FebeuakySI, 1896.] 



SCIENCE. 



293 



spectus, between the First Principles and the 

 Principles of Biology, was inserted the follow- 

 ing explanatory note : "In logical order 

 should here come the application of these First 

 Principles to Inorganic Nature. But this great 

 division it is proposed to pass over, partly be- 

 cause even without it the scheme is too exten- 

 sive, and partly because the interpretation of Or- 

 ganic Nature after the proposed method is of 

 more immediate importance." This scheme of 

 course was regarded by all as representing Mr. 

 Spencer's conception of the natural order of 

 evolution in the universe, and the arrangement 

 of his topics was supposed to reflect his views 

 of the actual succession of cosmic events. The 

 groups of phenomena, i. e., the several great 

 sciences, would, therefore, stand as follows : 



1. Inorganic Nature (subdivisions not indi- 

 cated) ; 2. Biology; 8. Psychology; 4. Sociol- 

 ogy ; 5. Morality. How closely he has adhered 

 to this scheme is known to all, the only devia- 

 tion being the merely verbal one of substituting 

 the word Ethics for ' Morality ' in the title of 

 the last work. 



How he would have subdivided the phenom- 

 ena of inorganic nature, and how he would have 

 designated and arranged the subdivisions, has 

 remained for the most part a matter of inference. 

 In illustrating the cosmical laws laid down in 

 his First Principles he frequently swept across 

 the whole field and generally began with the 

 nebular hypothesis and astronomical phenom- 

 ena, then dealt with planetary and terrestrial 

 •events, involving the action of heat, light, elec- 

 tricity, etc., and passed to organic phenomena 

 through the chemical process by which the 

 higher compounds have been developed. From 

 this it was inferred by some that his arrange- 

 ment of the inorganic sciences, had he worked 

 it out, would have been the same as Comte's, 

 viz : Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry. 



In 1864 he published his Classification of the 

 .Sciences, but even here this question was not 

 answered to the clear comprehension of all, for 

 & classification may be quite a different thing 

 from a genesis or filiation of the groups of phe- 

 nomena classified. Still, inasmuch as he classed 

 physics and chemistry as ' abstract-concrete ' 

 sciences, dealing with the ' elements ' of phe- 

 nomena, while astronomy, geology, biology. 



psychology and sociology were classed as ' con- 

 crete ' sciences, dealing with the ' totalities ' of 

 phenomena, it was safe to assume that it was to 

 the latter group alone that he proposed to con- 

 fine his Synthetic Philosophy ; and in the larger 

 table of the concrete sciences, after making as- 

 tronomy coordinate with the combined phenom- 

 ena of 'astrogeny' and 'geogeny,' he arranged 

 under the last of these groups, biology and the 

 other organic sciences in a scale of progressive 

 subordination. 



In an article dated December 3, 1868, and 

 published as an appendix to the first volume of 

 his Principles of Biology (not, of course, to the 

 first edition, which appeared in 1867), he says j 

 "I am placed at a disadvantage in having had 

 to omit that part of the System of Philosophy 

 which deals with Inorganic Evolution * * * 

 which should * * * precede the Principles 

 of Biology. Two volumes are missing. The 

 closing chapter of the second, were it written, 

 would deal with the evolution of organic matter 

 — the step preceding the evolution of organic 

 forms ; " and he then proceeds to discuss this 

 aspect of the subject in connection with the 

 doctrine of spontaneous generation, respecting 

 which he had been misunderstood by his critics. 

 He deals with it mainly from the chemical 

 standpoint, as, indeed, he also does in the open- 

 ing chapters of that volume. 



Once more, at the very beginning of his Prin- 

 ciples of Sociology, the first part of which ap- 

 peared in 1874, he remarks : "Of the three 

 broadly distinguished kinds of Evolution, we 

 come now to the third. The first kind, Inor- 

 ganic Evolution, which, had it been dealt with, 

 would have occupied two volumes, one dealing 

 with Astrogeny and the other with Geogeny, 

 was passed over, etc." This would seem to 

 leave no further doubt upon the point in ques- 

 tion. 



Mr. Ward added that he had recently re- 

 ceived a letter from Mr. Spencer in which the 

 series was given complete according to his pres- 

 ent view of tlie subject, and in which he ad- 

 mitted that he had aimed to confine the treat- 

 ment in the Synthetic Philosophy exclusively 

 to the concrete sciences as defined in his Classi- 

 fication of the Sciences. This latest version of 

 the matter is given in the right-hand column of 



