ATOMIC EVOLUTION 



We may be assured, then, that the first lustrum 

 of the twentieth century finds the doctrine of evo- 

 lution firmly established as applicable to the in- 

 organic world alike whether we contemplate the 

 Pleiades or the inconceivably minute atoms of 

 what every one but the convinced evolutionist 

 was willing, until the other day, to call " elements." 

 The task which Spencer was compelled to pass 

 over has been thoroughly well done for him by 

 scientific discoveries which were undreamed of 

 when he enounced the truth of inorganic evolu- 

 tion. 



On March 9, 1905, the first Herbert Spencer 

 lecture 1 was delivered before the University of 

 Oxford by the distinguished Comtist, Mr. Frederic 

 Harrison. In the course of that lecture Mr. Har- 

 rison said: 



"It was a disaster that Spencer was unable to complete 

 his scheme for the inorganic sciences. His system leaped 

 from first principles and laws of evolution to biology, 

 psychology, and sociology. He did not explain how 

 evolution could be applied to astronomy, physics, and 



1 When the company were about to disperse from the hall 

 of the crematorium on the occasion of Spencer's funeral, a 

 Parsee student, himself an Oxonian, arrested us for a moment 

 in order to announce that he proposed to offer a thousand 

 pounds to this university for the founding of a Spencer lecture- 

 ship. If the offer was refused, the University of London was 

 to be approached. Oxford, however, doubtless under the press- 

 ure of universal opinion, has decided to celebrate in perpetuity 

 the name of him whom it flouted during his lifetime. 

 89 



