2o6 The Evolution Hypothesis. 



-a wholly insoluble problem. Take an example from 

 incubation. With no special operation of incident 

 forces beyond the maintenance of a certain degree of 

 warmth, the fertilized cell passes in a few days 

 through a complete process of evolution ; and the 

 chick comes forth a highly developed organism, 

 capable of free motion and of acts that simulate 

 intelligence. Has all this vastly complicated process 

 been initiated and carried out solely by the operation 

 of dynamic law ? Is it an instance of the redistribu- 

 tion of matter and motion, and nothing more ? The 

 persistence of force is, as we have seen, in such cases, 

 inapplicable ; for the forces are being constantly 

 altered in their sum, and in their inter-relations. Mr. 

 Spencer is not able to reduce to a mere dynamic 

 process the development of a living germ into an 

 organized structure. If he prove himself able to 

 reduce to the redistribution of matter and motion the 

 series of changes by which the "uniform mass of 

 matter " forming the germ passes into a highly organ- 

 ized living creature, then he may hope to explain by a 

 like process the modifications exhibited in the whole 

 breadth of the vegetal and animal kingdoms. The 

 difference is one of degree, not of kind. Science is 

 never repelled by consideration of the magnitude or 

 difficulty of the task set before her. The most involved 

 and intricate problems, if within the limits of science, 

 yield to patient and well-directed effort. It is not 

 that the evolution of kingdoms and kinds is a vast 



