The Philosophy of Evolution. 347 



statement. But Hegel sat down in his study and gave his 

 days and nights to profound reflections on abstract Being, 

 and the course of nature as a course of thought. He then 

 developed a series of abstract, verbally logical sequences, 

 on whose lines he affirmed the universe to have been laid 

 down, and expounded them with awful toil and subtlety. 

 His main principle of the identity of contradictions proved 

 -as barren as other metaphysical discoveries. The reasoning 

 was cogent, the proof by definition (if definition could ever 

 prove anything) was convincing, but still nothing ever could 

 grow from it all. Verbal propositions can produce only 

 verbal progress, and verbal progress is like Mr. Carlyle's 

 spavined horse, "all move and no go." 



As if to make the futility of metaphysical investigation 

 — even if its principles were true — the more startling, 

 Hegel's dialectic had the advantage of being itself evolu- 

 tionary in its form and spirit. One proposition springs out 

 of another by a surprising derivation, resembling a real 

 parentage and sonship as closely as words can resemble the 

 facts of the world. But it proved to be valueless all the 

 same — for thought can never have the value of things, ex- 

 cept when it represents things exactly. It is otherwise 

 but a baseless fabric of vision — the cloud-world of the may- 

 be, not the land of the real. One might go on entertaining 

 its theorems for centuries, as happened during the ages of 

 scholasticism, and not a step forward for the welfare of man- 

 kind would be made in consequence. 



Compare this whole procedure with that of Mr. Darwin 

 in his endeavor to discover the order of nature. Not in 

 the closet, nor in his own mind, did he fancy that he could 

 find the principles of the universe, but only in nature her- 

 self. To nature, therefore, he applied himself, made a 

 voyage of study round the world, seeking everywhere the 

 material facts and procedure of things, comparing and sift- 

 ing verities with tireless industry and for many years, until 

 his main proposition of the transformation of species was 

 established. Then he enlarged his theory and disclosed 

 the everlasting mutation of the restless universe, the in- 

 structive and fruitful law that anything may become any- 

 thing else if its material basis is properly handled. And 

 this phil'osophy brought, at last, the long fumbling of the 

 metaphysicians to an end. Never again could their endless 

 logomachy interest sober minds. Never again could they 



