74 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



counteracts the law of gravity, and builds up the com- 

 plex structure of the plant is not accounted for. Why 

 the vegetal kingdom is what it is, as differenced from 

 all other known things, is just what the dynamic prin- 

 ciple fails to explain. It can tell us why the branches- 

 laden with fruit bend towards the ground, or why 

 their curve is such as it is, and can tell us much more 

 of substantially the same kind, gathered from me- 

 chanical or chemical science ; but philosophy aims at 

 interpreting that which is distinctive, and strives 

 after a system of truth in which the separate depart- 

 ments of knowledge shall have each its due place. 



Mr. Spencer applies his dynamic principle to the 

 phenomena of animal life. Here also there is a large 

 scope for the application of chemical and mechanical 

 law. But the characteristic part of the phenomena 

 that which constitutes the animal organism a dis- 

 tinctive class of concrete existence is the very thing 

 the dynamic principle will not cover. Yet everything 

 in the instance that will not come under the law of 

 the redistribution of matter and motion is to be 

 removed from the field of knowledge and relegated to 

 the region of the unknowable. 



The thinker is himself the great exception. To 

 reduce himself in his self-knowledge, in his intellection, 

 in his moral being, to an instance of dynamic law 

 to constitute himself a part of the redistribution of 

 matter and motion is the crucial test of the thorough- 

 ness with which the evolutionist carries out his theory. 



