98 THE ADVANCE OF SCIENCE 



'Synthetic Philosophy ' of Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer. Comment on that great under- 

 taking would not be in place here. I 

 mention it because, so far as I know, it is 

 the first attempt to deal, on scientific prin- 

 ciples, with modern scientific facts and 

 speculations. For the ' Philosophie posi- 

 tive' of M. Comte, with which Mr. Spen- 

 cer's system of philosophy is sometimes 

 compared, though it professes a similar 

 object, is unfortunately permeated by a 

 thoroughly unscientific spirit, and its au- 

 thor had no adequate acquaintance with 

 the physical sciences even of his own time. 



The doctrine of evolution, so far as the 

 present physical cosmos is concerned, pos- 

 tulates the fixity of the rules of operation 

 of the causes of motion in the material 

 universe. If all kinds of matter are modi- 

 fications of one kind, and if all modes of 

 motion are derived from the same energy, 

 the orderly evolution of physical nature 



