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diff --git a/39002.txt b/39002.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..c43d7d3 --- /dev/null +++ b/39002.txt @@ -0,0 +1,8906 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Herbert Spencer, by J. Arthur Thomson + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Herbert Spencer + +Author: J. Arthur Thomson + +Release Date: February 28, 2012 [EBook #39002] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK HERBERT SPENCER *** + + + + +Produced by Adam Buchbinder, Josephine Paolucci and the +Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net. +(This book was produced from scanned images of public +domain material from the Google Print project.) + + + + + + + + +ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE + +EDITED BY + +J. REYNOLDS GREEN, D.Sc. + + +HERBERT SPENCER + +[Illustration] + + + + +HERBERT SPENCER + +BY + +J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. + +REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN +THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN +AUTHOR OF +THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE; THE SCIENCE OF LIFE; +OUTLINES OF ZOOLOGY; PROGRESS OF SCIENCE; +ETC. ETC. + +[Illustration] + +PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY +J. M. DENT & CO. AND IN NEW +YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. + +1906 + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE +INTRODUCTION vii + +CHAP. + +I. HEREDITY 1 + +II. NURTURE 7 + +III. PERIOD OF PRACTICAL WORK 17 + +IV. PREPARATION FOR LIFE-WORK 27 + +V. THINKING OUT THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY 37 + +VI. CHARACTERISTICS: PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL 52 + +VII. CHARACTERISTICS: EMOTIONAL AND ETHICAL 74 + +VIII. SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST: THE DATA OF BIOLOGY 93 + +IX. SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST: INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY 110 + +X. SPENCER AS CHAMPION OF THE EVOLUTION-IDEA 135 + +XI. AS REGARDS HEREDITY 154 + +XII. FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION 180 + +XIII. EVOLUTION UNIVERSAL 209 + +XIV. PSYCHOLOGICAL 232 + +XV. SOCIOLOGICAL 242 + +XVI. THE POPULATION QUESTION 259 + +XVII. BEYOND SCIENCE 269 + +CONCLUSION 278 + +INDEX 283 + + + + +INTRODUCTION + + +This volume attempts to give a short account of Herbert Spencer's life, +an appreciation of his characteristics, and a statement of some of the +services he rendered to science. Prominence has been given to his +_Autobiography_, to his _Principles of Biology_, and to his position as +a cosmic evolutionist; but little has been said of his psychology and +sociology, which require another volume, or of his ethics and politics, +or of his agnosticism--the whetstone of so many critics. Our +appreciation of Spencer's services is therefore partial, but it may not +for that reason fail in its chief aim, that of illustrating the working +of one of the most scientific minds that ever lived, "whose excess of +science was almost unscientific." + +The story of Spencer's life is neither eventful nor picturesque, but it +commands the interest of all who admire faith, courage, and loyalty to +an ideal. It is a story of plain living and high thinking, of one who, +though vexed by an extremely nervous temperament, was as resolute as a +Hebrew prophet in delivering his message. It is the story of a quiet +servant of science, indifferent to conventional honours, careless about +"getting on," disliking controversy, sensationalism, and noise, trusting +to the power of truth alone, that it must prevail. + +Another aspect of interest is that Spencer was an arch-heretic, one of +the flowers of Nonconformity, against theology and against metaphysics, +against monarchy and against molly-coddling legislation, against +classical education and against socialism, against war and against +Weismann. So that we can hardly picture the man who has not some crow to +pick with Spencer. + +It is not to be wondered at, then, that we find extraordinary difference +of opinion as to the value of the great Dissenter's deliverances. In +1894, Prof. Henry Sidgwick spoke of Herbert Spencer as "our most eminent +living philosopher," and in the same sentence described him as "an +impressive survival of the drift of thought in the first half of the +nineteenth century." Some have likened him to a second Aristotle, while +others assure us that the author of the Synthetic Philosophy was not a +philosopher at all. Similarly there are scientists who tell us that +Spencer may have been a great philosopher, but that he was too much of +an _a priori_ thinker to be of great account in science. Many critics, +indeed, devote so much time and ability to demonstrating Spencer's +incompetence, in this or that field of thought, that the reader is left +with the impression that it must be a tower of strength which requires +so many assaults. And there are others, neither philosophers nor +scientists, who are content to dismiss Spencer with saying that the +least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. Yet this much is +conceded by most, that Herbert Spencer was an unusually keen +intellectual combatant, who took the evolution-formula into his strong +hands as a master-key, and tried (teaching others to try better) to open +therewith all the locked doors of the universe--all the immediate, +though none of the ultimate, riddles, physical and biological, +psychological and ethical, social and religious. And this also is +conceded, that his life was signalised by absolute consecration to the +pursuit of truth, by magnanimous disinterestedness as to rewards, by a +resolute struggle against almost overwhelming difficulties, and by an +entire fearlessness in delivering the message which he believed the +Unknown had given him for the good of the world. In an age of specialism +he held up the banner of the Unity of Science, and he actually +completed, so far as he could complete, the great task of his +life--greater than most men have even dreamed of--that of applying the +evolution-formula to everything knowable. He influenced thought so +largely, he inspired so many disciples, he left so many enduring +works--enduring as seed-plots, if not also as achievements--that his +death, writ large, was immortality. + + + + +HERBERT SPENCER + + + + +CHAPTER I + +HEREDITY + + _Ancestry--Grandparents--Uncles--Parents_ + + +Remarkable parents often have commonplace children, and a genius may be +born to a very ordinary couple, yet the importance of pedigree is so +patent that our first question in regard to a great man almost +invariably concerns his ancestry. In Herbert Spencer's case the question +is rewarded. + +_Ancestry._--From the information afforded by the _Autobiography_ in +regard to ancestry remoter than grandparents, we learn that, on both +sides of the house, Spencer came of a stock characterised by the spirit +of nonconformity, by a correlated respect for something higher than +legislative enactments, and by a regard for remote issues rather than +immediate results. In these respects Herbert Spencer was true to his +stock--an uncompromising nonconformist, with a conscience loyal to +"principles having superhuman origins above rules having human origins," +and with an eye ever directed to remote issues. Truly it required more +than "ingrained nonconformity," loyalty to principles, and far-sighted +prudence to make a Herbert Spencer, and hundreds unknown to fame must +have shared a similar heritage; but the resemblances between some of +Spencer's characteristics and those of his stock are too close to be +disregarded. Disown him as many nonconformists did, they could not +disinherit him. Nonconformity was in his blood and bone of his bone. + +_Grandparents._--Spencer's maternal grandfather, John Holmes of Derby, +was a business man and an active Wesleyan, with "a little more than the +ordinary amount of faculty." The grandmother, nee Jane Brettell, is +described as "commonplace," but her portrait suggests a more charitable +verdict. Spencer's paternal grandfather was a schoolmaster, a +"mechanical teacher," somewhat oppressed by life, and "extremely +tender-hearted." If, when a newspaper was being read aloud, there came +an account of something cruel or very unjust, he would exclaim: "Stop, +stop, I can't bear it!" Of this sensitive temperament his illustrious +grandson had a large share. The most notable of the four grandparents +was Catherine Spencer, nee Taylor, "of good type both physically and +morally." "Born in 1758 and marrying in 1786, when nearly 28, she had +eight children, led a very active life, and lived till 1843: dying at +the age of 84 in possession of all her faculties." A personal follower +of John Wesley, intensely religious, indefatigably unselfish, combining +unswerving integrity with uniform good temper and affection, "she had +all the domestic virtues in large measures." Her grandson has said that +"nothing was specially manifest in her, intellectually considered, +unless, indeed, what would be called sound common sense." Grandparents +taken together count on an _average_ for about a quarter of the +individual inheritance, but we would note that in Herbert Spencer's +case, Catherine Spencer should be regarded as a peculiarly dominant +hereditary factor. + +_Uncles._--Two of her children died in infancy, the only surviving +daughter (_b._ 1788) was an invalid; then came Herbert Spencer's father, +William George (_b._ 1790), and there were four other sons. Henry +Spencer, a year and a half younger than Herbert Spencer's father, was "a +favourable sample of the type," independent with "a strong dash of +chivalry," an energetic, though in the end unsuccessful man of business, +an ardent radical and with "a marked sense of humour." The next son, +John, had strong individuality; he was a notably self-assertive, +obstinate solicitor, successful only in out-living all his brothers. +Thomas, the next brother, began active life as a school-teacher near +Derby, was a student of St John's, Cambridge, achieved honours (ninth +wrangler), and became a clergyman of the Church of England at Hinton. He +was "a reformer," "anticipating great movements," a "radical," a +"Free-Trader," a "teetotaler," "an intensified Englishman." The youngest +son, William, "distinguished less by extent of intellectual acquisitions +than by general soundness of sense, joined with a dash of originality," +carried on his father's school, and was one of Herbert Spencer's +teachers. He was a Whig and a nonconformist, but more moderate than his +brothers in either direction. + +These facts in regard to Herbert Spencer's uncles corroborate the +general thesis that heredity counts for much. The four uncles had +individuality, rising sometimes to the verge of eccentricity; in their +various paths of life they were independent, critical, self-assertive, +and with a characteristic absence of reticence. + +_Parents._--George Spencer, Herbert's father (_b._ 1790) was "the flower +of the flock." "To faculties which he had in common with the rest +(except the humour of Henry and the linguistic faculty of Thomas), he +added faculties they gave little sign of. One was inventive ability, and +another was artistic perception, joined with skill of hand." He began +very early to teach in his father's school, and was for most of his life +a teacher. As such, he was noted for his reliance on non-coercive +discipline, and at the same time for his firmness; he continually sought +to stimulate individuality rather than to inform. His _Inventional +Geometry_ and _Lucid Shorthand_ had some vogue for a time. + +He was an unconventional person, as shown in little things--by his +repugnance to taking off his hat, to donning signs of mourning, or to +addressing people as "Esq." or "Rev'd.," and in big things by his +pronounced "Whigism." With "a repugnance to all living authority" he +combined so much sympathy and suavity that he was generally beloved. He +found Quakerism "congruous with his nature in respect of its complete +individualism and absence of ecclesiastical government." He had unusual +keenness of the senses, delicacy of manipulation, and noteworthy +artistic skill. A somewhat fastidious and finicking habit of trying to +make things better was expressed in his annotations on dictionaries and +the like, but he had also a larger "passion for reforming the world." +As his son notes, the one great drawback was lack of considerateness and +good temper in his relations with his wife. For this, however, a nervous +disorder was in part to blame. He lived to be over seventy. + +Herbert Spencer's mother, nee Harriet Holmes (1794-1867), introduced a +new strain into the heritage. "So far from showing any ingrained +nonconformity, she rather displayed an ingrained conformity." A Wesleyan +by tradition rather than by conviction, she was constitutionally averse +to change or adventure, non-assertive, self-sacrificing, patient, and +gentle. "Briefly characterised, she was of ordinary intelligence and of +high moral nature--a moral nature of which the deficiency was the +reverse of that commonly to be observed: she was not sufficiently +self-asserting: altruism was too little qualified by egoism." + +Spencer did not think that he took after his mother except in some +physical features. He had something of his father's nervous weakness, +but he had not his large chest and well developed heart and lungs. +Believing that "the mind is as deep as the viscera," he does not scruple +to state that his "visceral constitution was maternal rather than +paternal." + + "Whatever specialities of character and faculty in me are due to + inheritance, are inherited from my father. Between my mother's mind + and my own I see scarcely any resemblances, emotional or + intellectual. She was very patient; I am very impatient. She was + tolerant of pain, bodily or mental; I am intolerant of it. She was + little given to finding fault with others; I am greatly given to + it. She was submissive; I am the reverse of submissive. So, too, + in respect of intellectual faculties, I can perceive no trait + common to us, unless it be a certain greater calmness of judgment + than was shown by my father; for my father's vivid representative + faculty was apt to play him false. Not only, however, in the moral + characters just named am I like my father, but such intellectual + characters as are peculiar are derived from him" (_Autobiography_ + ii., p. 430). + + + + +CHAPTER II + +NURTURE + + _Boyhood--School--At Hinton--At Home_ + + +Herbert Spencer was born at Derby on the 27th of April 1820. His father +and mother had married early in the preceding year, at the age of about +29 and 25 respectively. Except a little sister, a year his junior, who +lived for two years, he was practically the only child, for of the five +infants who followed none lived more than a few days. As Spencer +pathetically remarks: "It was one of my misfortunes to have no brothers, +and a still greater misfortune to have no sisters." But is it not +recompense enough of any marriage to produce a genius? + +In reference to his father's breakdown soon after marriage, Spencer +writes: "I doubt not that had he retained good health, my early +education would have been much better than it was; for not only did his +state of body and mind prevent him from paying as much attention to my +intellectual culture as he doubtless wished, but irritability and +depression checked that geniality of behaviour which fosters the +affections and brings out in children the higher traits of nature. There +are many whose lives would have been happier had their parents been more +careful about themselves, and less anxious to provide for others." + +_Boyhood._--The father's ill-health had this compensation, that Herbert +Spencer spent much of his childhood (aet. 4-7) in the country--at New +Radford, near Nottingham. In his later years he had still vivid +recollections of rambling among the gorse-bushes which towered above his +head, of exploring the narrow tracks which led to unexpected places, and +of picking the blue-bells "from among the prickly branches, which were +here and there flecked with fragments of wool left by passing sheep." He +was allowed freedom from ordinary "lessons," and enjoyed a long latent +receptive period. + +In 1827 the family returned to Derby, but for some time the boy's life +was comparatively unrestrained. There was some gardening to do--an +educational discipline far too little appreciated--and there was "almost +nominal" school-drill; but there was plenty of time for exploring the +neighbourhood, for fishing and bird-nesting, for watching the bees and +the gnat-larvae, for gathering mushrooms and blackberries. "Beyond the +pleasurable exercise and the gratification of my love of adventure, +there was gained during these excursions much miscellaneous knowledge of +things, and the perceptions were beneficially disciplined." "Most +children are instinctively naturalists, and were they encouraged would +readily pass from careless observations to careful and deliberate ones. +My father was wise in such matters, and I was not simply allowed but +encouraged to enter on natural history." + +He had the run of a farm at Ingleby during holidays; he enjoyed fishing +in the Trent, in which he was within an ace of being drowned when about +ten years old; he was a keen collector of insects, watching their +metamorphoses, and often drawing and describing his captures; and he was +also encouraged to make models. In short, he had in a simple way not a +few of the disciplines which modern paedagogics--helped greatly by +Spencer himself--has recognised to be salutary. + +In his boyhood Spencer was extremely prone to castle-building or +day-dreaming--"a habit which continued throughout youth and into mature +life; finally passing, I suppose, into the dwelling on schemes more or +less practicable." For his tendency to absorption, without which there +has seldom been greatness of achievement, he was often reproached by his +father in the words: "As usual, Herbert, thinking only of one thing at a +time." + +He did not read tolerably until he was over seven years old, and +_Sandford and Merton_ was the first book that prompted him to read of +his own accord. He rapidly advanced to _The Castle of Otranto_ and +similar romances, all the more delectable that they were forbidden +fruits. While John Stuart Mill was working at the Greek classics, +Herbert Spencer was reading novels in bed. But the appetite for reading +was soon cloyed, and he became incapable of enjoying anything but novels +and travels for more than an hour or two at a time. + +_School._--As to more definite intellectual culture, the first school +period (before ten years) seems to have counted for little, and is +interesting only because it revealed the boy's general aversion to +rote-learning and dogmatic statements. Shielded from direct punishment, +he lived in an atmosphere of reproof, and this "naturally led to a +state of chronic antagonism." But when he was ten (1830) he became one +of his Uncle William's pupils, and this led to some progress. There was +drawing, map-making, experimenting, Greek Testament without grammar, but +comparatively little lesson-learning. "As a consequence, I was not in +continual disgrace." The boy was quick in all matters appealing to +reason, and "had a somewhat remarkable perception of locality and the +relations of position generally, which in later life disappeared." + +Apart from school he had the advantage of hearing discussions between +his father and his friends on all sorts of topics, of preparing for the +scientific demonstrations which his father occasionally gave, of +sampling scientific periodicals which came to the Derby Philosophical +Society of which his father was honorary secretary, and of reading such +works as Rollin's _Ancient History_ and Gibbon's _Decline and Fall of +the Roman Empire_. He was continually prompted to "intellectual +self-help," and was continually stimulated by the question, "Can you +tell me the cause of this?" + +"Always the tendency in himself, and the tendency strengthened in me, +was to regard everything as naturally caused; and I doubt not that while +the notion of causation was thus rendered much more definite in me than +in most of my age, there was established a habit of seeking for causes, +as well as a tacit belief in the universality of causation." "A tacit +belief in the universality of causation" seems a big item to be put to +the credit of a boy of thirteen, but we have the echo of it in Clerk +Maxwell's continual boyish question, "What is the go of this?" That the +question of cause was acute in both cases implies that both had +hereditarily fine brains, but it also suggests that the question is +normal in those who are naturally educated. The sensitive, irritable, +invalid father was no ideal parent, but he did not snub his son's +inquisitiveness, nor coerce his independence, nor appeal to authority as +such as a reason for accepting any belief. + +Spencer has given in his _Autobiography_ a picture of himself as a boy +of thirteen. His constitution was distinguished "rather by good balance +than by great vital activity"; there was "a large margin of latent +power"; he was more fleet than any of his school-fellows. He was +decidedly peaceful, but when enraged no considerations of pain or danger +or anything else restrained him. He was affectionate and tender-hearted, +but his most marked moral trait was disregard of authority. His memory +was rather below par than above; he was "averse to lesson-learning and +the acquisition of knowledge after the ordinary routine methods," but he +picked up general information with facility; he could not bear prolonged +reading or the receptive attitude. From about ten years of age to +thirteen he habitually went on Sunday morning with his father to the +Friends' Meeting House, and in the evening with his mother to the +Methodist Chapel. "I do not know that any marked effect on me followed; +further, perhaps, than that the alternation tended to enlarge my views +by presenting me with differences of opinion and usage." While John Mill +kept his son away from conventional religious influences, Spencer's +father excluded none; and the result seems to have been much the same +in the two cases. In this and other connections, Prof. W. H. Hudson +points out the contrast between the methods of the two fathers of the +two remarkable sons--John Stuart Mill was constrained along carefully +chosen paths, Herbert Spencer enjoyed more elbow-room and free-play, +what German biologists call "Abaenderungsspielraum." + +At thirteen, Herbert Spencer had little Latin and less Greek; he was +wholly uninstructed in "English"; he had no knowledge of mathematics, +English history, ancient literature, or biography. "Concerning things +around, however, and their properties, I knew a good deal more than is +known by most boys." Through physics and chemistry in certain lines, +through entomology and general natural history, through miscellaneous +reading in physiology and geography, he had in many ways an intellectual +grip of his environment; but on the lines of the "humanities" he was +wofully uneducated. + +On the other hand, his education had been stimulating and emancipating, +and even as a boy of thirteen his intelligence was alert and +independent. Much in the open air, he had kept an open mind. He had +learned to use his brains and to enjoy nature. After that, everything is +possible. + +_At Hinton._--When Herbert Spencer was thirteen (in the summer of 1833) +his parents took him to his Uncle Thomas, at Hinton Charterhouse, near +Bath. The journey was a revelation to the boy, and his early days at +Hinton were full of delight, especially in regard to the new +butterflies. But when he discovered that he had come to stay and to be +schooled, he had a feverish _Heimweh_, and soon followed his parents +homewards. "That a boy of thirteen should, without any food but bread +and water and two or three glasses of beer, and without sleep for two +nights, walk 48 miles one day, 47 the next, and some 20 the third, is +surprising enough." It was a rather absurd boyish escapade, mainly due +to lack of parental frankness, but not without the compliment implied in +all nostalgia, and it gives us an inkling of Spencer's obstinacy and +doggedness. + +A fortnight after the escapade, the runaway returned peacefully to +Hinton--content with his dramatic assertion of himself. For about three +years he remained under his uncle's tutorship, and this was a formative +period. Hinton stands high in a hilly country, between Bath and Frome, +with picturesque places all round. His uncle was "a man of energetic, +strongly-marked character," "intellectually above the average," with a +good deal of originality of thought. Like his kindly wife, he belonged +to the evangelical school. + +"The daily routine was not a trying one. In the morning Euclid and +Latin, in the afternoon commonly gardening, or sometimes a walk; and in +the evening, after a little more study, usually of algebra I think, came +reading, with occasionally chess. I became at that time very fond of +chess, and acquired some skill." The aversion to linguistic studies +continued, but there was an enthusiasm for mathematics and physics. To a +modern educationist the regime at Hinton cannot but seem narrow; there +was no history, no letters, no concrete science, and no play. There was +certainly no over-pressure, but there was some brain-stretching and +some salutary moral discipline. Stimulating, doubtless, was the +table-talk and Mr Spencer's arguments with his nephew, whom he found +"very deficient in the principle of _Fear_." We must not forget the +visits to London (including the then private Zoological Gardens), or the +first appearances in print--two letters in the newly started _Bath +Magazine_ on curiously shaped floating crystals of common salt, and on +the New Poor Law! In June 1836, Herbert Spencer returned to Derby, +benefited by the rural life and bracing climate of Hinton, "strong, in +good health, and of good stature." + +Looking backward after many years, Herbert Spencer felt that he was +treated as a youth "with much more consideration and generosity than +might have been expected. There was shown great patience in prosecuting +what seemed by no means a hopeful undertaking." It is interesting, of +course, to speculate what might have been the result if the boy's +education had been less of a family affair; and it would be unfair to +conclude that the success which attended the easy-going, personal, +familiar instruction of this boy of uncommon brains would also attend a +similar treatment of those of humbler parts. But would it not be well to +make the experiment oftener, since the material abounds, and since the +results of the conventional discipline of public schools and the like +are not dazzlingly successful? + +Spencer felt strongly, as he indulged in retrospect, that his +well-meaning educators "had to deal with intractable material--an +individuality too stiff to be easily moulded." That we may, in time, +come to have not an occasional stiff haulm with a big ear, but a whole +crop of them, must be the prayer of all who believe in education and +race-progress. + +Another of Spencer's retrospective convictions is one that makes all +human nature kin--that he was not so black as he was painted. His father +and his uncle had been eminently "good" boys, and they gauged boy-nature +by their own standard. Had he gone to a public school, Spencer thinks +that his "_extrinsically_-wrong actions would have been many, but the +_intrinsically_-wrong actions would have been few." This distinction +will doubtless appeal to the wise. + +_At Home._--For a year and a half after leaving Hinton, Herbert Spencer +remained at home, enjoying another period of freedom. He made in a day, +without previous experience, a survey of his father's small property at +Kirk Ireton--two fields and three cottages with their gardens; he made +designs for a country house; he hit upon a remarkable property of the +circle; and he fished. Meanwhile, however, his father who "held, and +rightly held, that there are few functions higher than that of the +educator," induced him to engage in school-work, and this experiment +lasted for three months. It appears to have been directly a success, +Spencer's lessons were at once "effective and pleasure-giving," and +"complete harmony continued throughout the entire period"; it was not +less important eventually, for we cannot doubt that part of the +effectiveness of Herbert Spencer's book on _Education_ is traceable to +the fact that he had, for a term at least, personal experience of +teaching. + +Even at this early age (17 years) Spencer had ideals of "intellectual +culture, moral discipline, and physical training." But as he disliked +mechanical routine, had a great intolerance of monotony, and had ideas +of his own, it seems likely enough that if he had embraced the +profession of teacher, he would sooner or later have "thrown it up in +disgust." The experiment was not to be tried further, however, for in +November 1837, his uncle William wrote from London that he had obtained +for his nephew a post under Mr Charles Fox as a railway engineer. "The +profession of a civil engineer had already been named as one appropriate +for me; and this opening at once led to the adoption of it." + +We may sum up the first two periods of Spencer's life. The period of +childhood was marked by a more than usual freedom from the conventional +responsibilities of juvenile tasks, by the large proportion of open-air +life, and by much more intercourse with adults than with other children. +The table talk between his father and uncles had an important moulding +influence, all the more that there was "a comparatively small interest +in gossip." "Their conversation ever tended towards the impersonal.... +There was no considerable leaning towards literature.... It was rather +the scientific interpretations and moral aspects of things which +occupied their thoughts." The period of boyhood and of more definite +education was marked by freedom and variety, by a relative absence of +linguistic discipline, by a preponderance of scientific training, by +much family influence, and by an unusual amount of independent +thinking. + + + + +CHAPTER III + +PERIOD OF PRACTICAL WORK + + _Engineering--Many Inventions--Glimpse of Evolution-Idea--A Resting + Period--Beginning to Write--Experimenting with Life_ + + +Herbert Spencer's life after boyhood may be conveniently divided into +four periods:-- + +1. For about ten years he was engaged in varied practical +work--surveying, plan-making, engineering, secretarial business, and +superintendence (1837-1846). + +2. After an unattached couple of years, during which he continued his +self-education, experimented, invented, and meditated, there began a +period of miscellaneous literary work, of journalism, and essay-writing, +during which he wrote his _Principles of Psychology_ and felt his way to +his System (1848-1860). + +3. At the age of forty, he settled down to something like unity of +occupation--developing and writing _The Synthetic Philosophy_ +(1860-1882). + +4. Finally, during a prolonged period of pronounced invalidism, he +withdrew almost completely from social life, husbanding his meagre +supply of mental energy for the completion of his System, the revision +of his works, and his _Autobiography_ (1882-1903). + +_Engineering._--For about ten years (1837-46) Herbert Spencer had a +varied experience of practical life. He began as assistant, at L80 a +year, to Mr Charles Fox, who had been one of Mr George Spencer's +pupils,--a man of mechanical genius, who was at that time resident +engineer of the London division of the "London and Birmingham" railway, +and afterwards became well known as the designer and constructor of the +Exhibition-Building of 1851. Spencer had surveying and measuring, +drawing and calculating to do, and he threw off the slackness which +marked his school-days. During the first six months in London he never +went to any place of amusement and never read a novel, but gave his +leisure to mathematical questions and to suggesting little inventions or +improved methods. + +A transference for the summer months to Wembly, near Harrow, gave him +even more time for study, and we read of an appliance by which he +proposed to facilitate some kinds of sewing. He seems to have pleased +his employer well, for in September 1838 he was advanced to a post of +draughtsman in connection with the "Gloucester and Birmingham" railway, +at a salary of L120 yearly. Thus the next two years were spent at +Worcester, where he had his first experience of working alongside of +other young men, to whom he appeared rather an "oddity," though not one +to be "quizzed." His "mental excursiveness" grew stronger and stronger, +and had occasionally useful results, leading, for instance, to an +article in _The Civil Engineer and Architect's Journal_ (May 1839) on a +new plan of projecting the spiral courses in skew bridges, to a +re-invention of Nicholson's Cyclograph, and to an improvement in the +apparatus for giving and receiving the mail-bags carried by trains. + +_Many Inventions._--In 1840, Spencer became engineering secretary to +his chief, Captain Moorson, and went to live in the little village of +Powick, about three miles out of Worcester. He enjoyed his work, and had +the new experience of establishing relations with a number of children, +with whom he soon became a favourite. Long afterwards, in his declining +years he found much gratification in making friends with children, and +referred to it quaintly as "a vicarious phase of the philoprogenitive +instinct." It was at Powick that Spencer first began to have a +conscience about his very defective spelling (his _morals_ had always +been _sans reproche_) and to take an interest in style. It was at +Powick, too, in a physical and social environment that suited him, that +Spencer invented his "Velocimeter," a little instrument for showing by +inspection the velocity of an engine, and two or three other devices. He +had inherited his father's constructive imagination, and his father's +discipline had increased it. The father wrote on July 3rd, 1840, "I am +glad you find your inventive powers are beginning to develop themselves. +Indulge a grateful feeling for it. Recollect, also, the never-ceasing +pains taken with you on that point in early life." And the son remarks +gratefully that this conveys a lesson to educators; the inherited +endowment is much, but the fostering of it is also much. "Culture of the +humdrum sort, given by those who ordinarily pass for teachers, would +have left the faculty undeveloped." On the whole, however, Spencer +attached most importance to the hereditary endowment, for he goes on to +say that Edison, "probably the most remarkable inventor who ever lived," +was a self-trained man, and that Sir Benjamin Baker, "the designer and +constructor of the Forth Bridge, the grandest and most original bridge +in the world, received no regular engineering education." It was at +Powick, too, that place of many inventions, that Herbert Spencer (aetat. +20) made the intimate acquaintance of an "intelligent, unconventional, +amiable, and in various ways attractive" young lady, who "tended to +diminish his _brusquerie_." Luckily or unluckily, the young lady was +engaged; and Spencer remarks, "It was pretty clear that had it not been +for the pre-engagement our intimacy would have grown into something +serious. This would have been a misfortune, for she had little or +nothing and my prospects were none of the brightest." Here the ancestral +prudence crops out. + +_Glimpses of Evolution-Idea._--The year 1840-41 was "a nomadic period," +of bridge-building at Bromsgroove and Defford, of "castle-building," +too, for he dreamt of making a fortune by successful inventions, of +testing engines, and other routine duties,--a life involving +considerable wear and tear which began to tell on Spencer's eyes. During +this period he renewed his youth by collecting fossils, and "making a +collection is," as he afterwards said, "the proper commencement of any +natural history study; since, in the first place, it conduces to a +concrete knowledge which gives definiteness to the general ideas +subsequently reached, and, further, it creates an indirect stimulus by +giving gratification to that love of acquisition which exists in all." +It was then that the purchase of Lyell's _Principles of Geology_ led +him, curiously enough, to adopt the supposition that organic forms have +arisen, not by special creation, but by progressive modifications, +physically caused and inherited. In spite of Lyell's chapter refuting +Lamarck's views concerning the origin of species, it was with Lamarck +that Spencer, at the age of twenty, sided. The idea of natural genesis +was in harmony with the general idea of the order of Nature towards +which Spencer had been growing. "My belief in it never afterwards +wavered, much as I was, in after years, ridiculed for entertaining it." + +"The incident illustrates the general truth that the acceptance of this +or that particular belief, is in part a question of the type of mind. +There are some minds to which the marvellous and the unaccountable +strongly appeal, and which even resent any attempt to bring the genesis +of them within comprehension. There are other minds which, partly by +nature and partly by culture, have been led to dislike a quiescent +acceptance of the unintelligible; and which push their explorations +until causation has been carried to its confines. To this last order of +minds mine, from the beginning, belonged." + +Spencer's engagement with Capt. Moorson came to a natural termination, +and an offer of a permanent post on the Birmingham and Gloucester +railway was declined, one motive being a desire to prepare for the +future by a course of mathematical study, another being to work at an +idea his father had arrived at of an electro-magnetic engine. Thus his +twenty-first birthday was spent at home in Derby, after an absence of +three and a half years,--which had been on the whole "satisfactory, in +so far as personal improvement and professional success were +concerned." + +_A Resting Period._--But when he got home he found his study of a work +on the Differential Calculus a weariness to the flesh. "To apply day +after day merely with the general idea of acquiring information, or of +increasing ability," was not in him, though he could work hard when the +end in view was definite or large enough. Moreover an article in the +_Philosophical Magazine_ led to an immediate abandonment of the idea of +an electro-magnetic engine. "Thus, within a month of my return to Derby, +it became manifest that, in pursuit of a will-o'-the-wisp, I had left +behind a place of vantage from which there might probably have been +ascents to higher places." + +As a consolation for what was at the time a disappointment, Herbert +Spencer made a herbarium, which still retained in 1894 a specimen of +Enchanter's Nightshade gathered in the grove skirting the river near +Darley. In company with Edward Lott, with whom he formed a life-long +friendship, he often spent the early summer morning, in rowing up the +Derwent, which in those days was rural and not unpicturesque above +Derby. As they rowed they sang popular songs, making the woods echo with +their voices, and now and then arresting their "secular matins" for the +purpose of gathering a plant. It is refreshing to read of Spencer having +in his head a considerable stock of sentimental ballads. + +It was during this fallow year that at the age of one-and-twenty he went +with his father on a walking tour in the Isle of Wight, and first saw +the sea. "The emotion produced in me was, I think, a mixture of joy and +awe,--the awe resulting from the manifestation of size and power, and +the joy, I suppose, from the sense of freedom given by limitless +expanse." His father and he were good companions. + +We read of various activities during this period,--of investigations, +with inadequate mathematics, concerning the strength of girders, of +experiments in electrotyping and the like, of botanical excursions, of +some enthusiastic exercise in part-singing, drawing and modelling. In +the early summer of 1842 Spencer paid a visit to his old haunts at +Hinton. "The journey left its mark because, in the course of it, I found +that practice in modelling had increased my perception of beauty in +form. A good-looking girl, who was one of our fellow-passengers for a +short interval, had remarkably fine eyes: and I had much quiet +satisfaction in observing their forms." Our hero had not much sense of +humour. + +_Beginning to write._--Of greater importance is the fact that Spencer +began in 1842 to write letters to _The Nonconformist_ on social +problems, in which prominence was given to such conceptions as the +universality of law and causation, progressive adaptation in organisms +and in Man, and the tendency to equilibrium through self-adjustment. +"Every day in every life there is a budding out of incidents severally +capable of leading to large results; but the immense majority of them +end as buds, only now and then does one grow into a branch, and very +rarely does such a branch outgrow and overshadow all others." The visit +to Hinton led to political conversations with Thomas Spencer, to a +letter of introduction to the editor of _The Nonconformist_, to the +letters on "The Proper Sphere of Government," to the _Social Statics_ +and eventually to the _Synthetic Philosophy_! + +Spencer's next activity was an inquiry into his father's system of +short-hand, which he found to be better than Pitman's. He passed to +speculations on the methods to be followed in forming a universal +language, and to shrewd criticisms of the decimal system of enumeration. +In the autumn of 1842 he interested himself enthusiastically in "The +Complete Suffrage Movement." For a youth of twenty-two he took a big +plunge into politics. "It produced in me a high tide of mental energy"; +the signature on a draft democratic bill "has a sweep and vigour +exceeding that of any other signature I ever made, either before or +since." + +In the spring of 1843 Herbert Spencer went to London and tried very +unsuccessfully to get editors to accept his wares. He made a pamphlet of +his _Nonconformist_ letters, but perhaps a hundred copies were sold! +"The printer's bill was L10 2s. 6d., and the publisher's payment to me +on the first year's sales was fourteen shillings and threepence!" + +_Experimenting with Life._--Spencer's half year in London came +to little. As he says, he was too much "in the mood of Mr +Micawber,--waiting for something to turn up, and waiting in vain." So he +raised the siege and retreated to Derby. There he read Mill's _System of +Logic_, Carlyle's _Sartor Resartus_ and some of Emerson's essays. He +tried his hand at improving watches, printing-presses, type-making, and +what not; he speculated on the role of carbon in the earth's history, +and on phrenology; and in 1844 he migrated to Birmingham to be +sub-editor of a short-lived paper called _The Pilot_. + +It was then that he made a superficial acquaintance with Kant's +_Critique of Pure Reason_, only to give it "summary dismissal." He was +deterred from pursuing the acquaintance by the "utter incredibility" of +the proposition that time and space are "nothing but" subjective forms, +and by "want of confidence in the reasonings of any one who could accept +a proposition so incredible." + +After about a month of sub-editing, he reverted to his former profession +of railway engineer, having been commissioned to help with mapping out a +projected branch line between Stourbridge and Wolverhampton. The country +was dreary enough, but Spencer had abundant open-air work, and it was +during this short period that he made a lasting friendship with Mr W. F. +Loch which was important in his life. + +Then followed an interval, partly in London and partly in the fields of +Warwickshire, occupied in various ways connected with railway +development, which was then becoming