2 14 FORMULAS OF THE LAW OF EVOLUTION. 



of the pigments of a picture will not take the place 

 of an explanation of its meaning. And so with Mr. 

 Spencer's formula : it is true, but it is not significant, 

 it is a formula which cannot be utilized to explain 

 many things in life, although as Mr. Spencer has so 

 well shown, it will throw fresh light on many more 

 things than might have been expected. 



Secondly, though true, it is neither exhaustive nor 

 exclusive, as indeed no formula of the law can well 

 be. For all our formulas attempt to state a real 

 process in ideal terms, and if the Evolution of the 

 world is real, its content can, like all reality, never 

 be exhausted by our ideal symbols. Hence various 

 formulations of the law of Evolution may all be true 

 and equally true : true not merely in the sense of 

 approximating in different degrees to the truth, but 

 rather as each embracing a more or less prominent 

 aspect of the whole truth. 



Hence it is no disparagement of Mr. Spencer's 

 formula to say that it is unsuited for many purposes, 

 for which more significant statements of the nature 

 of Evolution are required. Thus, in sociology 

 the promotion of heterogeneity, is not an aim for 

 which it is possible to feel much enthusiasm, nor 

 even one which would stimulate to any definite 

 course of conduct. For so many things might lead 

 to so many kinds of heterogeneity, many of which 

 would appear far from desirable, that we should 

 probably neglect more pressing necessities in the 

 perplexities of promoting heterogeneity. 



§ 3. If, on the other hand, we take a formula likej 

 Eduard von Hartmann's, according to whom Evolu- 

 tion consists in the development of consciousness,! 

 or more precisely, in the development of conscious 

 reason out of the Unconscious, we find that thej 



