104 Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy. 



of all thought, of language, religion, literature, government, 

 art, science, philosophy, etc. viz., that progress is from a 

 homogeneous, indefinite, incoherent condition to the hetero- 

 geneous, definite, and coherent condition. The rhythm of 

 evolution and dissolution, completing itself during short 

 periods in small aggregates, and in the vast aggregate dis- 

 tributed through space completing itself in periods which 

 are immeasurable by human thought, is, so far as we can 

 see, universal and eternal, each alternating phase of the pro- 

 cess predominating, now in this region of space, and now in 

 that, as local conditions determine. 



Von Baer, and doubtless others before Spencer, had 

 glimpses of this law beyond its application to organic de- 

 velopment, but it required the cyelopasdiac knowledge, philo- 

 sophic genius, and synthetical powers of a Spencer to illus- 

 trate and prove the law of universal evolution, as it re- 

 quired a Darwin to establish the principle of natural selec- 

 tion. Von Baer, as a writer in the Encyclopaedia Britannica 

 says, " prepared the way for Mr Spencer's generalization of 

 the law of organic evolution as the law of all evolution." 

 But this fact no more lessens the credit due Spencer for 

 his great contributions to thought than the fact that many 

 investigators prepared the way for Darwin's researches di- 

 minishes the credit to which the great naturalist is fairly 

 entitled. 



"A great method is always within the perception of 

 many," says De Morgan, " before it is within the grasp of 

 one." Prof. Owen, the paleontologist, expressed himself, 

 in correspondence with the editor of the London Review, 

 so as to convey the impression which he afterward said 

 was not intended that he claimed to have promulgated 

 the theory of natural selection before Darwin had done so. 

 This led Darwin to say : " As far as the mere enunciation 

 of the principle of natural selection is concerned, it is quite 

 immaterial whether or not Prof. Owen preceded me, for 

 both of us, as shown in this historical sketch, were long ago 

 preceded by Dr. Wells and Mr. Mathew." Darwin quotes 

 even from Aristotle's Physical Auscultations, and adds : 

 " We here see the principle of natural selection shadowed 

 forth," etc. Doubtless many had thought of the principle 

 of natural selection, but they lacked the knowledge to under- 

 stand it with its many implications, the wonderful powers 

 of patient observation and laborious experimental investiga- 

 tion necessary to the study of details, and the verification 