a mania. He seems to have done his +work effectively, but it led to no important personal results, and the +failure of his chief employer's schemes in 1846 ended Spencer's +connection with railway projects and engineering. In afterwards +discussing the question whether he should have made a good engineer or +not, Spencer notes with his characteristic self-impartiality that he had +adequate inventiveness but insufficient patience, enough of intelligence +but too little tact. He had an "aversion to mere mechanical humdrum +work," "inadequate regard for precedent," no interest in financial +details, and a "lack of tact in dealing with men, especially superiors." +The frank analysis is interesting, especially in indicating how Spencer +was weak where Darwin was strong, in "la patience suivie," in dogged +persistence at detailed work. It may seem strange to say this when we +think of his indomitable perseverance with his life-work, but this was +quite consistent with a "constitutional idleness," with a shirking from +everything tedious except his own thinking. As Thomas Hardy says of one +of his characters, "he was a thinker by instinct, but he was only a +worker by effort." He never learned or tried to learn what it was to put +his nose to the grindstone: he would not learn "lessons," he recoiled +from languages, he baulked at the differential calculus, he trifled with +Kant and Comte, he was always "an impatient reader." He elected to think +for himself, and had the defect of this rare quality. + + + + +CHAPTER IV + +PREPARATION FOR LIFE-WORK + + _More Inventions--Sub-editing--Avowal of + Evolutionism--Friendships--Books and Essays--Crystallisation + of his Thought--Settling to Life-work_ + + +Thrown out of regular employment once more, Spencer was left free for a +time to follow his own bent. He lived a "miscellaneous and rather futile +kind of life," reading a little and thinking much over a proposed book +on Social Statics, holidaying a good deal and trying in vain to make +money by inventions. + +_More Inventions._--In 1845 he had a scheme of quasi-aerial locomotion: +not a flying machine but "something uniting terrestrial traction with +aerial suspension"; but even on paper it broke down. In 1846 he patented +an effective "binding pin" for fastening loose sheets, which might have +been a financial success if it had been properly pushed. About the same +time he was speculating on a method of multiplying decorative +patterns,--a sort of "mental kaleidoscope," and on a systematic +nomenclature for colours, analogous to that on which the points of the +compass are named. More ambitious was a new planing engine and an +improvement in type-making, but neither got much beyond the paper stage. +In fact Spencer discovered, as so many have done, that it is one thing +to invent and another thing to make inventions boil the pot. For a year +and a half, he lamented, time and energy and money had been simply +thrown away. The proceeds of the binding pin just about served to pay +for his share in the cost of the planing machine patent. + +Seven years spent in experimenting towards a livelihood had not brought +Spencer much success. In point of fact he was "stranded," and there was +talk of emigration to New Zealand, or of "reverting to the ancestral +profession" of teaching, but the year of suspense ended with his +appointment (1848) as sub-editor in _The Economist_ office, at a salary +of one hundred guineas a year. "Thus an end was at last put to the +seemingly futile part of my life which filled the space between +twenty-one and twenty-eight--futile in respect of material progress, but +in other respects perhaps not futile." + +He had enjoyed a varied intercourse with men and things during these +seven lean years of railway-making, sub-editing, experimenting, +inventing; he had had experience of field work and office work, of doing +what he was told and of exercising authority; he had had time for +drawing, modelling, music, and some natural history; he had come to know +something of life's ups and downs. "In short, there had been gained a +more than usually heterogeneous, though superficial, acquaintance with +the world, animate and inanimate. And along with the gaining of it had +gone a running commentary of speculative thought about the various +matters presented." _Vivendo discimus._ + +_Sub-editing._--Spencer's duties as sub-editor of _The Economist_ were +not onerous; he had abundant leisure for reading and reflection, for +music and that pleasant conversation which is one of the ends of life. +He had great Sunday evening talks with his broad-minded philanthropic +uncle Thomas who had come to live in London, and he began to know +interesting people, notably, perhaps, Mr G. H. Lewes. His reading was +mainly in connection with the journal he had charge of, and Coleridge's +_Idea of Life_, with its doctrine of individuation, was the only serious +work which seems to have left any impression during that early period. +He tried Ruskin but recoiled disappointed from his "multitudinous +absurdities." He also tried vegetarianism but found that it lowered his +bodily and mental vigour. + +He worked hard at his first book, sitting late over it with an assiduity +to which he looked back with astonishment in after years. The subject of +the book was "A system of Social and Political Morality" and he had +great searchings for a suitable title, his own preference for +"Demostatics" yielding finally in favour of "Social Statics." This +phrase had been used by Comte as the heading of one of the divisions of +his Sociology, but Spencer was quite unaware of this, and at that time +"knew nothing more of Auguste Comte, than that he was a French +philosopher." There were also great difficulties in securing +publication, although to get the work printed and circulated without +loss was as much as he hoped for. "At that time I was, and have since +remained, one of those classed by Dr Johnson as fools--one whose motive +in writing books was not, and never has been, that of making money." + +What Spencer calls "an idle year" (1850-1) followed the publication of +_Social Statics_, but it was then that he attended a course of lectures +by Prof. Owen on Comparative Osteology, and doubtless got a firmer hold +of those principles of organic architecture which make even dry bones +live. It was then, too, that he had walks with George Henry Lewes, which +were profitable on both sides. Lewes received an impulse which awakened +interest in scientific inquiries, and Spencer became interested in +philosophy at large. He read Lewes's _Biographical History of +Philosophy_, and there was one memorable ramble during which a volume by +Milne-Edwards in Lewes's bag was the means of vivifying for Spencer the +idea of "the physiological division of labour." "Though the conception +was not new to me, as is shown towards the end of _Social Statics_, yet +the mode of formulating it was; and the phrase thereafter played a part +in the course of my thought." About the same time, in preparing a review +of Carpenter's _Physiology_, he came across von Baer's formula +expressing the course of development through which every living creature +passes--"the change from homogeneity to heterogeneity"; and from this +very important consequences ensued. + +Through Lewes he got to know Carlyle, but the acquaintance was never +deepened. While he admired Carlyle's vigour and originality, he was +repelled by his passionate incoherence of thought, his prejudices, his +dogmatism, his "insensate dislike of science." "Carlyle's nature was one +which lacked co-ordination, alike intellectually and morally. Under both +aspects, he was, in a great measure, chaotic." To Carlyle, on the other +hand, Spencer appeared "an unmeasurable ass." + +_Avowal of Evolutionism._--In 1852 Spencer definitely began his work as +a pioneer of Evolution Doctrine by publishing the famous _Leader_ +article on "The Development Hypothesis," in which he avowed his belief +that the whole world of life is the result of an age-long process of +natural transmutation. In the same year he wrote for _The Westminster +Review_ another important essay, "A Theory of Population deduced from +the General Law of Animal Fertility," in which he sought to show that +the degree of fertility is inversely proportionate to the grade of +development, or conversely that the attainment of higher degrees of +evolution must be accompanied by lower rates of multiplication. Towards +the close of the article he came within an ace of recognising that the +struggle for existence was a factor in organic evolution. It is +profoundly instructive to find that at a time when pressure of +population was practically interesting men's minds, not Spencer only, +but Darwin and Wallace, were being independently led from this social +problem to a biological theory of organic evolution. There could be no +better illustration, as Prof. Geddes has pointed out, of the Comtian +thesis that science is a "social phenomenon." + +_Friendships._--About this time a strong friendship arose between +Spencer and Miss Evans (George Eliot). To him she was "the most +admirable woman, mentally," he ever met, and he speaks enthusiastically +of her large intelligence working easily, her remarkable philosophical +powers, her habitual calm, her deep and broad sympathies. It is +interesting to learn that he strongly advised her to write novels, and +that she tried in vain to induce him to read Comte. As they were often +together and the best of friends, the gossips had it that he was in love +with her and that they were about to be married. "But neither of these +reports was true." + +Another friendship, formed about the same time, was an important factor +in Spencer's life; he got to know Huxley and thus came into close touch +with a scientific worker of the first rank, useful alike in suggestion +and in criticism. He found another friend in Tyndall, whom he greatly +admired for his combination of the poetic with the scientific mood, for +"his passion for Nature quite Wordsworthian in its intensity," and for +his interest in "the relations between science at large and the great +questions which lie beyond science." + +In 1853, by the death of his uncle Thomas, who had persistently +overworked himself, Spencer received a bequest of L500. On the strength +of this and the extended literary connections which the good offices of +Mr Lewes and Mr (afterwards Prof.) David Masson had secured for him, he +resigned his sub-editorship of _The Economist_ in order to obtain +leisure for larger works. He always believed in burning his ships before +a struggle. + +Looking back on the "_Economist_" period, Spencer felt that his later +career had been "mainly determined by the conceptions which were then +initiated and the friendships which were formed." + +_Books and Essays._--Spencer's life of greater freedom began with a +holiday in Switzerland (1853), which "fully equalled his anticipations +in respect of its grandeur, but did not do so in respect of its beauty." +The tour was greatly enjoyed, for Spencer was a lover of mountains, but +some excesses in walking seem to have overtaxed his heart, and +immediately after his return "there commenced cardiac disturbances which +never afterwards entirely ceased; and which doubtless prepared the way +for the more serious derangements of health subsequently established." + +For a time he settled down to essay-writing; _e.g._, on "Method in +Education," in which he sought to justify his own experience of his +father's non-coercive liberating methods by affiliating these with the +Method of Nature; on "Manners and Fashions," in which he protested +against unthinking subservience to social conventions, some of which are +mere survivals of more primitive times without present-day +justification; on "The Genesis of Science," in which he showed how the +sciences have grown out of common knowledge; and on "Railway Morals and +Railway Policy," in which he made some salutary disclosures with +characteristic fearlessness. + +Spencer's second book, "The Principles of Psychology," began to be +written in 1854 in a summer-house at Treport, and it was in the same +year that the author made his first acquaintance with Paris. Preoccupied +with his task, he wandered from Jersey to Brighton, from London to +Derby, often writing about five hours a day, and thinking with but +little intermission. The result was that he finished the book in about a +year and almost finished his own career. The nervous breakdown that +followed cost him a year and a half for recuperation, and his pursuit of +truth was ever afterwards involved with a pursuit of health. + +In search of health Spencer reverted to the best of his ability to a +simple life, but he found it difficult not to think. Thought rode +behind him when he tried horseback exercise, and novels brought only +sleeplessness. He tried yachting and he tried fishing, shower-baths and +sea-bathing, playing with children and sleeping in a haunted room, but +the cure was slow; music was almost the only thing he could enjoy with +impunity. It was when fishing one morning in Loch Doon that he vented +his first oath, at the age of thirty-six, because his line was tangled, +and became, he tells us, more fully aware of the irritability produced +by his nervous disorder! + +As entire idleness seemed futile, and as two and a half years had +elapsed since he had made any money, Spencer returned to London +(1857)--to a home with children--and began in a leisurely way to write +more essays. He composed the article on "Progress: its Law and Cause" at +the pathetically slow rate of about half a page per day, and the effort +proved beneficial. A significant essay entitled, "Transcendental +Physiology," dates from the same year, and during an angling holiday in +Scotland he wrote another on the "Origin and Function of Music." +Starting from the fact that feeling tends to discharge itself in +muscular contractions, including those of the vocal organs, he sought to +show that music is a development of the natural language of the +emotions. + +_Crystallisation of his Thought._--Spencer settled down in London in a +home "with a lively circle," and pursued his calling as a thinker with +quiet resolution. He had Sunday afternoon walks and talks with Huxley, +and he occasionally dined out to meet interesting people such as Buckle +and Grote; but the tenor of his life was uninterrupted by much +incident. In this year he published a volume of essays new and old, +_Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative_; and this was probably +in part responsible for a great unification in Spencer's thought. It was +in the beginning of 1858 that he made the first sketch of his System, +and on the 9th of January he wrote to his father as follows: "Within the +last ten days my ideas on various matters have suddenly crystallised +into a complete whole. Many things which were before lying separate have +fallen into their places as harmonious parts of a system that admits of +logical development from the simplest general principles." + +In this _annus mirabilis_ (1858) when Darwin and Wallace read their +papers at the Linnaean Society expounding the idea of Natural Selection, +Spencer was also thinking keenly along evolutionary lines. He ventured +on a defence of the Nebular Hypothesis and a criticism of Owen's +Vertebral Theory of the Skull; and he was working at the question of the +form and symmetry of animals, which he interpreted as "determined by the +relations of the parts to incident forces." Vigorous as he was in his +intelligence, he was still unable to work for more than about three +hours a day, and his pecuniary prospects were dismal. In view of his +determination to go on working out his System, it was a fortunate chance +that led him in an emergency to discover that he could greatly increase +his productivity by dictating instead of writing. + +Spencer made various efforts (1859-60) to secure some Government +appointment which would afford him a steady income and yet leave him +free for his life-work, but as nothing came of these, he went on quietly +with his essay-writing, with many pleasant holidays interspersed, and +produced his "Illogical Geology," "The Social Organism," "Prison +Ethics," "The Physiology of Laughter," and so on. + +_Settling to his life-work._--Baffled in other plans, he at length +organised a scheme of publishing his projected series of volumes by +subscription. His influential friends headed the list and four hundred +names were soon secured in Britain; the disinterested energy of an +American admirer, Prof. E. S. Youmans, raised the total to six hundred. +And thus Spencer, at the age of forty, handicapped by lack of means and +health, calmly sat down to a task which was calculated to occupy him for +twenty years.... "To think that an amount of mental exertion great +enough to tax the energies of one in full health and vigour, and at his +ease in respect of means, should be undertaken by one who, having only +precarious resources, had become so far a nervous invalid that he could +not with any certainty count upon his powers from one twenty-four hours +to another! However, as the result proved, the apparently unreasonable +hope was entertained, if not wisely, still fortunately. For though the +whole of the project has not been executed, yet the larger part of it +has." In one form of faith Spencer was in no wise lacking. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THINKING OUT THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY + + _Thinking by Stratagem--The System + Grows--Difficulties--Italy--Habits of + Work--Sociology--Ill-health--Citizenship--Visit + to America--Closing Years_ + + +Having theoretically secured the requisite number of subscribers to the +projected series of volumes, Spencer tried to settle down to "something +like unity of occupation." In the Spring of 1860 he began the _First +Principles_--only to break down before he had finished the first +chapter; and the same depressing experience was continually repeated. +Fortunately for Spencer's peace of mind, his uncle William left him some +money; one may well say fortunately, since the number of defaulters in +the subscription list was so large that in the absence of other +resources even the first volume could not have been published. + +_Thinking by Stratagem._--Spencer's devices for keeping off the cerebral +congestion which work induced were many and various--some almost +laughable, if the whole business had not been so tragic. He would ramble +into the country, find a sheltered nook or sunny bank, do a little work, +and move on like a "Scholar Gipsy"; he would take his amanuensis on the +Regent's Park water, row vigorously for five minutes, dictate for +fifteen, and so on _da capo_; he frequented an open racquet-court at +Pentonville, and sandwiched games and _First Principles_; even in the +Highlands he would dictate while he rowed. It was altogether like +thinking by stratagem, and the tension of working against time became so +irksome, that he issued a notice to the subscribers that successive +numbers would come out when they were ready. Nevertheless, he completed +the _First Principles_ in June 1862. + +_The System Grows._--Having safely set forth his doctrine, Spencer +turned with zest to relaxation, acting as cicerone to his friends at the +International Exhibition, climbing in Wales, fishing in Scotland, +revisiting Paris, and so forth. The years passed in alternate work and +play, and the next great event was the publication of the first volume +of the _Principles of Biology_ in 1864. In spite of inadequate +preparation Spencer produced by the strength of his intelligence a +biological classic. At the time, of course, little notice was taken of +it; thus in "The Athenaeum" of 5th November 1864, a paragraph concerning +the book commenced thus: "This is but one of two volumes, and the two +but a part of a larger work: we cannot therefore but announce it." "In +1864," Spencer says, "not one educated person in ten or more knew the +meaning of the word Biology; and among those who knew it, whether +critics or general readers, few cared to know anything about the +subject" (_Autobiography_, ii. p. 105). + +It was in the same year (1864) that Spencer formulated his views on the +classification of the sciences and his reasons for dissenting from the +philosophy of Comte. + +Of considerable interest was the formation of a decemvirate of +Spencer's friends, which was first called "The Blastodermic" and +afterwards the "X" club. It consisted of Huxley, Tyndall, Hooker, +Lubbock, Frankland, Busk, Hirst, Spottiswoode, and Spencer, with one +vacancy which was never filled up. The members dined together +occasionally and talked at large. "Among its members were three who +became Presidents of the Royal Society, and five who became Presidents +of the British Association. Of the others one was for a time President +of the College of Surgeons; another President of the Chemical Society; +and a third of the Mathematical Society...." "Of the nine I was the only +one who was fellow of no society, and had presided over nothing." The +club lasted for at least twenty-three years (1887), and had considerable +influence both on its members and externally. + +In 1865 Spencer took considerable interest in a new weekly journal, +called "The Reader," in which many prominent workers were implicated, +but the enterprise ended in disappointment, unless, indeed, it was a +step towards the establishment of _Nature_. In this and the following +year he busied himself with an investigation regarding circulation in +plants,--the only concrete piece of biological work he ever indulged in. +But the great event of 1866 was the completion of _The Principles of +Biology_. + +_Difficulties._--In the beginning of 1866 Spencer found that many of the +subscribers to his serial publications had withdrawn, and that not a few +were much in arrears, and he sorrowfully decided that he must abandon +his undertaking. It was at this juncture that he discovered what stuff +his friends were made of. Mr John Stuart Mill wrote proposing to help +to indemnify Spencer for losses incurred, and offering to guarantee the +publisher against any loss on the next treatise. He called this "a +simple proposal of co-operation for an important public purpose, for +which you give your labour and have given your health." As Spencer felt +himself obliged to decline this generous proposal, the next move among +his friends was to arrange to take a large number of copies (250) for +distribution. To this, with mingled feelings of satisfaction and +dissatisfaction, Spencer agreed. Meanwhile, however, his American +admirers, organised by Professor Youmans, invested in Spencer's name a +sum of 7000 dollars as a fund to ensure the continued publication of his +works. This, in combination with an improvement in Spencer's financial +position, consequent on his father's death (1866), made publication once +more secure without the aid of the subsidising scheme proposed by his +English friends. + +In September 1866 Herbert Spencer settled himself in London, _en +pension_ at 37 Queen's Gardens, Lancaster Gate, which remained his home +for over a score of years. Henceforth he was less of a nomad, and he +secured himself against all interruptions by taking a secret study a few +doors off. + +There are two records for the beginning of 1867 which are interesting in +their contrast. The first is that Spencer declined without hesitation +certain overtures by his friends that he should stand for the +professorship of Moral Philosophy at University College, London, and for +a similar post in Edinburgh; the second is that he invented a most +elaborate invalid-bed, which, like most of his inventions, fell flat. + +The invalid-bed had been suggested by his mother's prolonged feebleness, +but it was not long to be used. Spencer was left in 1867 with no nearer +relatives than cousins. In reference to his mother, we quote with all +reverence one of the few strong personal touches in the _Autobiography_. + + "Thus ended a life of monotonous routine, very little relieved by + positive pleasures. I look back upon it regretfully: thinking how + small were the sacrifices which I made for her in comparison with + the great sacrifices which, as a mother, she made for me in my + early days. In human life, as we at present know it, one of the + saddest traits is the dull sense of filial obligations which exists + at the time when it is possible to discharge them with something + like fulness, in contrast with the keen sense of them which arises + when such discharge is no longer possible." + +In the spring of 1867 Spencer finished publishing the second volume of +the _Biology_, and immediately set to work to recast _First Principles_. +And as if that was not enough, he began in the same year, with the help +of his secretary, Mr David Duncan, his collection of sociological data, +which was intended to afford the foundation for a treatise on the +_Principles of Sociology_. In spite of occasional holidays at Yarrow, at +Glenelg, and in other delightful places, the usual nemesis of industry +was not avoided. Spencer's nerve-centres, which could never endure +prolonged attention, showed the usual symptoms of over-fatigue; and +though he tried morphia and skating, hydropathy and rackets, he had to +give up work early in 1868. He betook himself to Italy for rest, +attracted partly by the fact that Vesuvius was in eruption! About this +time he was elected a member of the Athenaeum Club, the sedative +amenities of which proved a useful prophylactic in after years. + +_Italy._--Of Spencer's Tour in Italy the _Autobiography_ gives us some +interesting reminiscences. He arrived in Naples in a state of extreme +exhaustion, wearied with the voyage, wearied with a menu in which tunny +was the _piece de resistance_, and finding comfort only in the shelter +of his Inverness cape. And yet, the day after his arrival, the author of +_Social Statics_ might have been seen giving swift chase to an audacious +thief who had taken advantage of the philosopher's preoccupation to +abstract his opera-glass. "Most likely had the young fellow had a knife +about him I should have suffered, perhaps fatally, for my imprudence." A +few days later, the same characteristic rashness impelled him to ascend +the burning mountain without a guide and at great risk. "How to account +for the judicial blindness I displayed, I do not know; unless by +regarding it as an extreme instance of the tendency which I perceive in +myself to be enslaved by a plan once formed--a tendency to become for a +time possessed by one thought to the exclusion of others." + +Nothing that Spencer saw in Italy impressed him so much as "the dead +town" of Pompeii. The man who "took but little interest in what are +called histories" was stirred by this concrete historical fossil. "It +aroused sentiments such as no written record had ever done." He enjoyed +Rome, but rather for its harmonious colouring than for its historical +associations, of which he had no vivid perception. He was more irritated +than pleased by the old masters. He got most pleasure from the scenery, +but Italy is "a land of beautiful distances and ugly foregrounds." +Companionless and impatient, his chief thought was how to get home most +comfortably, and so he returned no better than he went. + +_Habits of Work._--About this time the tide had turned as regarded the +sale of his works, and he wrote gratefully "the remainder of my +life-voyage was through smooth waters." As the _Autobiography_ shows, it +was a quiet and uneventful voyage. Periods of work alternated with +holidays, many parts of the country were visited, and angling became +more and more his best recreation. "Nothing else served so well to rest +my brain and fit it for resumption of work." Another resource was +billiards, which he greatly enjoyed. He never could remember whist or +similar games. + +On fine mornings he used to spend two or three hours on the Serpentine, +alternating rowing and dictating. After his morning's work and after +lunch he used to walk through Kensington Gardens, Hyde Park, and the +Green Park, without more than a quarter of a mile upon pavement, to the +Athenaeum Club, where he skimmed through periodicals and books, and +played his game. Thereafter he sauntered back to dinner at seven, "which +was followed by such miscellaneous ways of passing the time without +excitement as were available. Thus passed my ordinary days." By this +time he had given up novel-reading, only treating himself to one about +once a year, and then in a dozen or more instalments. He did not care to +multiply social relations, he "avoided acquaintanceships and cultivated +only friendships." "There is in me very little of the _besoin de +parler_; and hence I do not care to talk with those in whom I feel no +interest." And thus, though far from being a recluse, he lived his life +of thought quietly. + +In 1871 Spencer was nominated for the office of Lord Rector at the +University of St Andrews, but he declined the honour for the sake of his +work. He also declined the honorary degree of Doctor of Laws from the +same University, and subsequently, similar honours, chiefly on the +ground "that the advance of thought will be most furthered, when the +only honours to be acquired by authors are those spontaneously yielded +to them by a public which is left to estimate their merits as well as it +can." + +The first (synthetic) volume of the new edition of the _Psychology_ +begun in 1867 was finished in 1870, the second (analytic) volume begun +in 1870 was completed in the end of 1872. Having become much interested +in the well-known "International Scientific Series," Spencer contributed +to it in 1873 the volume known as _The Study of Sociology_, which has +done much in Britain and America to secure the position of Sociology as +a workable science. It was unusually successful for a book of its kind, +and brought Spencer about L1500. + +_Sociology._--From 1867 onwards Spencer had been collecting Sociological +Data to serve as a basis for generalised interpretation. With the help +of Mr David Duncan, Mr James Collier, and Dr Scheppig, this big piece of +work made steady progress, and its publication began to be discussed in +1871. It was hoped that the plan of "exhibiting sociological phenomena +in such wise that comparisons of them in their co-existences and +sequences, as occurring among various peoples in different stages, were +made easy, would immensely facilitate the discovery of sociological +truths." The first part of this _Descriptive Sociology_ was published in +1873, but the demand for it was very slight; not quite 200 copies were +asked for in eight months. "I had," Spencer says, "greatly +over-estimated the amount of desire which existed in the public mind for +social facts of an instructive kind. They greatly preferred those of an +uninstructive kind." In this and similar connections, the reader of the +_Autobiography_ cannot but be impressed by two facts,--on the one hand, +the chivalrous eagerness on the part of American friends to be allowed +to lessen Spencer's pecuniary burden, and, on the other hand, the almost +ultra-sensitive resoluteness which Spencer exhibited in declining these +offers. + +In 1874, with the materials and memoranda of a quarter of a century +around him, the thinker, who was blamed for not being inductive, set +himself to write the _Principles of Sociology_, "feeling much as might a +general of division who had become commander-in-chief; or rather, as one +who had to undertake this highest function in addition to the lower +functions of all his subordinates of the first, second, and third +grades. Only by deliberate method persistently followed was it possible +to avoid confusion." + +The period of work on the _Sociology_ was broken by some delightful +holidays in the Highlands and elsewhere, by the British Association +meeting at Belfast (1874) when Tyndall gave his famous Presidential +Address, and by the usual ill-health. The first volume was completed in +1877. Apart from the nemesis of nerves, Spencer's life at this time +seems to have been a happy one; he was fairly free from pecuniary cares; +he was no longer tied to a serial issue of his publications; he could +afford pleasant holidays, and he had a small circle of loyal friends. +The philosopher began a series of annual picnics, which he seems to have +engineered with great skill; in various ways he acted up to what he says +was his habitual maxim, "Be a boy as long as you can." In 1877 he had +the excitement of a shipwreck near Loch Carron, and the encouragement of +having his _Descriptive Sociology_ translated into Russian. + +_Ill-Health._--In spite of all his care, the year 1878 opened with a +serious illness, and this prompted him to begin dictating _The Data of +Ethics_ lest an aggravation of his ill-health should hinder him from +raising this coping-stone of his system. Just before Christmas of this +year, he went with Prof. Youmans to the Riviera, and for a couple of +months was more than usually successful in combining work and play. He +finished _The Data of Ethics_ in June 1879, and _Ceremonial +Institutions_ later in the year. As a reward of industry, and as a +safeguard against too much of it, a holiday up the Nile in pleasant +company was then arranged, and Spencer entered upon it in great spirits. +But an ill-considered meal at Alexandria brought on dyspepsia and morbid +fancies, and he was forced to return at the first cataract. He had seen +many of the sights and was inevitably impressed, but he seems to have +been glad to get out of the "melancholy country"--"the land of decay and +death--dead men, dead races, dead creeds," as it appeared to his +jaundiced eyes. + +On his return journey he spent three days in Venice, but though he +derived much pleasure from the general effects, he was repelled by the +obtrusiveness and superficiality of the decorations. He regarded St +Mark's as "a fine sample of barbaric architecture"; "it has the trait +distinctive of semi-civilised art--excess of decoration"; "it is +archaeologically, but not aesthetically precious." + +The entry in his journal for Feb. 12th, 1880 reads: "Home at 7-10; +heartily glad--more pleasure than in anything that occurred during my +tour." + +Although he did not greatly enjoy his tour in Egypt, and brought back +his packet of work unopened, the break seems to have been "decidedly +beneficial." "It has apparently worked some kind of constitutional +change; for, marvellous to relate, I am now able to drink beer with +impunity and, I think, with benefit--a thing I have not been able to do +for these fifteen years or more." He thought that it had also perhaps +furthered his work to have had contact with people in a lower stage of +civilisation. + +In 1881 Spencer published the eighth part of his _Descriptive Sociology_ +and put a full stop to the undertaking which left him with a deficit of +between three and four thousand pounds, and which had half-killed two +secretaries. + +Spencer's next task was the completion of _Political Institutions_, +another instalment of the _Sociology_, which he had begun in 1879, and +he was at this time also occupied in considering and answering the more +formidable of the criticisms which his system had aroused, and in +revising new editions of the _First Principles_ and _The Study of +Sociology_. It is interesting to note that the last work was carefully +revised sentence by sentence five times. + +_Citizenship._--In 1881 Spencer felt in a new way the universal call +"_Il faut etre citoyen_"; he was drawn into practical action, and +although this led to the greatest disaster of his life, the cause was +worthy of the sacrifice. It was the cause of peace. While writing +_Political Institutions_ he had become more firmly convinced than ever +that "the possibility of a higher civilization depends wholly on the +cessation of militancy and the growth of industrialism." Conversations +with Mr Frederic Harrison and others led to meetings of those who were +sympathetic with what might be called a non-aggression policy, and +Spencer was so keenly interested that in spite of forebodings he +undertook some organising work, and even went the length of moving a +resolution and making a speech at a public meeting. There was no direct +political result of the "Anti-Aggression League," but there was most +mischievous result to Spencer. "There was produced a mischief which, in +a gradually increasing degree, undermined life and arrested work." He +had now begun to descend the inclined plane which brought him down in +the course of subsequent years to "the condition of a confirmed invalid, +leading little more than a vegetative life." What Spencer did in +connection with the Anti-Aggression movement was probably only the last +straw, but he could not look back on his intrinsically right action +without regret. "Right though I thought it, my course brought severe +penalties and no compensations whatever. I am not thinking only of the +weeks, months, years, of wretched nights and vacant days; though these +made existence a long-drawn weariness. I refer chiefly to the gradual +arrest and final cessation of my work; and the consciousness that there +was slipping by that closing part of life during which it should have +been completed." He was too honest to profess a pleasure he did not feel +in a _mens sibi conscia recti_. "It is best," he said, "to recognise the +facts as they are, and not try to prop up rectitude by fictions." + +_Visit to America._--In 1882 in the hope of recovering tone, not, as +some of the papers said, of recouping his finances, Spencer went on a +visit to America, along with Mr Lott his friend of forty years. He was, +of course, pressed to lecture, and was offered terms up to 250 dollars +per night, but he would have none of it. Lecturing was not his metier, +and his health was broken. "As matters stand," he wrote, "the giving a +lecture or reading a paper, would be nothing more than making myself a +show; and I absolutely decline to make myself a show." The only public +appearance he made was at a dinner in his honour at New York, where, +with his fatigued brain, he spoke straight to the Americans on the sin +of over-devotion to work. With his friend Lott as a buffer, he succeeded +in avoiding all interviewers until he had got on board the _Germanic_ on +his return voyage, when he was taken unawares at the last moment. + +Spencer saw some of the finest sights in America and Canada; he met +congenial spirits, and everything possible was done to make his visit a +tonic; but he came back in a worse state than he went, "having made +another step downwards towards invalid life." + +_Closing Years._--From 1882 till 1889, when the _Autobiography_ ends, +Spencer's life was one of invalidism with occasional gleams of health. +There was nothing organically wrong with him, but he had no reserve of +nervous energy, and he was not able to work for more than brief +intervals at a time. Yet he produced during these years _The Man Versus +the State_, a volume on _Ecclesiastical Institutions_, and _The Factors +of Organic Evolution_. He also dictated the _Autobiography_ at the +average rate of about fifteen lines per day! + +As years went on Spencer became more and more of a recluse, more and +more a man of nerves, the grasshopper became a burden, and as he watched +himself with scientific minuteness, hypochondria naturally grew upon +him. He continued, however, to use for work the minute fractions of a +day when he felt relatively vigorous, and thus he at length actually +finished his _Synthetic Philosophy_ in 1896. + +He gives an account of his daily routine when he had attained the age of +seventy-three. In the mornings he did a little work, dictating for ten +minutes at a time, and repeating the process from two to five times. +During the rest of the day he killed time, walking a few hundred yards, +driving for an hour or so in a carriage with india-rubber tyres, or +"sitting very much in the open air, hearing and observing the birds, +watching the drifting clouds, listening to the sighings of the wind +through the trees." He could not read or bear being read to, he could +not play games or listen to music, he used ear-stoppers to shut out +conversation whenever he got tired of it, and without respect of +persons, and he took opium to secure a few hours sleep at nights. He +might have been more comfortable, physically, if he had abandoned all +attempt at work, but the architectonic instinct tyrannised over him. He +really lived for the sake of the little oases of work-time which broke +the monotony of his daily journey. + +It should be remembered, that invalid as he was, Spencer aggravated +matters by his scientific hypochondria, and perhaps also by his +soporifics. His disturbances of health involved little positive +suffering, and, till he was considerably over sixty, he had few +deprivations. Even in old age he had no invalid appearance. "Neither in +the lines of the face nor in its colour, is there any such sign of +constitutional derangement as would be expected. Contrariwise, I am +usually supposed to be about ten years younger than I am" (1893). + + "Spencer's closing years," Prof. Hudson writes, "were clouded with + much sadness and disappointment." His days were vacant and his + nights a weariness; he had outlived most of his friends and was + lonely; and "the completion of his _Synthetic Philosophy_ in 1896 + did not bring him the keen satisfaction he fairly might have + expected." He saw his political advice disregarded, and on all + sides an exuberant growth of the socialistic organisations which he + had spent himself in criticising. "He saw, too, with profound + sorrow, unmistakable signs everywhere of reaction in religion, + politics, society. The recrudescence of militarism, the development + of a sordidly materialistic spirit throughout the modern nations + and their abandonment of the principles of sanity and political + righteousness--all these things cast a very black shadow over his + declining path. I do not wonder that, as he looked back over his + magnificent life-work, his mind should have been darkened by the + doubt as to whether some of the truths, to which he attached the + greatest value, might not after all have been set forth in vain" + ("Fortnightly Review," 1904, p. 17). + +Spencer's life closed in his eighty-third year, on December 8th, 1903. + + + + +CHAPTER VI + +CHARACTERISTICS:--PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL + + _The Autobiography--Physical Characteristics--Intellectual + Characteristics--Limitations--Development of Spencer's + Mind--Methods of Work--Genius?_ + + +Spencer was much given to summing up what he called the "traits" of the +men he met, and he extended the process to himself in his +_Autobiography_, which is an elaborate piece of self-portraiture. + +_The Autobiography._--Some one has called autobiography the least +credible form of fiction, but that is not the impression which Spencer's +gives. His self-analysis is candid and continuous; he is always +revealing his feet of clay, and that with a self-complacency which is +unintelligible to those who do not understand the impersonal scientific +mood which had become habitual to Spencer. He almost achieved the +impossible, of looking at himself from the outside. + +Huxley wrote an autobiography in a score of pages, and he never wrote +anything better; Spencer occupied over a thousand pages with his account +of himself, and he never wrote anything worse. Dictated in outline in +1875, it was elaborated piecemeal, in small daily instalments, after the +most serious of the many breakdowns in health had precluded more +difficult work. Naturally enough, therefore, the _Autobiography_ is +often prolix and lacking in proportion, often slack in style and, it +must be confessed, tedious. Little details in a picture may be essential +to the effective impression, but Spencer often wearies us with trifling +incidents whose narration has no excuse except as happening in a great +life. Yet, if we lay the volumes aside, bored by their monumental +egotism, we return to them with sympathy, and are won again by their +unaffected frankness and candid sincerity. + +With the _Autobiography_ before us, but exercising the right of private +judgment, we propose in this and the next chapter to sum up Spencer's +characteristics--physical, intellectual, and emotional, and to refer to +his methods of work and conduct of life. + +_Physical Characteristics._--Spencer at his best was an impressive +figure, "tall, erect, a little gaunt, with a magnificent broad brow and +high domed head." "His face," Prof. W. H. Hudson writes, "was a +strikingly expressive one, with its strong frontal ridge, deep-set eyes, +prominent nose, and firmly-cut mouth and jaw--the face of a man marked +out for intellectual leadership."