! 6 8 HERBER T SPENCER ON LIFE. 



which life was manifested was formed, and through which 

 alone thought could be supposed to act, would be like a 

 man who set to work to frame laws for the complete govern- 

 ment of a people of whom he knew absolutely nothing 

 except that they, some one said, existed somewhere. 



No doubt it may be said, and with truth, that all are 

 groping in the dark, and that no one can possibly gain full 

 information until the darkness around us is dispelled. This 

 may be freely admitted, and it is possible that continual 

 work in darkness is to be the lot of all who seek to know 

 about the nature of things, and it may be that the darkness 

 is never to be removed. But even then, patient groping 

 may be of some use, only it is hard that the real gropers 

 should be constantly fretted by people who do very little 

 work, but are incessantly making a great noise, and disturb- 

 ing every one by continually shouting out that they have 

 really found what all have so long been groping for. No 

 sooner, however, is the supposed object brought into the 

 light than it is discovered that the self-asserting discoverers 

 have been making a great cry and parade about having 

 found what turns out to be an absolute nothing. 



I quite agree with Mr. Herbert Spencer when he re- 

 marks Manifestly that which is essential to life must be 

 that which is common to life of all orders," and I am quite 

 ready to be bound by that observation. Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, however, has not submitted to be influenced by the 

 principles he has himself enunciated. The very next words 

 that follow show that he has abandoned his proposition ere 

 he has commenced to illustrate its force and importance. 

 * ( Choosing assimilation, then, for our example of bodily life, 

 and reasoning for our example of that life known as intelli- 



