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EVOLUTION 13 



introduced to Spencer through Darwin. Such of us as 

 ventured to read the First Principles then learnt that the / 

 theory of organic evolution propounded in the Origin of \ 

 Species was the application to one domain of Nature off 

 a broader principle which Spencer had shown held good! 

 throughout every domain of Nature ; that organic evolu- 

 tion by Natural Selection was a particular phase of the 

 evolutionary process. Whatever might be the special 

 mechanism which had given rise to particular lines of 

 development among the various groups of natural 

 phenomena, the principle that development there had been 

 throughout the past, that development was going on at 

 the present time, and that development would go on in 

 the future was brought home by Spencer's treatment in 

 a way that could not fail to leave a lasting impression 

 upon minds still in the plastic stage of studentship. In 

 brief, it was to Spencer that we were indebted for the 

 expansion and consolidation of our ideas of Evolution, 

 and speaking now, after an interval of some forty years, 

 I see no reason for modifying this general impression, even 

 if we have since, with the progress of knowledge, fouad 

 reasons for dissenting from some of his views. The 

 points on which many modern workers have departed from 

 the teaching of the author of the Synthetic Philosophy — 

 even if they should prove to be altogether right and 

 Spencer altogether wrong — are, in fact, in relation to the 

 general doctrine, but minor points affecting the special 

 mechanism of evolution in particular classes of cases. . 

 The broad principle remains unshaken, and Spencer is 

 unquestionably the thinker whose name wUl go down to 

 posterity as par excellence the Philosopher of Evolution 

 of the nineteenth century. 



In stating that the writings of Darwin were of para- 

 mount influence in moulding public and scientific opinion 

 it must not be concluded that Spencer exerted no influence 

 or that his treatment of Evolution was considered inade- 

 quate in the early days of the doctrine. Such differences 

 in impressing their contemporaries as are known to have 