[1] It was not wrinkled with thought, +as one might have expected, but was smooth as a child's or as a +bishop's, the explanation being, as Spencer said, that he never worried +over things, but allowed his brain to do its own thinking without +pressure. He looked anything but an invalid, for his cheeks were ruddy +even in later years. He had a fine voice and "a rather rare laugh of +deep-chested musical qualities." + +He lamented that he had not inherited his father's finely developed +chest organs, and that in consequence his cerebral circulation was +under par. More positively, he seems to have inherited a readily +fatigued nervous system, which limited his powers of protracted +attention and made him not infrequently irritable and difficult to get +on with. As we have seen he suffered periodically from over-taxing his +brain, which induced terrible insomnia. Like Carlyle, he suffered from +dyspepsia. + +_Intellectual Characteristics._--1. Among his intellectual +characteristics, Spencer gave the foremost place to his "unusual +capacity for the intuition of cause." The capacity was inherited and it +was carefully nurtured. His restlessness to discover causes--"natural +causes"--was illustrated when, as a boy of thirteen, he called in +question the dictum of Dr Arnott respecting inertia, and it was +characteristic of his whole intellectual life. He cultivated this +inquisitiveness for causes till the mood became habitual, and resulted +in what we may almost call an interpretative instinct. That this never +led him astray, not even his most enthusiastic disciples would venture +to maintain. + +While the scientific method is always fundamentally the same, there is +happily some legitimate elasticity in the order of procedure. Some minds +start with a clue perceived by a flash of insight and then proceed to +test and verify; others collect their data laboriously and never get a +glimpse of their conclusion until the induction is complete. Some seem +to have a selective instinct for getting hold of the most significant +facts, or for making the crucial experiment; others have to plod on +patiently from fact to fact and must make many "fools' experiments." +Some find a nugget while their neighbours get their gold in dust +particles after washing much ore. + +Now Spencer had that passion for facts which is fundamental to all solid +scientific work, but he had the greater gift of getting rapidly beneath +facts to the question of their significance. He had not the love of +details which is essential to the descriptive naturalist for instance, +which sometimes becomes intellectual avarice for copper coinage, but he +was instinctively an aetiologist, an interpreter. + +In his account of the working of his mind, he says:-- + + "There was commonly shown a faculty of seizing cardinal truths + rather than of accumulating detailed information. The implications + of phenomena were then, as always, more interesting to me than the + phenomena themselves. What did they prove? was the question + instinctively put. The consciousness of causation, to which there + was a natural proclivity, and which had been fostered by my father, + continually prompted analyses, which of course led me below the + surface and made fundamental principles objects of greater + attention than the various concrete illustrations of them. So that + while my acquaintance with things might have been called + superficial, if measured by the _number_ of facts known, it might + have been called the reverse of superficial, if measured by the + _quality_ of the facts. And there was possibly a relation between + these traits. A friend who possessed extensive botanical knowledge, + once remarked to me that, had I known as much about the details of + plant-structure as botanists do, I never should have reached those + generalisations concerning plant-morphology which I had reached." + (_Autobiography_ I.) + +2. Another inherited capacity was "the synthetic tendency," the power of +generalising or of working out unifying formulae. His first book _Social +Statics_ set out with a general principle; his first essay was +entitled, "A theory of population, _deduced from the general law_ of +animal fertility"; his life-work was the _Synthetic Philosophy_. One of +George Eliot's witticisms made game of Spencer's aptitude for +generalisation. He had been explaining his disbelief in the critical +powers of salmon, and his aim in making flies "the best average +representation of an insect buzzing on the surface of the water." "Yes," +she said, "you have such a passion for generalising, you even fish with +a generalisation." And this exactly describes what he spent much of his +life in doing. + +Mr Francis Galton has graphically stated his impression, that Spencer's +composite mental photographs, in forming a generalisation, or in using a +general formula-term, were many times multiple of those of ordinary +mortals. A composite mental photograph from a small number of +intellectual negatives yields a blurred outline--a woolly idea, with +ragged edges and loose ends--but a composite mental photograph from a +very large number of impressions, yielded, in Spencer's case, a +generalisation which was crisp and well-defined. Some one has said that +Ruskin had the most analytic mind in modern Christendom: that Spencer +had one of the most synthetic minds can hardly be questioned. + +3. It was one of the open secrets of Spencer's power that his analytic +tendency was almost equal to his synthetic tendency. "Both subjectively +and objectively, the desire to build up was accompanied by an almost +equal desire to delve down to the deepest accessible truth, which should +serve as an unshakable foundation." "It appears that in the treatment +of every topic, however seemingly remote from philosophy, I found +occasion for falling back on some ultimate principle in the natural +order." + +The first volume of the Psychology is synthetic, the second volume is +analytic, "taking to pieces our intellectual fabric and the products of +its actions, until the ultimate components are reached"; and we find the +same two methods pursued in his other books. + + "While, on the one hand, they betray a great liking for drawing + deductions and building them up into a coherent whole; on the other + hand, they betray a great liking for examining the premises on + which a set of deductions is raised, for the purpose of seeing what + assumptions are involved in them, and what are the deeper truths + into which such assumptions are resolvable. There is shown an + evident dissatisfaction with proximate principles, and a + restlessness until ultimate principles have been reached; at the + same time there is shown a desire to see how the most complex + phenomena are to be interpreted as workings of these ultimate + principles. It is, I think, to the balance of these two tendencies + that the character of the work done is mainly ascribable." + +But while Spencer had beyond doubt analytic powers of a very high order, +it is to be feared that there is some justice in the criticism that he +sometimes confused abstraction with analysis, and reached an apparently +simple result by abstracting away some essential components. + +4. "One further cardinal trait, which is in a sense a result of the +preceding traits, has to be named--the ability to discern inconspicuous +analogies." It was in part this ability that gave Spencer his power of +handling so many different orders of facts. "The habit of ignoring the +variable outer components and relations, and looking for the invariable +inner components and relations, facilitates the perception of likeness +between things which externally are quite unlike--perhaps so utterly +unlike that, by an unanalytical intelligence, they cannot be conceived +to have any resemblance whatever." It is this kind of insight which +enables the morphologist to unify a whole series of organic types by +detecting the similarities of architecture underlying the exceedingly +diverse external expression. It was this kind of insight which led +Spencer to his analogy between a social organism and an individual +organism, and to many others which have been found fruitful. But it is +to be feared that some of his analogies, notably that between inanimate +mechanisms and living creatures led him far astray. + +5. Another power strongly developed was constructive imagination. The +boy who was so fond of building castles in the air, who grudged the +sleep which put an end to his fanciful adventures, grew up a man whose +mind was his kingdom. All sorts of things and thoughts pulled the +trigger of his imagination, with which he was often so preoccupied that +he would pass those living in the same house with him and look them in +the face without knowing that he had seen them. + + Spencer found in the delight of constructive imagination part of + the explanation of his versatility. The products of his mental + action ranged "from a doctrine of State functions to a + levelling-staff; from the genesis of religious ideas to a watch + escapement; from the circulation in plants to an invalid bed; from + the law of organic symmetry to planing machinery; from principles + of ethics to a velocimeter; from a metaphysical doctrine to a + binding-pin; from a classification of the sciences to an improved + fishing-rod joint; from the general Law of Evolution to a better + mode of dressing artificial flies." "But for every interest in + either the theoretical or the practical, a requisite condition has + been--the opportunity offered for something new. And here may be + perceived the trait which unites the extremely unlike products of + mental action exemplified above. They have one and all afforded + scope for constructive imagination." + +Clearness in exposition was another of Spencer's gifts, and he connected +this with the fact that his grandfather and father had been teachers. +But lucidity of exposition usually accompanies clear thinking, and +increases if there is opportunity for practice. His fearlessness and his +self-confidence, he also connected with the fact that in school the +master must be the absolute authority, but it seems much more plausible +to regard this characteristic independence of judgment as an outcrop of +the Nonconformist mood of his ancestors. + +_Limitations._--Spencer was too scrupulous a self-analyst not to be +aware of many of his own limitations, and he has exposed the defects of +his qualities with the utmost frankness. Thus his disregard of +authority, which helped him to independent positions in science and +philosophy, seemed to become a habit of mind which prompted him to react +from current beliefs and opinions without always doing them justice. His +anti-classical bias led him "to underestimate the past as compared with +the present". "Lack of reverence for what others have said and done has +tended to make me neglect the evidence of early achievements." + + One concrete instance may be selected,--his failure to appreciate + Plato's dialogues, which the wise are at one in regarding as + masterpieces of philosophical discussion, and as affording + invaluable discipline for the most modern of thinkers. Spencer + approached them with a strong bias, with a predisposition to + depreciate, and what was the result? "Time after time I have + attempted to read, now this dialogue and now that, and have put it + down in a state of impatience with the indefiniteness of the + thinking and the mistaking of words for things: being repelled also + by the rambling form of the argument. Once when I was talking on + the matter to a classical scholar, he said--'Yes, but as works of + art they are well worth reading.' So, when I again took up the + dialogues, I contemplated them as works of art, and put them aside + in greater exasperation than before. To call that a 'dialogue' + which is an interchange of speeches between the thinker and his + dummy, who says just what it is convenient to have said, is absurd. + There is more dramatic propriety in the conversations of our + third-rate novelists; and such a production as that of Diderot, + _Rameau's nephew_, has more strokes of dramatic truth than all the + Platonic dialogues put together, if the rest are like those I have + looked into. Still, quotations from time to time met with, lead me + to think that there are in Plato detached thoughts from which I + might benefit had I the patience to seek them out. The like is + probably true of other ancient writings." (!) + +Disregard of authority is a great gift, if it go hand in hand with a +careful examination of the reasons which lead to a conclusion becoming +authoritative, but Spencer does not seem to have felt this +responsibility. He began every subject by cleaning the slate. Thus one +of the most conspicuous, and in some ways least agreeable +characteristics of his intellectual work was his indifference as to what +previous investigators had said. This was in part an expression of his +own strength and independence, but it also savoured of arrogance. The +virtue of it was that he approached a subject with the vigour of a fresh +mind, but its vice was repeatedly disclosed in his failure to realise +all the difficulties and subtleties of a problem--a failure which +sometimes involved nothing short of amateurishness. A skilful naturalist +has said that in tackling an unsolved problem there are only two +commendable methods,--one to read everything bearing on the question, +the other to read nothing. It was the second method that Spencer +habitually practised. He gathered facts, but took little stock in +opinions or previous deliverances. + +Thus in beginning to plan out his _Social Statics_ he "paid little +attention to what had been written either upon ethics or politics. The +books I did read were those which promised to furnish illustrative +material." He wrote his _First Principles_ with a minimal knowledge of +the philosophical classics, and his _Psychology_ as if he had been +living before the invention of printing. Some one thought certain parts +of his _Education_ savoured of Rousseau, but he had not heard of _Emile_ +when he wrote. He was greatly indebted to von Baer for a formula, but +there is no evidence that he ever read any part of the great +embryologist's works. The suggestion that he was indebted to Comte for +some sociological ideas might have been dismissed at once on _a priori_ +grounds as absurd. And in point of fact when Spencer wrote his _Social +Statics_ he knew no more of Comte than that he was a French +philosophical writer, and it was not till 1853 that he began to nibble +at Comte's works, to which Lewes and George Eliot had repeatedly +directed his attention. He adopted two of Comte's words--"altruism" and +"sociology"--but beyond that his indebtedness was little. We may take +his own word for it: "The only indebtedness I recognise is the +indebtedness of antagonism. My pronounced opposition to his views led me +to develop some of my own views." That they both tried to organise a +system of so-called philosophy out of the sciences indicates a community +of aim, but there the resemblance ceases. + +Spencer's intellectual development seems to have been peculiarly +detached and independent. He was of course influenced by his father and +by two of his uncles during his formative period, and he was also +doubtless influenced by George Henry Lewes and George Eliot, Huxley and +Hooker in later years--as who could help being--but in the main he was a +strong, self-sufficient, self-made Ishmaelite. Similarly as regards +authors, he was influenced by Lamarck's transformist theory, by +Laplace's nebular hypothesis, by Malthus's theory of population, by +Milne-Edwards' idea of the physiological division of labour, by von +Baer's formula, by Hamilton and Mansel, by Grove's correlation of the +physical forces, by Darwin's _Origin of Species_, and so on, but his own +thought was always far more to him than anything he ever read. + +Just as independence may become a vice, so with criticism, and Spencer +had certainly the defect of this quality. Like his grandfather and his +father before him, he was perpetually criticising, and he developed a +hypersensitiveness to mistakes and shortcomings. For while sound +criticism is an intellectual saving grace, it defeats its own end when +the critic is constantly looking for reasons for disagreement, rather +than for supplementary construction. Comte was assuredly right in saying +that one only destroys when one replaces. Morever, Spencer's dominant +tendency greatly interfered with his power of admiration. He was so +keenly alive to "the many mistakes in _chiaroscuro_ which characterise +various paintings of the old masters" that he found little pleasure in +them. When looking at Greek sculpture he constantly discovered unnatural +drapery. When he went to the opera with George Eliot he remarked "how +much analysis of the effects produced deducts from enjoyment of the +effects." He could not even look at a beautiful woman without his +"phrenological diagnosis" discovering something which took the edge off +his admiration. "It seems probable," he quaintly remarks, "that this +abnormal tendency to criticise has been a chief factor in the +continuance of my celibate life." + +_Development of Spencer's Mind._--Spencer has himself given us an +account of his mental development. + + As a boy his mind was always set upon discovering natural causes, + and under his father's influence there grew up in him "a tacit + belief that whatever occurred had its assignable cause of a + comprehensible kind." Insensibly he relinquished the current creed + of supernaturalism and its associated story of creation. + + The doctrine of the universality of natural causation has for its + inevitable corollary the doctrine that the Universe and all things + in it have reached their present forms through successive stages + physically necessitated. But no such corollary suggested itself + definitely until Spencer was twenty when he read Lyell's + _Principles of Geology_, and was led by Lyell's arguments against + Lamarck to a partial acceptance of Lamarck's evolutionist point of + view. + + Two years afterwards, in _The proper Sphere of Government_, "there + was shown an unhesitating belief that the phenomena of both + individual life and social life conform to law"; and eight years + later in _Social Statics_, the social organism was discussed in the + same sort of way as the individual organism; a physiological view + of social actions was taken, and the same mode of progress was + shown to be common to all changing phenomena. + + In 1852 the essay on the "Development Hypothesis" was an open + avowal of evolutionism; and other essays on population and + over-legislation "assumed that social arrangements and institutions + are products of natural causes, and that they have a normal order + of growth." + + An acquaintance with von Baer's description of individual + development gave definiteness to Spencer's conception of progress, + and the idea of change from homogeneity to heterogeneity became his + formula of evolution, applicable to style, to manners and fashions, + to science itself, and to the growing mind of the child, as was + shown in a succession of essays on these themes. + + The next great step was in the _Principles of Psychology_ which + sought to trace out the genesis of mind in all its forms, sub-human + and human, as produced by the organised and inherited effects of + mental actions. Increase of faculty by exercise, hereditary + entailment of gains, and consequent progressive adaptation, were + prominent ideas in this treatise. "Progressive adaptation became + increasing adjustment of inner subjective relations to outer + objective relations--increasing correspondence between the two." + + So far, then, Spencer had recognised throughout a vast field of + phenomena the increase of heterogeneity, of speciality, of + integration--as traits of progress of all kinds; and thus arose the + question: Why is this increasing heterogeneity universal? "A + transition from the inductive stage to the deductive stage was + shown in the answer--the transformation results from the unceasing + multiplication of effects. When, shortly after, there came the + perception that the condition of homogeneity is an unstable + condition, yet another step towards the completely deductive stage + was made." "The theorem passed into the region of physical + science." + + "The advance towards a complete conception of evolution was itself + a process of evolution. At first there was simply an unshaped + belief in the development of living things; including, in a vague + way, social development. The extension of von Baer's formula + expressing the development of each organism, first to one and then + to another group of phenomena, until all were taken in as parts of + a whole, exemplified the process of integration. With advancing + integration there went that advancing heterogeneity implied by + inclusion of the several classes of inorganic phenomena and the + several classes of super-organic phenomena in the same category + with organic phenomena. And then the indefinite idea of progress + passed into the definite idea of evolution, when there was + recognised the essential nature of the change, as a physically + determined transformation conforming to ultimate laws of force." + + It is difficult to state with any certainty what led Spencer in + 1857 to a coherent body of beliefs--to the first sketch of his + system. In the main the unification was probably a natural + maturation and integration of his thoughts, but it was perhaps + helped by the immediate task of revising and publishing a + collection of essays, and also by the fact that "the time was one + at which certain all-embracing scientific truths of a simple order + were being revealed." Notably the doctrine of the conservation and + transformability of energy was beginning to possess scientific + minds, and the doctrine of evolution was beginning to make its grip + felt. + + Furthermore, in trying to understand Spencer, we must recognise + that he was the flower of a nonconformist dissenting stock, that + his mind matured in contact with engines and other mechanisms, and + that he was almost forced to exclude new influences after he + settled down with his system at the age of forty. + +_Methods of Work._--While there was nothing remarkable in Spencer's +methods of work, it may be of interest to indicate certain general +features which the _Autobiography_ discloses. + +In the first place, after a few disastrous experiments, he abandoned any +attempt at what is usually called working hard. Like many an artist who +will only paint when he feels in the mood and in good form, Spencer +would never write or dictate under pressure, or when he felt that his +brain was not working smoothly. When he was writing the _Principles of +Psychology_ (1854-5), he began between nine and ten and continued till +one; he then paused for a few minutes to take some slight refreshment, +usually a little fruit, and resumed till three, altogether about five +hours at a stretch. He then went for a walk, returned in time for dinner +between five and six, and did considerable proof-correcting thereafter. +But, as we have seen, the result of this strenuousness--which would be +quite normal to many students--was his first serious breakdown, +involving a loss of eighteen months. Thereafter, it was his custom to +work for short spells at a time, to sandwich work and exercise, and to +take a holiday whenever he began to feel tired. + +His output of work was so large even for a long life that one naturally +thinks of him as a hard worker. But the reverse would be nearer the +truth. Partly as a self-justification of his "constitutional idleness," +and partly as a precaution against his hereditary tendency to nervous +breakdown, he was a strong advocate of the proposition that "Life is not +for work, but work is for life." "The progress of mankind is, under one +aspect, a means of liberating more and more life from mere toil and +leaving more and more life available for relaxation--for pleasurable +culture, for aesthetic gratification, for travels, for games." Industry +is not a virtue in itself; over-work is blameworthy. + +In the second place, Spencer made it a rule never to force his thinking. +If a problem was not clear to him, he let it simmer. "On one occasion +George Eliot expressed her surprise that the author of _Social Statics_ +had no lines on his forehead, to which he answered, 'I suppose it is +because I am never puzzled.' This called forth the exclamation: 'O! +that's the most arrogant thing I ever heard uttered.' To which I +rejoined: 'Not at all, when you know what I mean.' And I then proceeded +to explain that my mode of thinking did not involve that concentrated +effort which is commonly accompanied by wrinkling of the brows" +(_Autobiography_, i. p. 399). + +Spencer did not set himself a problem and try to puzzle out an answer. +"The conclusions at which I have from time to time arrived, have not +been arrived at as solutions of questions raised; but have been arrived +at unawares--each as the ultimate outcome of a body of thoughts which +slowly grew from a germ." + +He had "an instinctive interest in those facts which have general +meanings"; he let these accumulate and simmer, thinking them over and +over again at intervals. "When accumulation of instances had given body +to a generalisation, reflexion would reduce the vague conception at +first framed to a more definite conception; and perhaps difficulties or +anomalies at first passed over for a while, but eventually forcing +themselves on attention, might cause a needful qualification and a truer +shaping of the thought. Eventually the growing generalisation, thus far +inductive, might take deductive form: being all at once recognised as a +necessary consequence of some physical principle--some established law. +And thus, little by little, in unobtrusive ways, without conscious +intention or appreciable effort, there would grow up a coherent and +organised theory" (_Autobiography_, i. 400, 401). In short, Spencer +gave his thinking machine time to do its work, or in other words he let +his thoughts grow. He distrusted strain and all forcing. Like a good +golfer, he would not "press." "The determined effort causes perversion +of thought." + +A third feature in his work has been already alluded to--his practical +indifference to the literature of the subject at which he was working. +For this characteristic there were doubtless several reasons, though +none of them justified it. He was not fond of hard reading, and +conserved his energy for his own production; he had abundant +thought-material of his own, and no lack of confidence in its value. +Furthermore, he explains, "It has always been out of the question for me +to go on reading a book the fundamental principles of which I entirely +dissent from. Tacitly giving an author credit for consistency, I, +without thinking much about the matter, take it for granted that if the +fundamental principles are wrong, the rest cannot be right, and +thereupon cease reading--being, I suspect, rather glad of an excuse for +doing so" (i. p. 253). "All through my life," he says, "Locke's 'Essay' +had been before me on my father's shelves, but I had never taken it +down; or at any rate I have no recollection of having read a page of +it." More than once he tackled Kant's _Critique of Pure Reason_, but was +baulked at the start by the doctrine that time and space are merely +subjective forms. Nor did Mill's _Logic_ interest him. + +At the same time it is not to be supposed that Spencer wove his system +out of himself as a spider its web. He had a wonderful aptitude for +collecting data by a strange sort of skimming reading. + + "Though by some I am characterised as an _a priori_ thinker, it + will be manifest to any one who does not set out with an _a priori_ + conception of me, that my beliefs, when not suggested _a + posteriori_, are habitually verified _a posteriori_. My first book, + _Social Statics_, shows this in common with my later books. I have + sometimes been half-amused, half-irritated, by one who speaks of me + as typically deductive, and whose own conclusions, nevertheless, + are not supported by facts anything like so numerous as those + brought in support of mine. But we meet with men who are such + fanatical adherents of the inductive method, that immediately an + induction, otherwise well established, is shown to admit of + deductive establishment, they lose faith in it" (_Autobiography_, + i. pp. 304-5). + +No one who studies Spencer's works can fail to be impressed with the +logical orderliness and lucidity of his method. Thus, in beginning _The +Principles of Biology_, for instance, we are first asked to consider +what truths the biologist takes for granted; _e.g._, the conservation of +energy and the indestructibility of matter; then we are asked to notice +the inductions in regard to the phenomena of life which biologists agree +in accepting as well-established; and only then do we pass to Spencer's +particular interpretation of the facts in the light of his evolutionist +ideas. The same logical method is illustrated in his treatment of +psychology, sociology and ethics. + +Like most men who get through much work, Spencer was very methodical and +orderly. In reference to his _Sociology_, he tells us how he classified +and reclassified his materials in fasciculi, placing them in a +semi-circle on the floor round his chair, inserting new "covers" where +there seemed need for them, and gradually filling these. As the plan +became clear, the materials for a chapter were raised to his large desk, +and then began a grouping into sections, and a grouping within each +section. + +He did not begin to compose until he had thought out his subject to the +best of his ability. He then wrote or dictated a little at a time, +criticising every sentence with especial reference to clearness and +force. Except for his first book, which he revised, copied out, and +revised afresh, the original copy was always sent to press "sprinkled +with erasures and interlineations." He was more interested in vigour and +lucidity of style than in its beauty, and it was characteristic of him +to try to correlate effectiveness of style with the doctrine of the +conservation of energy. The main thesis in the essay on "The Philosophy +of Style" may be briefly stated. The reader has only a limited amount of +nervous energy, and it is important that this should not be dissipated +before he comes to the ideas of which the style is the vehicle. "In +proportion as there is less energy absorbed in interpreting the symbols, +there is more left for representing the idea, and, consequently, greater +vividness of the idea." "Every resistance met with in the progress from +the antecedent idea to the consequent idea, entails a deduction from the +force with which the consequent idea arises in consciousness." + +It is common to speak of Spencer's works as "hard reading," but those +who say so must have a strange scale of hardness. He may be difficult to +agree with, but he is rarely difficult to understand; he deals with +difficult themes, but he is singularly clear in his expression of his +convictions. When he discusses less abstract questions, as in his +_Study of Sociology_ or _Education_, his style has almost every good +quality except beauty. And when he occasionally "lets himself go" a +little, as in the famous passage in the _First Principles_ at the end of +the discussion of the Unknowable, there is a ring of nobility in his +sentences. + +Sometimes he sums up with epigrammatic terseness, and we submit a few of +his utterances which we have noted down as illustrating various +qualities:-- + + "Life is not for learning nor is life for working, but learning and + working are for life." + + "It is best to recognise the facts as they are, and not try to prop + up rectitude by fictions." + + "Beliefs, like creatures, must have fit environments before they + can live and grow." + + "Mind is not as deep as the brain only, but is, in a sense, as deep + as the viscera." + + "Melody is an idealised form of the natural cadences of emotion." + + "Logic is a science of objective phenomena." + + "In proportion as intellect is active, emotion is rendered + inactive." + + "Inherited constitution must ever be the chief factor in + determining character." + + "Each nature is a bundle of potentialities of which only some are + allowed by the conditions to become actualities." + + "Considering that the ordinary citizen has no excess of + individuality to boast of, it seems strange that he should be so + anxious to hide what little he has." + + "Englishmen are averse to conclusions of wide generality." + + "The ultimate result of shielding men from the effects of folly is + to fill the world with fools." + + "A nation which fosters its good-for-nothings will end by becoming + a good-for-nothing nation." + + "I don't mean to get on. I don't think getting on is worth the + bother." + +_Genius._--It doubtless requires genius to define genius, and until +that is done, the question of awarding or refusing this supreme title to +our hero need not be very seriously discussed. All will agree that +genius is more than unusually great talent; that it is neither "une +patience suivie" nor "an infinite capacity for taking pains"; that it is +not to be judged by its effectiveness; and that it may never receive the +unwithering laurels of immortality. Spencer poured contempt on Carlyle's +assertion that genius "means transcendent capacity of taking trouble +first of all"; the truth being, he said, that genius may be rightly +defined quite oppositely, as an ability to do with little trouble that +which cannot be done by the ordinary man with any amount of trouble. + +Another of Spencer's remarks about genius is worth citing. Speaking of +Huxley's wonderful versatility as a thinker, he said that it lent "some +colour to the dictum--quite untenable, however--that genius is a unit, +and, where it exists, can manifest itself equally in all directions." As +it seems to us, there is much truth in the dictum which Spencer +dismissed as "quite untenable." The genius is a new variation of high +potential and is as such a unity, capable of expressing itself in many +diverse ways, and always with originality. The expression of genius may +be intellectual, emotional, or practical, according to the mood which is +constitutionally dominant and according to the opportunities afforded by +education and circumstances; but there seems much to be said, both on +general grounds and from a study of historical examples, for the view +that genius means something distinctive in the whole mental pattern or +personality, and is potentially at least many-sided. + +Biologically regarded, a genius is a transilient variation on the +up-grade of psychical evolution, of such magnitude that it stands apart +as a new mental pattern, as a peculiar combination of moods at a high +potential, as a secret amalgam. Whether it be intellectual, emotional, +or practical, it sees or feels or does things in a new way. It makes +what it touches new; it affords a new outlook. "God said: Let Newton be! +and there was light"--that is genius. + +In this sense we venture to think that Spencer was not far from the +kingdom of genius. He saw all things in the light of the evolution-idea; +he had a fresh vision of the unity of nature and the unity of science, +and the light that was in him was so clear that it radiated into other +minds. Had his emotional nature been stronger, had he been more than +luminiferous, he might have set the world aflame. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[1] Herbert Spencer: A Character Study, "Fortnightly Review," 1904. + + + + +CHAPTER VII + +CHARACTERISTICS: EMOTIONAL AND ETHICAL + + _Emotional--The Genius Loci--Poetry--Science and + Poetry--Art--Humour--Callousness--Nature--Human + Relations--Fundamental Motives_ + + +_Emotional._--Spencer found great delight in scenery and sunsets; he +enjoyed music within certain limits; he was very fond of children, but +he was essentially a man of thought, not of feeling or of action. The +scientific mood dominated him, the artistic and practical moods were in +abeyance. Although he delighted in imaginative construction, he does not +seem to have had much imaginative life. Although he pondered over the +great mysteries of the universe, there was no mystical element in his +composition. Of course no Englishman wears his heart on his sleeve, but +Spencer was more than usually callous, and our sketch would be far from +true if it ignored his emotional limitations. + +_The Genius Loci._--To begin with, let us refer to his indifference to +places which are rich in human associations. On his many holidays he +visited not a few of these, and yet he seems to have been rarely touched +or impressed by their significance. He frankly confessed that he took +but little interest in what are called histories, but was interested +only in sociology, and therefore his appreciation of the genius loci +was always limited. He could not people the palaces, the cathedrals, the +castles, the ancient cities that he visited. "When I go to see a ruined +abbey or the remains of a castle, I do not care to learn when it was +built, who lived or died there, or what catastrophes it witnessed. I +never yet went to a battle-field, although often near to one--not having +the slightest curiosity to see a place where many men were killed and a +victory achieved." He had few historical associations even in Rome, and +when at Florence he did not go three miles to Fiesole. The forms and +colours of time-worn walls and arches excited pleasant sentiments, he +said, but that seems to have been all. It was a sort of conchological +interest that he had. + +One is unfortunately familiar with the cosmic preoccupation which the +dominant scientific mood is apt to engender, as also with historical +erudition which loses the wood in the trees or leaves Nature out +altogether. These are the defects of our limited mental capacities and +our ill-organised education; but that a man of Spencer's powers could be +so complacent with his limitations is extraordinary. And that he could +write, "It is always the poetry rather than the history of a place that +appeals to me," is more extraordinary still; as if the history were not +half the poetry. + +_Poetry._--Spencer's attitude to poetry was characteristic; he took it +all too intellectually and was usually bored. He did not find enough +thought in it, and it may be doubted if he ever surrendered himself to +the artistic mood. At one time he regarded Shelley as "by far the +finest poet of his era," and of "Prometheus Unbound" he said, "It is the +only poem over which I have ever become enthusiastic." It satisfied one +of his organic needs--variety; "I say organic, because I perceive that +it runs throughout my constitution, beginning with likings for food." +Another requirement of poetry for Spencer was intensity. "The matter +embodied is idealised emotion, the vehicle is the idealised language of +emotion." For this reason he was in but small measure attracted to +Wordsworth. "Admitting, though I do, that throughout his works there are +sprinkled many poems of great beauty, my feeling is that most of his +writing is not wine but beer" (i. p. 263). Similarly, he found the +"Iliad" "tedious" and Dante "too continuously rich"... "a gorgeous dress +ill made up." + +"About others' requirements I cannot of course speak; but my own +requirement is--little poetry and of the best. Even the true poets are +far too productive." More will agree with him when he says: "The poetry +commonly produced does not bubble up as a spring, but is simply pumped +up; and pumped-up poetry is not worth reading. No one should write verse +if he can help it. Let him suppress it if possible; but if it bursts +forth in spite of him, it may be of value." + +In reference to the supposed antagonism between Science and Poetry, +Spencer refers to the story that Keats once proposed after dinner, some +such sentiment as "Confusion to Newton," for having by his analysis +destroyed the wonder of the rainbow. "In so doing," Spencer says, "Keats +did but give more than usually definite expression to the current +belief that science and poetry are antagonistic. Doubtless it is true +that while consciousness is occupied in the scientific interpretation of +a thing, which is now and again "a thing of beauty," it is not occupied +in the aesthetic appreciation of it. But it is no less true that the same +consciousness may at another time be so wholly possessed by the aesthetic +appreciation as to exclude all thought of the scientific interpretation. +The inability of a man of science to take the poetic view simply shows +his mental limitation; as the mental limitation of a poet is shown by +his inability to take the scientific view. The broader mind can take +both. Those who allege this antagonism forget that Goethe, predominantly +a poet, was also a scientific inquirer" (_Autobiography_, i. p. 419). +This is sound sense, and is the excuse for Spencer's own limitations in +regard to poetry; he usually found it too difficult to lay aside the +intellectual preoccupation that gave part of the point to Huxley's jest +in the course of a talk on tragedy: "Oh! you know, Spencer's idea of a +tragedy is a deduction killed by a fact." + +The same sort of desperately serious intellectual attitude is seen in +Spencer's remarks on the Opera. His "intolerance of gross breaches of +probability" spoilt his enjoyment of the music. "That serving-men and +waiting-maids should be made poetical and prompted to speak in +_recitative_, because their masters and mistresses happened to be in +love, was too conspicuous an absurdity; and the consciousness of this +absurdity went far towards destroying what pleasure I might otherwise +have derived from the work. It is with music as with painting--a great +divergence from the naturalness in any part so distracts my attention +from the meaning or intention of the whole, as almost to cancel +gratification." + + In connection with Spencer's relative lack of interest in poetry + and the drama, or in the works of men like Carlyle and Ruskin, we + have simply to deplore the fact and remember that his mind was + preoccupied with big problems and was dominated by the scientific + mood. From his boyhood he was "thinking about only one thing at a + time," and he had to husband his energies. This is well illustrated + by his note on Carlyle's _Cromwell_: "If, after a thorough + examination of the subject, Carlyle tells us that Cromwell was a + sincere man, I reply that I am heartily glad to hear it, and that I + am content to take his word for it; not thinking it worth while to + investigate all the evidence which has led him to that conclusion." + This might seem to betray a somewhat Philistinish contempt for + historical study and complacence therewith, but the real state of + the case is revealed in the sentence that follows the above: "I + find so many things to think about in this world of ours, that I + cannot afford to spend a week in estimating the character of a man + who lived two centuries ago." What he somewhat strangely calls + "interests of an entirely unlike kind" were at that time strongly + attracting him to Humboldt's _Kosmos_. His outlook was + characteristically cosmic, not human. + +_Art._--One of Spencer's heresies concerned the old masters of painting, +whose works he regarded as highly over-rated. On the one hand, he +detected insincerity in the conventional veneration in which the works +of Raphael and Michael Angelo, to name no smaller names, are held. +Subject is not dissociated from execution, and "the judicial faculty has +been mesmerised by the confused halo of piety which surrounds them." +There is an aesthetic orthodoxy from which few are bold enough to +dissent. On the other hand, Spencer detected in the works themselves +"fundamental vices," "the grossest absurdities," "gratuitous +contradictions of Nature," impossible light and shade, and no end of +technical defects in what he was pleased to call "physioscopy." + +Art-criticism is probably now more emancipated from authority than it +was when Spencer promulgated his heresies and Ruskin wrote his _Modern +Painters_, and doubtless many experts will admit that some of the +philosopher's strictures are justified. More will probably maintain that +in his intellectual criticism Spencer was blind to artistic genius. In +his criticism, for instance, of Guido's "Phoebus and Aurora," to which +he allowed beauty in composition and grace in drawing, he applied +commonplace physical criteria to show that "absurdity was piled upon +absurdity." "The entire group--the chariot and horses, the hours and +their draperies, and even Phoebus himself--are represented as +illuminated from without: are made visible by some unknown source of +light--some other sun! Stranger still is the next thing to be noted. The +only source of light indicated in the composition--the torch carried by +the flying boy--radiates no light whatever. Not even the face of its +bearer immediately behind it is illumined by it! Nay, this is not all. +The crowning absurdity is that the non-luminous flames of this torch are +themselves illuminated from elsewhere!" And so on. + +All this is dismally intellectual, and reminds us of the medical man's +discovery that Botticelli's "Venus," in the Uffizi at Florence, is +suffering from consumption, and should not be riding across the sea in +an open shell, clad so scantily. + +_Humour._--Prof. Hudson speaks of Spencer's capital sense of humour, but +it is difficult for a reader of the _Autobiography_ to believe this. The +ponderous way in which he analyses his own little jokes, for instance, +is too quaint to be consistent with much sense of humour. Thus he tells +us that it was only the sudden access of moderately good health that +enabled him to remark to G. H. Lewes, on a little tour they had, that +the Isle of Wight produced very large chops for so small an island. The +fact is that he always took himself and other people very seriously in +little things as well as great. With what physiological seriousness does +he discuss the experience he had coming down Ben Nevis after some wine +on the top of whisky: "I found myself possessed of a quite unusual +amount of agility; being able to leap from rock to rock with rapidity, +ease, and safety; so that I quite astonished myself. There was evidently +an exaltation of the perceptive and motor powers."