Herbert Spencer's Synthetic Philosophy. 107 



of motion predominate, there is evolution. Where there is 

 a predominant disintegration of matter and absorption of 

 motion, there is dissolution. In that portion of the universe 

 observable by us attraction predominates now, as seen in the 

 integration of matter and the evolution of forms. In other 

 regions expansion may exceed attraction, dissolution may 

 predominate over evolution. In ages inconceivably remote, 

 the elements of our system, now undergoing evolution, were 

 doubtless subject to the opposite process. Every condition 

 grows out of pre-existent conditions. 



5. Of beginning there is no indication. The evolution of 

 a world from the " chaos " of star-dust involves a " begin- 

 ning " only as the formation of a crystal from the " chaos " 

 of a solution implies a beginning. There is, according to 

 Spencer's philosophy, as little need of a " supernatural fac- 

 tor " to explain evolution as there is to explain the opposite 

 process, dissolution; and one is as little indication of a 

 " beginning " as the other, except the word " beginning " 

 be applied to certain rhythms of motion, certain manifesta- 

 tions of force, certain forms of matter, which, nevertheless, 

 were preceded by and sprang from other rhythms, manifes- 

 tations, and forms, all due to and dependent upon self-ex- 

 istent, inscrutable power. As Spencer said, in reply to a 

 critic : " The affirmation of a universal evolution is in 

 itself the negation of an ' absolute commencement ' of 

 anything. Construed in terms of evolution, every kind of 

 being is conceived as a product of modifications, wrought 

 by insensible gradations on a pre-existing kind of being; 

 and this holds as fully of the supposed ' commencement of 

 organic life ' as of all subsequent development of organic 

 life." 



6. "When the formation of an aggregate proceeds uncom- 

 plicated by secondary processes, as in the crystallization of 

 carbon into a diamond, evolution is simple. 



7. When, in the process of evolution, there are secondary 

 rearrangements of matter, and sufficient retained motion to 

 admit a redistribution among the parts of the body as, for 

 instance, in the growth of an animal there is exemplified 

 not only the integration of matter and the dissipation of 

 motion, the primary law of evolution, but also an increase 

 of complexity. When this is accompanied with increased 

 coherence, definiteness, and mutual dependence of parts, and 

 the subordination of the parts to the movements of the 

 whole structure, there is progress. Thus we have evolution 



