Chauncey Wright. 101 



opment have not yet become apparent, and cir- 

 cumstances can be pointed out under which one 

 of these masses might now and then fail to pro- 

 duce a system of worlds at all. Not only is there 

 all this scope for irregular variety, but the theory 

 further supposes that in every single instance, but 

 at different times in different systems, the process 

 of evolution will come to an end, the determinate 

 complexity be destroyed, and the dead substance 

 of extinct worlds be scattered broadcast through 

 space, to serve, perhaps, as the raw material for 

 further local and temporary processes of aggrega- 

 tion and evolution. This view is held as scien- 

 tifically probable by many who have not been 

 helped to it by Mr. Spencer's general arguments ; 

 but whoever will duly study the profound con- 

 siderations on the rhythm of motion, set forth in 

 the rewritten edition of " First Principles," will 

 see that it is just this endlessly irregular alterna- 

 tion of progress and retrogression, of epochs of 

 life with epochs of decay, which the doctrine of 

 evolution asserts as one of its leading theorems. 

 In this respect the accepted name of the doctrine, 

 though perhaps not unfortunate, is but imper- 

 fectly descriptive, and is therefore liable to mis- 

 lead. What the doctrine really maintains is the 

 universal rhythmic alternation of evolution and 



