SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY. 
259 
Nov., 1889. 
THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY.* 
BY GRANT ALLEN. 
Every Midland naturalist, it is to be hoped, has long 
before this read Mr. Herbert SpenceFs ‘-Principles of Biology.” 
Not to have done so is to remain in the dark ages of pre- 
Darwinian thought. That great work forms, indeed, the 
foundation of the science of life in its modern development; 
and to rest ignorant of it is to ignore contentedly what the 
most fertile of our thinkers has had to say about the kernel of 
our own particular subject. Noblesse oblige : and much is 
expected of Midland naturalists. Yet. great as the Biology 
is in itself, it becomes even greater still when viewed as a 
component part of the vast and harmonious fabric of the 
Synthetic Philosophy. Fully to understand the book, it must 
be taken as succeeding the “First Principles,” and as leading 
up to the “ Principles of Psychology.” And, if we wish to 
gain a clear conception of animal life, at least, in its total 
manifestations, we must have read the account of the evolu¬ 
tion of nervous systems given in that part of the Psychology 
entitled “Physical Synthesis,” as well as the account of the 
evolution of other structures and functions given in the 
morphological and physiological parts of the “ Principles of 
Biology.” The naturalist’s world cannot w T ell be isolated 
from the rest of the great universe of which it forms one 
important component element. As part of a whole itself, its 
philosophy can only be rightly grasped in connection with, 
the philosophy of the cosmos which embraces and includes it. 
Mr. Spencer has fully impressed upon our generation this 
profound truth, and has illustrated it himself in his wonderful 
life-work. But not to all men is it given to follow him equally 
through all the fields of thought his architectonic mind so 
impartially traverses. Many of us would at least like, as 
Mr. Spencer himself puts it, “a small outline map; ” and in 
the small outline-map we can more readily find our way on a 
first exploration than in the detailed plan, or in the intricacies 
•of the actual country to be travelled. Such a map Mr. 
* “An Epitome of the ‘Synthetic Philosophy.”’ By Howard 
Collins. With a Preface by Herbert Spencer. (London : Williams 
and Norgate. 1889.) 
