OF SOCIETY. 565 



of opposition and the law of adaptation. In the sequel 

 he is led to oppose especially the fundamental concep- 

 tion of Herbert Spencer. Instead of finding with the 

 latter the beginning of things social or natural in a 

 homogeneous instability, he says " all that constitutes 

 the visible universe, accessible to our observation, we 

 know proceeds from the invisible and impenetrable, 

 from an apparent ' Nothing,' out of which all reality 

 rises inexhaustibly. If we reflect on this strange 

 phenomenon, we are surprised at the power of a pre- 

 judice, at once popular and scientific, which makes 

 every one a Spencer not less than every first-comer 

 regard the infinitesimal as insignificant, i.e., as homo- 

 geneous, neutral, without character or spirit." ] 



In his criticism of Herbert Spencer's theory of the $* 



His criti- 



origin of things and processes in the monotony of an 

 " unstable homogeneous " condition, 2 out of which through 

 some unexplained influence the endless variety of pheno- 

 mena arises, we are reminded of Hegel's criticism of the 

 Absolute of Schelling which " is the night in which all 

 cows are black." And as Hegel thought it imperative 

 to start with a living and active principle, not with a 

 mere identity or indifference, so M. Tarde sees the 

 original fact in a creative process or a series of creative 



1 Gabriel Tarde, toe. cit., p. 159. 



2 "Je sais bien ce qu'on va 

 m'objecter : la pre"tendue loi de 



psychologiques et sociales. La 

 verite est que 1'heterogene seul est 

 instable et que 1'homogene est stable 



1'instabilite de 1'homogene. Mais ! essentiellement. La stabilite des 



elle est fausse, mais elle est arbi- choses est en raison directe de leur 



traire, mais elle a dte imaginee tout homoge'neite. La seule chose par- 



expres pour concilier avec le parti faitemeut homogene ou paraissant 



pris de croire indifferencie en soi telle dans la Nature, c'est 1'Espace 



I'indistinct a nos yeux, 1'evidence geometrique, qui n'a point change 



des diversity's phenomenales, des depuis Euclide" (loc. cit., p. 160 



exuberantes variations vivantes, *?<?) 