... "Long-continued +exertion having caused unusually great action of the lungs, the +exaltation produced by stimulation of the brain was not cancelled by the +diminished oxygenation of the blood. The oxygenation had been so much in +excess, that deduction from it did not appreciably diminish the vital +activities." + +_Callousness._--In his extreme sang-froid, Spencer sometimes did +violence to the unity of the human spirit. We venture to give one +example. In referring to a ramble in France (_Autobiography_, ii. p. +236), he wrote as follows: "We passed a wayside shrine, at the foot of +which were numerous offerings, each formed of two bits of lath nailed +one across the other. The sight suggested to me the behaviour of an +intelligent and amiable retriever, a great pet at Ardtornish. On coming +up to salute one after a few hours' or a day's absence, wagging her tail +and drawing back her lips so as to simulate a grinning smile, she would +seek around to find a stick, or a bit of paper, or a dead leaf, and +bring it in her mouth; so expressing her desire to propitiate. The dead +leaf or bit of paper was symbolic, in much the same way as was the +valueless cross. Probably, in respect of sincerity of feeling, the +advantage was on the side of the retriever." The animal psychology here +expressed seems pretty bad, and the human psychology much worse. + +Turning, however, to pleasanter subjects and correcting any unduly harsh +judgment, we would remind the reader that Spencer was genuinely fond of +music and of scenery, two loves which cover a multitude of sins. + + "The often-quoted remark of Kant that two things excited his + awe--the starry heavens and the conscience of man--is not one which + I should make of myself. In me the sentiment has been more + especially produced by three things--the sea, a great mountain, and + fine music in a cathedral. Of these the first has, from familiarity + I suppose, lost much of the effect it originally had, but not the + others." + +_Nature._--One of the lasting pleasures of Spencer's life was a simple +delight in the beauty of Nature, especially in varied scenery. Thus he +writes (in 1844) to his friend Lott, regarding a journey into South +Wales: "I wish you had been with me. Your poetical feelings would have +had great gratification. A day's journey through a constantly changing +scene of cloud-capped hills with here and there a sparkling and +romantic river winding perhaps round the base of some ruined castle is a +treat not often equalled. I enjoyed it much. When I reached the seaside, +however, and found myself once again within sound of the breakers, I +almost danced with pleasure. To me there is no place so delightful as +the beach. It is the place where, more than anywhere else, philosophy +and poetry meet--where in fact you are presented by Nature with a +never-ending feast of knowledge and beauty. There is no place where I +can so palpably realise Emerson's remark that 'Nature is the +circumstance which dwarfs every other circumstance.'" + + One evening in August 1861 Spencer stood looking over the Sound of + Mull from Ardtornish house. "The gorgeous colours of clouds and + sky, splendid enough even by themselves to be long remembered, were + reflected from the surface of the sound, at the same time that both + of its sides, along with the mountains of Mull, were lighted up by + the setting sun; and, while I was leaning out of the window gazing + at this scene, music from the piano behind me served as a + commentary. The exaltation of feeling produced was unparalleled in + my experience; and never since has pleasurable emotion risen in me + to the same intensity" (_Autobiography_, ii. p. 69). + +Spencer's feeling for Nature was for the most part limited to scenic +effects. Occasionally, when he was at leisure, he felt some "admiration +of the beauties and graces" of flowers, but this was so unusual that it +surprised him, "for, certainly," he says, "intellectual analysis is at +variance with aesthetic appreciation." This does not of course mean that +there is any opposition between scientific interpretation and artistic +enjoyment; it simply means that the scientific mood is quite different +from the artistic mood, and that for most people only one can be +dominant at a time. There are many naturalists of undoubted analytic +skill who have a "love exceeding a simple love of the things that glide +in grasses and rubble of woody wreck"; the modern botanist may still see +the Dryad in the tree; and if the scientific mood is not allowed by +over-specialisation to over-ride all others, increase in knowledge may +mean not increase of sorrow, but a deepening of the joy of life. + +_Human Relations._--That Spencer lacked emotional warmth and +expansiveness not only in regard to nature and art, literature and +history, but in his human relations, will be admitted by all, but when a +great man has an obvious limitation there is often a tendency to make +too much of it. We think that Mr Gribble has done this in his +interesting comparison of Spencer and Carlyle,[2] whom he contrasts as +philosopher and sage. We condense his comparison. Both were big men, +both were egotists, both were dyspeptics. Neither suffered fools gladly, +and each tended to be an outspoken judge of all the earth. But while +Carlyle loved and hated intensely, Spencer judged callously. Carlyle was +more like a human being, Spencer "made his heart wait on his +judgment--indefinitely." "What is almost uncanny about Herbert Spencer +is his triumphant superiority to natural instincts." "It is difficult +for the average man to believe that Spencer was a human being of like +passions with himself." In reference to love he said, "Physical beauty +is a _sine qua non_ with me"; "in every walk of life," Mr Gribble says, +"it seems, some _sine qua non_ stood like an angel with a flaming sword +between Herbert Spencer and his emotions." "In the main, he suggests +abstract intellect performing in a morality play, exhibiting no emotion +but intellectual pride." But this tends to suggest that Spencer was a +sort of synthetic ogre, which he certainly was not. + +Emotion is distinctively impulsive, and it was Spencer's nature and +deliberate purpose not to yield to the strain of impulse. Yet we must +not misunderstand his reserve and restraint for cold-bloodedness. Some +have referred to the cold impersonal way in which he refers to his +father in the _Autobiography_, but when we consider facts not words we +find that the relations of sympathy, companionship, and mutual +understanding between father and son were very perfect. The human male +is slow to learn that it is not only necessary to love, but to say that +one loves. + +In his human relations, Spencer was loyal, if somewhat too candid, as a +friend; he was by no means non-social, but enjoyed conversation with +those who interested him, and was himself a good talker and raconteur; +he was fond of, and was a favourite with children, which is saying a +great deal. One of his friends has called him a thoroughly "clubbable" +man, which is probably going too far, but it was only in later years +that he became an almost monastic recluse and used ear-stoppers. Many +who met him for a short time thought him cold and difficult of access, +with reserved chilly talk "like a book," rather restrained, scrupulous +and severe; but those who knew him well speak of his large, simple, and +eminently sympathetic nature. George Eliot said, "He is a good, +delightful creature, and I always feel better for being with him." Prof. +Hudson writes: "The better one knew him the more one grew to understand +and admire his quiet strength, steadiness of ethical purpose, and +unflinching courage, the purity of his motives, his rigid adherence to +righteousness and truth, and his exquisite sense of justice in all +things." He was often terribly provoked by unjust criticisms and stupid +or wilful misunderstandings of his positions, but "in controversy he was +scrupulously fair, aiming at truth, and not at the barren victories of +dialectics."[3] + +Besides his love of truth and justice, besides his courage and +self-sacrificing altruism, Spencer reveals a strength of purpose which +has rarely been surpassed. In fact it is difficult to over-estimate the +resolution with which he effected his life-work. Apart from the inherent +difficulty of his task, apart from the long delay of public +appreciation, and apart from ill-health, the pecuniary obstacles were +very serious. Had it not been for the L80 which came to him in 1850 +under the Railway Winding-up Act, he would have been unable to publish +_Social Statics_; a bequest from his uncle Thomas made the publication +of the _Principles of Psychology_ possible; he would have been forced to +desist before the completion of _First Principles_ had it not been for a +bequest from his uncle William; at a later stage an American testimonial +and his father's death just saved the situation. Well might he say:-- + + "It was almost a miracle that I did not sink before success was + reached." When we read the detailed story of his preparation, his + endeavour, his struggle, his achievement, we cannot but feel that + his resolute strenuousness was not far from heroism. + +As a nervous subject, Spencer was naturally at times irritable, as +others can be without his excuse, and even petulant, severe in his +utterances, and a little intolerant. But normally he was habitually just +and tried to understand people, if not as persons, at least as +phenomena. What he said of Carlyle was much more just than what Carlyle +said of him, though it may have been what we call less "human." In his +own way Spencer felt that "tout comprendre, c'est tout pardonner," but +it has been truly said that "the natural man would rather be +passionately denounced than treated as a phenomenon to be +co-ordinated."[4] But this was just Spencer's way, and he applied it +equally to himself. + + In speaking of his seven years' experience as a committee-man in + connection with the Athenaeum, he notes certain traits of nature + which were manifest to himself at least. "The most conspicuous is + want of tact. This is an inherited deficiency. The Spencers of the + preceding generation were all characterised by lack of + reticence.... I tended habitually to undisguised utterance of ideas + and feelings; the result being that while I often excited + opposition from not remembering what others were likely to feel, I, + at the same time, disclosed my own intentions in cases where + concealment of them was needful as a means to success" + (_Autobiography_, ii. p. 280). + +It must be admitted that there was little out of the common in Herbert +Spencer's daily walk and conversation; in fact, there was a fair share +of common-placeness. Spencer himself was rather amused at those who +came expecting extraordinary intellectual manifestations or traits of +character greatly transcending ordinary ones. There was the pretty +poetess and heiress, whom two of his friends (Chapman and Miss Evans) +selected as a suitable wife for the philosopher, and who seems to have +been as little favourably impressed with him as he was with her. +"Probably she came with high anticipations and was disappointed." There +was the Frenchman who found Spencer playing billiards at the Athenaeum +Club, and "lifted up his hands with an exclamation to the effect that +had he not seen it he could not have believed it." And there was the +American millionaire, Mr Andrew Carnegie, who was so greatly astonished +to hear Spencer say at the dinner-table on the _Servia_, "Waiter, I did +not ask for Cheshire; I asked for Cheddar." To think that a philosopher +should be so fastidious about his cheese! + +Spencer seems never to have fallen in love, and his early utterances on +marriage savour somewhat of the non-mammalian type of bachelor. "If as +somebody said (Socrates, was it not?)--marrying is a thing which whether +you do it or do it not you will repent, it is pretty clear that you may +as well decide by a toss up. It's a choice of evils, and the two sides +are pretty nearly balanced." He was too wise to marry out of a sense of +duty, and too preoccupied to marry by inclination. "As for marrying +under existing circumstances, that is out of the question; and as for +twisting circumstances into better shape, I think it is too much +trouble."... "On the whole I am quite decided not to be a drudge; and as +I see no probability of being able to marry without being a drudge, +why, I have pretty well given up the idea." As a matter of fact, +however, he was not altogether so callous as his words suggest. Indeed +when balancing the alternatives of emigrating to New Zealand or staying +in England, he gave 110 marks to the latter and 301 to the former, +allowing no less than 100 for the marriage which emigration would render +feasible! + +In short Spencer could not marry when he would, and would not when he +could. He had a great admiration for women, especially beautiful women; +he had a natural fondness for children and got on well with them; but in +his struggling years he could not have supported a wife and family, and +besides he was very hard to please. On the one hand there was the +economic difficulty, for he felt assured that his friend was right in +saying "Had you married there would have been no system of philosophy." +It does not seem to have occurred to him that there might have been a +better one! On the other hand, there was his eternally critical +attitude. "Physical beauty is a _sine qua non_ with me; as was once +unhappily proved where the intellectual traits and the emotional traits +were of the highest." From the point of view of the race it seems a pity +that his _sine qua non_ was so stringent; an emotional graft on the +Spencerian stock might have given us for instance a new religious +genius. But Spencer's own conclusion was:-- + + "I am not by nature adapted to a relation in which perpetual + compromise and great forbearance are needful. That extreme critical + tendency which I have above described, joined with a lack of + reticence no less pronounced, would, I fear, have caused perpetual + domestic differences. After all my celibate life has probably been + the best for me, as well as the best for some unknown other." + +A critical yet appreciative estimate of Spencer has been given by Prof. +A. S. Pringle-Pattison, which we venture to quote to correct our own +partiality. + +"Paradoxical as the statement may seem in view of Spencer's achievement, +the mind here pourtrayed, save for the command of scientific facts and +the wonderful faculty of generalisation, is commonplace in the range of +its ideas; neither intellectually nor morally is the nature sensitive to +the finest issues. Almost uneducated except for a fair acquaintance with +mathematics and the scientific knowledge which his own tastes led him to +acquire, with the prejudices and limitations of middle-class English +Nonconformity, but untouched by its religion, Spencer appears in the +early part of his life as a somewhat ordinary young man. His ideals and +habits did not differ perceptibly from those of hundreds of intelligent +and straight-living Englishmen of his class. And to the end, in spite of +his cosmic outlook, there remains this strong admixture of the British +Philistine, giving a touch almost of banality to some of his sayings and +doings. But, just because the picture is so faithfully drawn, giving us +the man in his habit as he lived, with all his limitations and +prejudices (and his own consciousness of these limitations, expressed +sometimes with a passing regret, but oftener with a childish pride), +with all his irritating pedantries and the shallowness of his emotional +nature, we can balance against these defects his high integrity and +unflinching moral courage, his boundless faith in knowledge and his +power of conceiving a great ideal and carrying it through countless +difficulties to ultimate realisation, and a certain boyish simplicity of +character as well as other gentler human traits, such as his fondness +for children, his dependence upon the society of his kind, and his +capacity to form and maintain some life-long friendships. A kindly +feeling for the narrator grows as we proceed; and most unprejudiced +readers will close the book with a genuine respect and esteem for the +philosopher in his human aspect." + +_Fundamental Motives._--There seems something approaching +self-vivisection in Spencer's analysis of the motives prompting his +career, and the reader who is not moved by it must be callous indeed. We +shall not do more than refer to the general results arrived at. + + "So deep down is the gratification which results from the + consciousness of efficiency, and the further consciousness of the + applause which recognised efficiency brings, that it is impossible + for any one to exclude it. Certainly, in my own case, the desire + for such recognition has not been absent. Yet, so far as I can + remember, ambition was not the primary motive of my first efforts, + nor has it been the primary motive of my larger and later + efforts."... "Still, as I have said, the desire for achievement and + the honour which achievement brings, have doubtless been large + factors."... "Though from the outset I have had in view the effects + to be wrought on men's beliefs and courses of action--especially in + respect of social affairs and governmental functions; yet the + sentiment of ambition has all along been operative." + +The other prompters were the pleasure of intellectual hunting and "the +architectonic instinct." On the one hand, "It has been with me a source +of continual pleasure, distinct from other pleasures, to evolve new +thoughts, and to be in some sort a spectator of the way in which, under +persistent contemplation, they gradually unfolded into completeness." On +the other hand, "during thirty years it has been a source of frequent +elation to see each division, and each part of a division, working out +into congruity with the rest--to see each component fitting into its +place, and helping to make a harmonious whole." "Once having become +possessed by the conception of Evolution in its comprehensive form, the +desire to elaborate and set it forth was so strong that to have passed +life in doing something else would, I think, have been almost +intolerable." Like an architect he was restless till his edifice was +completed, and on working towards this there was aesthetic as well as +intellectual gratification. "There appears to be in me a dash of the +artist, which has all along made the achievement of beauty a stimulus; +not, of course, beauty as commonly conceived, but such beauty as may +exist in a philosophical structure." + + Spencer had a high sense of his responsibility to deliver the truth + that was in him, and he had a strong faith in human progress. It is + in the light of these two sentiments, perhaps, that we best + understand the heroism of his strenuous life. "Not only is it + rational to infer that changes like those which have been going on + during civilisation will continue to go on, but it is irrational to + do otherwise. Not he who believes that adaptation will increase is + absurd, but he who doubts that it will increase is absurd. Lack of + faith in such further evolution of humanity as shall harmonise with + its conditions adds but another to the countless illustrations of + inadequate consciousness of causation. One who, leaving behind both + primitive dogmas and primitive ways of looking at them, has, while + accepting scientific conclusions, acquired those habits of thought + which science generates, will regard the conclusion above drawn as + inevitable" (_Data of Ethics_, chap. x.). + + "Whoever hesitates to utter that which he thinks the highest truth, + lest it should be too much in advance of the time, may reassure + himself by looking at his acts from an impersonal point of view. + Let him duly realise the fact that opinion is the agency through + which character adapts external arrangements to itself--that his + opinion rightly forms part of this agency--is a unit of forces, + constituting, with other such units, the general power which works + out social changes; and he will perceive that he may properly give + full utterance to his innermost conviction, leaving it to produce + what effect it may. It is not for nothing that he has in him these + sympathies with some principles and repugnance to others. He with + all his capacities, and aspirations, and beliefs, is not an + accident, but a product of his time. He must remember that while he + is a descendant of the past, he is a parent of the future; and that + his thoughts are as children born to him, which he may not + carelessly let die. He, like every other man, may properly consider + himself as one of the myriad agencies through whom works the + Unknown Cause; and when the Unknown produces in him a certain + belief, he is thereby authorised to profess and act out that + belief" (_First Principles_, p. 123). + +FOOTNOTES: + +[2] Francis Gribble: "Fortnightly Review," 1904, p. 984. + +[3] Gribble, _op. cit._ + +[4] Gribble, _op. cit._ + + + + +CHAPTER VIII + +SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST--THE DATA OF BIOLOGY + + _The Principles of Biology--Organic Matter--Metabolism--Definition + of Life--The Dynamic Element in Life--Life and Mechanism_ + + +_The Principles of Biology._--If there is any book that will save a +naturalist from being easy-going it is Spencer's _Principles of +Biology_. It is a biological classic, which, in its range and intensity, +finds no parallel except in Haeckel's greatest and least known work, the +_Generelle Morphologie_, which was published in 1866 about the same time +as the _Principles_. As one of our foremost biologists, Prof. Lloyd +Morgan has said[5]: "What strikes one most forcibly is the extraordinary +range and grasp of its author, the piercing keenness of his eye for +essentials, his fertility in invention, and the bold sweep of his +logical method. In these days of increasingly straitened specialism, it +is well that we should feel the influence of a thinker whose powers of +generalisation have seldom been equalled and perhaps never surpassed." + +Much that is in _The Principles of Biology_ has now become common +biological property; much has been absorbed or independently reached by +others; consciously or unconsciously we are now, as it were, standing +on Spencer's shoulders, but this should not blind us to the magnitude of +Spencer's achievement. The book was more than a careful balance-sheet of +the facts of life at a time when that was much needed; it meant +orientation and systematisation; it was the introduction of order, +clearness, and breadth of view. It gave biology a fresh start by +displaying the facts of life and the inductions from these for the first +time clearly in the light of evolution. For if the evolution idea is an +adequate modal formula of the great process of Becoming, then we need to +think of growth, development, differentiation, integration, +reproduction, heredity, death--all the big facts--in the light of this. +And this is what the _Principles of Biology_ helps us to do. It is of +course saturated with the theory of the transmissibility of acquired +characters--an idea integral to much of Spencer's thinking--which had +hardly begun to be questioned when the work was published, which is now, +however, a very moot point indeed. For this and other reasons, we doubt +whether Spencer was wise in making a re-edition of what might well have +remained as a historical document, especially as the re-edition is not +so satisfactory for 1898 as the original was for 1864. + +The chief purpose of _The Principles of Biology_ was to interpret the +general facts of organic life as results of evolution. Manifestly, as a +preliminary step, "it was needful to specify and illustrate these +general facts; and needful also to set forth those physical and chemical +properties of organic matter which are implied in the interpretation." +"What are the antecedent truths taken for granted in Biology, and what +are the biological truths, which, apart from theory, may be regarded as +established by observation?" Thus Part I. deals with organic matter and +its activity or metabolism, the action and reaction between organisms +and their environment, the correspondence between organisms and their +circumstances, and similar general data. Part II. states the big +inductions regarding growth, development, adaptation, heredity, +variation, and so on. Part III. deals with the arguments suggestive of +organic evolution and with the factors in the process. Part IV. is a +detailed interpretation of the evolution of organic structure, and Part +V. an analogous interpretation of the evolution of functions. Part VI. +deals with the laws of multiplication. + +Before illustrating Spencer's workmanship in dealing with these great +themes, we cannot but ask what preparation he had for a task so +ambitious. He had an inborn interest in Natural History; he had dabbled +in Entomology and done a little microscopic work; he had attended +lectures by Owen and had enjoyed many a talk with Huxley; he had been +influenced by Lamarck, Milne-Edwards, and von Baer; he had read hither +and thither in medical and biological literature; but it is manifest +that his own admission was true that he was "inadequately equipped for +the task." That he succeeded in producing a biological classic is a +signal proof of his intellectual strength. He was kept right by his +power of laying hold of cardinal facts and by his grip of the +Evolution-clue. Not to be forgotten, moreover, was the generous help +rendered by Professor Huxley and Sir Joseph Hooker, who checked his +proofs. Spencer made but one biological investigation (1865-6), and +that of little moment--on the circulation in plants--but his contact +with the facts of organic life was by no means superficial. His +intelligence was such that he got further into them than most concrete +workers have ever done. And in some measure it was an advantage to him +in his task that he was no specialist, that he did not know too much. It +enabled him to approach the facts with a fresh mind, and to see more +clearly the general facts of Biology which lie behind the details of +Botany and Natural History. He was in no danger of not seeing the wood +for the trees. + +_Organic Matter._--"In the substances of which organisms are composed, +the conditions necessary to that redistribution of Matter and Motion +which constitutes Evolution, are fulfilled in a far higher degree than +at first appears." Thus the most complex compounds into which Carbon, +Hydrogen, Oxygen, and Nitrogen enter, together with small proportions of +two other elements (Sulphur and Phosphorus) which very readily oxidise, +"have an instability so great that decomposition ensues under ordinary +atmospheric conditions"; the component elements have an unusual tendency +to unite in different modes of aggregation though in the same +proportions, thus forming analogous substances with different +properties; the colloid character of the most complex compounds that are +instrumental to vital actions gives them great molecular mobility--a +plastic quality fitting them for organisation; "while the relatively +great inertia of the large and complex organic molecules renders them +comparatively incapable of being set in motion by the ethereal +undulations, and so reduced to less coherent forms of aggregation, this +same inertia facilitates changes of arrangement among their constituent +molecules or atoms, since, in proportion as an incident force impresses +but little motion on a mass, it is the better able to impress motion on +the parts of the mass in relation to one another"; "lastly, the great +difference in diffusibility between colloids and crystalloids makes +possible in the tissues of organisms a specially rapid redistribution of +matter and motion; both because colloids, being easily permeable by +crystalloids, can be chemically acted on throughout their whole masses, +instead of only on their surfaces; and because the products of +decomposition, being also crystalloids, can escape as fast as they are +produced, leaving room for further transformations." In short, organic +matter is chemically and physically well-suited to be the physical basis +of life. + + The colloid character of organic matter facilitates modification by + arrested momentum or by continuous strain. There is often strong + capillary affinity and rapid osmosis. Heat is an important agent of + redistribution in the animal organism, and light is an + all-important agent of molecular changes in organic substances. But + the extreme modifiability of organic matter by chemical agencies is + the chief cause of that active molecular rearrangement which + organisms, and especially animal organisms, display. In short, the + substances of which organisms are built up are specially sensitive + to the varied environing influences; "in consequence of its extreme + instability organic matter undergoes extensive molecular + rearrangements on very slight changes of conditions." + + The correlative general fact is that during these extensive + molecular rearrangements, there are evolved large amounts of + energy, in the form of motion, heat, and even light and + electricity. On the one hand the components of organic matter are + regarded as falling from positions of unstable equilibrium to + positions of stable equilibrium; on the other hand, "they give out + in their falls certain momenta--momenta that may be manifested as + heat, light, electricity, nerve-force, or mechanical motion, + according as the conditions determine." It follows from the law of + the Conservation of Energy that "whatever amount of power an + organism expends in any shape, is the correlate and equivalent of a + power which was taken into it from without." + +_Metabolism._--"The materials forming the tissues of plants as well as +the materials contained in them, are progressively elaborated from the +inorganic substances; and the resulting compounds, eaten, and some of +them assimilated by animals, pass through successive changes which are, +on the average, of an opposite character: the two sets being +constructive and destructive. To express changes of both these natures +the term 'metabolism' is used; and such of the metabolic changes as +result in building up from simple to compound are distinguished as +'anabolic,' while those which result in the falling down from compound +to simple are distinguished as 'katabolic.'" + + "Regarded as a whole, metabolism includes, in the first place, + those anabolic or building-up processes specially characterising + plants, during which the impacts of ethereal undulations are stored + up in compound molecules of unstable kinds; and it includes, in the + second place, those katabolic or tumbling-down changes specially + characterising animals, during which this accumulated molecular + motion (contained in the food directly or indirectly supplied by + plants) is in large measure changed into those molar motions + constituting animal activities. There are multitudinous metabolic + changes of minor kinds which are ancillary to these--many katabolic + changes in plants and many anabolic changes in animals--but these + are the essential ones." + +_Definition of Life._--Spencer's first definition of life (_Theory of +Population_, 1852) was simply "the co-ordination of actions." But he +soon saw that this was too wide. "It may be said of the Solar System, +with its regularly-recurring movements and its self-balancing +perturbations, that it, also, exhibits co-ordination of actions." "A +true idea of Life must be an idea of some kind of change or changes." +Therefore he carefully considered assimilation on the one hand, as an +example of bodily life, and reasoning on the other hand, as an example +of that life known as intelligence, and inquired into the common +features of these two processes of change. Thus there emerged the +formula that life is _the definite combination of heterogeneous changes, +both simultaneous and successive_. But this formula also fails, as he +said, by omitting the most distinctive peculiarity. It is universally +recognised that living creatures continually exhibit _effective_ +response to external stimuli. To be able to do this is the very essence +of life, distinguishing its responses from non-vital responses. Thus a +clause must be added to the proximate conception, and the formula reads: +"Life is the definite combination of heterogeneous changes, both +simultaneous and successive, _in correspondence with external +co-existences and sequences_." There are internal relations, namely, +"definite combinations of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and +successive," and there are external relations, "external co-existences +and sequences," and life is the connexion of correspondence between +them. Thus under its most abstract form, Spencer's conception of Life +is:--"_The continuous adjustment of internal relations to external +relations._" + +In an appendix to the revised edition of the _Principles of Biology_, +Spencer admits that he had not sufficiently emphasised the fact of +_co-ordination_. "The idea of co-ordination is so cardinal a one that it +should be expressed not by implication but overtly." The formula +defining the phenomenon of life thus reads: "_The definite combination +of heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, co-ordinated +into correspondence with external co-existences and sequences._" It may +be needful to remark that this was not intended to define Life in its +essence, but Life as manifested to us. "The ultimate mystery is as great +as ever: seeing that there remains unsolved the question: What +_determines_ the co-ordination of actions?" + +If life be correspondence between internal and external relations, then +"allowing a margin for perturbations, the life will continue only while +the correspondence continues; the completeness of the life will be +proportionate to the completeness of the correspondence; and the life +will be perfect only when the correspondence is perfect." As organisms +become more differentiated they enter into more complex relations with +their environment, and as the environment becomes more complex organisms +become more differentiated. The internal and external relations increase +in number and intricacy _pari passu_, and the correspondences between +them become more complex, numerous, and persistent. "The highest life is +that which, like our own, shows great complexity in the correspondences, +great rapidity in the succession of them, and great length in the series +of them." "The highest Life is reached when there is some inner relation +of actions fitted to meet every outer relation of actions by which the +organism can be affected." "This continuous correspondence between +inner and outer relations which constitutes Life, and the perfection of +which is the perfection of Life, answers completely to that state of +organic moving equilibrium which arises in the course of Evolution and +tends ever to become more complete." + +_The Dynamic Element in Life._--But Spencer was not satisfied with his +formula of Life. He recognised that there were vital phenomena which +were not covered by it. The growth of a gall on a plant, due to irritant +substances produced by an insect, shows no internal relations adjusted +to external relations; the heart of a frog will live and beat for a long +time after excision; the segmentation of an egg shows no correspondence +with co-existences and sequences in its environment; when rudimentary +organs are partly formed and then absorbed, no adjustment can be alleged +between the inner relations which these present and any outer relations: +the outer relations they refer to ceased millions of years ago; no +correspondence, or part of a correspondence, by which inner actions are +made to balance outer actions, can be seen in the dairymaid's laugh or +the workman's whistle; the struggles of a boy in an epileptic fit show +no correspondence with the co-existences and sequences around him, but +they betray vitality as much as do the changing movements of a hawk +pursuing a pigeon; "both exhibit that principle of activity which +constitutes the essential element in our conception of life." + + "When it is said that Life is the definite combination of + heterogeneous changes, both simultaneous and successive, in + correspondence with external co-existences and sequences, there + arises the question--Changes of what?... Still more clearly do we + see this insufficiency when we take the more abstract + definition--"the continuous adjustment of internal relations to + external relations." Relations between what things? is the question + to be asked. A relation of which the terms are unspecified does not + connote a thought but merely the blank form of a thought. Its value + is comparable to that of a cheque on which no amount is written." + +This self-criticism led Spencer to the conclusion that "that which gives +substance to our idea of Life is a certain unspecified principle of +activity. The dynamic element in life is its essential element." + +But how are we to conceive of this dynamic element? "Is this principle +of activity inherent in organic matter, or is it something superadded?" +Spencer at once rejected the second alternative, because the hypothesis +of an independent vital principle has a bad pedigree, carrying us back +to the ghost-theory of the savage, and because it is an unrepresentable +'pseud-idea,' which cannot even be imagined. + +But the alternative of regarding Life as inherent in the substances of +the organisms displaying it is also full of difficulties. "The processes +which go on in living things are incomprehensible as results of any +physical actions known to us." "We are obliged to confess that Life in +its essence cannot be conceived in physico-chemical terms. The required +principle of activity, which we found cannot be represented as an +independent vital principle, we now find cannot be represented as a +principle inherent in living matter. If, by assuming its inherence, we +think the facts are accounted for, we do but cheat ourselves with +pseud-ideas." + +"What then are we to say--what are we to think? Simply that in this +direction, as in all other directions, our explanations finally bring us +face to face with the inexplicable. The Ultimate Reality behind this +manifestation, as behind all other manifestations, transcends +conception." + +"Life as a principle of activity is unknown and unknowable--while its +phenomena are accessible in thought the implied noumenon is +inaccessible--only the manifestations come within the range of our +intelligence, while that which is manifested lies beyond it." + +But "our surface knowledge continues to be a knowledge valid of its +kind, after recognising the truth that it is only surface knowledge." + +The chapter on "The Dynamic Element in Life," which concludes the +section of the book called _The Data of Biology_, was interpolated in +the revised edition (1898). It indicates, as it seems to us, that +Spencer's point of view had changed considerably since he stereotyped +his _First Principles_. We must pause to consider what this change was. + +In his _First Principles_ Spencer wrote: "The task before us is that of +exhibiting the phenomena of Evolution in synthetic order. Setting out +from an established ultimate principle [the Persistence of Force] it has +to be shown that the course of transformation among all kinds of +existences cannot but be that which we have seen it to be." [This refers +to the formula: Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant +dissipation of motion during which the matter passes from an indefinite, +incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during +which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation.] "It has +to be shown that the redistribution of matter and motion must everywhere +take place in those ways and produce those traits, which celestial +bodies, organisms, societies alike display. And it has to be shown that +this universality of process results from the same necessity which +determines each simplest movement around us, down to the accelerated +fall of a stone or the recurrent beat of a harp string. In other words, +the phenomena of Evolution have to be deduced from the Persistence of +Force. As before said, 'to this an ultimate analysis brings us down; and +on this a rational synthesis must build up.'" And again he wrote: "The +interpretation of all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force, +is nothing more than the reduction of our complex symbols of thought to +the simplest symbols." + +These were brave words, and if we understand them aright it is, to say +the least, surprising to be told when we come to the life of organisms +that "the processes which go on in living things are incomprehensible as +results of any physical actions known to us." + +On the first page of the _Principles of Biology_ we read: "The +properties of substances, though destroyed to sense by combination, are +not destroyed in reality. It follows from the