THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 337 



plex moral relations, and as acting and re-acting upon one 

 another's natures. 



§ 115. Evolution then, under its primary aspect, is a 

 change from a less coherent form to a more coherent form, 

 consequent on the dissipation of motion and integration 

 of matter. This is the universal process through which 

 sensible existences, individually and as a whole, pass during 

 the ascending halves of their histories. This proves to be 

 a character displayed equally in those earliest changes which 

 the Universe at large is supposed to have undergone, and in 

 those latest changes which we trace in society and the pro- 

 ducts of social life. And throughout, the unification pro- 

 ceeds in several ways simultaneously. 



Alike during the evolution of the Solar System, of a 

 planet, of an organism, of a nation, there is progressive 

 aggregation of the entire mass. This may be shown by the 

 increasing density of the matter already contained in it; or 

 by the drawing into it of matter that was before separate; 

 or by both. But in any case it implies a loss of relative mo- 

 tion. At the same time, the parts into which the 

 mass has divided, severally consolidate in like manner. We 

 see this in the formation of planets and satellites which has 

 gone on along with the concentration of the nebula out of 

 which the Solar System originated; we see it in the growth 

 of separate organs that advances, pari passu, with the 

 growth of each organism; we see it in that rise of special 

 industrial centres and special masses of population, which 

 is associated with the rise of each society. Always more 

 or less of local integration accompanies the general inte- 

 gration. And then, beyond the increased close- 

 ness of juxta-position among the components of the whole, 

 and among the components of each part, there is increased 

 closeness of combination among the parts, producing mutual 

 dependence of them. Dimly foreshadowed as this mutual 

 dependence is in inorganic existences, both celestial and 



