EXCURSIONS OF AN EVOLUTIONIST 



nay, more, one wonders whether Mr. Allen has 

 ever studied as carefully as he ought to have 

 done the biological teachings of Mr. Spencer 

 whose opinions Dr. James quotes him as re- 

 presenting ! 



Mr. Allen has brilliantly illustrated several 

 points in connection with the doctrine of evo- 

 lution, more especially in the department of psy- 

 chology ; but there is no good reason why he 

 should be selected for quotation as the represen- 

 tative of all Spencerian evolutionists, or why all 

 Spencerian evolutionists should be held respon- 

 sible for Mr. Allen's peculiar opinions. The only 

 connected outline of Spencerian sociology as yet 

 in existence (save what has been published by 

 Mr. Spencer himself) is that which is contained 

 in the second volume of my " Outlines of Cos- 

 mic Philosophy." That the opinions therein ex- 

 pressed harmonize in the main with Mr. Spen- 

 cer's I have the strongest possible reasons for 

 asserting. Yet the line of thought followed in 

 this part of my work, and especially in the chap- 

 ter on " Conditions of Progress," is far more 

 closely parallel with Mr. Bagehot's line of 

 thought than with Mr. Allen's. Separate pas- 

 sages might be cited to the same effect ; as, for 

 example, where it is said (vol. ii. p. 199) that 

 the ecclesiastical reforms of Gregory VII. have 

 in their remote results, of course had more 

 influence upon American history than the di- 

 170 



