IS INCOMPATIBLE WITH EVOLUTION. 29 



direct argument for the unknowable. And it is, of 

 course, always possible to produce considerable 

 effect by parading the real difficulties of metaphysics. 

 But here again there are plenty of unknowns but 

 no unknowable, plenty of unsolved problems and 

 some which are doubtless insoluble if perversely 

 stated, but none which can be declared insoluble in 

 themselves. 



And least of all can Mr. Spencer assert that these 

 problems are insoluble without being false to his 

 own principles. An evolutionist must surely be 

 the last to believe that any problems need remain 

 insoluble because they have not hitherto been 

 solved, the last to restrict by a dogmatic prohibition, 

 even in thought, the boundless possibilities of future 

 development. Indeed the raison d'etre of this 

 essay is to show how evolution may lead to the 

 solution of many of these apparently insoluble 

 questions. A great part of Mr. Spencer's content- 

 ion may indeed be accepted without qualification. 

 The contradictions in the conceptions of Matter, 

 Motion, Rest, and Force are insoluble, and fraught 

 with dire consequences to all knowledge when 

 manipulated by the sceptic (ch. iii. § 5-8). They 

 can be justified only as relative conceptions which 

 must be transcended by metaphysical inquiry in the 

 search for ultimate truth. Space and Time, again, 

 present real difficulties and will cause us much 

 trouble. The impossibility, on the other hand, of 

 treating the Self as an object of knowledge and of 

 finding the ends of the thread of consciousness^ will 

 turn out a fortunate and serviceable fact. 



§ 9. Mr. Spencer's account of the problems of 



^ " First Principles," p. ()(). 



