276 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [ft. i. 



Though other thinkers, before Mr. Spencer, may have gene- 

 ralized about the concrete universe as a whole, it cannot be 

 denied that he has been the first to frame a verifiable hypo- 

 thesis upon this stupendous scale. The law of evolution 

 is the first generalization concerning the concrete universe 

 as a whole, which has been framed in conscious conformity 

 to the rigorous requirements of the objective method, and 

 which has therefore served to realize the prophetic dream 

 of Bacon, by presenting Philosophy as an organism of 

 which the various sciences are members. Obviously a 

 system which has achieved, or consciously sought to achieve, 

 such a result, is entitled par excellence to the name of 

 Cosmic Philosophy. It has been the first to give practical 

 realization to that sublime thought of two master minds, 

 which I have inscribed at the head of this work : — 



" To a thinker capable of comprehending it from a single 

 point of view, the universe would present but a single fact, 

 but one all-comprehensive truth; and it is for this reason 

 that we call it Cosmos, and not chaos." 