persistence of force, that +the properties of a compound are _resultants_ of the properties of its +components--_resultants_ in which the properties of the components are +severally in full action, though mutually obscured." But on p. 122 it is +written: "We find it impossible to conceive Life as emerging from the +co-operation of the components." + +In the frankest possible way Spencer admitted that his definition of +Life did not cover the facts, that it did not recognise the essential or +dynamic element, that "Life in its essence cannot be conceived in +physico-chemical terms." But if so, it can only be by great faith or +great credulity that we can believe that an Evolution-formula in terms +of "Matter, Motion, and Force" is adequate to describe its genesis. + +At an earlier part of the _Data of Biology_ Spencer assumed the origin +of active protoplasm from a combination of inert proteids during the +time of the earth's slow cooling, and did not suggest that there was any +particular difficulty in the assumption; yet in the end we are told that +it is "impossible even to imagine those processes going on in organic +matter out of which emerges the dynamic element in Life." + + "One can picture," Prof. C. Lloyd Morgan writes,[6] "how certain + folk will gloat and 'chortle in their joy' over this confession, + for such it will almost inevitably be regarded. But it is not + likely that Mr Spencer is here, in so vital a matter, false to the + evolution he has done so much to elucidate. The two seemingly + contradictory statements are not really contradictory; they are + made in different connections; the one in reference to phenomenal + causation, the other to noumenal causation--to an underlying + 'principle of activity.' The simple statement of fact is that the + phenomena of life are data _sui generis_, and must as such be + accepted by science. Just as when oxygen and hydrogen combine to + form water, new data for science emerge; so, when protoplasm was + evolved, new data emerged which it is the business of science to + study. In both cases we believe that the results are due to the + operation of natural laws, that is to say, can, with adequate + knowledge, be described in terms of antecedence and sequence. But + in both cases the results, which we endeavour thus to formulate, + are the outcome of principles of activity, the mode of operation of + which is inexplicable. We formulate the laws of evolution in terms + of antecedence and sequence; we also refer these laws to an + underlying cause, the noumenal mode of action of which is + inexplicable. This, if I interpret him rightly, is Mr Spencer's + meaning." + +Our own impression is that Spencer was guilty of "wobbling" between two +modes of interpretation, between scientific description and +philosophical explanation, a confusion incident on the fact that his +_Principles of Biology_ was also part of his _Synthetic Philosophy_. +Biology as such has of course nothing to do with "the Ultimate Reality +behind manifestations" or with the "implied noumenon." And when Spencer +says "it is impossible even to imagine those processes going on in +organic matter out of which emerges the dynamic element in Life," or +when he illustrates his difficulty by pointing out how impossible it is +to give a physico-chemical interpretation of the way a plant cell makes +its wall, or a coccolith its imbricated covering, or a sponge its +spicules, or a hen eats broken egg-shells, we do not believe he was +thinking of anything but "phenomenal causation." When he says "The +processes which go on in living things are incomprehensible as results +of any physical actions known to us," we see no reason to take the edge +off this truth by saying that Spencer simply meant that the Ultimate +Reality is inaccessible. + +In any case, whether Spencer meant that we cannot give any scientific +analysis in physico-chemical terms of the unified behaviour of even the +simplest organism, or whether he simply meant that the _raison d'etre_, +the ultimate reality of life, was an inaccessible noumenon, he +confesses that we have "only a surface knowledge"; "only the +manifestations come within the range of our intelligence while that +which is manifested lies beyond it"; "the order existing among the +actions which living things exhibit remains the same whether we know or +do not know the nature of that from which the actions originate." This +seems to us to sound a more modest note than is heard in the sentence: +"The interpretation of all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion and +Force, is nothing more than the reduction of our complex symbols of +thought to the simplest symbols." + +_Life and Mechanism._--But are not all biologists confronted with the +difficulty that gave Herbert Spencer pause? Physiological analysis has +done much in revealing chains of sequence within the organism, but no +vital phenomenon has as yet been redescribed in terms of chemistry and +physics. Again and again some success in discovering physico-chemical +chains of sequence has awakened the expectation that the dawn of a +mechanical theory of life was drawing nigh, but the dawn seems further +off than ever. The residual phenomena left uninterpreted by mechanical +categories loom out more persistently than they did a century ago. As +Bunge once said "the more thoroughly and conscientiously we endeavour to +study biological problems, the more are we convinced that even those +processes which we have already regarded as explicable by chemical and +physical laws, are in reality infinitely more complex, and at present +defy any attempt at a mechanical explanation." As Dr J. S. Haldane puts +it: "If we look at the phenomena which are capable of being stated, or +explained in physico-chemical terms, we see at once that there is +nothing in them characteristic of life.... The action of each bodily +mechanism, the composition and structure of each organ, are all mutually +determined and connected with one another in such a way as at once to +distinguish a living organism from anything else. As this mutual +determination is the characteristic mark of what is living, it cannot be +ignored in the framing of fundamental working hypotheses." + +The fact is that we have to regard the living organism as a new +synthesis which we cannot at present analyse, and life as an activity +which cannot at present be redescribed in terms of the present physical +conceptions of matter and energy. And even if a living organism were +artificially made, the problem would not be altered; though our +conception of what we at present call inanimate might be. + +Prof. Karl Pearson states the position from another point of view. + +For the biologist as a scientific inquirer "the problem of whether life +is or is not a mechanism is not a question of whether the same things, +'matter' and 'force,' are or are not at the back of organic and +inorganic phenomena--of what is at the back of either class of +sense-impressions we know absolutely nothing--but of whether the +conceptual shorthand of the physicist, his ideal world of ether, atom, +and molecule, will or will not also suffice to describe the biologist's +perceptions." That it does not at present seems the conviction of the +majority of physiologists; if it ever should it would be "purely an +economy of thought; it would provide the great advantages which flow +from the use of one instead of two conceptual shorthands, but it would +not 'explain' life any more than the law of gravitation explains the +elliptic path of a planet." + +"Atom" and "molecule" and the rest are scientific concepts, not +phenomenal existences, therefore even if the physicist's formulae should +fit vital phenomena--which they seem very far from doing--there would be +no explanation forthcoming, for "mechanism does not explain anything." + +Thus, like Spencer, we find the secret of the organism irresoluble in +terms of lower categories. But we differ from him inasmuch as we believe +that this admission is fatal to his formula of evolution, to his +definition of life, and to the coherence of his _Synthetic Philosophy_. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[5] Mr Herbert Spencer's Biology, "Natural Science," xiii. (1898) pp. +377-383. + +[6] "Natural Science," xiii., December 1898, p. 380. + + + + +CHAPTER IX + +SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST: INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY + + _Growth--Development--Structure and Function--Waste and + Repair--Adaptation--Cell-Life--Genesis--Nutrition and + Reproduction--The Germ-Cells_ + + +_Growth._--Perhaps the widest and most familiar induction of Biology, is +that organisms grow. But there is growth in crystals, in terrestrial +deposits, in celestial bodies; in fact, growth, as being an integration +of matter, is the primary trait of evolution; it is universal, in the +sense that all aggregates display it in some way at some period. "The +essential community of nature between organic growth and inorganic +growth is, however, most clearly seen on observing that they both result +in the same way. The segregation of different kinds of detritus from +each other, as well as from the water carrying them, and their +aggregation into distinct strata, is but an instance of a universal +tendency towards the union of like units and the parting of unlike units +(_First Principles_, Sec. 163). The deposit of a crystal from a solution is +a differentiation of the previously mixed molecules; and an integration +of one class of molecules into a solid body, and the other class into a +liquid solvent. Is not the growth of an organism an essentially similar +process? Around a plant there exist certain elements like the elements +which form its substance; and its increase in size is effected by +continually integrating these surrounding like elements with itself." +And so on. + +Passing over the far-fetched statement that the deposit of sediment in +distinct strata illustrates the universal tendency towards the union of +like units and the parting of unlike units, we must point out that +Spencer begins his discussion of organic growth by describing it in such +general terms that its essential characteristic is lost sight of. A +minute crystal of alum is dropped into a saturated solution of alum, and +it grows rapidly under our eyes out of material the same as its own, but +the living creature grows larger at the expense of material _different_ +from its own. The grass grows at the expense of air, water, and salts, +and the lamb grows at the expense of the grass. Though the living +creature cannot, of course, transform one element into another, and must +have carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, etc., in its food, it utilises +materials chemically very different from its own complex compounds. + +Spencer's inductions as to growth were the following:-- + + (1) The growth of an organism is dependent on the available supply + of such environing materials as are of like natures with the + matters composing the organism. + + (2) Other things being equal, the degree of growth varies according + to the surplus of nutrition over expenditure. + + (3) In the same organism the surplus of nutrition over expenditure + differs at different stages, and growth is unlimited or has a + definite limit, according as the surplus does or does not rapidly + decrease. There is almost unceasing growth in organisms that expend + relatively little energy and definitely limited growth in + organisms that expend much energy. [There are many difficulties + here, _e.g._, the apparent absence of a limit of growth in many + very energetic fishes.] + + (4) Among organisms which are large expenders of force, the size + ultimately attained is, other things equal, determined by the + initial size. [By initial size Spencer means the bulk of the + organism when it begins to feed for itself.] A calf and a lamb + commence their physiological transactions on widely different + scales; their first increments of growth are similarly contrasted + in their amounts; and the two diminishing series of such increments + end at similarly-contrasted limits. + + [But the further we penetrate into details, the more inevitable + seems the conclusion that adult size is _an adaptive phenomenon_; + in other words that growth has been punctuated by natural + selection.] + + (5) Where the likeness of other circumstances permits a comparison, + the possible extent of growth depends on the degree of + organization; an inference testified to by the larger forms among + the various divisions and sub-divisions of organisms. + +In connection with growth and its limit Spencer made a simple but shrewd +observation, which seems also to have occurred to Prof. Leuckart and to +Dr Alexander James. He pointed out, that in the growth of similarly +shaped bodies the increase of volume continually tends to outrun the +increase of surface. The volume of living matter must grow more than the +surface through which it is kept alive, if the surface remain regular in +contour. In spherical and all other regular units the volume increases +as the cube of the radius, the surface only as the square of the radius. +Thus a cell, for instance, as it grows, must get into physiological +difficulties, for the nutritive necessities of the increasing volume are +ever less adequately supplied by the less rapidly increasing absorbent +surface. There is less and less opportunity for nutrition, respiration, +and excretion. A nemesis of growth sets in, for waste gains upon, +overtakes, balances, and threatens to exceed repair. Growth may cease at +this limit, and a balance be struck; or the form of the unit may be +altered and surface gained by flattening out, or very frequently by +ramifying processes; or--and this the most frequent solution--the cell +may divide, halving its volume, gaining new surface, and restoring the +balance. In more general terms, growth expresses the preponderance of +constructive processes or anabolism; increase of volume with less rapid +increase of nutritive, respiratory, and excretory surface involves a +relative predominance of katabolism; the limit of growth occurs when +further increase of volume would prejudicially increase the ratio of +katabolism to anabolism; at that point the cell restores the balance by +dividing. And what is true of the unit applies also in a general way to +organs, such as leaves which increase their surface by becoming much +divided, and even to organisms which exhibit many adaptations for +increasing their nutritive, respiratory, and excretory surfaces. + +_Development._--Growth is increase in bulk, development is increase in +structure, and Spencer's chief induction in regard to development is +that we see a change from an incoherent, indefinite homogeneity to a +coherent, definite heterogeneity. "The originally like units called +cells become unlike in various ways, and in ways more numerous and +marked as the development goes on. The several tissues which these +several classes of cells form by aggregation, grow little by little +distinct from each other; and little by little put on those structural +complexities that arise from differentiations among their component +units. In the shoot, as in the limb, the external form, originally very +simple, and having much in common with simple forms in general, +gradually acquires an increasing complexity and an increasing unlikeness +to other forms. Meanwhile, the remaining parts of the organism to which +the shoot or limb belongs, having been severally assuming structures +divergent from one another and from that of this particular shoot or +limb, there has arisen a greater heterogeneity in the organism as a +whole." Moreover, "whereas the germs of organisms are extremely similar, +they gradually diverge widely in modes now regular and now irregular, +until in place of a multitude of forms practically alike we finally have +a multitude of forms most of which are extremely unlike." In other +words, there is in individual development (ontogeny) some condensed +recapitulation of the steps in racial evolution (phylogeny). +Furthermore, in the progressing differentiation of each organism there +is a progressing differentiation of it from its environment; it becomes +freer from the environmental grip and more master of its fate. Here +again there is an individual progress parallel to that seen in the +course of historic evolution. + +A general criticism must be made, that Spencer thought of the germ-cell +much too simply. It is a microcosm full of intricacy; the nucleus is +often exceedingly definite and coherent; the early cells are often from +the first defined, with prospective values which do not change. The +fertilised ovum has only apparent simplicity; it has a complex +individualised organisation--often visible. No one can doubt that +development is progressive differentiation, but it is rather a +realisation of a complex inheritance of materialised potentialities than +a change from an incoherent, indefinite homogeneity to a coherent, +definite heterogeneity. + +_Structure and Function._--To the question, does Life produce +Organisation, or does Organisation produce Life? Spencer answered that +"structure and function must have advanced _pari passu_: some difference +of function, primarily determined by some difference of relation to the +environment, initiating a slight difference of structure, and this again +leading to a more pronounced difference of function; and so on through +continuous actions and reactions." As structure progresses from the +homogeneous, indefinite, and incoherent, so does function, illustrating +progressive division of labour. From an evolutionist point of view, +Spencer argued that life necessarily comes before organisation; "organic +matter in a state of homogeneous aggregation must precede organic matter +in a stage of heterogeneous aggregation. But since the passing from a +structureless state to a structured state is itself a vital process, it +follows that vital activity must have existed while there was yet no +structure: structure could not else arise. That function takes +precedence of structure, seems also implied in the definition of Life. +If Life is shown by inner actions so adjusted as to balance outer +actions--if the implied energy is the _substance_ of Life while the +adjustment of the actions constitutes its _form_; then may we not say +that the actions to be formed must come before that which forms +them--that the continuous change which is the basis of function, must +come before the structure which brings function into shape?" + +But all such discussions of "structure" and "function" in the abstract +tend to verbal quibbling. We cannot have activity without something to +act, we cannot have metabolism without stuff. No one can tell what the +first thing that lived on the earth was like, what organisation it had, +or what it was able to do, but we may be sure that vital organisation +and vital activity are only static and kinetic aspects of the same +thing. It is quite probable, however, that there is no one thing that +can be called protoplasm, for vital function may depend upon the +inter-relations or inter-actions of several complex substances, none of +which could by itself be called alive; which are, however, held together +in that unity which makes an organism what it is. Just as the secret of +a firm's success may depend upon a particularly fortunate association of +partners, so it may be with vitality.[7] + +_Waste and Repair._--Organisms are systems for transforming matter and +energy and the law of conservation holds good. "Each portion of +mechanical or other energy which an organism exerts implies the +transformation of as much organic matter as contained this energy in a +latent state," and the waste must be made good by repair. We thus see +why plants with an enormous income of energy and little expenditure of +energy have no difficulty in sustaining the balance between waste and +repair; we understand the relation between small waste, small activity, +and low temperature in many of the lower animals; we understand +conversely the rapid waste of energetic, hot-blooded animals. The +deductive interpretation of waste is easy, but it is different with +repair, for here the analogy between the organism and an inanimate +engine breaks down. The living creature is a self-stoking, +self-repairing, and also--it may be noted in passing--a self-reproducing +engine. Spencer did not do more than restate the difficulty when he said +that the component units of organisms have the power of moulding fit +materials into other units of the same order. + +In passing to consider the ability which an organism often has of +recompleting itself when one of its parts has been cut off, just as an +injured crystal recompletes itself, Spencer was led to the hypothesis +that "the form of each species of organism is determined by a +peculiarity in the constitution of its units--that these have a special +structure in which they tend to arrange themselves; just as have the +simpler units of inorganic matter." "This organic polarity (as we might +figuratively call this proclivity towards a specific structural +arrangement) can be possessed neither by the chemical units nor the +morphological units, we must conceive it as possessed by certain +intermediate units, which we may term _physiological_." But if in each +organism the physiological units which result from the compounding of +highly compound molecules have a more or less distinctive character, the +germ-cell is not so very _indefinite_ after all. + +Many of the facts of regeneration are very striking. A crab may regrow +its complex claw, a starfish arm may regrow an entire body. A snail has +been known to regenerate an amputated eye-bearing horn twenty times in +succession, a newt can replace a lost lens, a lizard can regrow its tail +and part of its leg, a stork can regrow the greater part of its bill. In +many cases, the surrender of parts which are afterwards regrown is +exceedingly common, as in some worms and Echinoderms, and is a +life-saving adaptation. Organically, though not consciously, the +brainless starfish has learned that it is better that one member should +perish than that the whole life should be lost. This regenerative +capacity no doubt implies certain properties in the living matter and in +the organism, but we are far from being able to picture how it comes +about. What does seem clear is that the distribution and mode of +occurrence of the regenerative capacity--in external organs often, but +in internal organs very rarely; in most lizard's tails, but not in the +chamaeleon's; in the stork's bill but not in its toes--are _adaptive_, +being related to the normal risks of life, as Reaumur, Lessona, Darwin, +and Weismann have pointed out. According to Lessona's Law, which +Weismann has elaborated, regeneration tends to occur in those organisms +and in those parts of organisms which are in the ordinary course +of nature most liable to injury. To which we must add two +saving-clauses--(_a_) provided that the lost part is of some vital +importance, and (_b_) provided that the wound or breakage is not in +itself very likely to be fatal. In Weismann's words, the theory is, that +"the power of regeneration possessed by an animal or by a part of an +animal is regulated by adaptation to the frequency of loss and to the +extent of the damage done by the loss." + +_Adaptation._--Wherever we look in the world of organisms we find +examples of adaptation; we see form suited for different kinds of +motion, organs suited for their uses, constitution suited to +circumstances in such external features as colouring and in such +internal adjustments as the regulation of temperature; we find effective +weapons and effective armour, flowers adapted to insect visitors and +insect visitors adapted to flowers, one sex adapted in relation to the +other, the mother adapted to bearing and rearing offspring, the embryo +adapted to its pre-natal life; everywhere there is adaptation in varying +degrees of perfection. The adaptation is a fact, in regard to which all +naturalists are agreed; difference of opinion arises when we ask how +these adaptations have come to be. + +In the chapter "Adaptation" Spencer practically restricted his attention +to a certain kind of adaptation, namely the direct modifications which +result from use or disuse, or from environmental influence. The +blacksmith's arm, the dancer's legs, the jockey's crural adductors, +illustrate direct results of practice; "a force de forger on devient +forgeron." The skin forms protective callosities where it is much +pressed or rubbed, as on the schoolboy's hands or the old man's +toothless gums. The blood-vessels may respond by enlargement to +increased demands made on them; the fingers of the blind become +extraordinarily sensitive. + +Spencer points to the general truth that extra function is followed by +extra growth, but that a limit is soon reached beyond which very little, +if any, further modification can be produced. Moreover, the limited +increase of size produced in any organ by a limited increase of its +function, is not maintained unless the increase of function is +permanent. When the modifying influence is removed, the organism +rebounds or tends to rebound. A lasting change of importance involves a +re-organisation, a new state of equilibrium. + +On inductive and deductive grounds, Spencer summed up in four +conclusions:-- + + (1) An adaptive change of structure will soon reach a point beyond + which further adaptation will be slow. + + (2) When the modifying cause has been but for a short time in + action, the modification generated will be evanescent. + + (3) A modifying cause acting even for many generations will do + little towards permanently altering the organic equilibrium of a + race. + + (4) On the cessation of such cause, its effects will become + unapparent in the course of a few generations. + +But two cautions must be emphasised (_a_) that Spencer, in this +discussion, dealt only with those direct adjustments which are referable +to the action of use or disuse, or of surrounding influences; and (_b_) +that we have no security in regarding these as being as such +transmissible. + +By adaptations biologists usually mean permanent adjustments, and there +are two theories of the origin of these: (_a_) by the action of natural +selection on inborn variations, or (_b_) by the inheritance of the +directly acquired bodily modifications. + +_Cell-Life._--In this chapter, interpolated in the revised edition, +Spencer summed up the main results of the study of the structural units +or cells which build up a body. "Nature everywhere presents us with +complexities within complexities, which go on revealing themselves as we +investigate smaller and smaller objects." Thus protoplasm itself has a +complicated structure; the nucleus of the cell is a little world in +itself; and the cell-firm has other partners, such as the centrosome. +When a cell divides, the readily stainable bodies or chromosomes, +present in definite number within the nucleus, are divided, usually by a +most intricate process, in such a manner that equal amounts are +bequeathed by the mother-cell to each of the two daughter-cells. Spencer +favoured the view that the chromatin, which "consists of an organic acid +(nucleic acid) rich in phosphorus, combined with an albuminous +substance, probably a combination of various proteids" may be peculiarly +unstable and active. + + "From the chromatin, units of which are thus ever falling into + stabler states, there are ever being diffused waves of molecular + motion, setting up molecular changes in the cytoplasm. The + chromatin stands towards the other contents of the cell in the same + relation that a nerve-element stands to any element of an organism + which it excites." "We may infer that cell-evolution was, under one + of its aspects, a change from a stage in which the exciting + substance and the substance excited were mingled with approximate + uniformity, to a stage in which the exciting substance was gathered + together into the nucleus and finally into the chromosomes, leaving + behind the substance excited, now distinguished as cytoplasm." + + But the suggestion that chromosomes may be stimulating, + change-exciting elements, does not, Spencer goes on to say, + conflict with the conclusion that the chromosomes are the vehicles + conveying hereditary traits. "While the unstable units of + chromatin, ever undergoing changes, diffuse energy around, they may + also be units which, under the conditions furnished by + fertilisation, gravitate towards the organisation of the species. + Possibly it may be that the complex combination of proteids, common + to chromatin and cytoplasm, is that part in which constitutional + characters inhere; while the phosphorised component, falling from + its unstable union and decomposing, evolves the energy which, + ordinarily the cause of changes, now excites the more active + changes following fertilisation." + + From this speculation Spencer passes to a brief consideration of + what occurs before and during the fertilisation of the ovum. Before + fertilisation is accomplished the nucleus of the ovum normally + divides twice in rapid succession, and gives off two abortive + cells--known as polar bodies--which come to nothing. The usual + result of this "maturation," as it is called, is that the number of + chromosomes in the ovum is reduced to a half of the normal number + characteristic of the cells of the species to which it belongs. In + the history of the male element or spermatozoon, there is an + analogous reduction, so that when spermatozoon and ovum unite in + fertilisation the normal number is restored. It is now recognised + that the maturation-divisions are useful in obviating the doubling + of the number of chromosomes which fertilisation would otherwise + involve, and it has also been suggested that this continually + recurrent elimination of chromosomes may be one of the causes of + variation. + + Spencer suggested another interpretation. He pointed out the + general fact that sexual reproduction (gamogenesis) commonly occurs + when asexual reproduction (agamogenesis) is arrested by + unfavourable conditions, that failing asexual reproduction + initiates sexual reproduction. Now as egg-cells and sperm-cells are + the outcome of often long series of cell divisions (asexual + multiplication), may not the polar bodies, which are aborted cells, + indicate that asexual multiplication can no longer go on, and that + the conditions leading to sexual multiplication have set in? "As + the cells which become spermatozoa are _left_ with half the number + of chromosomes possessed by preceding cells, there is actually that + impoverishment and declining vigour here suggested as the + antecedent of fertilisation." In short, the germ-cells, separately + considered, are cells in which the power of further asexual + multiplication is exhausted, as it is known to become exhausted in + Infusorians and such body-cells as nerve-cells; there arises a + state which initiates a sexual union or amphimixis of the two kinds + of germ-cells, and the decrease in the chromatin is an initial + cause of that state. + + We quote this speculation as a good instance of Spencer's continual + endeavour to rationalise puzzling and exceptional facts by showing + that there is a general principle underlying them. But the + objections to his hypothesis are numerous. Mature ova or + spermatozoa will not normally divide if left to themselves, but + that is because they are specialised to secure amphimixis, not + because their powers are in any way declining or impoverished. A + parthenogenetic ovum gives off one polar body--though without + reduction in the number of chromosomes--and then proceeds by + asexual multiplication or ordinary cell division to build up a + body. The spore of a fern or a moss has only half the number of + chromosomes that the cells of its producer have, yet it proceeds by + asexual multiplication or ordinary cell-division to build up the + gametophyte or sexual generation. + +_Genesis._--Spencer attempted a classification of the various modes of +reproduction that occur among organisms--asexual reproduction +(agamogenesis) by fission and budding, sexual reproduction (gamogenesis) +by specialised germ-cells usually involving fertilisation or amphimixis, +and all the complications involved in "alternation of generations" +(metagenesis), the development of eggs without fertilisation +(parthenogenesis), and so on. But what gives particular importance to +the chapter on genesis is not the discussion of the modes of +reproduction, but the general conclusion that nutrition and reproduction +are antithetic processes--a very fruitful idea in biology. + +Where there is alternation of generation, sexual and asexual, we find +that asexual reproduction continues as long as the forces which result +in growth are greatly in excess of the antagonistic forces. Conversely +the recurrence of sexual reproduction occurs when the conditions are no +longer so favourable to growth. Similarly, where there is no +alternation, "new individuals are usually not formed while the preceding +individuals are still rapidly growing--that is, while the forces +producing growth exceed the opposing forces to a great extent; but the +formation of new individuals begins when nutrition is nearly equalled by +expenditure." + +In illustration Spencer points to facts like the following: "Uniaxial +plants begin to produce their lateral, flowering axes, only after the +main axis has developed the great mass of its leaves, and is showing its +diminished nutrition by smaller leaves, or shorter internodes, or both"; +"root-pruning" and "ringing," which diminish the nutritive supply, +promote the formation of flower-shoots; high nutrition in plants +prevents or arrests flowering. + +Similarly, the aphides or green-flies, hatched from eggs in the spring, +multiply by parthenogenesis throughout the summer; with extraordinary +rapidity one generation follows on another; but when the weather becomes +cold and plants no longer afford abundant sap, males reappear and sexual +reproduction sets in. It has been shown that in the artificial summer of +a green-house, parthenogenesis may continue for four years. In a large +number of cases of ordinary reproduction, _e.g._ in birds, the connexion +between cessation of growth and commencement of reproduction is very +distinct. + +It is not difficult to see the advantages in the postponement of sexual +reproduction until the rate of growth begins to decline. "For so long as +the rate of growth continues rapid, there is proof that the organism +gets food with facility--that expenditure does not seriously check +assimilation; and that the size reached is as yet not disadvantageous: +or rather, indeed, that it is advantageous. But when the rate of growth +is much decreased by the increase of expenditure--when the excess of +assimilative power is diminishing so fast as to indicate its approaching +disappearance--it becomes needful, for the maintenance of the species, +that this excess shall be turned to the production of new individuals; +since, did growth continue until there was a complete balancing of +assimilation and expenditure, the production of new individuals would be +either impossible or fatal to the parent. And it is clear that 'natural +selection' will continually tend to determine the period at which +gamogenesis commences, in such a way as most favours the maintenance of +the race." + +That natural selection punctuates the life to advantage does not +imply that it works directly towards such a remote goal as +species-maintaining; it means that the arrangements which do secure this +end most effectively are those which tend to establish themselves. Those +that do not secure this end are eliminated. + +_Nutrition and Reproduction._--Spencer's doctrine of the antithesis +between Nutrition and Reproduction is of great importance in biology, +and we must dwell on it a little longer. + +The life of organisms is rhythmic. Plants have their long period of +vegetative growth, and then suddenly burst into flower. Animals in their +young stages grow rapidly, and as the growth ceases reproduction +normally begins; or again, just as perennial plants are strictly +vegetative through a great part of the year or for many successive +years, but have their periodic recurrence of flowers and fruit, so it is +with many animals which after remaining virtually asexual for prolonged +periods, exhibit periodic returns of a reproductive or sexual tide. +Foliage and fruiting, periods of nutrition and crises of reproduction, +hunger and love, must be interpreted as life-tides, punctuated by the +seasons and other circumstances through the agency of Natural Selection, +but none the less as expressions of the fundamental organic rhythm +between rest and work, upbuilding and expenditure, repair and waste, +which on the protoplasmic plane are known as anabolism and +katabolism.[8] + +Anabolism and katabolism are the two sides of protoplasmic life, and the +major rhythms of the respective preponderance of these give the +antitheses of growth and multiplication, asexual and sexual +reproduction. The contrasts of metabolism represent the swings of the +organic see-saw; the periodic contrasts correspond to alternate +weightings or lightenings of the two sides. + +Spencer's induction that "an approach towards equilibrium between the +forces which cause growth and the forces which oppose growth, is the +chief condition to the recurrence of sexual reproduction," is an +approximate answer to the question--_When_ does sexual reproduction +recur? But there remains, he says, the more difficult question--_Why_ +does sexual reproduction recur? _Why_ cannot multiplication be carried +on in all cases, as it is in many cases, by asexual reproduction? + +As yet, he says, biology is not advanced enough to give a reply, but a +certain hypothetical answer may be suggested. "Seeing, on the one hand, +that gamogenesis recurs only in individuals which are approaching a +state of organic equilibrium; and seeing, on the other hand, that the +sperm-cells and germ-cells thrown off by such individuals are cells in +which developmental changes have ended in quiescence, but in which, +after their union, there arises a process of active cell-formation; we +may suspect that the approach towards a state of general equilibrium in +such gamogenetic individuals is accompanied by an approach towards +molecular equilibrium in them; and that the need for this union of +sperm-cell and germ-cell is the need for overthrowing this equilibrium, +and re-establishing active molecular change in the detached germ--a +result probably effected by mixing the slightly different physiological +units of slightly different individuals." + +Now, while Spencer was probably right in saying that fertilisation +promotes change, we cannot think that he succeeded in finding what he +was seeking, namely a primary physiological reason why sexual +reproduction should occur. It may be pointed out that it is only in a +limited sense that sperm-cells or egg-cells can be spoken of as in a +state of "quiescence," and that it is only in a limited sense that the +organism which has finished growing and is beginning to be sexual can be +spoken of as in a state of general or molecular equilibrium. An egg-cell +is quiescent, as a seed lying in the ground is quiescent, awaiting its +stimulus of warmth and moisture; a sperm-cell is quiescent, as a spore +floating in the air is quiescent, awaiting its appropriate soil. The +egg-cells and sperm-cells cannot be very quiescent since they do so much +when they unite. Moreover, we have simply to recall the facts of natural +parthenogenesis on the one hand or of artificial parthenogenesis on the +other, to see that the quiescence of the egg is a secondary restriction +adapted to secure amphimixis. Moreover, the familiar external and +internal changes which occur in the bodies of organisms when they are +approaching sexual maturity suggest the very opposite of general or +molecular equilibrium. + +It may be pointed out that although asexual multiplication persists in +many organisms both large and small, and is sometimes the only method of +multiplication, yet it is apt to be a somewhat expensive process and +would be difficult to arrange for in highly differentiated animals. On +the other hand, asexual multiplication succeeds admirably in many cases; +it does not imply degeneration; it is not inconsistent with the +occurrence of variations; and it is _conceivable_ that it might have +been arranged for even in the highest animals. What other reason can +there be why the circuitous process of sexual reproduction has been +preferred? It may be said that the arrangement by which multiplication +is secured through special germ-cells, more or less apart from the cells +which build up the body, may be justified as an arrangement which +prevents or tends to prevent the transmission of bodily modifications, +many of which are detrimental. But as this cuts both ways, preventing or +tending to prevent the transmission of useful modifications, there must +be some other reason why the circuitous process of sexual reproduction +has been preferred. We believe the answer to be that sexual reproduction +is an adaptive process securing the benefits of amphimixis, for in +amphimixis and in the changes preparatory to it, there is an important +_source of variation_. In one of his essays Weismann wrote as follows:-- + + "Sexual reproduction is well known to consist in the fusion of two + contrasted reproductive cells, or perhaps even in the fusion of + their nuclei alone. These reproductive cells contain the germinal + material or germ-plasm, and this again, in its specific molecular + structure, is the bearer of the hereditary tendencies of the + organisms from which the reproductive cells originate. Thus in + sexual reproduction two hereditary tendencies are in a sense + intermingled. In this mingling, I see the cause of the hereditary + individual characteristics; and in the production of these + characters, the task of sexual reproduction. It has to supply the + material for the individual differences from which selection + produces new species." + + When we inquire into the reasons for the occurrence of a process + such as sexual reproduction, there are four different questions + which may be put: (1) We may inquire into the historical evolution + of the process, so far as that can be legitimately imagined or + inferred from still persistent grades. (2) We may try to discover + what factors may have operated in the course of evolution in + raising the process from one step of differentiation to another. + (3) We may also try to show how the process is justified by its + advantages either self-regarding or species-maintaining. (4) We may + inquire into the physiological sequences in the internal economy of + the individual organism which lead up to the process in question. + There is no doubt always an immediate necessity for the occurrence + of an organic process, but we are in many cases quite unable at + present to do more than describe the series of events without + understanding their causal nexus. The reason for this is apparent, + since the organism is much more than a detached inanimate engine; + it is a system which has summed up in it the long results of time, + the history of ages. Its rhythms and periodicities and crises + puzzle us because they originated under conditions which obtained + untold millennia ago. Thus some processes in higher animals may + have had originally a reference to tides from the reach of which + their present possessors are far withdrawn. + + We have entered on this digression partly for clearness sake, and + partly to explain why Spencer had, as we think, very limited + success in his answer to the question: Why does sexual reproduction + occur? The curious reader may be referred to the discussion of + these problems in _The Evolution of Sex_, Contemporary Science + Series, Revised Edition, 1901. + +_The Germ-Cells._--But we cannot leave the interesting chapter on +genesis without referring to another of Spencer's