A Dynamic Theory. 67 



face the task of accounting for all we know or can 

 know. 



Mr. Spencer thinks he has discovered the key which 

 unlocks all knowable secrets the law which brings 

 together in one all possible knowledge the principle 

 whose sovereignty is wide as the bounds of being. It 

 is a " dynamic principle." 



" The law we seek must be," he says, " the law of 

 the continuous redistribution of matter and motion. 

 Absolute rest and permanence do not exist. Every 

 object, no less than the aggregate of all objects, under- 

 goes from instant to instant some alteration of state. 

 'Gradually or quickly it is receiving or losing motion, 

 while some or all of its parts are simultaneously 

 changing their relation to one another. And the 

 question to be answered is What dynamic principle 

 true of the metamorphosis as a whole and in its details 

 expresses these ever-changing relations. ... A philo- 

 sophy rightly so-called can come into existence only 

 by solving the problem." * 



The universality of this principle is stated more 

 fully in another passage : 



" Setting out from an established ultimate principle, 

 it has been shown that the cause of transformation 

 among all kinds of existences cannot but be that which 

 we have seen it to be. It has been shown that the 

 redistribution of matter and motion must everywhere 



* First Principles, 92. 



