MODERN EVOLUTION. i%i 



how such a complex organism gradually arises out 

 of a minute structureless germ. That our harmo- 

 nious universe once existed potentially as formless 

 diffuse matter, and has slowly grown into its present 

 organized state, is a far more astonishing fact than 

 would have been its formation after the artificial 

 method vulgarly supposed. Those who hold it 

 legitimate to argue from phenomena to noumena, 

 may rightly contend that the Nebular Hypothesis 

 implies a First Cause as much transcending ' the 

 mechanical God of Paley ' as does the fetish of the 

 savage." 



This quotation is from an essay on the Nebular 

 Hypothesis, which appeared in the Westminster 

 Review of July, 1858, and which must, therefore, 

 have been written before the eventful date of the 

 reading of Darwin and Wallace's memorable paper 

 before the Linnaean Society. The author of that 

 essay is Mr. Herbert Spencer, and the foregoing 

 extract from it may fitly preface a brief account of 

 his life-work in co-ordinating the manifold branches 

 of knowledge into a synthetic whole. In erecting a 

 complete theory of Evolution on a purely scientific 

 basis " his profound and vigorous writings," to quote 

 Huxley, " embody the spirit of Descartes in the 

 knowledge of our own day." Laying the foundation 

 of his massive structure in early manhood, Mr. 

 Spencer has had the rare satisfaction of placing the 

 topmost stone on the building which his brain de- 

 vised and his hand upreared. While the sheets of 



