INTRODUCTORY 



which I have quoted, that change is not a matter 

 of chance. Typical of the many terms which we 

 habitually employ without troubling to examine 

 them, is this word chance ; but science knows that 

 seeming chance is but the expression of laws un- 

 discerned by us, and that the laws of chance are as 

 definite and rigid as those of gravitation or electric 

 inertia. The philosophy of evolution teaches that 

 all phenomena change in accordance with certain 

 laws, and attempts to give these laws expression. 

 It explicitly denies that there are any exceptions. 

 The law applies to stars and souls, to atoms and 

 oak-trees, to states and religions alike. With the 

 exception of the law of the conservation of energy, 

 upon which its author built it, this statement of 

 absolutely universal evolution is surely the greatest 

 of all generalizations. 



When First Principles was written its author 

 was faced with many apparent instances whereto 

 evolution did not apply. Of these probably the 

 most striking, in the light of twentieth -century 

 knowledge, was the existence of the chemical 

 "elements." In 1860 Spencer could do no more 

 than notice the current belief in unalterable ele- 

 mentary atoms, and append a question-mark there- 

 to. We shall see in a subsequent chapter that evo- 

 lution has triumphed even in this stronghold of the 

 creationists. 



Let us, then, accept the meaning of the word 

 evolution which was given it by its sponsor; and 

 when we wish to refer to the operation of change 

 5 



