56 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



raw material given in consciousness. The circle of 

 definite knowledge may extend ever more widely ; 

 yet still the wider circle of real, though incompre- 

 hensible, existence, is seen to enclose it. 



But there underlies the entire doctrine of Mr. 

 Spencer, a postulate into the validity of which we 

 must inquire at some length. He assumes that the 

 absolute, while co-existing with the conditioned in 

 every experience, everywhere and at every moment, 

 stands so related to the knowable that it adds nothing 

 to it, nor takes aught from it, nor in any particular 

 modifies the series of manifestations. The totality 

 of matter remains fixed ; the totality of motion is un- 

 changed ; the law of the redistribution of matter and 

 motion proceeds uninterruptedly; the unsearchable 

 actuality has not revealed itself throughout the entire 

 course of mutation in any mode not implicily included 

 in its primal manifestation. This postulate is so 

 vitally important to the Evolution Hypothesis that we 

 shall devote a separate chapter to a consideration of 

 the relation of the Unknowable to the Knowable. 



