18 EVOLUTION AND DOGMA. 



difficulties, it may lead to inextricable confusion and 

 tend to obscure what it was designed to illumine. 

 It is obvious, too, that we must restrict the meaning 

 of the word Evolution, for it does not come within 

 the scope of our work to speak of Evolution in gen- 

 eral. We have to consider only a particular phase of 

 it, and for this purpose it is important to have a 

 definition of what is meant by Evolution. 



Evolution Defined. 



Herbert Spencer, who is regarded by his admirers 

 as the great philosopher of Evolution, defines it to be 

 a "change from an indefinite, incoherent homogene- 

 ity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; through 

 continuous differentiations and integrations. 1 And 

 the operation of Evolution," continues the same au- 

 thority, "is absolutely universal. Whether it be in 

 the development of the earth, in the development of 

 life upon its surface, in the development of society, 

 of government, of manufactures, of commerce, of lan- 

 guage, of literature, science, art, this same advance 

 from the simple to the complex, through successive 

 differentiations, holds uniformly. From the earliest 

 traceable cosmical changes down to the latest re- 

 sults of civilization, we shall find that the transfor- 

 mation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, 

 is that in which Evolution essentially consists." 2 



Spencer's definition, however, exact as it may be 

 deemed, embraces far more than we shall have 

 occasion to consider, for my task shall be confined 



111 First Principles," p. 216. 

 2 Id. p. 148. 



