524 Edivard Livingston Yonmans. 



An argument on Illogical Geology was contributed in 

 July, 1859, to the Universal Review, which, although nom- 

 inally a criticism of Hugh Miller, was really an attack upon 

 the prevalent geological doctrine which asserted simultane- 

 ity in the systems of strata in different parts of the earth. 

 His view, which was at that time heresy, is now coming 

 into general recognition. In the Medico-Chirurgical Review 

 for January, i860, Mr. Spencer published a criticism on 

 Prof. Bain's Work, The Emotions and the Will, designed to 

 show that the emotions cannot be properly understood and 

 classified without studying them from the point of view of 

 Evolution, and tracing them up through their increasing 

 complications from lower types of animals to higher. The 

 essay on the Social Organism appeared at the same time 

 in the Westminster Review, in which it was maintained that 

 society, consisting of an organized aggregate, follows the 

 same course of Evolution with all other organized aggre- 

 gates — increasing in mass and showing a higher integra- 

 tion not only in this respect but also in its growing solidar- 

 ity ; becoming more and more heterogeneous in all its 

 structures, and more and more definite in all its differentia- 

 tions. The Physiology of Laughter, which appeared the 

 same year in Macmillan's Magazine, was a contribution to 

 nervous dynamics from the point of view that had been 

 taken in the Principles of Psychology. Even in Mr. Spen- 

 cer's discussion of Parliamentary Reforms, their Dangers 

 and Safeguards (Westminster Review, i860), the question 

 is dealt with on scientific grounds ultimately referring to 

 the doctrine of Evolution. It was its general purpose to 

 show that the basis of political power can be safely extended 

 only in proportion as political function is more and more 

 restricted. It was maintained in an earlier essay that rep- 

 resentative government is the best possible for that which 

 is the essential office of a government — the maintenance of 

 those social conditions under which every citizen can carry 