conclusions, which +does not seem to us to be quite consistent with facts. + +"The marvellous phenomena initiated by the meeting of sperm-cell and +germ-cell, or rather of their nuclei, naturally suggest the conception +of some quite special and peculiar properties possessed by these cells. +It seems obvious that this mysterious power which they display of +originating a new and complex organism, distinguishes them in the +broadest way from portions of organic substance in general. +Nevertheless, the more we study the evidence the more are we led towards +the conclusion that these cells are not fundamentally different from +other cells." The evidence he gives is: (1) that small fragments of +tissue in many plants and inferior animals may develop into entire +organisms; (2) that the reproductive organs producing eggs and sperms +are organs of low organisation, with no specialities of structure "which +might be looked for, did sperm-cells and germ-cells need endowing with +properties unlike those of all other organic agents." "Thus, there is no +warrant for the assumption that sperm-cells and germ-cells possess +powers fundamentally unlike those of other cells." + +To this it must be answered: (1) though sperm-cells and egg-cells, being +living units, cannot be "_fundamentally_ unlike" other living units, +such as ordinary body-cells, yet they may be very unlike them; (2) that +the germ-cells are very unlike ordinary body-cells is shown by the fact +that they can do what no single body-cell can do, build up a whole +organism; (3) so specific are germ-cells that in certain cases and in +favourable conditions a small fraction of an egg, bereft of its own +nucleus, may, if fertilised, develop into an entire and normal larva; +(4) it is quite consistent with the idea of evolution that in lower +organisms the contrast between body-cells and germ-cells should be less +pronounced than in higher forms. But the fundamental answer is found +when we inquire into the history of the germ-cells. In many cases, and +the list is being added to, the future reproductive cells are segregated +off at an early stage in embryonic development. Even before +differentiation sets in, the future reproductive cells may be set apart +from the body-forming cells. The latter develop in manifold variety into +skin and nerve, muscle and blood, gut and gland; they differentiate, and +may lose almost all protoplasmic likeness to the mother ovum. But the +reproductive cells are set apart; they take no share in the +differentiation, but remain virtually unchanged, continuing unaltered +the protoplasmic tradition of the original fertilised ovum. After a +while their division-products will be liberated as functional +reproductive cells or germ-cells, handing on the tradition intact to the +next generation. + +An early isolation of the reproductive cells has been observed in the +harlequin fly (_Chironomus_) and in some other insects, in the aberrant +worm-type _Sagitta_, in leeches, in thread-worms, in some Polyzoa, in +some small Crustaceans known as Cladocera, in the water-flea _Moina_, in +some Arachnoids (Phalangidae), in the bony fish _Micrometrus aggregatus_, +and in other cases. In the development of the threadworm of the horse +according to Boveri, the very first cleavage of the ovum establishes a +distinction between somatic and reproductive cells. One of the first two +cells is the ancestor of all the cells of the body; the other is the +ancestor of all the germ-cells. "Moreover, from the outset the +progenitor of the germ-cells _differs from the somatic cells not only in +the greater size and richness of the chromatin of its nucleus, but also +in its mode of mitosis_ (_division_), for in all those blastomeres +(segmentation-cells) destined to produce somatic cells a portion of the +chromatin is cast out into the cytoplasm, where it degenerates, and +_only in the germ-cells is the sum-total of the chromatin retained_" (E. +B. Wilson, _The Cell in Development and Inheritance_, 1896, p. 111). + +In the majority of cases, we admit, the reproductive cells _are not to +be seen_ in early segregation, and the continuous lineage from the +fertilised ovum cannot be traced. In the majority of cases, the +germ-cells are seen as such after considerable differentiation has gone +on, and although they are linear descendants of the ovum, their special +lineage cannot be traced. But it seems legitimate to argue from the +clear cases to the obscure cases, and to say that the germ-cells are +those cells which retain the complete complement of heritable qualities. +Adopting the conception of the germ-plasm as the material within the +nucleus which bears all the properties transmitted in inheritance, we +may still say, in Weismann's words, "In every development a portion of +this specific germ-plasm, which the parental ovum contains, is unused in +the upbuilding of the offspring's body, and is reserved unchanged to +form the germ-cells of the next generation.... The germ-cells no longer +appear as products of the body, at least not in their more essential +part--the specific germ-plasm; they appear rather as something opposed +to the sum-total of body-cells; and the germ-cells of successive +generations are related to one another like generations of Protozoa." In +terms of this conception, which fits many facts, we may say that in +plants and lower animals the distinction between germ-plasm and +somato-plasm has not been much accentuated, and that in some organisms +the body-cells retain enough undifferentiated germ-plasm to enable them +in small or large companies to regrow an entire organism. + +It may be said that Spencer must also have regarded the germ-cells as +containing the whole complement of hereditary qualities. _It must be +so._ The point is that he rejected the theory which gives a rational +account of how the germ-cells have this content and their power of +developing into an organism, like from like. The sentence in which he +points out that the reproductive organs have "none of the specialities +of structure which might be looked for, did the sperm-cells and +germ-cells need _endowing with properties_ unlike those of all other +organic agents," shows how far he deliberately stood from the conception +we have outlined. + + Here we may note that the "Inductions" regarding Heredity are + discussed in our eleventh chapter, and those regarding Variation in + our twelfth chapter. We have not dealt with the suggestive concrete + sections which deal with structural and functional evolution, + partly because they are too concrete to be dealt with briefly, and + partly because they are saturated with the hypothesis of the + transmission of acquired characters. Spencer's most important + conclusion in regard to the Laws of Multiplication is referred to + under the heading Population. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[7] See J. Arthur Thomson's _Progress of Science in the Nineteenth +Century_, 1903, p. 317, and E. B. Wilson's _The Cell in Development and +Inheritance_, 1900. + +[8] P. Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson, _The Evolution of Sex_, revised +edition, 1901, p. 238. + + + + +CHAPTER X + +HERBERT SPENCER AS CHAMPION OF THE EVOLUTION-IDEA + + _The Evolution-Idea--Spencer's Historical Position--Von Baer's + Law--Evolution and Creation--Arguments for the Evolution-Doctrine_ + + +Spencer has been called "the philosopher of the Evolution-movement," but +the appropriateness of this description depends on what is meant by +philosopher. What is certain is that he championed the evolutionist +interpretation at a time when it was as much tabooed as it is now +fashionable; that he showed its applicability to all orders of +facts--inorganic, organic, and super-organic; that he threw some light +on various factors in the evolution-process, and that he attempted to +sum up in a universal formula what he believed to be the common +principle of all evolutionary change. In judging of what he did it must +be remembered that he was pre-Darwinian, and that chemistry and physics, +biology and psychology have made enormous strides since he wrote his +_First Principles_ in 1861-2. + +_The Evolution-Idea._--The general idea of evolution, like many other +great ideas, is essentially simple--that the present is the child of the +past and the parent of the future. It is the idea of development writ +large and historically applied. It is the same as the scientific +conception of human history. In general terms, a process of Becoming +everywhere leads, through the interaction of inherent potentialities and +environmental conditions, to a new phase of Being. The study of +Evolution is a study of _Werden und Vergehen und Weiterwerden_. + +Stated concretely in regard to living creatures, the general doctrine of +organic evolution suggests, as we all know, that the plants and animals +now around us--with all their fascinating complexities of structure and +function, of life-history, behaviour, and inter-relations--are the +natural and necessary results of long processes of growth and change, of +elimination and survival, operative throughout practically countless +ages; that the forms we know and admire are the lineal descendants of +ancestors on the whole somewhat simpler except when we have to deal with +retrogressive or degenerative series; that these ancestors are descended +from yet simpler forms, and so on backwards, till we lose our clue in +the unknown, but doubtless momentous vital events of pre-Cambrian ages, +or, in other words, in the thick mist of life's beginnings. Though the +general idea of organic evolution is simple, it has been slowly evolved +both as regards concreteness and clarity; it has gradually gained +content as research furnished fuller illustration, and clearness as +criticism forced it to keep in touch with facts. It has slowly developed +from the stage of suggestion to that of verification; from being an _a +priori_ anticipation it has become an interpretation of nature; and from +being a modal interpretation of the animate world it is advancing to +the rank of a causal interpretation. + +The evolution-idea is perhaps as old as clear thinking, which we may +date from the (unknown) time when man discovered the year--with its +marvellous object-lesson of recurrent sequences--and realised that his +race had a history. Whatever may have been its origin, the idea was +familiar to several of the ancient Greek philosophers, as it was to Hume +and Kant; it fired the imagination of Lucretius and linked him to +another poet of evolution--Goethe; it persisted, like a latent germ, +through the centuries of other than scientific preoccupation; it was +made actual by the pioneers of modern biology--men like Buffon, Lamarck, +Erasmus Darwin and Treviranus;--and it became current intellectual coin +when Spencer, Darwin, Wallace, Haeckel and Huxley, with united but +varied achievements, won the conviction of the majority of thoughtful +men.[9] + +_Spencer's historical position in regard to the Evolution-Idea._--In +1840, when Herbert Spencer was twenty, he bought Lyell's _Principles of +Geology_--then recently published. His reading of Lyell was a fortunate +incident, for one of the chapters, devoted to a refutation of Lamarck's +views concerning the origin of species, had the effect of giving Spencer +a decided leaning to them. + +"Why Lyell's arguments produced the opposite effect to that intended, I +cannot say. Probably it was that the discussion presented, more clearly +than had been done previously, the natural genesis of organic forms. The +question whether it was or was not true was more distinctly raised. My +inclination to accept it as true in spite of Lyell's adverse criticisms, +was, doubtless, chiefly due to its harmony with that general idea of the +order of Nature towards which I had, throughout life, been growing. +Super-naturalism, in whatever form, had never commended itself. From +boyhood there was in me a need to see, in a more or less distinct way, +how phenomena, no matter of what kind, are to be naturally explained. +Hence, when my attention was drawn to the question whether organic forms +have been specially created, or whether they have arisen by progressive +modifications, physically caused and inherited, I adopted the last +supposition; inadequate as was the evidence, and great as were the +difficulties in the way. Its congruity with the course of procedure +throughout things at large gave it an irresistible attraction; and my +belief in it never afterwards wavered, much as I was in after years +ridiculed for entertaining it" (_Autobiography_, i. p. 176). + +Thus early convinced, Spencer did not remain a mute evolutionist. The +idea was a seed-thought in his mind, and eventually it became the +dominant one, bearing much fruit. In his early letters to the +"Nonconformist" in 1842 on "The Proper Sphere of Government," "the only +point of community with the general doctrine of Evolution is a belief in +the modifiability of human nature through adaptation to conditions, and +a consequent belief in human progression." But in his _Social Statics_ +(1850) there "may be seen the first step toward the general doctrine of +Evolution." Thus he says, "The development of society as well as the +development of man and the development of life generally, may be +described as a tendency to individuate--_to become a thing_. And rightly +interpreted, the manifold forms of progress going on around us are +uniformly significant of this tendency." + +It was a great moment in Herbert Spencer's intellectual life when in +1851 (_aetat._ 31) he first came across von Baer's formula "expressing +the course of development through which every plant and animal +passes--the change from homogeneity to heterogeneity." At the close of +his _Social Statics_ Spencer had indicated that progress from low to +high types of society or organism implied an advance "from uniformity of +composition to multiformity of composition." "Yet this phrase of von +Baer, expressing the law of individual development, awakened my +attention to the fact that the law which holds of the ascending stages +of each individual organism is also the law which holds of the ascending +grades of organisms of all kinds. And it had the further advantage that +it presented in brief form, a more graphic image of the transformation, +and thus facilitated further thought. Important consequences eventually +ensued." + +Von Baer's formula of embryonic development, which he regarded as a +progress from the apparently simple to the obviously complex, and as the +individual's condensed and modified recapitulation of racial history, +accentuated and stimulated a thought already existing in Spencer's mind, +and in part expressed. It gave objective vividness to the concept of +development which Spencer had already realised in regard to societary +forms. In 1864 he wrote to G. H. Lewis, "If anyone says that had von +Baer never written I should not be doing that which I now am, I have +nothing to say to the contrary--I should reply it is highly probable." + +Herbert Spencer spoke of his early recognition of von Baer's law as one +of the moments in his intellectual development. He realised objectively +and vividly that out of an apparently simple and homogeneous stage of +development, there is developed by division of labour and other +processes, a wondrous complexity of nervous, muscular, glandular, +skeletal, and connective tissues or organs, as the case may be. Organic +development is not like crystallisation; it is heteromorphic +crystallisation, so to speak. From a group of apparently similar cells, +heterogeneous tissues and organs are developed. Thus von Baer as an +embryologist gave Spencer as a general evolutionist a concrete basis for +the concept of development which was simmering in his mind. + +_Von Baer's Law._--It does not appear, however, that Spencer ever read +von Baer's embryological memoirs, else he might have been less +well-satisfied with summing up individual development as a progress from +homogeneity to heterogeneity. Von Baer was much more cautious than some +of his followers and expositors, and subsequent research has justified +his caution. The once popular "Recapitulation Doctrine" that a +developing organism "climbs up its own genealogical tree," that +"ontogeny recapitulates phylogeny," is now seen to be true only in a +very general way, and with many saving clauses. The germ is now known as +a unified mosaic of ancestral contributions, as a multiplex of +potentialities; it is even visibly very complex and anything but +homogeneous or "simple"; and the individual recapitulation of racial +history is verifiable rather in the stages of organogenesis than in the +history of the embryo as a whole. Thus while all are agreed that there +is a gradual emergence of the obviously complex from the apparently +simple, that development means progressive differentiation and +integration, and that past history is _in some measure_ resumed in +present development, it must also be allowed that germ-cells are +microcosms of complexity, that development is the realisation of a +composite inheritance, the cashing of ancestral cheques, and that the +"minting and coining of the chick out of the egg" is not adequately +summed up as "a progress from homogeneity to heterogeneity." + +But although embryology does not appear to us to give unequivocal +support to Spencer's formula of progress from the homogeneous to the +heterogeneous, it seemed all plain sailing to him, and he proceeded to +illustrate the utility of his formula by applying it to all orders of +facts. In a famous passage in the essay on "Progress: its Law and Cause" +(_Essays_, vol. i., 1883, p. 30) he wrote as follows:-- + + "We believe we have shown beyond question that that which the + German physiologists (von Baer, Wolff, and others) have found to be + the law of organic development (as of a seed into a tree and of an + egg into an animal) is the law of all development. The advance from + the simple to the complex, through a process of successive + differentiations (i.e. the appearance of differences in the parts + of a seemingly like substance), is seen alike in the earliest + changes of the Universe to which we can reason our way back; and + in the earlier changes which we can inductively establish; it is + seen in the geologic and climatic evolution of the Earth, and of + every simple 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 alike of its political, its religious, and its + 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 up to the novelties of + yesterday, that in which Progress essentially consists is the + transformation of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous." This was + written in 1857. + + As far back as 1852 Spencer contributed to the 'Leader' an essay on + the 'Development Hypothesis' which is one of the most noteworthy of + the pre-Darwinian presentations of the general idea of evolution. + Supposing that there are some ten millions of species, extant and + extinct, he asks "which is the most rational theory about these ten + millions of species? Is it most likely that there have been ten + millions of special creations? or is it most likely that by + continual modifications, due to change of circumstances, ten + millions of varieties have been produced, as varieties are being + produced still?... Even could the supporters of the Development + Hypothesis merely show that the origination of species by the + process of modification is conceivable, they would be in a better + position than their opponents. But they can do much more than this. + They can show that the process of modification has effected, and is + effecting, decided changes in all organisms subject to modifying + influences.... They can show that in successive generations these + changes continue, until ultimately the new conditions become the + natural ones. They can show that in cultivated plants, domesticated + animals, and in the several races of men, such alterations have + taken place. They can show that the degrees of difference so + produced are often, as in dogs, greater than those on which + distinctions of species are in other cases founded. They can show, + too, that the changes daily taking place in ourselves--the facility + that attends long practice, and the loss of aptitude that begins + when practice ceases--the strengthening of passions habitually + gratified, and the weakening of those habitually curbed--the + development of every faculty, bodily, moral, or intellectual + according to the use made of it--are all explicable on this same + principle. And thus they can show that throughout all organic + nature there _is_ at work a modifying influence of the kind they + assign as the cause of these specific differences; an influence + which, though slow in its action, does, in time, if the + circumstances demand it, produce marked changes--an influence + which, to all appearance, would produce in the millions of years, + and under the great varieties of condition which geological records + imply, any amount of change." + +While Spencer did not discern the modifying influence of Natural +Selection, which it was reserved for Darwin and Wallace to disclose, his +clear presentation of the general doctrine of evolution seven years +before the publication of the "Origin of Species" (1859) should not be +forgotten. + +In other essays before 1858 and in his _Principles of Psychology_ +(1855), Spencer championed the evolutionist position, and the first +programme of his "Synthetic Philosophy" was drawn up in January 1858. + +_Arguments for the Evolution-Doctrine._--The idea that the present is +the child of the past and the parent of the future, that what we see +around us is the long result of time, that there has been age-long +progress from relatively simple beginnings--the evolution-formula in +short--is now part of the intellectual framework of most educated men +with a free mind. We no longer trouble to argue about it; like wisdom it +is justified of its children. It has afforded a modal interpretation of +the world's history, an interpretation that works well, which no facts +are known to contradict. It has been the most effective organon of +thought that the world has known; it is becoming organic in all our +thinking. + +We cannot indeed give an evolutionary account of the origin of life, or +of consciousness, or of human reason; we cannot read the precise +pedigree of many of the forms of life; we are in great doubt as to the +_modus operandi_ by which familiar results have been brought about, but +all this ignorance does not diminish our confidence in the scientific +value of the general evolution-idea. It may be that there are some +primary facts, such as life and consciousness, which we must be content +to postulate as at present irresoluble data, but it is also certain that +our inquiry into the _factors of evolution_ is still very young. So much +has been done in half a century, since serious aetiology began, that it +is premature to say _ignorabimus_ where we must confess _ignoramus_. + +It seems possible to give a provisional evolutionist account of so many +of "the wonders of life," as Haeckel calls them, that there are few +nowadays who will maintain that, given certain postulates, a scientific +interpretation of nature is impossible. This is what the doctrine of +special creation or creations implies; it means an abandonment of the +scientific interpretation of nature as a hopeless task. + +If the evolution key failed to open the doors to which we apply it, then +there would be justification for a rehabilitation of the creationist +doctrine, but the reverse is the case. To some minds, notably Mr Alfred +Russel Wallace, the problems of the origin of life, of consciousness, +and of man's higher qualities seem so hopelessly far from scientific +interpretation, that a combination of evolutionism with a moiety of +creationism appears necessary. But as we are only beginning to know the +scope and efficacy of the factors of evolution, and are not without hope +of discovering other factors, this dualism seems premature. + +_Evolution and Creation._--But while the Evolution-Doctrine is now +admitted as a valid and useful genetic formula, it was far otherwise +when Spencer was writing his _Principles of Biology_ (1864-6). Then the +doctrine of descent was struggling for existence against principalities +and powers both temporal and spiritual, and then it was still relevant +to pit it against the theory of special creations. Yet for a younger +generation it is difficult to appreciate the warmth of Spencer's chapter +on the Special-Creation hypothesis (Sec. 109-Sec. 115 of vol. i. of the +original edition of _The Principles of Biology_). + + "The belief in special creations of organisms is a belief that + arose among men during the era of profoundest darkness; and it + belongs to a family of beliefs which have nearly all died out as + enlightenment has increased. It is without a solitary established + fact on which to stand; and when the attempt is made to put it into + definite shape in the mind, it turns out to be only a pseud-idea. + This mere verbal hypothesis, which men idly accept as a real or + thinkable hypothesis, is of the same nature as would be one, based + on a day's observation of human life, that each man and woman was + specially created--an hypothesis not suggested by evidence, but by + lack of evidence--an hypothesis which formulates absolute ignorance + into a semblance of positive knowledge."... + + "Thus, however regarded, the hypothesis of special creations turns + out to be worthless--worthless by its derivation; worthless in its + intrinsic incoherence; worthless as absolutely without evidence; + worthless as not supplying an intellectual need; worthless as not + satisfying a moral want. We must therefore consider it as counting + for nothing, in opposition to any other hypothesis respecting the + origin of organic beings." + +The appreciation of the evolution-formula in the minds of thoughtful men +has been greatly modified--for the better--since the early Darwinian +days of hot-blooded controversy, when Spencer was a prominent champion +of the new way of looking at things. The special-creation hypothesis has +almost ceased to find advocates who know enough about the facts to bring +forward arguments worthy of consideration, and by a legitimate change of +front on the part of theologians it has come to be recognised that the +evolution-formula is not antithetic to any essential transcendental +formula. Naturalists, on the other hand, recognise that the +Evolution-formula is no more than a genetic description, that it does +not pretend to give any ultimate explanations, that as such it has +nothing whatever to do with such transcendental concepts as almighty +volition, and that it has no quarrel with the modern theological view of +creation as the institution of the primary order of nature--the +possibility of natural evolution included. Thus Spencer's destructive +attack on the Special-Creation hypothesis has now little more than +historical interest. And for this result, we have in part to thank +Spencer himself, who made the precise point at issue so definitely +clear. + +The general theory of organic evolution--the theory of Descent--tacitly +makes the assumption, which is the basal hope of all biology, that it is +not only legitimate but promiseful to try to interpret scientifically +the history of life upon the earth. It formulates the idea that the +present phase of being is the natural and necessary outcome of a +previous, on the whole, simpler phase of being, and so on, backwards and +forwards in time, under the operation of more or less clearly +discernible natural factors and conditions--notably variation and +heredity, selection and isolation. Tested a thousand times, the general +evolution-formula seems to cover the facts, it gives them a new +rationality, it applies to minutiose details as well as to the general +progress of life, it even affords a basis for verified prophecy. The +formula is a key that fits all locks, though it has not yet, because of +our fumbling fingers, opened all. + +But just here, as Spencer pointed out, there is a parting of the ways, +and there is no _via media_, no compromise. Is there no hopefulness in +trying to give a scientific account of the nature and history and +genesis of the confessedly vast and perplexing orders of facts which we +call Physical Nature, Animate Nature, and Human Nature?--then let us +become agnostics pure and simple, or let us remain philosophers or +theologians, poets or artists, and sigh over an impetuous science which +started so much in debt that its bankruptcy was a foregone conclusion! + +On the other hand, if the scientific attempt at interpretation is +legitimate, and if it has already made good progress (considering its +youth), and if its results, achieved piecemeal, always make for greater +intelligibility, then let us give the scientific, _i.e._, evolutionist +formulation its due; let us rigidly exclude from our science all other +than scientific interpretations; let us cease from juggling with words +in attempting a mongrel mixture of scientific and transcendental +formulation; let us stop trying to eke out demonstrable factors, such as +variation and selection, by assuming alongside of these, +"ultra-scientific causes," "spiritual influxes," _et hoc genus omne_; +let us cease writing or reading books such as _God or Natural +Selection_, whose titular false antinomy is an index of the bathos of +their misunderstanding. To place scientific formulae in opposition to +transcendental formulae is to oppose "incommensurables," and to display +an ignorance of what the aim of science really is. + +Logically, the antithesis is between the possibility or the +impossibility of giving a scientific interpretation of the world around +us (and ourselves). The hypothesis of special creations is irrelevant +until the scientific interpretation is shown to be inadequate or +fallacious. + +_Arguments for the Evolution-Doctrine._--But what, it may be asked, is +the evidence substantiating the formula of organic evolution, and +compelling us to accept it? To this question, we propose to give in +brief resume Spencer's answer, but it is impossible to refrain from +observing that the question involves some measure of misunderstanding. +The evolution theory, as a modal formula, is just a particular way of +looking at things; it is justified wherever it is applied; it makes for +progress whenever it is utilised; but it cannot be proved by induction +or experiment like the law of gravitation or the doctrine of the +conservation of energy. Fritz Mueller said that he would be content to +stake the evolution theory on a study of butterflies alone, and he was +right. The formula is justified by its detailed applicability; there are +not any special evidences of evolution; any set of facts in regard to +organisms well worked-out illustrates the general thesis. At the same +time, it is possible to classify the different ways in which the +Evolution-Idea fits the facts, and this is what Spencer did in his +presentation of the "arguments for evolution"--a presentation which has +never been surpassed in clearness, though every illustration has been +multiplied many times since 1866. + +I. The Arguments from Classification. Spencer started with the fact that +naturalists have utilised resemblances in structure and development as a +basis for the orderly classification of organisms in groups within +groups--varieties, species, genera, families, races, and so on. But +"this is the arrangement which we see arises by descent, alike in +individual families and among races of men." "Where it is known to take +place evolution actually produces these feebly-distinguished small +groups and these strongly-distinguished great groups." "The impression +made by these two parallelisms, which add meaning to each other, is +deepened by the third parallelism, which enforces the meaning of +both--the parallelism, namely, that as, between the species, genera, +orders, classes, etc., which naturalists have formed, there are +transitional types; so between the groups, sub-groups, and +sub-sub-groups, which we know to have been evolved, types of +intermediate values exist. And these three correspondences between the +known results of evolution (as in human races, domesticated animals, and +cultivated plants) and the results here ascribed to evolution have +further weight given to them by the fact, that the kinship of groups +through their lowest members is just the kinship which the hypothesis +of evolution implies." Even in the absence of these specific +agreements, the broad fact of unity amid multiformity, which organisms +so strikingly display, is strongly suggestive of evolution. Freeing +ourselves from pre-conceptions, we shall see good reason to think with +Mr Darwin, "that propinquity of descent--the only known cause of the +similarity of organic beings--is the bond, hidden as it is by various +degrees of modification, which is partly revealed to us by our +classifications" (_Principles of Biology_, Rev. Ed. vol. i. p. 448). + +II. Arguments from Embryology. Organisms may be arranged on a tree which +symbolises their structural affinities and divergences. On the +evolutionist interpretation this is an adumbration of the actual +genealogical tree or _Stammbaum_. But when we consider the facts of +embryology we find that the developing organism advances from stage to +stage by steps which are more or less comparable to the various levels +and branchings of the classificatory tree. There is a resemblance, +sometimes a parallelism, between individual development and the grades +of organisation which have or have had persistent stability as living +creatures. "On the hypothesis of evolution this parallelism has a +meaning--indicates that primordial kinship of all organisms, and that +progressive differentiation of them which the hypothesis alleges. On any +other hypothesis the parallelism is meaningless." It is true that there +are nonconformities to the general law that individual development tends +to recapitulate racial history, or that ontogeny tends to recapitulate +phylogeny. There may be in the individual development condensations or +telescopings of the presumed ancestral stages, and there may be an +interpolation of developmental stages which are adaptive to peculiar +conditions of juvenile life and have no historical import, but the +deviations are such as may be readily interpreted on the +evolution-hypothesis (_Principles of Biology_, i. pp. 450-467). + +III. Arguments from Morphology. In back-boned animals from frog to man +there is a great variety of fore-limb, adapted for running, swimming, +flying, grasping, and so forth, but throughout there is a unity of +structure and development. There are the same fundamental bones and +muscles, nerves and blood vessels, and the early stages are closely +similar. So it is throughout organic nature; there is unity of type, +maintained under extreme dissimilarities of form and mode of life. This +is "explicable as resulting from descent with modification; but it is +otherwise inexplicable." "The likenesses disguised by unlikenesses, +which the comparative anatomist discovers between various organs in the +same organism, are worse than meaningless if it be supposed that +organisms were severally framed as we now see them; but they fit in +quite harmoniously with the belief that each kind of organism is a +product of accumulated modifications upon modifications. And the +presence, in all kinds of animals and plants, of functionally-useless +parts corresponding to parts that are functionally-useful in allied +animals and plants, while it is totally incongruous with the belief in a +construction of each organism by miraculous interposition, is just what +we are led to expect by the belief that organisms have arisen by +progression." + +IV. Arguments from Distribution.--"Given that pressure which species +exercise on one another, in consequence of the universal overfilling of +their respective habitats--given the resulting tendency to thrust +themselves into one another's areas, and media, and modes of life, along +such lines of least resistance as from time to time are found--given +besides the changes in modes of life, hence arising, those other changes +which physical alterations of habitats necessitate--given the structural +modifications directly or indirectly produced in organisms by modified +conditions; and the facts of distribution in space and time are +accounted for. That divergence and re-divergence of organic forms, which +we saw to be shadowed forth by the truths of classification and the +truths of embryology, we see to be also shadowed forth by the truths of +distribution. If that aptitude to multiply, to spread, to separate, and +to differentiate, which the human races have in all times shown, be a +tendency common to races in general, as we have ample reason to assume; +then there will result those kinds of spacial relations and +chronological relations among the species, and genera, and orders, +peopling the Earth's surface, which we find exist. The remarkable +identities of type discovered between organisms inhabitating one medium, +and strangely modified organisms inhabiting another medium, are at the +same time rendered comprehensible. And the appearances and +disappearances of species which the geological record shows us, as well +as the connections between successive groups of species from early eras +down to our own, cease to be inexplicable" (_Principles of Biology_, i. +p. 489). + +"Thus," Spencer concludes, "of these four groups each furnished several +arguments which point to the same conclusion; and the conclusion pointed +to by the arguments of any one group, is that pointed to by the +arguments of every other group. This coincidence of coincidences would +give to the induction a very high degree of probability, even were it +not enforced by deduction. But the conclusion deductively reached is in +harmony with the inductive conclusion." + +FOOTNOTES: + +[9] See J. Arthur Thomson, _The Science of Life_ (1899), chapter xvi., +"Evolution of Evolution Theory"; and _The Study of Animal Life_ (1892), +chapter xviii., "The Evolution of Evolution Theories." + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +AS REGARDS HEREDITY + + _Problems of Heredity--Physiological Units--A Digression--The + Germ-Cells--Transmission of Acquired + Characters--Inconceivability--A Priori Argument--Practical + Conclusion_ + + +Heredity is the relation of genetic continuity which links generation to +generation. An inheritance is all that the organism is or has to start +with on its life-journey in virtue of the hereditary relation to parents +and ancestors. In all ordinary cases, the inheritance has its initial +material basis in the egg-cell and the sperm-cell which unite in +fertilisation at the beginning of a new life, and these two kinds of +germ-cells, which bear the maternal and the paternal contributions, have +their peculiar virtue of reproducing like from like, just because they +are the unchanged or very slightly changed cell-descendants of the +fertilised ova from which the parents arose. A bud or a cutting +separated off from a living creature--tiger-lily or potato, polyp or +worm--reproduces an entire organism like the parent, if the appropriate +nurture-conditions are available; and it can do so because it is a fair +sample of the parental organisation. Similarly a germ-cell or two +germ-cells in conjunction can develop into a creature like the parent or +parents, in virtue of being the condensed essence of the parental +organisation. And the germ-cell is this because of its direct +continuity through undifferentiating cell-divisions with the original +germ-cell from which the parental body developed. + +Even in ancient times men pondered over the resemblances and differences +between children and their parents--for like only _tends_ to beget +like--and wondered as to the nature of the bond which links generation +to generation. But although the problems are old, the precise study of +them is altogether modern. The first great step towards clearness was +the formulation of the cell-theory by Schwann and Schleiden (1838-9), by +Goodsir and Virchow, which made it clear that all but the simplest +organisms are built up of cells or modifications of cells, and that the +individual life usually begins as a fertilised egg-cell which proceeds +by division and re-division, by differentiation and integration, to +develop a more or less complex "body." It has become gradually clear +that while the fertilised egg-cell gives rise to body-cells which become +specialised, it also gives rise to unspecialised descendant-cells, which +take no share in body-making, but become the germ-cells--the potential +starting-points of another generation. A second great step was the +accumulation of facts of inheritance showing that all sorts of qualities +innate or inborn in the parents, essential and trivial, normal and +abnormal, bodily and mental, may be transmitted to the offspring as part +of the organic heritage. A third great step was implied in the +acceptance which Darwin in particular won for the general idea of +descent, for it is hardly too much to say that the scientific study of +the problems of heredity began when it was recognised that heredity is a +fundamental condition of evolution. + +_Problems of Heredity._--In regard to Heredity there are three large +problems which tower above the crowd of more detailed problems. The +_first_ is: In what way are the germ-cells peculiar, how do they differ +from ordinary cells, what gives them their unique reproductive power, +how do they come to be such marvellous units that their development +results in a new organism? Only two answers have been suggested: (1) +that the germ-cells become receptacles of representative samples from +the different parts of the body (the pangenetic theory), and (2) that +the germ-cells owe their unique character to the fact that they are, +along lines of undifferentiated cell-lineage, the direct descendants of +the fertilised ova of the parents (the theory of germinal continuity). +Thanks, largely, to Weismann, the second view has prevailed over the +first, for which there is little factual basis. + +The _second_ large problem is as to the way in which it may be supposed +that the hereditary qualities are represented in the germ-cell. Is the +germ-cell an extremely complex chemical mixture without pre-formed +architecture, which, as it lives and grows, gradually gives rise to +heterogeneous elements, differentiating along diverse lines according to +their diverse relations to one another and to their surrounding +conditions? Or is it from the first a complex architecture, an intricate +organisation of a large number of items representing particular +qualities, a mosaic of inheritance-bearers? + +The _third_ large problem is as to the modes in which the inheritance, +normally bi-parental, and in some sense always a mingling of ancestral +contributions, can express itself. Sometimes the expression is +one-sided, sometimes it is a blend. The mother may look out of one eye, +and the father out of another, or the grandfather may be re-incarnated. +By inter-breeding hybrids pure types may be got, _or_ reversions, _or_ +"an epidemic of variations." This is the problem of the diverse modes of +hereditary transmission, which we know in some cases to be expressible +in a formula, such as Mendel's law or Galton's law, and for which we can +sometimes hazard a hypothetical physiological interpretation. + +_Physiological Units._--To each of these three problems Spencer made a +contribution. He started with the legitimate and fertile hypothesis of +"physiological units"--the ultimate life-bearing elements, intermediate +between the chemical molecules and the cell. Just as the same kinds and +even the same number of atoms compose by different arrangements numerous +quite different chemical molecules, _e.g._ in the protein-group, so out +of similar molecules diversely grouped an immense variety of +"physiological units" may be evolved. Out of the same pieces of coloured +glass one may get