526 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



M. Fouille'e also grapples, in an original way, with 

 the question of the unity, or the whole of society, 

 as a higher organism. This is not to be found in 

 an independent existence, but resides really in the 

 diverse members, so that the difference which Spencer 

 had noted as existing between the animal and social 

 organisms is considered by Fouillee to mark a higher 

 development : the decentralisation and diffusion of the 

 mental principle in the form of ideas. For the social 

 organism does not exist only as a regulative principle, 

 in the way that Spencer conceives of the nervous 

 system ; it exists also as a productive force through 

 ideas and their realisation in Industry, Art, and other 

 intellectual creations. 



So far as Spencer himself is concerned, though he 

 laid great stress upon the biological analogies, his 

 treatment of the social problem, like that of other 

 problems such as those of biology, psychology, and 

 ethics, rests, in addition, upon a more abstract struc- 

 66. ture of fundamental principles. How he gradually 



Spencer's 



intellectual arrived at this is explained by himself in his Auto- 

 history. 



biography. 1 Unlike Hegel and Comte, Spencer did 



1 See notably vol. ii. pp. 165-169, 

 where he shows also how the 

 gradual growth and development 

 of his own philosophical scheme is 

 itself an example of Evolution ; 

 "the changes passed through by 

 the conception of Evolution them- 

 selves conformed to the law of 

 Evolution." Two points may be 

 noted referring to Spencer's philo- 

 sophy. The first is this, that 

 although trained as an engineer 

 and thus practically dealing with 

 exclusively mechanical conditions, 

 his philosophy starts from con- 



ceptions gained through natural 

 history and biology, joining to these 

 sociological notions and arriving 

 only much later at an incorporation 

 of inorganic, purely mechanical, 

 processes. In 1858 he wrote : 

 "Another general law of force has 

 occurred to me since I saw you 

 viz. , the universality of rhythm ; 

 which is a necessary consequence 

 of the antagonism of opposing 

 forces. This holds equally in the 

 undulations of the ethereal medium, 

 and the actions and reactions of 

 social life " (vol. ii. p. 19). And 



