Herbert Spencer. 21 



unchanged, and with prefatory qualification of the most impor- 

 tant character, in the following words: "But in restating them he 

 would bring into greater prominence the transitional nature of all 

 political institutions, and the consequent relative goodness of some 

 arrangements which have no claims to absolute goodness." 



Between 1850 and 1865, then, Mr. Spencer had discovered the 

 vast and most important difference between absolute and relative 

 morals and principles, a difference which lies at the very founda- 

 tion of his entire system of philosophy. When and how was he 

 led to discover that difference ? Looking over the list of his writ- 

 ings, we note his article on "Population," printed in the West- 

 minster Review of July, 1852. That article commences with a 

 reference to the Malthusian Theory of Population, and quotes ap- 

 provingly the language of a sagacious and benevolent man, who 

 said of it: "A time will come when this mystery will be unveiled, 

 and when a beneficent law will be discovered, regulating this mat- 

 ter, in accordance with all the rest that we see of God' s moral 

 government of the world" ; and forthwith Mr. Spencer proceeds to 

 promulgate such a law. In that article we find recognition of that 

 difference, and accompanying the same an unmistakable prophecy 

 of the beneficent ethical philosophy disclosed in the "Data of 

 Ethics," that lights the way through all the wilderness of his 

 work and thought that lies between them. 



It is a matter of associated interest to note that, according to 

 the biography of Darwin, written by his son, it was the reading, 

 in 1839, of the "Theory of Population," by Mai thus, that gave 

 him also an initial impulse for his splendid work in the field of the 

 Struggle for Existence and Natural Selection. It is also of interest 

 to note that, according to the history of the development of the 

 thought of earlier ages, substantially the same great question and 

 collection of questions occupied the attention of the great minds 

 concerned in laying the foundations of Judaism and Christianity, 

 and whose action has so powerfully influenced the history of the 

 world. 



In these facts we may at least find warrant for the study and in- 

 vestigation of the Evolution Philosophy in and through an Ethical 

 Association attached to a Christian church and holding its sessions 

 in its place of worship. 



Eev. John W. Chadwick : — 



Mr. Chadwick expressed his pleasure in listening to the delight- 

 ful essay by Mr. Thompson. He presumed that in claiming for 

 Mr. Spencer the paternity of the Evolution philosophy, the essay- 

 ist did not intend to ignore the prior claim of Darwin to the con- 



