n8 DISCRIMINATIONS CHAP. 



or likely, to take place. In vital changes, 

 however, such relations are manifest." 1 

 This is an excellent generalisation. It 

 only needs that the word " relations" be 

 translated from the abstract into the con- 

 crete. The kind of relation which is 

 "manifest" is the relation of a previous 

 preparation for an intended use. Unfor- 

 tunately, Mr. Spencer is perpetually 

 escaping or departing from the conse- 

 quences of his own " manifest relations." 

 In a subsequent passage of the same 

 work 2 he says, "Everywhere structures 

 in great measure determine functions." 

 This is exactly the reverse of the mani- 

 fest truth that the future functions 

 determine the antecedent growth of 

 structure. This escape from his own 

 doctrine on the fundamental distinction 

 between the organic and the inorganic 



1 Spencer's Principles of Biology ^ vol. i. ch. v. p. 73. 

 2 Ibid. vol. ii. ch. i. p. 4. 



