40 THE EVOLUTION OF SCIENCE. 



to the complex, always differentiating and always ex- 

 panding, every step being made possible only by those 

 which had already been taken. And to this extent 

 the growth of science, even to the present day, has been 

 an evolution. 



But in the fourth place, it remains for us to consider 

 whether the final term in the definition of materialistic 

 evolution, viz., that which assumes the cause of its de- 

 velopment to be a property or a tendency inherent in 

 the thing itself, is exemplified in the evolution of science. 



Now we have already in this paper regarded the 

 power of conscious observation as a part of the original 

 equipment of the human mind, and need stop here only 

 to repeat our former quotation from Sully: "All the 

 laws of physical evolution cannot help us to understand 

 the first genesis of mind." 



But in regard to the second element— the motive in 

 science, — we have also very briefly to say, that the love 

 of truth for its own sake is not prompted by the material 

 wants of men ; that it does not arise from any political 

 or social necessity ; that it has no affinity with any ma- 

 terial object, nor is it the result of the collision of matter 

 with the organs of sense as the spark of fire is thrown 

 into being by the collision of flint and steel. The long- 

 ing after truth for its own sake is a purely intellectual 

 instinct ; and as such it has had its birth quite inde- 

 pendent of physical causes, and unconditioned by the 

 facts of nature towards Avhich it impells the human in- 

 tellect. 



And then the theory of evolution must explain the 

 origin of the third element — the power to construct ma- 

 chines and conceive hypotheses. But the ingenuity 

 which is displayed in invention can not be a property of 

 matter — it is a quality of mind. The genius exercised 

 in the construction of a theory can not bo the offspring 

 of material combinations ; it has nothing in common 



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