in the kaleidoscope a very large number of distinct +patterns, so in the course of nature similar molecules, grouping +themselves differently, have formed a very large number of distinct +"physiological units." The grouping is not merely positional and static +as in the kaleidoscope; it is dynamic and vital. Since Spencer sketched +his idea in 1864 many biologists have thought of units intermediate +between the chemical molecules and the cell, and the number of different +names which have been bestowed upon them is extraordinary, each voyager +re-naming his discovery, ignorant of or ignoring those who had +previously sailed the same seas. This recognition of "physiological +units" was a natural step in analysis as soon as it began to be +recognised that the cell was a little world in itself, a "firm" with +many partners. While we cannot agree with Delage that "Spencer est le +vrai pere de la conception initiale," since Bruecke expressed the same +idea in 1861, Spencer's exposition in 1864 was quite independent, and it +has not found the recognition it deserved. + +It should be noted that the "gemmules" which Darwin assumed in his +provisional hypothesis of pangenesis to be given off by the various +cells of the body, were supposed to be of innumerable unlike kinds, +whereas in Spencer's argument "the implication everywhere is that the +physiological units are all of one kind." + +It is admitted that the molecules of a crystallisable substance have +more or less mysterious relations to one another--"polarities" as we +call them--which result in definite crystalline forms appearing in +definite conditions, with a certain amount of diversity as everyone may +see in snow-crystals, and as is more precisely known in the case of +certain substances which have several forms of crystallisation. But just +as chemical molecules have in virtue of their organisation (always +dynamic as well as static) certain prescribed modes of relating +themselves to others like themselves, and building up a beautiful +integrate, a crystal, so, as Spencer pointed out, the "physiological +units" have their "polarities," _i.e._ their inherent constitutional +tendencies to build up forms along with their fellows. Here we have two +useful suggestions, (1) that development is like an elaborate organic +crystallisation, only much more energetically dynamic, and (2) that the +big fact of heredity--that like tends to beget like--has its parallel in +the way in which a minute fragment of a crystal can in the appropriate +environment of a solution of the same substance build up a crystal like +the original form from which it was separated. Germ-cells are potential +samples of the organisation which is expressed in the parent, but +Spencer did not advance to the more distinctively modern position which +recognises that they are separated off rather from the fertilised ovum +which gave rise to the parent's body than from that body itself. The +parental body is the trustee rather than the producer of the germ-cells. + +_A Digression._--Here we must digress a little to compare Spencer's +conception of physiological or constitutional units with Weismann's +conception of the Germ-Plasm. According to Weismann, there is in the +nuclei of the germ-cells a distinctive physical basis of inheritance, +the germ-plasm. It is the vehicle of the hereditary qualities, the +architectural substance which enables the germ-cell to build up an +organism; it has an extremely complex and at the same time persistent +structure. Following a hypothesis of De Vries, he supposed that the +readily stainable nuclear bodies (the chromosomes or idants) consist of +a colony of invisible self-propagating vital units or _biophors_, each +of which has the power of expressing in development some particular +quality. He supposed that these biophors are aggregated into units of a +higher order, known as _determinants_, one for each structure of the +body which is capable of independent variation. These determinants are +supposed to be grouped together in _ids_, each of which is supposed to +possess a complete complement of the specific characters of the organism +and also to have an individual character. The _ids_ are arranged in +linear series to form the visible _idants_ or chromosomes, which will be +slightly different from one another according to the individualities of +the component ids. When the fertilised egg-cell develops, it gives rise +(1) to _somatic_ cells which carry with them part of the germ-plasm, and +differentiate to form the body, and (2) to the _germ_ cells which +reserve part of the germ-plasm in an unchanged state, and eventually +give rise in appropriate conditions to new individuals _and their +germ-cells_. + +Spencer refused to accept the contrast between _body_-cells and +_germ_-cells as expressing a fact, and referred for his reasons to the +numerous cases in which small pieces of a plant or polyp may grow into +an entire organism. But when he represented Weismann as maintaining that +the "soma contains in its components none of those latent powers +possessed by those of the germ-plasm," he did not do justice to the +comprehensive theory of the "Germ-plasm." For Weismann assumes that in +certain cases the body-cells, even though differentiated, may carry with +them some residual unused-up germ-plasm. + +When a lizard regrows a lost tail--effectively responding to a casualty +which has been common for untold generations--Weismann interprets the +mechanism of this as due to a reserve of tail-determinants resident at +or near the place of breakage, and localised there as the result of a +long-continued process of selection. A chamaeleon does not regenerate +its tail, and this may be interpreted in terms of the selection-theory, +since the chamaeleon with its tail coiled up or embracing a branch has +not been, in the course of its evolution, subjected to the frequently +recurrent casualty which has beset most other lizards. Spencer said, "We +cannot arbitrarily assume that wherever a missing organ has to be +reproduced there exists the needful supply of determinants representing +that organ," but Weismann made no such arbitrary assumption. Many organs +are lost which are not regenerated, even when, as far as materials or +differentiation are concerned, it would be easy to replace them. Why the +everywhere present uniform physiological units that Spencer believed in +should not replace them, we do not know; but if the distribution of +regenerative determinants has been wrought out by selection, we +understand the facts. + +Spencer said that the hypothesis of a supply of determinants lying +latent at or near the seat of injury, and able to reproduce the missing +part in all its details, and to do this several times over, was "a +strong supposition." We venture to think that the hypothesis that the +same result is achieved by the "physiological units," which are all of +the same kind, is a weak supposition. Spencer said: "Reproduction of the +lost part would seem to be a normal result of the proclivity towards the +form of the entire organism." But it is difficult to see why "proclivity +of the physiological units towards the form of the entire organism" +should bring about the regeneration of a tail here and a head there, a +claw here and an eye there. But Spencer was too acute a thinker not to +feel that if the theory of regenerative determinants was "incompetent," +his own theory, which interpreted regeneration as due to the activity of +physiological units, "with a proclivity towards the organic form of the +species," did not cover the facts; _e.g._ the establishment of +"false-joints," where the ends of a broken bone failing to unite remain +movable one upon the other. Therefore he suggested a qualification of +his hypothesis. + +In "the social organism," it is often seen that the components of an +aggregate "have their activities and arrangements mainly settled by +local conditions." "A local group of units, determined by circumstances +towards a certain structure, coerces its individual units into that +structure." In an emigrant settlement, "individuals are led into +occupations and official posts, often quite new to them, by the wants of +those around--are now influenced and now coerced into social +arrangements which, as shown perhaps by gambling saloons, by shootings +at sight, and by lynchings, are scarcely at all affected by the central +government. Now the physiological units in each species appear to have a +similar combination of capacities. Besides their general proclivity +towards specific organisation, they show us abilities to organise +themselves locally; and these abilities are in some cases displayed in +defiance of the general control, as in the supernumerary finger or the +false joint. Apparently each physiological unit, while having in a +manner the whole organism as the structure which, along with the rest, +it tends to form, has also an aptitude to take part in forming any local +structure, and to assume its place in that structure under the +influence of adjacent physiological units" (_Principles of Biology_, +revised edition, i. p. 364). + +The experiments of Born and others have shown that fragments of a young +tadpole may go on developing to some extent after they are cut off, and +that the undifferentiated rudiment of a limb may be successfully grafted +on to another tadpole. "In brief, we may say that each part is in chief +measure autogenous." "Though all parts are composed of physiological +units of the same nature, yet everywhere, in virtue of local conditions +and the influence of its neighbours, each unit joins in forming the +particular structure appropriate to its place." This conclusion is very +interesting when compared with that reached more inductively by many +embryologists (of the so-called epigenetic school), namely, that what a +blastomere or cleavage-cell of an egg does, is determined by its +intra-embryonic environment, by its relations, both statical and +dynamical, to the whole organisation of which it forms a part. As +Driesch puts it: "The relative position of a blastomere in the whole +determines in general what develops from it; if its position be changed, +it gives rise to something different; in other words, its prospective +value is a function of its position." But those who assume heterogeneous +determinants do not thereby exclude what truth there may be in this view +that what an early blastomere does is a function of its inter-relations. + +But let us consider how much Spencer puts to the credit of his +"constitutional units." (1) They carry within them the traits of the +species and even some of the traits of the ancestors of the species, +the traits of the parents and even some of the traits of their +immediate ancestors, and the congenital idiosyncrasies of the individual +itself. In this they resemble the germ-plasm. (2) They "must be at once +in some respects fixed and in other respects plastic; while their +fundamental traits, expressing the structure of the type, must be +unchangeable, their superficial traits must admit of modification +without much difficulty; and the modified traits, expressing variations +in the parents and immediate ancestors, though unstable, must be +considered as capable of becoming stable in course of time." Again they +resemble the germ-plasm. (3) Once more, "we have to think of these +physiological units (or constitutional units as I would now re-name +them) as having such natures that while a minute modification, +representing some small change of local structure, is inoperative on the +proclivities of the units throughout the rest of the system, it becomes +operative in the units which fall into the locality where that change +occurs." Here they part company from the germ-plasm, except in so far as +it may be said that the development of the distributed determinants is +in part dependent on local conditions. (4) Finally, since Spencer +supposed "an unceasing circulation of protoplasm throughout an +organism," such that "in the course of days, weeks, months, years, each +portion of protoplasm visits every part of the body"--a wild +assumption--"we must conceive that the complex forces of which each +constitutional unit is the centre, and by which it acts on other units +while it is acted on by them, tend continually to re-mould each unit +into congruity with the structures around: superposing on it +modifications answering to the modifications which have arisen in these +structures. Whence is to be drawn the corollary that in the course of +time all the circulating units--physiological, or constitutional if we +prefer so to call them--visit all parts of the organism; are severally +bearers of traits expressing local modifications; and that those units +which are eventually gathered into sperm-cells and germ-cells also bear +these superposed traits." + +This theory--which is not unlike a combination of Darwin's pangenesis +with De Vries's neo-pangenesis--is very significant, for it discloses +Spencer's hypothesis as to the _modus operandi_ of the transmission of +acquired characters. But there is unfortunately no factual warrant for +the assumption that the constitutional units visit one another in +various corners of the body, getting impressions as they go, or for the +assumption that they are eventually gathered into the germ-cells--an +assumption which shows how far Spencer deliberately stood from the +conception of the continuity of the germ-plasm. Even if we suppose an +organism to undergo numerous modifications in different parts of its +body, as a plant may do when it is transferred from the Alps to the +lowlands; even if we suppose the constitutional units--which are all of +one kind--to circulate and become bearers of the traits expressing local +modifications, we have to face other questions: do they all become +remoulded in relation to all the modifications? or do some become +remoulded in relation to one modification and some in relation to +another? or do all the modifications so hang together that one kind of +alteration impressed upon the constitutional units covers them all? The +difficulties of the conception of constitutional-units certainly do not +seem less than the difficulties of the conception of specific +determinants. + +Even to the general reader, who is not concerned with the problem of the +mechanism of inheritance and development, who has a shrewd suspicion +that it is one of those things no fellow can understand, our digression +should be interesting, for it illustrates Spencer's fertility of +invention and his adroitness in lugging in one hypothesis after another +to eke out a theory which in its first statement appears to be very +simple. It is instructive to observe how the constitutional units at +first so harmlessly simple, grow under the conjurer's hands until they +become more marvellous than Clerk Maxwell's "sorting demons." + +But it is more instructive still to hear the conclusion of the whole +matter. "At last then we are obliged to admit that the actual organising +process transcends conception. It is not enough to say that we cannot +know it; we must say that we cannot even conceive it. And this is just +the conclusion which might have been drawn before contemplating the +facts. For if, as we saw in the chapter on "the Dynamic Element in +Life," it is impossible for us to understand the nature of this +element--if even the ordinary manifestations of it which a living body +yields from moment to moment are at bottom incomprehensible; then still +more incomprehensible must be that astonishing manifestation of it which +we have in the initiation and unfolding of a new organism." "Thus all we +can do is to find some way of symbolising the process so as to enable us +most conveniently to generalise its phenomena; and the only reason for +adopting the hypothesis is that it best serves this purpose." + +But the hypothesis only serves the purpose because the constitutional +units are gradually invested with the powers of effective response, +co-ordination, and the like which remain the secret of the organism as a +whole--the secret of life, which many think will never be read until we +recognise that it is also the secret of mind. + +_The Germ-Cells._--According to Spencer, "sperm-cells and germ-cells are +essentially nothing more than vehicles in which are contained small +groups of the physiological units in a fit state for obeying their +proclivity towards the structural arrangement of the species they belong +to," and "if the likeness of offspring to parents is thus determined, it +becomes manifest, _a priori_, that besides the transmission of generic +and specific peculiarities, there will be a transmission of those +individual peculiarities which, arising without assignable causes, are +classed as spontaneous." Not only are the main characters transmitted, +the same may be true of even minute details--varietal characters, like +the taillessness of Manx cats, and individual congenital peculiarities +such as a sixth finger; normal qualities such as swiftness in +race-horses, abnormal qualities such as nervousness in man. Here Spencer +was of course at one with all biologists. + +_Transmission of Acquired Characters._--He went on, however, to try to +substantiate the proposition, which has been the subject of so much +discussion, that modifications or acquired bodily characters are also +transmissible, and we must follow his argument carefully. + +He first points out that when a structure is altered by a change of +function the modification is often unobtrusive, and its transmission +consequently difficult to detect. "Moreover, such specialities of +structure as are due to specialities of function, are usually entangled +with specialities which are, or may be, due to selection, natural or +artificial. In most cases it is impossible to say that a structural +peculiarity which seems to have arisen in offspring from a functional +peculiarity in a parent, is wholly independent of some congenital +peculiarity of structure in the parent, whence this functional +peculiarity arose. We are restricted to cases with which natural or +artificial selection can have had nothing to do, and such cases are +difficult to find. Some, however, may be noted." + +When a plant is transferred from one soil to another it undergoes "a +change of habit"; its leaves may become hairy, its stem woody, its +branches drooping. "These are modifications of structure consequent on +modifications of function that have been produced by modifications in +the actions of external forces. And as these modifications +reappear in succeeding generations, we have, in them, examples of +functionally-established variations that are hereditarily transmitted." +But this is a _non sequitur_, since the modifications may reappear +merely _because they are re-impressed directly_ on each successive +generation. + +Spencer notes that in the domestic duck the bones of the wing weigh less +and the bones of the leg more in proportion to the whole skeleton than +do the same bones in the wild duck; that in cows and goats which are +habitually milked the udders are large; that moles and many +cave-animals have rudimentary eyes, and so on. But all these results may +be readily interpreted as due to selection of germinal variations. + +The best examples of inherited modifications occur, he says, in mankind. +"Thus in the United States the descendants of the immigrant Irish lose +their Celtic aspect, and become Americanised.... To say that +'spontaneous variation' increased by natural selection can have produced +this effect is going too far." But if the vague statement as to the +Americanisation of the Irishman be correct, and if it be true that +intermarriage is rare, it remains probable that the Americanisation is a +modificational veneer impressed afresh on each successive generation. + +"That large hands are inherited by those whose ancestors led laborious +lives, and that those descended from ancestors unused to manual labour +commonly have small hands, are established opinions." But if we accept +the fact, it is easy to interpret the size of the hands as a +stock-character correlated with a muscularity and vigour, and +established by selection. The prevalence of short-sightedness among the +"notoriously studious" Germans is a singularly unfortunate instance to +give in support of the inheritance of functional modifications, for +there is no reason to believe that short-sightedness is primarily an +acquired character. Nor is it confined to readers. + +Spencer twits those who are sceptical as to the transmission of acquired +modifications, for assigning the most flimsy reasons for rejecting a +conclusion they are averse to; but when Spencer cites the inheritance of +musical talent and a liability to consumption as evidence of the +transmission of functional modifications, we are reminded of the pot +calling the kettle black. + +Spencer made his position stronger by adducing what he calls _negative_ +evidence, namely those "cases in which traits otherwise inexplicable are +explained if the structural effects of use and disuse are transmitted." + + (1) First he refers to the co-adaptation of co-operative parts. + With the enormous antlers of a stag there is associated a large + number of co-adaptations of different parts of the body, and + similarly with the giraffe's long neck and the kangaroo's power of + leaping. Spencer argued that the co-adaptation of numerous parts + cannot have been effected by natural selection, but might be + effected by the hereditary accumulation of the results of use. The + difficulty is to discover how much deep-seated co-adjustment can be + effected by exercise even in the course of a long time, and the + theory requires such data before it can be more than a plausible + interpretation, with certain _a priori_ difficulties against it. If + an animal suddenly takes to leaping many individual adjustments to + the new exercise will arise; if the animals of successive + generations leap yet more freely, they will individually acquire + more thorough adjustments up to a certain limit; meanwhile there + may arise constitutional variations making towards adaptation to + the new habit, and under the screen of the individual modifications + these may increase from minute beginnings till they acquire + selection-value. Professors Mark Baldwin, Lloyd Morgan, and Osborn, + have all made the same useful suggestion that adaptive + modifications acquired individually may act as the fostering nurses + of constitutional variations in the same direction until these + coincident variations are large enough in amount to be themselves + effective. + + (2) Secondly, Spencer dwelt upon the notably unlike powers of + tactile discrimination possessed by the human skin, and sought to + show that while these could not be interpreted on the hypothesis of + natural selection or on the correlated hypothesis of panmixia, they + could be interpreted readily if the effects of use are inherited. + But the difficulty again is to get secure data. It is uncertain + how much of the inequality in tactile sensitiveness is due to + individual exercise and experience, though it is certain that + tactility in little-used parts can be greatly increased by use. Nor + is it certain how much of the apparent unlikeness in tactility is + due to unequal distribution of peripheral nerve-endings and how + much to specialised application of the power of central perception. + As Prof. Lloyd Morgan says: "We do not yet know the limits within + which education and practice may refine the application of central + powers of discrimination within little-used areas. The facts which + Mr Spencer adduces may be in large degree due to individual + experience; discrimination being continually exercised in the + tongue and finger-tips, but seldom on the back or breast. We need a + broader basis of assured fact." Nor, it may be added, is the action + of selection to be excluded. + + (3) Spencer's third set of negative evidences was based on + rudimentary organs which, like the hind limbs of the whale, have + nearly disappeared. Dwindling by natural selection is here out of + the question; and dwindling by panmixia, i.e. the diminution of a + structure when natural selection ceases to affect its degree of + development, "would be incredible, even were the assumptions of the + theory valid." But as a sequence of disuse the change is clearly + explained. Prof. Lloyd Morgan replies: "Is there any evidence that + a structure really dwindles through disuse in the course of + individual life? Let us be sure of this before we accept the + argument that vestigial organs afford evidence that this supposed + dwindling is inherited. The assertion may be hazarded that, in the + individual life, what the evidence shows is that, without due use, + an organ does not reach its full functional or structural + development. If this be so, the question follows: How is the mere + absence of full development in the individual converted through + heredity into a positive dwindling of the organ in question?" + Moreover, the convinced Neo-Darwinian is not in the least prepared + to abandon the theory of dwindling in the course of panmixia, + especially in the light which Weismann's conception of Germinal + Selection has thrown on this process. + +The inductive evidence in support of the conclusion that bodily +modifications due to use or disuse or environmental influence can be as +such or in any representative degree transmitted, is very weak. The +so-called evidences are often anecdotal and vague, often irrelevant and +fallacious, and those Spencer adduced are by no means convincing. Let us +consider the question briefly from the _a priori_ side. + +The general argument _against_ the hypothesis rests on a realisation of +the continuity of the germ-plasm. For if the germ-plasm, or the material +basis of inheritance within the germ-cells, be somewhat apart from the +general life of the body, often segregated at an early stage, and in any +case not directly sharing in the every day metabolism, then there is a +presumption against the likelihood of its being readily affected in a +specific manner by changes in the nature of the body-cells. The +germ-cell is in a sense so apart that it is difficult to conceive of the +mechanism by which it might be influenced in a specific or +representative manner by changes in the cells of the body. + +On the other hand, in many plants and lower animals, the distinction +between body-cells and germ-cells is far from being demonstrably marked, +and even in higher animals we cannot think of the germ-cells as if they +led a charmed life uninfluenced by any of the accidents and incidents in +the daily life of the body which is their nurse, though not exactly +their parent. No one believes this, Weismann least of all, for he finds +one of the chief sources of germinal variation in the nutritive stimuli +exerted on the germ-plasm by the varying state of the body. The organism +is a unity; the blood and lymph and other body-fluids form a common +internal medium; various poisons may affect the whole system, +germ-cells included; and there are real though dimly understood +correlations between the reproductive system and the rest of the +organism. + +There are some who pretend to find in this admission "a concealed +abandonment of the central position of Weismann," for if, they say, the +germ-plasm is affected by changes in nutrition in the body, and if +acquired characters affect changes in nutrition, then "acquired +characters or their consequences will be inherited." But it is a quite +illegitimate confusion of the issue to slump acquired characters and +their consequences as if the distinction was immaterial. The illustrious +author of the _Germ-Plasm_ has made it quite clear that there is a great +difference between admitting that the germ-plasm has no charmed life, +insulated from bodily influences, and admitting the transmissibility _of +a particular acquired character_, even in the faintest degree. The whole +point is this: Does a change in the body, induced by use or disuse or by +a change in surroundings, influence the germ-plasm in such a specific or +representative way that the offspring will exhibit the same modification +which the parent acquired, or even a tendency towards it? Even when we +fully recognise the unity of the organism, or recognise it as fully as +we know how, it is difficult to suggest any _modus operandi_ whereby a +particular modification in, say, the brain or the thumb can specifically +affect the germinal material in such a way that the modification or a +tendency towards it becomes part of the inheritance. Did we accept +Darwin's provisional hypothesis of pangenesis according to which the +parts of the body give off gemmules which are carried as samples to the +germ-cells, the possibility of transfer might seem more intelligible. +But Darwin's suggestion remains a pure hypothesis, and is admitted by +none except in extremely modified form. In fairness, however, we must +note how little we understand of the _modus operandi_ of influences +which certainly pass in the other direction, from the reproductive +organs to the body; we must recall Prof. Lloyd Morgan's warning that +although we cannot conceive how a modification might as such saturate +from body to germ-cells, this does not exclude the possibility that it +may actually do so. + +As a matter of fact, Spencer has himself suggested a _modus +operandi_--as already outlined. The constitutional units are supposed to +circulate; when they come to a modified organ and visit its modified +constitutional units, they are supposed to be themselves impressed; they +are supposed to be "eventually gathered into sperm-cells and +germ-cells," which thus come to bear the "superposed traits" resulting +from modification. But, as we have seen, the difficulty is to find any +basis in fact on which these assumptions can rest. Indeed, they are +contradictory to well-established physiological facts. + +_Inconceivability._--In reference to the difficulties which beset +theories of heredity, Spencer remarks:-- + + "If it is said that the mode in which functionally-wrought changes, + especially in small parts, so affect the reproductive elements as + to repeat themselves in offspring, cannot be imagined--if it be + held inconceivable that those minute changes in the organ of vision + which cause myopia can be transmitted through the appropriately + modified sperm-cells or germ-cells; then the reply is that the + opposed hypothesis presents a corresponding inconceivability. + Grant that the habit of a pointer was produced by selection of + those in which an appropriate variation in the nervous system had + occurred; it is impossible to imagine how a slightly different + arrangement of a few nerve-cells and fibres could be conveyed by a + spermatozoon. So too it is impossible to imagine how in a + spermatozoon there can be conveyed the 480,000 independent + variables required for the construction of a single peacock's + feather, each having a proclivity towards its proper place. Clearly + the ultimate process by which inheritance is effected in either + case passes comprehension; and in this respect neither hypothesis + has an advantage over the other." + + Let us consider what Spencer has said in regard to + "inconceivability." Most ova are very minute cells, often + microscopically minute, and a spermatozoon may be only 1/100,000th + of the ovum's size--inconceivably minute, but yet exceedingly real + and potent. We cannot conceive how a complex inheritance made up of + numerous contributions is potentially contained in such small + compass, and yet in some form it must be. Similarly, we cannot + conceive how the pin-head like brain of the ant contains all the + ant's "wisdom." + + Those who find it difficult to believe that items so minute as the + germ-cells can have room for the complexity of hereditary + organisation which seems to be a necessary postulate may be + reminded of three things: (1) They should recall what students of + physics have told us in regard to the fineness, or, from another + point of view, the coarse-grainedness of matter. They tell us that + the picture of a Great Eastern filled with framework as intricate + as that of the daintiest watches does not exaggerate the + possibilities of molecular complexity in a spermatozoon, whose + actual size is usually very much less than the smallest dot on the + watch's face. + + (2) It should be remembered that in development one step conditions + the next, and one structure grows out of another, so that there is + no need to think of the microscopic germ-cells as stocked with more + than _initiatives_. (3) It should be remembered that every + development implies an interaction between the growing organism and + a complex environment without which the inheritance would remain + unexpressed, and that the full-grown organism includes much that + was not as such inherited, but has been individually acquired as + the result of nurture or external influence. + + Now, returning to Spencer, we find that by an extraordinary + argument he concludes that the number of determinants required for + the development of a single feather in the peacock's tail must be + 480,000, and he points to the inconceivability of these being + contained, along with much else of course, in the spermatozoon. We + are not at present concerned with the precise number of + determinants, but we can see no reason why a spermatozoon should + not contain millions if they were needed. The inconceivability is a + general one; it is due to the difficulty of imaging the complexity + of matter. + + But the inconceivability of a particular modification of the nose + affecting the germ-cells in a specific and representative way is a + different kind of inconceivability. It is due to our being unable + to imagine any reasonable _modus operandi_ consistent with our + knowledge of the structure and metabolism of the organism. As we + have seen and emphasised Spencer does himself suggest a _modus + operandi_, but it seems to us to make unwarranted assumptions, and + is for that reason to us "inconceivable." + +_A Priori Argument._--But Spencer advanced an _a priori_ argument to +strengthen the position which he felt bound to hold--the +transmissibility of acquired characters. "That changes of structure +caused by changes of action must be transmitted, however obscurely, +appears to be a deduction from first principles--or if not a specific +deduction, still, a general implication. For if an organism A, has, by +any peculiar habit or condition of life, been modified into the form A', +it follows that all the functions of A', reproductive function included, +must be in some degree different from the functions of A." [This, we +venture to think, must depend on the nature and amount of the +modification.] "An organism being a combination of rhythmically-acting +parts in moving equilibrium, the action and structure of any one part +cannot be altered without causing alterations of action and structure in +all the rest." [The appreciability of the change will depend on the +amount and nature of the modification, and on the intimacy of the +correlation subsisting in the organism. Dislodging a rock may alter the +centre of gravity of the earth, but it does not do so appreciably.] "And +if the organism A, when changed to A', must be changed in all its +functions; then the offspring of A' cannot be the same as they would +have been had it retained the form A." [Assuming that is to say that the +change in the physiological units of the body affects the physiological +units in the germ-cells.] "That the change in the offspring must, other +things equal, be in the same direction as the change in the parent, +appears implied by the fact that the change propagated throughout the +parental system is a change towards a new state of equilibrium--a change +tending to bring the actions of all organs, reproductive included, into +harmony with these new actions." [It seems to us to pass the wit of man +to conceive how or why an improved equilibrium in the use of the hand +should involve any corresponding or representative change of equilibrium +in the germ-cells.] + +Spencer seems to have seen the matter quite clearly. If the +physiological units in the germ-cell mould the aggregate organism, the +organism modified by incident actions will impress some corresponding +modifications on the structures and polarities of its units. And if the +physiological units are in any degree so remoulded as to bring their +polar forces towards equilibrium with the forces of the modified +aggregate, then, when separated in the shape of reproductive centres, +these units will tend to build themselves up into an aggregate modified +in the same direction. + +The drawback to abstract biology based on first principles is that it +enables its devotee to develop arguments which seem plausible until they +are reduced to the concrete. Why had Herbert Spencer small hands? +Because his grandfather and father were schoolmasters who did little +from day to day but wield the pen and sharpen the pencil! Through disuse +of the sword and the spade their hands were directly equilibrated +towards smallness. But since Mr Spencer senior, was "a combination of +rhythmically-acting parts in moving equilibrium," the dwindling of the +hands and the moulding of the physiological units thereof reverberated +through the whole aggregate; a change towards a new state of equilibrium +"was propagated throughout the parental system--a change tending to +bring the actions of all organs, reproductive included, into harmony +with these new actions," or inactions. The modified aggregate impressed +some corresponding modification on the structures and polarities of the +germ-units. And this was why Herbert Spencer had small hands. At least +so he tells us, for the instance is his own. + +_Practical Conclusion._--It is obvious that we have not in these pages +attempted to give an adequate discussion of an extremely difficult +problem. We have endeavoured to give a fair statement of Spencer's +position in regard to a question which appeared to him of "transcendent +importance." "A right answer to the question whether acquired +characters are or are not inherited, underlies right beliefs, not only +in Biology and Psychology, but also in Education, Ethics, and Politics." +"A grave responsibility rests on biologists in respect of the general +question; since wrong answers lead, among other effects, to wrong +beliefs about social affairs and to disastrous social actions." + +It cannot be an easy question this, when we find Spencer on one side and +Weismann on the other, Haeckel on one side and Ray Lankester on the +other, Turner on one side and His on the other. Therefore while it seems +to us that the transmission of acquired characters as strictly defined +is non-proven, and while there seems to us to be a strong presumption +that they are not transmitted, the scientific position should remain one +of active scepticism--leading on to experiment. + +And if there is little scientific warrant for our being other than +sceptical at present as to the transmission of acquired characters, this +scepticism lends greater importance than ever, on the one hand, to a +good "nature," to secure which is the business of careful mating; and, +on the other hand, to a good "nurture," to secure which for our children +is one of our most obvious duties, the hopefulness of the task resting +upon the fact that, unlike the beasts that perish, man has a lasting +external heritage, capable of endless modification for the better, a +heritage of ideas and ideals embodied in prose and verse, in statue and +painting, in Cathedral and University, in tradition and convention, and +above all in society itself. + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION + + _Variation--Selection--Isolation--Spencer's Contribution--External + Factors--Internal Factors--Direct Equilibration--Indirect + Equilibration_ + + +Darwin rendered three great services to evolution-doctrine, (1) By his +marshalling of the evidences which suggest the doctrine of descent, he +won the conviction of the biological world. (2) He applied the +evolution-idea to various sets of facts, not only to the origin of +species in general, but to the difficult case of Man; not only to the +origin of the countless adaptations with which organic nature is filled, +but to particular problems such as the expression of the emotions; and +in so doing he corroborated the evolution-formula by showing what a +powerful organon it is. (3) Along with Alfred Russel Wallace, he +elaborated the theory of natural selection, which disclosed one of the +factors in the evolution-process. + +As we have seen, Herbert Spencer preceded Darwin in his championing of +the doctrine of descent, to which the natural mood of his mind, and the +influences of Lamarck and von Baer had led him to give his adhesion. He +also applied the evolution-formula to an even wider series of facts than +Darwin ventured to touch, viz., to the inorganic world and to +psychological and sociological facts. It remains to be seen what his +position was in regard to the Factors of Organic Evolution. + +Spencer's position may be more clearly defined if we first sketch the +answer which most biologists would at present give to the question--What +are the factors of Organic Evolution? + +_Variation._--Postulating the powers of growing and reproducing, of +acting on and reacting to the environment, postulating also heredity +without which no organic evolution is possible, biologists distinguish +two sets of factors in the evolution process. On the one hand there are +_originative factors_ which produce those changes in living creatures +which make them different from their fellows. These changes or observed +differences are of two kinds--(_a_) they may have their origin in the +arcana of the germ and be inborn _variations_ (germinal, constitutional, +endogenous, etc.), or (_b_) they may be acquired _modifications_ wrought +on the body of the individual by environmental influences or by use and +disuse (somatic, acquired, exogenous, etc.). Thus "modifications" or +"acquired characters" may be defined as structural changes in the body +of the individual organism, directly induced by changes in the +environment or in the function, and such that they transcend the limit +of organic elasticity and persist after the inducing causes have ceased +to operate. Merely transient changes which disappear soon after their +cause has ceased to operate may be conveniently called "adjustments." +Now when we subtract from the total of observed differences between +individuals of the same stock, all the modifications and adjustments +which we can distinguish as such by their being causally related to +some alteration in function or environment, we have a remainder which we +call "variations." We cannot causally relate them to differences in +habit or surroundings, they are often hinted at even before birth, and +they are not alike even among forms whose conditions of life seem +absolutely uniform. This distinction between _modifications_ and +_variations_, though clear in theory, is not always readily drawn in +practice, but it is of great importance, for while all innate +variations, except complete sterility, are transmissible, and thus may +form the raw materials of progress, there is no secure evidence that +acquired characters or somatic modifications are transmissible. +Therefore, the latter, though very important for the individual, and +indirectly important for the race, cannot be assumed (without further +proof) as directly important in the transmutation of species. + +As to the nature and frequency of inborn variations, Biology has +recently begun to accumulate precise observations, and has renounced the +bad habit of simply postulating variability without statistically or +otherwise defining it. Life is so abundant and so Protean that +biologists have tended to draw cheques upon Nature as if they had +unlimited credit, scarce waiting in their impetuosity to see whether +these are honoured, but the very title--_Biometrika_--of a new journal +shows that the science is emerging from the slough of vagueness in +which, to the