OF SOCIETY. 



565 



of opposition and the law of adaptation. In the sequel 

 he is led to oppose especially the fundamental concep- 

 tion of Herbert Spencer. Instead of finding with the 

 latter the beginning of things social or natural in a 

 homogeneous instability, he says " all that constitutes 

 the visible universe, accessible to our observation, we 

 know proceeds from the invisible and impenetrable, 

 from an apparent ' Nothing,' out of which all reality 

 rises inexhaustibly. If we reflect on this strange 

 phenomenon, we are surprised at the power of a pre- 

 judice, at once popular and scientific, which makes 

 every one — a Spencer not less than every first-comer — 

 regard the infinitesimal as insignificant, i.e., as homo- 

 geneous, neutral, without character or spirit." ^ 



In his criticism of Herbert Spencer's theory of the 

 origin of things and processes in the monotony of an gp"^°g^j. 

 " unstable homogeneous " condition," out of which through 

 some unexplained influence the endless variety of pheno- 

 mena arises, we are reminded of Hegel's criticism of the 

 Absolute of Schelling which " is the night in which all 

 cows are black." And as Hegel thought it imperative 

 to start with a living and active principle, not with a 

 mere identity or indifference, so M. Tarde sees the 

 original fact in a creative process or a series of creative 



88. 

 His oriti- 



^ Gabriel Tarde, loc. cit., p. 159. 



^ "Je sais bien ce qu'on va 

 m'objecter : la pretendue loi de 

 I'instabilite de I'homogene. Mais 

 elle est fausse, mais elle est arbi- 

 traire, mais elle a ^te imaginee tout 

 expres pour concilier avec le parti 

 pris de croire indififerencie en soi 

 I'indistinct a nos yeux, I'evidence 

 des diversit^s phenomenales, des 

 exuberantes variations vivantes, 



psychologiques et sociales. La 

 v^rit^ est que I'heterogene seul est 

 instable et que I'homogene est stable 

 essentiellement. La stabilite des 

 choses est en raison directe de leur 

 homogdneite. La seule chose par- 

 faitement homogene — ou paraissant 

 telle — dans la Nature, c'est I'Espace 

 geometrique, qui n'a point change 

 depuis Euclide " {loc. cit., p. 160 

 sqq.) 



