CHAP, vin EVOLUTION IN SPENCER 77 



it was now proved that some were mutually converti- 

 ble, and it was henceforth probable that all were so ; 

 it was known that some were modes of motion, and 

 it came to be believed with increasing definiteness 

 that all the others were equally modes of motion. 

 In the invisible world of molecular change it was as- 

 sumed that these diverse branches combined in one 

 common trunk. The second discovery was Darwin's 

 account of the origin of species. Before this theory 

 was broached Spencer was already on the track of 

 his own thoughts. If it helped him it did so rather 

 by confirming his original bias than by making him 

 a convert to the special peculiarities of Darwinism. 

 In its simplest shape Spencerian evolution is an as- 

 sertion of the all-sufficiency of natural law, a denial 

 of intervention from outside at any stage in the 

 process by which the universe has become what it is. 

 Moreover, natural law means here strictly physical 

 law ; everything is to be explained in terms of " mat- 

 ter and motion." This denial of all miracle, and of 

 everything analogous to miracle, gives evolution its 

 charm in the eyes of a fighting evolutionist like Mr. 

 Edward Clodd. On Spencer's premises " there is 

 nowhere else" outside the process whence interfer- 

 ence might come. Mr. Spencer is confident that he 

 can account for the beginning of the whole process. 

 The inorganic world has been unified by one dis- 

 covery, the organic by another. True, the transition 

 from one to the other had not yet been cleared up in 

 terms of natural law; nor has that been done, one 

 may add, until this day ; but by an act of scientific 

 faith Spencer affirms that the last remaining gap 

 must also be filled up, and natural law remain as the 



