CHAPTER XIII 



LIFE AS ADJUSTMENT* 



ONE of the cardinal propositions of Mr. 

 Spencer's system of philosophy is the 

 definition of Life, first published in 

 1855, ^^ ^^^ "Principles of Psychology," but 

 now transferred to the first volume of his 

 " Principles of Biology." According to Mr. 

 Spencer, the continuous maintenance of an 

 equilibrium between the organism and its envi- 

 ronment is the process in which life essentially 

 consists. Life — including also intelligence as 

 the highest known manifestation of life — is 

 the continuous establishment of relations within 

 the organism, in correspondence with relations 

 existing or arising in the environment.^ Out 



^ [See Introduction, § 19.] 



2 The full definition runs thus : *< Life is the definite com- 

 bination of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and suc- 

 cessive, in correspondence with external coexistences and 

 sequences.'* This is incomparably the most profound and 

 complete definition of Life that has ever been framed ; and the 

 chapter in which it is set forth and illustrated would alone en- 

 title Mr. Spencer to a place among the greatest thinkers that 

 have ever lived. The objection has indeed been raised, in 

 metaphysical quarters, that this is a definition, not of Life, but 



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