ch. in.] EVOLUTION AND DISSOLUTION. 323 



of its constituent matter accompanied by reabsorption of the 

 lost motion, or its equivalent. 



Thus we are gradually reaching something like a concrete 

 result. As we saw, in the preceding chapter, that rhythm 

 necessitates a continual redistribution of matter and motion 

 throughout the knowable universe, we now find that this 

 continual redistribution everywhere results in alternate con- 

 centration and diffusion. Such, indeed, must inevitably be 

 the result. The same universal principle of dynamics which 

 prevents the perturbations in the solar system from ever 

 accumulating all in the same direction, is also to be seen 

 exemplified, on a more general scale, in the law that neither 

 aggregation nor diffusion can proceed indefinitely without 

 being checked by the counter-process. Unless we suppose 

 that the sum of the forces which produce aggregation is infi- 

 nitely greater or infinitely less than the sum of the forces 

 which resist aggregation, so that either the one or the other 

 may be left out of the account, we must admit that the only 

 possible outcome of the conflict between the two is a series 

 of alternations, both general and local, between aggregation 

 and dissipation. 



It is now the time to apply to these antagonist processes 

 some more convenient and accurate names than the half- 

 dozen pairs of correlative synonyms by which we have thus 

 far described them. The names selected by Mr. Spencer will 

 be practically justified by the entire exposition contained in 

 the following chapters ; but even the cases already frag- 

 mentarily studied enable us partly to realize the significance 

 of the terms Evolution and Dissolution, by which he has 

 designated these processes. In Mr. Spencer's terminology, 

 the integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of 

 motion is Evolution ; while the absorption of motion and 

 -concomitant disintegration of matter is Dissolution. Both 

 these terms possess the signal advantage that, while they 

 admit of precise scientific definition, they are at the same 



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