Herbert Spencer. 13 



out nature, change is governed by a principle according to 

 ■which there is a course of integration of forces from indef- 

 initeness, simplicity, and homogeneity in their relations, to 

 definiteness, complexity, and heterogeneity. When evolu- 

 tion, proceeding in this way, ceases, a reverse movement of 

 dissolution begins. This law applies to inorganic and or- 

 ganic nature alike. Darwin's Natural Selection is an expres- 

 sion of the manner in which evolution accomplishes the de- 

 velopment of vegetal and animal life, showing how species 

 are formed, distributed, modified, perpetuated and destroyed. 



It will thus be seen that, while Mr. Spencer thought out 

 and presented the whole philosophy of evolution, Darwin's 

 work was special and limited. That it was a great work I 

 am certainly not disposed to deny, but I think we ought to 

 understand exactly what it was. It cannot better be ex- 

 pressed, than in an estimate by Geo. J. Romanes, published 

 in Nature. "The few general facts out of which the theory 

 of evolution by natural selection is formed, namely, struggle 

 for existence, survival of the fittest, and heredity, were all 

 previously w r ell-known facts. . . . But the greatness of Mr. 

 Darwin, as the reformer of biology, is not to be estimated 

 by the fact that he conceived the idea of natural selection ; 

 his claim to everlasting memory rests upon the many years 

 of devoted labor whereby he tested this idea in all conceiv- 

 able ways — amassing facts from every department of sci- 

 ence, balancing evidence with the soundest judgment, shirk- 

 ing no difficulty, and at last astonishing the world as with 

 a revelation by publishing the completed proof of evolution. 

 ... In the chapter of accidents, therefore, it is a singularly 

 fortunate co-incidence that Mr. Darwin was the man to whom 

 the idea of natural selection occurred; for although, in a 

 generation or two, the truth of evolution might have become 

 more and more forced upon the belief of science, and with 

 it the acceptance of natural selection as an operating cause, 

 in our own generation this could only have been accom- 

 plished in the way that it was accomplished ; Ave required 

 one such exceptional mind as that of Darwin, to focus the 

 facts and show the method." 



Mr. Spencer's practical philosophy has been pretty fully 

 set forth in his " Data of Ethics," and in his various essays. 

 In ethics he holds that conduct should be estimated and 

 governed by the rule of the highest utility, but believes 

 that an ideal social state, involving an ideal development of 



