OF SOCIETY. 529 



von Baer, and Darwin on the genealogy of species and 

 the results of adaptation to surrounding circumstances, 

 the theory of the environment. 



We can at once see where lay the difficulty in carry- 6 ?- 



* Spencer 



ing out such a view as compared with that which and He f e i 



contrasted. 



presented itself in Hegel's system. In the latter the 

 moving principle was intellectual or spiritual, and the 

 difficulty was to find a way from the logical, intellectual, 

 or spiritual conceptions into the world of material things 

 and events which form the playground of these mental 

 agencies. Hegel's system had, however, the advantage 

 of selecting a formula which defines correctly a very 

 common experience; this is the inevitable and spon- 

 taneous movement of thought which is not a lifeless 

 mode of motion, but continually applied for a definite 

 end and purpose. On the other side the formula of 

 Spencer enabled him to group a vast number of physical 

 and biological phenomena and processes into an intelli- 

 gible synthetical view, but it did not permit him clearly 

 to bring out what is the distinguishing characteristic 

 of progress as compared with mere change. The 

 question of the deeper meaning of things, of the ideal 

 or spiritual essence, which played such an important 

 part in the many historical researches which were in- 

 spired by the Hegelian view, has no place and receives 

 no answer in Spencer's philosophy. 



But Spencer's formula opened out a very large region 

 and many lines of research, as was clearly seen by 

 himself, and has nowhere been better stated than in 

 his own words : 



" Setting out, then, with this general principle, that 

 VOL. iv. 2 L 



