philosophical thinkers. His indebted- 

 ness to others, so far as his special formula of Evolution 

 is concerned, was only slight. Mill's logic and Hamil- 

 ton's discussions bearing upon the relativity of knowledge 

 are almost the only philosophical writings which seem 

 to have had an important influence upon Spencer. So 

 much greater was the influence of the exact, and still 

 more of the natural, sciences. But, with Mill, Spencer 

 holds that the problem of society is the most important 

 philosophical problem of the day. He and his friend 

 G. H. Lewes were the first to experience and proclaim 

 the necessity of elaborating a reasoned creed which 

 should take the place of the religious creed then 

 prevalent in slightly varying forms among Anglicans, 

 Nonconformists, and the members of the Scottish 

 Churches. Through this practical tendency he worked 

 together with the Positivism of Comte. And, on the 

 other side, he unconsciously went about the performance 



about the same time he, according 

 to his own account, inserted into 

 his scheme the purely mechanical 

 principles of " the indestructibility 

 of matter, the continuity of motion, 

 the rhythm of motion and the law 

 of the direction of motion. It be- 

 came clear that all the changes to 

 be interpreted are consequences of 

 the ceaseless redistribution of mat- 

 ter and motion everywhere going 

 on, and must conform to those 

 ultimate physical principles which 

 regulate this redistribution " (p. 

 168). The second point is em- 

 phasised by Spencer himself. The 

 general mechanical substructure of 

 his system met with little or no 

 appreciation. It was, as he tells 



us, the earlier, shorter, and purely 

 preliminary portion of ' First 

 Principles,' his Agnosticism, which 

 attracted attention. " The general 

 theory which the body of the book 

 elaborates was passed over or but 

 vaguely indicated. And during the 

 five-and-twenty years which have 

 since elapsed [1887] I have nowhere 

 seen a brief exposition of this 

 general theory." In fact, Spencer's 

 influence on philosophical thought 

 is very much limited to his bio- 

 logical conception of Society and 

 his Agnosticism as to ultimate 

 problems. The uniting principle, 

 however, deserves special attention. 

 I shall revert to it in the following 

 chapter. 



