Chauncey Wright. 87 



be eminently fragmentary ; and if any one had 

 asked whether, after all, we have not great reason 

 to believe that throughout the length and breadth 

 and duration of the boundless and endless uni- 

 verse there is an all-pervading coherency of ac- 

 tion, such as would be implied in the theorem 

 that all Nature is the manifestation of one In- 

 finite Power, to any such question he would 

 probably have held that no legitimate answer can 

 be given. 



In this general way of looking at things we have 

 the explanation of Mr. Wright's persistent hostil- 

 ity to the philosophy of Herbert Spencer. This 

 hostility is declared in his earliest essay, entitled 

 " A Physical Theory of the Universe," and it is 

 maintained in the paper on " German Darwinism," 

 published only three days before his death, where- 

 in great pains are taken to show that Mr. Spen- 

 cer's philosophy is utterly un-Baconian and un- 

 scientific, as resting, not upon inductive inquiry, 

 but upon " undemonstrated beliefs assumed to be 

 axiomatic and irresistible." In the first and last 

 of my many conversations with Mr. Wright in 

 July, 1862, and in July, 1875 I found myself 

 charged with the defence of Mr. Spencer's phi- 

 losophy against what then seemed, and still seems, 

 to me a profound misunderstanding of its true 



