194 CLUES AND SUGGESTIONS CHAP. 



join in the well-earned congratulations 

 which men of the most various schools 

 of opinion have lately addressed to a 

 thinker so distinguished. The attempt 

 to string all the beads of human know- 

 ledge on one loose -fibred thread of 

 thought called Evolution has been, I 

 think, a failure. But the beads remain, 

 ready for a truer arrangement, and a 

 better setting, in the years to come. We 

 must all admire the immense wealth of 

 learning and the immense intellectual 

 resources, as well as the untiring perse- 

 verance, which have been devoted to 

 this attempt. Mr. Spencer has vehe- 

 mently denied that his philosophy is 

 materialistic. But he has denied it on 

 the ground that, as between Materialism 

 and Spiritualism, his system is neither 

 the one nor the other. He says ex- 

 pressly of his own reasonings that " their 

 implications are no more materialistic 



