138 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



wards made visible. What scientific value attaches to 

 loose use of phrases like this ? Yet this is the founda- 

 tion laid for a system of universal truth. 



Turning to the evolved result, we do not find our- 

 selves in clearer light. What do we learn from the 

 expression, "a definite, coherent heterogeneity." In 

 what sense is the product evolved more definite than 

 that out of which it has been evolved ? It is not 

 more definite in quantity Mr. Spencer assumes that 

 the amount remains invariable, it is not more definite 

 in bounds evolution is not a process of contraction : 

 it is not more definitely one thing or many things, one 

 force or many forces ; for unless some power has inter- 

 vened, or something has arisen out of nothing, it had, 

 at the very outset, inclosed within it and its law, all 

 that is in it now. The forces were as definite, the law 

 of their operation as definite. An infinite intelligence 

 might bring order out of confusion, might mould the 

 definite out of the indefinite, might give form to the 

 unformed ; but it is wholly absurd to conceive of order 

 rising spontaneously out of confusion, or the indefinite 

 of itself becoming definite. This supposition which 

 Mr. Spencer would most emphatically repudiate is the 

 only alternative if, without the intervention of intel- 

 ligence, that which was before " indefinite " is now " de- 

 finite." In the change it must have become endowed 

 with new qualities ; matter without form has given 

 form to itself : something has arisen out of nothing. 



In what sense is the evolved cosmos more "co- 



