EVOLUTION THE MASTER-KEY 



bly be said that a formula may be a good servant 

 but is invariably a bad master? These questions 

 must be answered before we expend too much 

 admiration upon the complex proposition which 

 Spencer applied to all phenomena. I am not here 

 concerned to demonstrate the precision and all- 

 completeness of this proposition, nor to spend 

 much time in an attempt to illustrate its various 

 sections. In the light of its own teaching, it is to 

 be regarded as but an approximation to the truth. 

 It is enough for the student of science in general, 

 who believes that causation is universal and that 

 the universe is an organic whole, to know that 

 Spencer conceived, in somewhat complex form, 

 the transitoriness and yet the eternal influence of 

 all things whatsoever; and that, in seeking to 

 illustrate this truth in all regions of inquiry, he 

 traversed none without making the way plainer 

 for his successors. 



In discussing the genesis of the idea of evolution, 

 it is well to begin at the beginning, and we must 

 first observe that Spencer's advance towards it be- 

 gan with his acceptance of the proposition above 

 named, that causation is universal. This is the 

 first article in the explicit creed of the man of 

 science; though it is logically preceded, we must 

 grant, by an assumption that the universe is in- 

 telligible. The evolutionary explanation of this 

 truth we shall presently discuss. 1 Now the uni- 



*It is that the intellect was evolved " by and for converse 

 with phenomena." 



58 



