ADDRESS BY W. R. HUGHES 
307 
to the interpretation of all progress—inorganic, organic, and 
superorganic. For the fullest evidence of the truth of my 
statement I turn to the twenty-ninth volume of the West¬ 
minster Review for the month of April, 1857, wherein appears 
an essay from the pen of Mr. Herbert Spencer, entitled 
“Progress: its Law and Cause,” and at page 465 of that 
essay are these remarkable words:— 
“We believe we have shown beyond question that that 
which the German physiologists have found to be the law of 
organic development is the law of all development. The 
advance from the simple to the complex, though a process of 
successive differentiations, is seen alike in the earliest 
changes of the universe to which we can reason our way back, 
and in the earliest changes which we can inductively 
establish ; it is seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of 
the earth, and of every single organism on its surface ; it is 
seen in the evolution of humanity, whether contemplated in 
the civilised individual or in the aggregation of races ; it is 
seen in the evolution of society in respect both of its political 
and economical organisation ; and it is seen in the evolution 
of all those endless concrete and abstract products of human 
activity which constitute the environment of our daily life. 
From the remotest past which science can fathom down to 
the novelties of yesterday, that in which progress essentially 
consists, is the transformation of the homogeneous into the 
heterogeneous.” 
It is, I conceive, not too much to maintain that the pre¬ 
ceding words contain the whole “ promise and potency” of 
the doctrine of Evolution. They are a multum in pernio , 
and an examination of this essay, which is reprinted (as 
revised) in Volume I. of Mr. Herbert Spencer’s “ Essays,” 
will convince the most wavering sceptic of the truth of my 
assertion. Judge for yourselves, ladies and gentlemen, if 
the titles to the headings of the pages of this wonderful 
Essay, running from 445 to 485 inclusive, do not of them¬ 
selves indicate its full scope and bearing. They are :— 
The Nebular Hypothesis. 
Physical Development of the Earth. 
The Theory of a Biological Progression. 
Evolution of Society. 
Industrial Organisation. 
Spoken and Written Language. 
Painting and Sculpture. 
Poetry, Music, and Dancing. 
Development of Music. 
Probability of a Common Cause. 
