MODERN EVOLUTION. igg 



Tables, form the great body of the Synthetic Phi- 

 losophy, is the expansion of this abstract. The gen- 

 eral lines laid down in that Philosophy have become 

 a permanent way along which investigation will con- 

 tinue to travel. The revisions which may be called 

 for will not affect it fundamentally, being limited to 

 details, more especially in the settlement of the rela- 

 tive functions of individuals and communities, and 

 cognate questions. Into these we cannot enter here. 

 Suffice it, that to those who have the rare possession 

 of sound mental peptics, no more nutritive diet can 

 be recommended than is supplied by First Princi- 

 ples and the works in which its theses are developed. 

 For those who, blessed with good digestion, lack 

 leisure, there is provided in a convenient volume the 

 excellent epitome which Mr. Howard Collins has 

 prepared. 



The prospectus of the then proposed issue of the 

 series of works which, beginning with First Princi- 

 ples, ends with the Principles of Sociology (1862- 

 1896), was issued by Mr. Spencer in March, i860. 

 Through his courtesy the writer has seen the docu- 

 ments which prove that the first draft of that pro- 

 spectus was written out on the 6th of January, 1858, 

 and that it was the occasion of an interesting corre- 

 spondence between Mr. Spencer and his father — 

 mainly in the form of questions from the latter — dur- 

 ing that month. The record of these facts is of some 

 moment as evidencing that the scheme of the Syn- 

 thetic Philosophy took definite shape in 1857. There- 



