156 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART m 



"is to study a hundred unrelated sciences sciences 

 of atoms, sciences of cells, sciences of souls, sciences 

 of societies ; to study it vertically is to deal with one 

 science evolution." 1 All this points to Spencer's 

 philosophy, or a cosmic philosophy of a similar 

 type. Yet such a system is nothing but ornamental 

 scenery, hung up in the background of Mr. Drum- 

 mond's atelier. His references to it during his dis- 

 cussion are of the slightest. Close to the end of 

 his book 2 there is a whimsical attempt to trace the 

 cosmic principle of love down into the inorganic 

 world, and back to the nebulous cloud out of which 

 natural law is said to have evolved all things. 

 Chemical affinity is the supposed representative of 

 the psychical principle of love, grouping the ele- 

 ments of nature in close union! However, the 

 author does not seem perfectly easy in his own 

 mind as to this suggestion, or thoroughly in earnest 

 with it. On at least two other occasions he quotes 

 Spencerian language in a tone of discipleship. " The 

 first work of evolution always is, as we have seen, to 

 create a mass of similar things atoms, cells, men; 

 and the second is to break up that mass into as many 

 different kinds of things as possible. Aggregation 

 masses the raw material, collects the clay for the 

 potter ; differentiation destroys the featureless monot- 

 onies as fast as they are formed, and gives them 

 back in new and varied forms." 3 Again : " Accord- 

 ing to evolutional philosophy there are three great 

 marks or necessities of all true development Ag- 

 gregation, or the massing of things ; Differentiation, 

 or the varying of things; and Integration, or the 



1 Ascent of Man, p. 59. 2 Ibid. p. 433. 3 Ibid. p. 320. 



