Herbert Speneer and tJie Doctrine of Evolutio)i. 531 



that Dissolution is everywhere the correlative of Evolu- 

 tion, and that, before the generalization is complete, Dis- 

 solution must be recognized as universally tending to undo 

 what Evolution does. 



In a new edition of First Principles this idea was em- 

 bodied, and the work recast in conformity with it. The 

 doctrine of Evolution thus attained a higher development. 

 The fundamental antagonism between Evolution and Dis- 

 solution comes into the foreground as the cardinal concep- 

 tion. It is shown that every aggregate, simple or com- 

 pound, is, from the beginning to the end of its existence, 

 subject to these opposing processes of change ; that, ac- 

 cording as its quantity of contained motion is becoming 

 greater or less, it is tending to integrate or disintegrate, 

 evolve or dissolve; that from moment to moment through- 

 out its whole existence it is simultaneously exposed to both 

 these processes, and that the average transformation it is 

 undergoing expresses the predominance of the one process 

 over the other. This being the universal law to which all 

 material things at all times are subject, there come to be 

 recognized certain derivative laws that are not universal 

 although highly general. Evolution is distinguished into 

 simple and compound : simple Evolution being that in 

 which the character of the matter and the rate of its inte^ 

 gration are such that this primary process of change from a 

 diffused state to a concentrated state is uncomplicated by 

 secondary changes — compound Evolution being that in 

 which, along with the general integrations, there go on 

 more or less marked differentiations and local integrations. 

 Thus the changes which were originally conceived to con- 

 stitute Evolution itself came to be recognized as, in order 

 of time and importance, subordinate; integration may go 

 on without differentiation, as in crystals ; but differentia- 

 tion is made possible only by antecedent integration. 



The doctrine of Evolution, as a theory of the genesis 



