66 FOOT-NOTES TO EVOLUTION. 



history of origins and the study of developing forces 

 must take a leading part. 



In a fourth sense the word evolution has been ap- 

 plied to the philosophical conceptions to which the 

 theory of evolution gives rise. Phi- 

 Evolution as losophy is not truth. When it is so it 



a system becomes science. At the best it points 



of cosmic , , rr^, , , ; . 



philosophy. t^^ w^y ^° ^^^^^- The broader the in- 



ductive basis of any system of philoso- 

 phy, the greater its value as an intellectual help. The 

 system of Herbert Spencer, the greatest exponent of 

 the philosophy of evolution, is based wholly on the re- 

 sults of scientific investigation. It consists of a series 

 of more or less broad and more or less probable de- 

 ductions from the facts and laws already known. Sys- 

 tems like these which rest on scientific knowledge do 

 not rise high above it. They can therefore be revised 

 or rewritten as knowledge increases. They provide the 

 means for their own correction. Systems resting on 

 aphorisms or assumptions or definitions must disappear 

 as knowledge increases. 



Philosophy is never wholly identical with truth. The 

 partial truth which it may contain becomes wholly error 

 with the advance of science. The growth of exact 

 knowledge transforms the truth in philosophy into 

 science, leaving the absolute falsehood as the final re- 

 siduum. 



From this necessary fact comes the ultimate decay 



of all creeds or philosophic formulae. Throughout the 



ages science and philosophy have been 



^^^^ ° in conflict. Science is the same to all 



formulae. . , , , r , 



mmds capable of grasping its conclu- 

 sions. Philosophy changes with the point of view. It 

 is the evanescent perspective in which the facts and 

 phenomena of the universe are seen. This can never 



