142 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



card everyone of those principles which he had so 

 laboriously illustrated, and applied deductively with 

 such seemingly conclusive demonstration. The con- 

 ditions no longer admit of their application. Force 

 does not persist, matter is not indestructible, motion is 

 not continuous within the limits of the phenomena in 

 question. Let us take as an illustration the growth 

 of the germ out of which an oak is evolved. Without 

 pausing to dwell on the difficulty of applying the 

 phrase, " indefinite, incoherent homogeneity," to a germ 

 which, Mr. Spencer tells us, " is not absolutely struc- 

 tureless, but consists of a mass of cells,"* let us note 

 the progress of its growth. The plant grows by con- 

 stant augmentation from without ; it is continually 

 adding, from surrounding matter, to the matter of 

 which it is composed. The contained motion increases 

 with the increase of bulk. The process is not integra- 

 tion but aggregation of matter ; not dissipation but in- 

 crement of motion ; not in either case redistribution, 

 but increase. Redistribution is a misleading name for 

 the process. The matter does not remain the same in 

 quantity, nor the same in its parts : new matter is 

 being continually added and old matter removed. 

 The sum of motion is ever changing increasing 

 during growth and diminishing in decay ; and whether 

 increasing or diminishing, subject to periodical ebb 

 find flow. Mr. Spencer tells us that "living bodies 



* Biology, Vol. I., 55. 



