40 A GREAT CONFESSION CHAP. 



out all its special signification. Accord- 

 ingly, Mr. Herbert Spencer has defined 

 function as a word equivalent to the 

 phrase "transformations of motion" 1 

 a phrase perfectly vague, abstract, and 

 equally applicable to function or to the 

 destruction of it, to the processes of 

 death or the processes of life, to the 

 phenomena of heat, of light, or electricity, 

 and completely denuded of all the 

 special meanings which respond to our 

 perception of a whole class of special facts. 

 Of course the attempt breaks down 

 completely to describe the facts of nature 

 in words too vague for the purpose, 

 or in words rendered sterile by artificial 

 eliminations. It is not Darwin only, 

 who had at least no dogma on this 

 subject to bind him it is Mr. Spencer 

 himself who continually breaks down in 

 the attempt, far more completely than he 



1 Principles of Biology ', vol. i. p. 4. 



