424 LESSONS FEOM NATUEE. [CHAP. XIV. 



matter in hand, be here pursued. The mere existence, how 

 ever, of such a revival would seem to demonstrate that the 

 Professor of Konigsburg did not dig deeply enough in his 

 attempted process of eradication. 



But Mr. Spencer, whose philosophy may be taken as 

 Mr. spencer the most complete expression of modern views. 



and Evolu- . L 



tion. is far from being a mere reviver of Hume, of 



Locke, or of any other philosopher. Indeed, he differs from 

 Locke in admitting, in a certain sense, &quot; innate ideas,&quot; while 

 he combats Hume with vigour and efficiency, and may not 

 improbably quite repudiate the imputation of being a dis 

 ciple of the philosopher last named. 



It is as the philosophical embodiment of modern physical 

 science that Mr. Spencer is pre-eminently distinguished. 

 Science has indeed made vast acquisitions since the time of 

 Hume, and the stored-up accumulation of its facts contains 

 materials calculated to affect powerfully the imagination of 

 mankind. Now Mr. Spencer s philosophy is replete with 

 conceptions and inferences derived from that accumulated 

 treasure. 



It is by such scientific progress, by the indirect influences 

 of physical science on philosophy, th at this development of 

 reactionary sensationalism must be explained. New issues 

 have been joined, and the point of view having been shifted, 

 controversies deemed closed have to be reconsidered. This 

 reconsideration has become requisite, not through want of 

 conclusiveness in the earlier replies to the argument as then 

 conducted, but through the fresh lights now let in at aper 

 tures in dividing walls which then seemed of unbreachable 

 solidity, and which give to old facts a quite new aspect. 



The dispute as to our possession of ideas and conceptions 

 which no experience of any single life, however prolonged, 

 can explain the existence that is of an a priori element in 

 our knowledge may be considered to have ended in the 

 nineteenth century with the triumphant refutation of those 

 sensationalists who denied the existence of such an element. 

 This refutation Mr. Spencer not only fully accepts as 



