698 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



moving in the direction of an equilibrium. This concep- 

 tion suffices for the useful discussion of a great variety 

 of social phenomena as they present themselves in the 

 present phase of civilisation. The idea also of a distant 

 but final state of adjustment or equilibrium furnishes an 

 ideal according to which our present conduct, both indi- 

 vidually and socially, must be regulated. What other 

 philosophies, notably that of Kant, look upon as an in- 

 herent law or revelation of the Absolute, the moral 

 law, Spencer considers as the intellectual anticipation of 

 that state of things which society is inevitably, though 

 slowly, approaching, and the advent of which is to be 

 accelerated (as in Comte's scheme) by the anticipated 

 statement of this final result. 



66. Just as the aim of scientific knowledge consists in 



His ethical 



rule. prediction of phenomena, in anticipation and consequent 



control of events, so also the object and rule of moral 

 conduct can only consist in consciously furthering that 

 process of development which is clearly indicated by the 

 study of social phenomena from the point of view of 

 evolution and adaptation. The rule of what ought to be 

 is to be found by scientifically comprehending that which 

 is and has been. 



67. Looking now at Spencer's system from the point of 



Nature 



unification ^^^^ °^ ^^® highest philosophical problem, the unifica- 

 attained. ^jon of thought and the reconciliation of science and re- 

 ligion, we may say that both problems came before his 

 mind and that, in a certain sense, both were solved. 

 The unification has been attained by introducing a 

 definite formula, through the application of which to 

 phenomena of very different regions a certain uniformity 



