EVOLUTION OF DARWIN AND OF SPENCER. 1 79 



thereby ceased to be merely scientific, and became 

 avowedly metaphysical. 



The merit of the discovery and formulation of 

 this great generalization belongs to Mr. Herbert 

 Spencer, whose evolutionism is related to the bio- 

 logical evolutionism of Darwin much as the New- 

 tonian law of gravitation is related to Kepler's 

 laws of the motions of the heavenly bodies. And 

 the step taken by Mr. Spencer was not only one of 

 the utmost importance for the development of the 

 philosophic implications of the theory of Evolution, 

 but also thoroughly justified by purely scientific con- 

 siderations. For it was only by such a generaliza- 

 tion that the applications of evolutionist principles 

 to the various sciences could be brought into a 

 connection that explained the similarity of their 

 evolutions. A merely biological evolutionism, e.g., 

 could never have accounted for the evolution of the 

 chemical elements (§ 9) ; but from the standpoint of 

 philosophic evolutionisrh the evolution in biology 

 ind in chemistry are instances of one and the same 

 law. 



6. When Evolution has been recognised as the 

 iniversal law of the Becoming of tHing^, the position 

 )f affairs is, that all things are subject to a law, 

 ''hich explains the higher as the deyeloprrient of 

 lower, and that this law may be formulated by 

 leans of the historical data of this development, 

 'e have thus advanced beyond the conception of 

 [solated things having a history, to the conception 

 a history of all things, a world-history ; not only 

 lust things be taken in their historical context, but 

 fhat context is one and the same for all. 



And the world has not only got a history, but 

 that history has a 7neanmg, it is the process which 



