Herbert Spencer and the Doctrine of Evolution. 5 1 1 



editor of the Economist. It was issued, under the title of 

 Social Statics, at the close of 1850. In this work various 

 developments of the ideas contained in the pamphlet above 

 named are noticeable. It will be seen that the conception 

 that there is an adaptation gomg on between human nature 

 and the social state has become dominant. There is the 

 idea that all social evils result from the want of this adap- 

 tation, and are in process of disappearance as the adapta- 

 tion progresses. There is the notion that all morality con- 

 sists in conformity to such principles of conduct as allow of 

 the life of each individual being fulfilled, to the uttermost, 

 consistently with the fulfilment of the lives of other indi- 

 viduals ; and that the vital activities of the social human 

 being are gradually being moulded into such form that 

 they may be realized to the uttermost without mutual hin- 

 drance. Social progress is in fact viewed as a natural 

 evolution, in which human beings are moulded into fitness 

 for the social state, and society adjusted into fitness for 

 the natures of men — the units and the aggregate perpet- 

 ually acting and reacting, until equilibrium is reached. 

 There is recognized not only the process of continual 

 direct adaptation of men to their circumstances by the in- 

 herited modifications of habit ; but there is also recognized 

 the process of the dying out of the unfit and the survival 

 of the fit. And these changes are regarded as parts of a 

 process of general evolution, tacitly affirmed as running 

 through all animate Nature, tending ever to produce a 

 more complete and self-sufficing individuality, and ending 

 in the highest type of man as the most complete individual. 

 After finishing Social Statics Mr. Spencer's thoughts 

 were more strongly attracted in the directions of biology 

 and psychology — sciences which he saw were most inti- 

 mately related with the progress of social questions ; and 

 one result reached at this time was significant. As he 

 states in the essay on the Laws of Organic Form, published 



