EVOLUTION THEORIES 217 



fore, though the custodians of its heritage 

 be as yet few. 



There is a time for everything, and since 

 philosophy, or any portion of it worth calHng 

 generahzed science is (or at least should be) 

 the ripened fruit of experience, the retire- 

 ment of the student and philosopher from 

 the noise and turmoil, the delay, hourly 

 pressure of the world, is as necessary and as 

 legitimate a process as is setting apart the 

 milkpan to let the cream rise. The mistake 

 arises when we begin to think of this isola- 

 tion as the sole essential, and overlook that 

 all the cream we get comes from the cow, and 

 from such pasture as we can give her. The 

 qualities and defects of the retiring biological 

 philosopher thus become apparent. Take 

 Mr. Spencer for choice. After an education 

 unusually scientific, an experience unusually 

 practical, including participation in the 

 greatest constructive activities of his day, 

 both as railway engineer, as mechanical in- 

 ventor, and in its theoretic discussions also, 

 as editor and as economist, he takes more and 

 more general views, first as leader-writer, 

 then as essayist, and thence abstracts him- 

 self into his long and devoted cloistered life 

 as philosopher. But after all, how little in 

 essential thought does his reasoned philoso- 

 phy get beyond its initial statement in his 



