ACCORDING TO SPENCER. 213 



§ 2. Mr. Spencer defines the process of Evolution 

 as being- *' an integration of matter and concomitant 

 dissipation of motion, during which the matter 

 passes from an indefinite incoherent homogeneity to 

 a definite coherent heterogeneity, and the retained 

 motion undergoes a parallel transformation." ^ 



As the first to give in these terms a general for- 

 mula of the law of Evolution, Mr. Spencer deserves 

 the undying gratitude of all philosophers. But it will 

 only enhance Mr. Spencer's glory if, contrary to the 

 drift of his own utterances, we maintain that being 

 the first he cannot for this very reason be the last, 

 and express a hope that he may prove the founder 

 of a long dynasty of evolutionist philosophers. For 

 he has begun, but he has not ended the philosophy 

 of Evolution. His statement may be true, and 

 wholly true, but it is not on that account the whole 

 truth. Nay, if we reflect, this is impossible. It 

 would be improbable, though possible, that the first 

 shot should have hit the mark, but it is not possible 

 either to state the whole truth of the higher in terms 

 of the lower, or to state the whole truth about Evol- 

 ution in a single formula. Thus, in the first place, Mr. 

 Spencer's formula is inadequate, because, though all 

 things are perhaps matter and motion, many things 

 .are so much more, and the conceptions of matter 

 'and motion cannot reach their deeper import. 

 Hence, though it is a great triumph to have shown 

 ihow a definite formulation can be given even of the 

 'material changes that accompany Evolution, yet this 

 does not suffice. That violin-playing " is a scraping 

 of the hair of a horse on the intestines of a cat " is 

 i doubtless true, but it conveys no adequate idea of 

 the music. The most accurate and scientific analysis 

 ^ " First PrinG.," p. 396. 



