CHAPTER VII. 



THE EVOLUTION HYPOTHESIS A DYNAMIC 

 THEORY. 



A PHILOSOPHY rightly so called" can, on Mr. 

 Spencer's theory, only come into existence by 

 finding a principle, operative throughout the whole 

 range of the knowable, to which every line of research 

 ultimately leads and from which the entire course of 

 change may, with adequate enlargement of knowledge, 

 be deductively demonstrated. " A philosophy stands 

 self -convicted of inadequacy, if it does not formulate 

 the whole series of changes passed through by every 

 existence in its passage from the imperceptible to the 

 perceptible and again from the perceptible to the im- 

 perceptible. If it begins its explanations with exist- 

 ences that already have concrete forms, or leaves off 

 while they still retain concrete forms ; then, mani- 

 festly, they had preceeding histories, or will have 

 succeeding histories, or both, of which no account is 



given The formula sought, equally applicable 



to existences taken singly in and their totality, must 

 be applicable to the whole histories of each and to 

 the whole history of all." * It is clear that unless 



* First Principles, 186. 



