54 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



generalizations of all content as forming part of a 

 doctrine of universal truth ; it consequently reduces 

 to a mere unprovable guess the Evolution Hypothesis. 



Let us, with a view to the criticism of the evolution 

 doctrine as Mr. Spencer expounds it, inquire what is, 

 on his theory, the relation subsisting between that of 

 which we are vaguely conscious, that is, the unknow- 

 able, and that of which we are definitely conscious, 

 that is, the knowable. 



The unknowable is not wholly unknown. Mr. 

 Spencer predicates of it, in the most assured and 

 positive manner, in several modes. 



(1.) He affirms the consciousness of the unknowable 

 to be an essential part of the exercise of thought. 

 "By the necessary conditions of thought we are 

 obliged to form a positive, though vague conscious- 

 ness of this which transcends distinct consciousness*"* 

 The consciousness of the absolute lies, then, in every 

 act of knowledge, as an essential part of it, determined 

 by " the necessary conditions of thought." The mind 

 carries with it always and everywhere as essential to 

 its operations, a positive, though undefined, conscious- 

 ness of the absolute. 



(2.) By the use of a great variety of phrases, Mr. 

 Spencer affirms the objective reality of that which is 

 thus present to consciousness. He speaks of it as 

 present to the mind "not as nothing but as a some- 



First Principles, Part I., 26. 



