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PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



general doctrine of Evolution is a belief in the modi- 

 fiability of human nature through adaptation to con- 

 ditions, and a consequent belief in human pro- 

 gression." After giving up engineering, Mr. Spencer 

 joined the staff of the Economist, and while thus 

 employed, published, in 1850, his first important 

 book. Social Statics, or the Conditions essential to 

 Human Happiness specified, and the first of them 

 developed. In a footnote to the later editions of this 

 work Mr. Spencer points out a brace of para- 

 graphs in the chapter on General Considerations in 

 which " may be seen the first step toward the gen- 

 eral doctrine of Evolution. After referring to the 

 analogy between the subdivision of labour, which 

 goes on in human society as it advances; and the 

 gradual diminution in the number of like parts and 

 the multiplication of unlike parts which are observ- 

 able in the higher animals ; Mr. Spencer says : 



" Now, just the same coalescence of like parts and 

 separation of unlike ones — ^just the same increasing 

 subdivision of function — takes place in the develop- 

 ment of, society. The earliest social organisms con- 

 sist almost wholly of repetitions of one element. 

 Every man is a warrior, hunter, fisherman, builder, 

 agriculturist, toolmaker. Each portion of the com- 

 munity performs the same duties with every other 

 portion; much as each slice of the polyp's body is 

 alike stomach, muscle, skin, and lungs. Even the 

 chiefs, in whom a tendency towards separateness of 

 function first appears, still retain their similarity to 



