VI 



COSMIC EVOLUTION 1 



WE are now prepared for the consideration of 

 the principle of eternal change as illustrated in all 

 phenomena those of the inorganic world, of the 

 world of life, of mind, and of the products of 

 mind. Now, though Spencer was compelled, by 

 the magnitude of his task and by -the consequent 

 need for subordination of aspects of evolution less 

 significant to human life, to omit from his system 

 the discussion of evolution as it applies to inani- 

 mate nature, he formally stated, in brief, the out- 

 lines of the process. And we may illustrate it by 

 reference to the almost infinitely large and the 

 almost infinitely little. 



Less, perhaps, than any other science, has as- 

 tronomy gained from Spencer's work. One timely 

 service, however, he did it. The reader will re- 

 member the history of the nebular theory of the 

 origin of the solar system. Originally suggested 

 to Kant by a brilliant guess of Lucretius, and 

 later given mathematical form by Laplace, 2 the 



1 Partly reprinted from an article in Harper's Magazine, May 

 1904, entitled "Whence and Whither?" 



2 Laplace knew nothing of Kant's work in this field. His 



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