in EQUILIBRATION NONSENSE 199 



is a "special creation" of his own, and 

 a very bad creation it is. Laboriously 

 classic in its form, it is as laboriously 

 barbarous and incompetent in its mean- 

 ing. No two ideas could be more 

 absolutely contrasted than the two which 

 Mr. Spencer seeks to identify and con- 

 found under the cover of this hideous 

 creation. The conception of a statical 

 " equilibrium " or balance between oppo- 

 site physical forces, and the conception 

 of the activities of function so adjusted 

 as to subordinate the physical forces to 

 their own specific and often glorious 

 work these are conceptions wide as the 

 poles asunder. Nothing but a system- 

 atic desire to wipe out of Nature, and 

 out of language which is her child and 

 her reflected image all her innumer- 

 able " teleological implications," can 

 account for Mr. Spencer's continual, 

 though futile, efforts to silence those 