physicists' contempt, it has so long floundered. All +science begins with measurement, and one of the great steps that have +been made of recent years is in the tedious, but necessary task of +recording the variations which do actually occur. From these we can +argue with a clear intellectual conscience back to what may have been. +One result is plain, that variation is a very general fact of life; +whenever we settle down to measure we find that specific diagnoses are +averages, that specific characters require a curve of frequency for +their expression, that a living organism is usually like a Proteus. +There are no doubt long-lived, non-plastic, conservative types, such as +Lingula, where no visible variability can be detected (even in untold +ages if we consider the hard parts preservable as fossils), but to judge +from these as to the rate of evolutionary change is like estimating the +rush of a river from the eddies of a sheltered pool. Another result is +that it becomes possible to distinguish between _continuous_ variations, +which are just like stages in continuous growth, in which the descendant +has a little more or a little less of a given character than its parents +had, and _discontinuous_ variations in which a new combination appears +suddenly without gradational stages, and with no small degree of +perfection. Although there is truth in Lamarck's dictum that "Nature is +never brusque," although Jack-in-the-box phenomena are rare, the +evidence, _e.g._ of Bateson and De Vries, as to the frequent occurrence +of discontinuous variations appears conclusive. Such words as "freaks" +and "sports" express a truth, suggested by Mr Galton's phrase +"transilient variations," that organisms may pass with seeming +abruptness from one form of equilibrium to another. There is evidence +that these sudden and discontinuous variations--"mutations" many of them +are called--are often very heritable, that when they appear they come to +stay; and it seems likely, especially from facts of breeding and +cultivation, that these mutations, rather than the minute "fluctuating" +variations, have supplied the raw material on which selection has +chiefly operated in the evolution of species. + +It also becomes more and more evident that the living creature may vary +as a unity, so that if there is more of one character there is less of +another, and so that one change brings another in its train. It seems as +if the organism as a whole--through its germinal organisation, of +course--may suddenly pass from one position of organic equilibrium to +another. Thus we are not shut up to the assumption of the piecemeal +variation of minute parts; there is greater definiteness and less +fortuitousness in variation than was previously supposed. We begin, from +actual data, to see the truth of the view which Goethe and Naegeli +suggested, that the evolution of organisms is pre-eminently a story of +self-differentiating and self-integrating growth,--cumulative, +selective, definite, and harmonious--like crystallisation. As to the +_origin_ of variations, it must be admitted that until we know the +actual facts better, we cannot expect to know much in regard to their +antecedents. Many suggestions have been made, some of which may be +summarised. + +There is something comparable to the First Law of Motion to be read out +of the persistence of characteristics from generation to generation. +Like tends to beget like. But while the relation of genetic continuity +which links generation to generation tends to ensure this persistence, +it presents no more than a curb to the occurrence of variation. While +complete and perfect inheritance and complete and perfect expression of +that inheritance in development would mean the absence of variation, +there are many reasons why this completeness of hereditary resemblance +is rare. For the inheritance seems to consist of sets of hereditary +qualities not in duplicate merely but in multiplicate; they are not all +of equal strength or of equal stability; there may be a struggle amongst +them; and they are subject to changes induced by the changes in the +complex nutritive supply which the parental body--their bearer--affords. + +A variation, which makes its possessor different from the parents, is +often interpretable as due to some incompleteness of inheritance or in +the _expression_ of the inheritance. It seems as if the entail were +sometimes broken in regard to a particular characteristic. Oftener, +perhaps, as the third generation shows, the inheritance has been +complete enough potentially, but the young creature has been prevented +from realising its entire legacy. Contrariwise, it may be that the +novelty of the newborn is seen in an intensifying of the inheritance, +for the contributions from the two parents may, as it were, corroborate +one another. + +But in many cases a variation turns up which we must call _novel_, some +peculiar mental pattern, it may be, which spells originality, some +structural change which suggests a new departure. We tentatively +interpret this as due to some fresh permutation or combination of the +complex substances which form the material basis of inheritance, and are +mingled from two sources at the outset of every life sexually +reproduced. It is not merely in an intermingling of maternal and +paternal contributions that a life begins, but of legacies through the +parents from remoter ancestors. The permutations and combinations may +be due to a struggle between the elements which are the bearers of the +heritable qualities, or they may be due to fluctuations in the nutritive +stream which the body supplies to its germ-cells. It must be remembered +that the hereditary material is very complex, and that it has a complex +environment within the parental body. In spite of its essential +architectural stability, it may have a tendency to instability as +regards minor details, and we may perhaps find the change-exciting +stimuli in the ceaseless nutritive oscillations within the body, while +the mode of restoring a disturbed equilibrium may be through a germinal +struggle among the different sets of minute elements which we may call +the heritage-bearers. The idea of germinal selection has been elaborated +with great subtlety by Prof. Weismann. + +Nor does it seem to us legitimate to exclude the possibility that the +germ-cell, or the germ-plasm as the essential part of it, may _grow_ +into a slightly more differentiated and integrated unity before it +begins its task of development. For the power of growth is +characteristic of everything living. Enough has been said, however, to +indicate how uncertain is the voice of biology in answering the +fundamental questions as to the nature and origin of variations. + +_Selection._--The first and most important of the _directive factors_ is +natural selection, and the most distinctive contribution which Darwin +and Wallace made to aetiology was to show how selection works and what it +can effect. The process admits of brief statement. + +Variability is a fact of life, the members of a family or species are +not born alike; some may have qualities which give an advantage both as +to hunger and love; others are relatively handicapped. But a struggle +for existence, as Malthus called it, is also a fact of life, +necessitated especially by two facts--first, that two parent organisms +usually produce many more than two children organisms, and that +population thus tends to outrun the means of subsistence; and, secondly, +that organisms are at the best only relatively well-adapted to the +complex and changeful conditions of their life. This struggle expresses +itself not merely as an elbowing and jostling around the platter of +subsistence, but at every point where the effectiveness of the response +which the living creature makes to the stimuli playing upon it, is of +critical moment. As Darwin said, though many seem to have forgotten, the +phrase "struggle for existence" must be used "in a wide and metaphorical +sense." It includes much more than an internecine scramble for the +necessities of life; it includes all endeavours for and all changes that +make towards preservation and welfare, not only of the individual, but +of the offspring as well. In many cases, indeed, the struggle for +existence both among men and beasts is fairly described as an endeavour +after well-being, and what may have been primarily self-regarding +impulses become replaced by others which are distinctively +species-maintaining, the self failing to find full realisation apart +from its kin and society. + +Now, in this struggle for existence, which has so many expressions, the +relatively less fit to the present conditions tend to be eliminated. +Though the process may work out progress, as measured by degree of +differentiation and integration, by increasing freedom and fullness of +life, and has doubtless done so, yet until we come to its highest forms +in subjective and finally rational selection, it works not towards an +ideal but towards a relative fitness to present conditions. And this may +spell degeneration, as in parasites, when an extrinsic standard is used. +Tapeworms may be just as fit to survive as golden eagles. Again, the +process of elimination does not necessarily mean that the handicapped +variants come at once to a violent end, as when rat devours rat, or the +cold decimates a flock of birds in a single night; it often simply means +that the less fit die before the average time, and are less successful +than their neighbours as regards pairing and having offspring. Moreover, +although the selective process is primarily eliminative or destructive, +like thinning turnips or pruning fruit-trees, we cannot separate its +positive and negative aspects. That nothing succeeds like success is +continually verifiable in nature, the fit variant gets a start just as +surely as the unfit variant is handicapped; there is favouring and +fostering just because there is sifting and singling. + +Given variations and given some mode of selection in the manifold +struggle for existence, the argument continues, then the result will be +in Spencer's phrase "the survival of the fittest." And since many +variations are transmitted from generation to generation, and may, +through the pairing of similar or suitable mates, be gradually increased +in amount and stability, the eliminative or selective process works +towards the establishment of new adaptations and the origin of new +species. + +Darwin thought chiefly of the struggle between individuals--either +between fellows of the same kin or between fellow-kin and foreign +foes--and of the struggle between organisms and the inanimate +environment. He also emphasised the sexual selection which occurs (_a_) +when rival males fight or otherwise compete for the possession of a +desired mate or mates, and in so doing reduce the leet, and (_b_) when +the females appear to choose their mates from amid a crowd of suitors. +While many now doubt if the range and effectiveness of preferential +mating is so great as Darwin believed, there seems no reason to doubt +that this mode of selection has been a factor in evolution. There are +facts which warrant us in saying that _das ewig weibliche_ plays a part +in the upward march of life, that Cupid's darts as well as Death's +arrows have evolutionary significance. + +Even more important, however, are other extensions of the +selection-idea. There may be struggle between groups as well as between +individuals, as when one ant-colony goes to war with another, and there +may be struggle of the parts within the organism just as there is +struggle between organisms. There is struggle when one ovum survives in +an ovary by devouring all its sister-cells, as in the case of _Hydra_ +and _Tubularia_, and, after allowing a wide margin for chance, there may +be some form of selection among the crowd of spermatozoa encompassing +the egg which only one will fertilise, just as there is some form of +selection among the many drones which pursue the queen-bee in her +nuptial flight. Weismann has carried the selection-idea to a logical +finesse in his theory that there may be a struggle between the different +sets of hereditary qualities in the germ-cell, or that there is a +process of "germinal selection" at the very beginning of the individual +life. There are, we admit, great differences between the struggle of +hereditary items and the struggle of large parts within the organism; +between intra-organismal and inter-organismal struggle; between the +competition of individuals and the struggle against physical nature; +between personal selection and the conflict of races; between objective +and subjective selection; but, as it seems to us, they may be all +expressed in the same formula if it is useful so to do. + +_Isolation._--In organic evolution variation supplies the materials +which some form of selection sifts. But besides selection another +directive factor has been indicated in what is called the theory of +isolation. A formidable objection to the Darwinian doctrine, first +clearly stated by Professor Fleeming Jenkin, is that variations of small +amount and sparse occurrence would tend to be swamped out by +inter-crossing before they had time to accumulate and gain stability. In +artificial selection, the breeder takes measures to prevent this +swamping-out by deliberately pairing similar or suitable forms together, +or by deliberately removing unsuitable mateable forms; but what in +Nature corresponds to the breeder? + +It may be that similar variations occur in many individuals at once and +many times over; it may be that many variations are not at first small +in amount, but express big steps in organisation, as in Bateson's +instances of Discontinuous Variation or in De Vries's instances of +Mutation; it may be that many variations are not from the first +unstable, but express changes of organic equilibrium which have come to +stay if they get a chance at all; and it may be that the supposed +swamping effects of inter-crossing are in part illusory, as is strongly +suggested by some of the facts summed up in Mendel's Law; but there +seems to be still room and need for the theory of Isolation worked out +by Romanes, Gulick, and others. + +They point out the great variety of ways in which, in the course of +nature, the range of inter-crossing is restricted--_e.g._ by +geographical barriers, by differences in habit, by psychical likes and +dislikes, by reproductive variation causing mutual sterility between two +sections of a species living on a common area, and so on. According to +Romanes, "without isolation, or the prevention of free inter-crossing, +organic evolution is in no case possible." The supporting body of +illustrative facts is still unsatisfactorily small, but there seems +sound sense in the idea. + +An interesting corollary has been recently indicated by Professor Cossar +Ewart. Breeding within a narrow range often occurs in nature, and often +in human kind, being necessitated by geographical and other barriers. In +artificial conditions, this in-breeding often results in the development +of what is called prepotency. This means that certain forms have an +unusual power of transmitting their peculiarities, even when mated with +dissimilar forms, or, in other words, that some variations have a strong +power of persistence. Therefore, wherever through in-breeding (which +implies some form of isolation) prepotency has developed, there is no +difficulty in understanding how even a small idiosyncrasy may come to +stay, even although the bridegroom does not meet a bride endowed with a +peculiarity like his own. Similarly, Dr A. Reibmayr has argued that the +establishment of a successful human tribe or race involves periods of +in-breeding (_i.e._, marriage within a limited range of relationship), +with the effect of "fixing" constitutional characteristics, and periods +of cross-breeding (_i.e._ marriage between members of distinct stocks), +with the effect of promoting a new crop of variations or initiatives. + +_Spencer's contribution._--Spencer was led to become an evolutionist by +the workings of his own mind, influenced by Laplace's Nebular +Hypothesis, by the transformist theory of Lamarck, by von Baer's law of +individual development, and by Malthus's recognition of the struggle for +existence in mankind. On the whole, it may be said that he came to the +theory of organic evolution from above, rather than from below, from his +studies on the intellectual and social evolution of man rather than from +acquaintance with the biological data. Not unnaturally, therefore, he +was to begin with a Lamarckian, believing in the cumulative transmission +of the transforming results of use and disuse and of environmental +influences. + + In the essay on "a theory of Population" (1852) Spencer was within + sight of one of the great doctrines of Darwinism. "From the + beginning," he said, "pressure of population has been the proximate + cause of progress." "The effect of pressure of population, in + increasing the ability to maintain life, and decreasing the ability + to multiply, is not a uniform effect, but an average one.... All + mankind in turn subject themselves more or less to the discipline + described; they either may or may not advance under it; but, in the + nature of things, only those who _do_ advance under it eventually + survive.... For as those prematurely carried off must, in the + average of cases, be those in whom the power of self-preservation + is the least, it unavoidably follows that those left behind to + continue the race, are those in whom the power of self-preservation + is the greatest--are the select of their generation." + + Here Spencer recognised the eliminative and selective effect of + struggle in mankind. Why was he "blind to the fact," as he + afterwards said, "that here was a universally-operative factor in + the development of species"? In his _Autobiography_ he gives two + reasons for his oversight, one was his Lamarckian preconception + that the inheritance of functionally-produced modifications + sufficed to explain the facts of evolution. The other was, that he + "knew little or nothing about the phenomena of variation," that "he + had failed to recognise the universal tendency to vary." + + Similarly, in his essay on "Progress: its Law and Cause" (1857), he + still "ascribed all modifications to direct adaptations to changing + conditions; and was unconscious that in the absence of that + indirect adaptation effected by the natural selection of favourable + variations, the explanation left the larger part of the facts + unaccounted for" (_Autobiography_, i. p. 502). + + In his article "Transcendental Physiology" (1857), Spencer advanced + a step beyond the position occupied in his essay on "Progress." He + showed that with advance in the forms of life there is an + increasing differentiation of them from their environments, that + integration as well as differentiation is part of the developmental + process, but the leading conception of the essay was "the + instability of the homogeneous." This was recognised, like "the + multiplication of effects," as a cause of progress, as "a principle + holding not among organic phenomena only, but among inorganic and + super-organic phenomena." It was in this essay also that he began + to use the word "evolution" in place of the more teleological word + "progress." + + In the same year (1857) Spencer again approached the idea of + selection as a directive factor in evolution. In an essay on "State + Tamperings with Money and Banks" he gave among other reasons for + reprobating grandmotherly legislation, that "such a policy + interferes with that normal process which brings benefit to the + sagacious and disaster to the stupid." "The ultimate result of + shielding men from the effects of folly, is to fill the world with + fools." "This was a tacit assertion, recalling like assertions + previously made, that the survival of the fittest operates + beneficially in society." + + Darwin's _Origin of Species_ appeared in 1859, and marked another + step in Spencer's evolutionism. Hitherto, though he had several + times approached the idea of Natural Selection, he had "held that + the sole cause of organic evolution is the inheritance of + functionally-produced modifications"; now it became clear to him + that he was wrong, and that the larger part of the facts cannot be + due to any such cause (_Autobiography_, ii. 50). + + In 1864 Spencer definitely sought to assimilate the Darwinian idea + of Natural Selection into his system. He had become convinced that + the hereditary accumulation of functional modifications could not + be the sole factor in organic evolution; he had recognised the + importance and efficacy of Natural Selection as a directive agency + thinning and "singling" the crop of variations which is always + abundant; but he had not seen how to absorb "Natural Selection" + into his general physical theory of evolution. It seemed "to stand + apart as an unrelated process." + + "The search for congruity led first of all to perception of the + fact that what Mr Darwin called 'natural selection,' might more + literally be called survival of the fittest. But what is survival + of the fittest, considered as an outcome of physical actions?" + + Spencer's answer was that the changes constituting evolution tend + ever towards a state of equilibrium; on the way to this there are + stages of "moving equilibrium"; some organisms have their moving + equilibrium less easily overthrown than others; these are the + fittest which survive; they are, in Darwin's language, the select + which nature preserves; and thus "the survival and multiplication + of the select becomes conceivable in purely physical terms, as an + indirect outcome of a complex form of the universal redistribution + of matter and motion" (_Autobiography_, ii. pp. 100-1). In short, + natural selection is part of the universal process towards more + stable equilibrium. + + When formulating his views on the classification of the sciences + and his reasons for dissenting from the philosophy of Comte, + Spencer pointed out that all the concrete sciences under their most + general aspects give accounts of the redistributions of matter and + motion; and he asked the question, What is the universal trait of + all such redistributions? His answer was that "increasing + integration of matter necessitates a concomitant dissipation of + motion, and that increasing amount of motion implies a concomitant + disintegration of matter." Thus Evolution and Dissolution appeared + "under their primordial aspects," and differentiations, with + resulting increase of heterogeneity, were seen to be secondary not + primary traits of evolution. So he arrived at his famous definition + of evolution:--"_Evolution is an integration of matter and + concomitant dissipation of motion, during which the matter passes + from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent + heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a + parallel transformation_" (_First Principles_, p. 396). + +Having illustrated the evolution of the evolution-theory in Spencer's +mind, we pass to his final statement of the factors of organic +evolution. + +(1) _External Factors._--He begins by pointing out that living creatures +are in the grip of a complex environment, which acts on them and to +which they react. And whether we think of the seasons or the climate, +the soil or the sea, we find that this environment is intricately +variable. Every kind of plant and animal may be regarded as for ever +passing into a new environment, and with increasing fullness of life +there is additional complexity in the incidence of external forces. +Every increase of locomotive power, for instance, increases the +multiplicity and multiformity of action and reaction between organism +and environment. There are chemical, mechanical, dynamic, and animate +influences which modify organisms, and as the actions of these several +orders of factors are compounded, there is produced a geometric +progression of changes increasing with immense rapidity. All through the +ages living creatures have as it were been passing over a series of +anvils on which the hammers of external forces play, with tunes of +ever-increasing complexity. + +(2) _Internal Factors._--Passing to internal factors, Spencer started +from the fact that organic matter is built up of very unstable complex +molecules. "But a substance which is beyond all others changeable by the +actions and reactions of the forces liberated from instant to instant +within its own mass, must be a substance which is beyond all others +changeable by the forces acting on it from without." In any aggregate +"the relations of outside and inside, and of comparative nearness to +neighbouring sources of influences, imply the reception of influences +that are unlike in quantity, or quality, or both; and it follows that +unlike changes will be produced in the parts thus dissimilarly acted +on." Thus arise differentiations of structure, a transition from a +uniform to a multiform state, a passage from homogeneity to +heterogeneity, and this must go on cumulatively. For "the more strongly +contrasted the parts of an aggregate become, the more different must be +their reactions on incident forces, and the more unlike must be the +secondary effects which these initiate. This multiplication of effects +conspires, with the instability of the homogeneous, to work an +increasing multiformity of structure in an organism." Thus, if the head +of a bison becomes much heavier, what a multiplication of +effects--mechanical and physiological--must ensue on muscles and bones +and blood-vessels. One modification brings another in its train; there +are secondary and tertiary effects. And as the increasing assemblage of +individuals arising from a common stock is thus liable to lose its +original uniformity and to grow more pronounced in its multiformity, +indirect effects follow from inter-crossing and from altered competitive +conditions. Moreover, as times and seasons and ages pass, the +environment goes on changing, and on previous complications wrought by +incident forces, new complications are continually superimposed by new +incident forces. Thus there is an almost continuous movement towards +heterogeneity. But how is that kind of heterogeneity insured which is +required to carry on life? How is the evolution directed? + +(3) _Direct Equilibration._--How is it that action and reaction between +the organism and its environment bring about _effective adaptations_? +Spencer's answer is that every change is towards a balance of forces, +and can never cease until a balance of forces is reached. "Any +unequilibrated force to which an aggregate is subject, if not of a kind +to overthrow it altogether, must continue modifying its state until an +equilibrium is brought about." Thus "there go on in all organisms, +certain changes of function and structure that are directly consequent +on changes in the incident forces--inner changes by which the outer +changes are balanced, and the equilibrium restored." "That a new +external action may be met by a new internal action, it is needful that +it shall either continuously or frequently be borne by the individuals +of the species, without killing or seriously injuring them; and shall +act in such a way as to affect their functions." But as many of the +environing agencies to which organisms have to be adjusted, either do +not immediately affect the functions at all, or else affect them in ways +that prove fatal, there must be at work some other process which +equilibrates the actions of organisms with the actions they are exposed +to. + +(4) _Indirect Equilibration._--There are many very precise adaptations, +_e.g._ in the not-living hard parts of many animals, which no ingenuity +can interpret as the directly equilibrated results of incident forces. +To interpret mimicry as due to direct equilibration is hopeless. +Therefore, Spencer passed to what he called "indirect equilibration." + +"Besides those perturbations produced in any organism by special +disturbing forces there are ever going on many others--the reverberating +effects of disturbing forces previously experienced by the individual, +or by ancestors; and the multiplied deviations of function so caused +implied multiplied deviations of structure." A directly induced +modification induces correlated secondary and tertiary perturbations, +and when two differently endowed parents are mated they will bequeath to +their joint offspring "compound perturbations of function and compound +deviations of structure, endlessly varied in their kinds and amounts." +In short, Spencer postulated variations as indirect results of the +action of incident forces. + +As the individuals of a species are thus necessarily made unlike in +countless ways and degrees, then amongst them "some will be less liable +than others to have their equilibria overthrown by a particular incident +force previously unexperienced... Inevitably, some will be more stable +than others when exposed to this new or altered factor. That is to say, +those individuals whose functions are most out of equilibrium with the +modified aggregate of external forces, will be those to die; and those +will survive whose functions happen to be most nearly in equilibrium +with the modified aggregate of external forces. But this survival of the +fittest implies the multiplication of the fittest. Out of the fittest +thus multiplied there will, as before, be an overthrowing of the moving +equilibrium wherever it presents the least opposing force to the new +incident force. And by the continual destruction of the individuals +least capable of maintaining their equilibria in presence of this new +incident force, there must eventually be reached an altered type +completely in equilibrium with the altered conditions." In short, +Spencer incorporated the characteristic Darwinian idea of Natural +Selection operating upon a crop of variations, and thus securing by the +survival of the fittest an indirect equilibration. + +In an ingenious way, to which we have already alluded, Spencer +assimilated the theory of Natural Selection with his own formula of +evolution. Let us recapitulate his argument. All the processes by which +organisms are refitted to their ever-changing environments must be +equilibrations of one kind or another, for change of every order is +towards equilibrium, and life itself is a moving equilibrium between +inner and outer actions--a continual adjustment of internal relations to +external relations. The process called Natural Selection is literally a +survival of the fittest; and "that is a maintenance of the moving +equilibrium of the functions in presence of outer actions; implying the +possession of an equilibrium which is relatively stable in contrast with +the unstable equilibria of those which do not survive." ... "The +conception of Natural Selection is manifestly one not known to physical +science: its terms are not of a kind physical science can take +cognisance of. But here we have found in what manner it may be brought +within the realm of physical science." + +It is to be feared that Spencer deluded himself as to the success of his +_tour de force_. For he did not show that there is in inanimate nature +anything corresponding to the struggle for existence, nor did he give +any instances where the degree of effectiveness of response is of +critical value in determining the survival of competing inanimate +systems. + +After pointing out that the various factors in organic evolution must be +thought of as co-operating, Spencer considered their respective shares +in producing the total result. Briefly stated, his conclusions were the +following:-- + + At first, the direct action of the physical environment was the + only cause of change. "But as, through the diffusion of organisms + and consequent differential actions of inorganic forces, there + arose unlikenesses among them, producing varieties, species, + genera, orders, classes, the actions of organisms on one another + became new sources of organic modifications." The mutual actions of + organisms became more and more influential, and eventually became + the chief factors. + + "Always there must have been, and always there must continue to be, + a survival of the fittest: natural selection must have been in + operation at the outset, and can never cease to operate! While + organisms had small abilities of co-ordinating their actions and + actively adjusting themselves, natural selection worked almost + alone in moulding and remoulding organisms into fitness for their + changing environments, but as activity increased and brains grew, + the power of varying actions to fit varying requirements became + considerable." "As fast as essential faculties multiply, and as + fast as the number of organs which co-operate in any given function + increases, indirect equilibration through natural selection becomes + less and less capable of producing specific adaptations; and + remains capable only of maintaining the general fitness of + constitution to conditions. The production of adaptations by direct + equilibration then takes the first place: indirect equilibration + serving to facilitate it. Until at length, among the civilised + human races, the equilibration becomes mainly direct: the action of + natural selection being limited to the destruction of those who are + too feeble to live, even with external aid." + +Returning to our scheme of Originative and Directive Factors, let us +inquire into Spencer's views regarding Variation and Selection. + +Spencer recognised three causes of variation. _First_ there is +heterogeneity among progenitors which "generates new deviations by +composition of forces"; in other words new patterns arise from the +mingling of diverse hereditary contributions in fertilisation. +_Secondly_, functional variation in the parents produces unlikeness in +the offspring; those begotten under different constitutional states are +different. In other words, fluctuations of nutrition in the parental +body may cause variations in the germ-plasm. [In mammals there are also +_modifications_ produced during the pre-natal life of the offspring +which are congenital in the sense that they are present at birth in +latent or patent form, which do not, however, really affect the +germ-plasm since they disappear in the third generation.] _Thirdly_, an +organism exposed to a marked change of external conditions, may have its +equilibrium altered, and the offspring may be influenced. "The larger +functional variations produced by greater external changes, are the +initiators of those structural variations which, when once commenced in +a species, lead by their combinations and antagonisms to multiform +results. Whether they are or are not the direct initiators, they must +still be the indirect initiators." + +But Spencer admitted that there were numerous minor so-called +"spontaneous" variations, which could not be referred to the causes +noticed above. He attributed these to the fact that no two ova, no two +spermatozoa, can be identical, since the process of nutrition cannot be +absolutely alike. Minute initial differences in the proportions of the +physiological units will lead, during development, to a continual +multiplication of differences. "The insensible divergence at the outset +will generate sensible divergences at the conclusion." This is not +different from the general idea that nutritive fluctuations in the body +provoke variations in the complex germ-plasm, "still it may be fairly +objected that however the attributes of the two parents are variously +mingled in their offspring, they must in all of them fall between the +extremes displayed in the parents. In no characteristic could one of the +young exceed both parents, were there no cause of "spontaneous +variation" but the one alleged. Evidently, then, there is a cause yet +unfound." + +Spencer's further answer was that the sperm-cells or egg-cells which any +organism produces will differ from each other not quantitatively only +but qualitatively, because inheritance is multiple. In some the paternal +units, in another the maternal units, in another the grand-paternal or +the grand-maternal units will give the impress. "Here, then, we have a +clue to the multiplied variations, and sometimes extreme variations, +that arise in races which have once begun to vary. Amid countless +different combinations of units derived from parents, and through them +from ancestors, immediate and remote--and the various conflicts in their +slightly different organic polarities, opposing and conspiring with one +another in all ways and degrees, there will from time to time arise +special proportions causing special deviations. From the general law of +probabilities it may be concluded that while these involved influences, +derived from many progenitors, must, on the average of cases, obscure +and partially neutralise one another; there must occasionally result +such combinations of them as will produce considerable divergences from +average structures; and at rare intervals, such combinations as will +produce very marked divergences. There is thus a correspondence between +the inferable results and the results as habitually witnessed." + +In conclusion, after his wonted manner, Spencer pointed out that +Variation, like everything else, is necessitated by the Persistence of +Force. "The members of a species inhabiting any area cannot be subject +to like sets of forces over the whole of that area. And if, in different +parts of the area, different kinds or amounts or combinations of forces +act on them, they cannot but become different in themselves and in their +progeny. To say otherwise, is to say that differences in the forces will +not produce differences in the effects; which is to deny the persistence +of force." + +_Selection._--As we have seen, Spencer incorporated into his scheme the +Darwinian concept of Selection, and sought to show that it could be +included under the general concept of Evolution as "a continuous +redistribution of matter and motion." "That natural selection is, and +always has been, operative is incontestable.... The survival of the +fittest is a necessity, its negation is incontestable." + +That he did not take a narrow view of the process of Selection, which +has so many forms and operates at so many levels, will be admitted; and +we may illustrate this by showing that he had a prevision of what Roux +called "intra-individual selection" or "intra-selection." + +In his essay on "The Social Organism" (1860), he wrote:-- + + "The different parts of a social organism, like the different parts + of an individual organism, compete for nutriment; and severally + obtain more or less of it according as they are discharging more or + less duty." (See also _Essays_, i. 290.) And, again, in 1876, in + his _Principles of Sociology_, he amplified his statement thus: + "All other organs, therefore, jointly and individually, compete for + blood with each organ,... local tissue formation (which under + normal conditions measures the waste of tissue in discharging + function) is itself a cause of increased supply of materials... the + resulting competition, not between units simply, but between + organs, causes in a society, as in a living body, high nutrition + and growth of parts called into the greatest activity by the + requirements of the rest." And once more: "For clearly, if the + survival of the fittest among organisms is a process of + equilibration between actions in the environment and actions in the + organism; so must the local modifications of their parts, external + and internal, be regarded as survivals of structures, the reactions + of which are in equilibrium with the actions they are subject to." + Clearly Spencer had a prevision of what Roux calls "_Der Kampf der + Theile im Organismus_" (The struggle of parts within the organism), + and we have here another example of his biological insight. That + Spencer was not far from the idea of a struggle between hereditary + units, we see from the following passage: "In the fertilised germ + we have two groups of physiological units, slightly different in + their structures. These slightly different units severally multiply + at the expense of the nutriment supplied to the unfolding + germ--each kind moulding this nutriment into units of its own type. + Throughout the process of development the two kinds of units, + mainly agreeing in their proclivities and in the form which they + tend to build themselves into, but having minor differences, work + in unison to produce an organism of the species from which they + were derived, but work in antagonism to produce copies of their + respective parent-organisms. And hence ultimately results an + organism in which traits of the one are mixed with traits of the + other; and in which, according to the predominance of one or other + group of units, one or other sex with all its concomitants is + produced" (_Principles of Biology_, vol. i., revised ed., p. 315). + +While Spencer had this wide appreciation of the scope of selection, he +firmly held that biologists burdened it unjustifiably by disbelieving in +the transmission of acquired characters, and, as we have seen, he gave a +number of examples of phenomena which he believed the Darwinian theory +minus the Lamarckian factor was quite inadequate to interpret. He went +the length of saying: "Either there has been inheritance of acquired +characters or there has been no evolution." Spencer indicated three +general difficulties or limitations besetting the theory of Natural +Selection. + +(1) "The general argument proceeds upon the analogy between natural +selection and artificial selection. Yet all know that the first cannot +do what the last does. Natural Selection can do nothing more than +preserve those of which the _aggregate_ characters are most favourable +to life. It cannot pick out those possessed of one particular +favourable character, unless this is of extreme importance." + +[It is admitted that we cannot prove that Natural Selection effected +this or that result in the distant past, but we know that a process of +discriminate elimination is a fact of life, and we argue from the +present to the past. Given variations enough and time enough, it is +difficult to put limits to the efficacy of selection. If in a race of +birds fairly well adapted to the conditions of their life, variations +occur in the length of wing, there is no theoretical difficulty in +supposing that if a longer wing is advantageous, this particular +favourable character may in the course of time become through selection +the property of the whole race.] + +(2) "In many cases a structure is of no service until it has reached a +certain development; and it remains to account for that increase of it +by natural selection which must be supposed to take place before it +reaches the stage of usefulness." + +[One variation is often correlated with another, and the stronger +variation may afford _point d'appui_ for the action of natural +selection, and thus act as a cover for the incipient variation until +that reaches the stage of usefulness and becomes itself of +selection-value. What Spencer himself says in regard to the selection of +aggregates rather than items, seems half the answer to his difficulty. + +It has also been suggested that adaptive modifications may act as +fostering nurses of germinal variations in the same direction. Let us +suppose a country in which a change of climate made it year by year of +the utmost importance that the inhabitants should become swarthy. Some +individuals with a strong innate tendency in this direction would +doubtless exist, and on them and their similarly endowed progeny, the +success of the race would primarily, and might wholly depend. At the +same time, there might be many individuals in whom the constitutional +tendency in the direction of swarthiness was too weak and incipient to +be of use. If these, or some of them, made up for their lack of natural +swarthiness by a great susceptibility to acquired swarthiness, to +becoming tanned by the sun, it is conceivable that this modification, +though never taking organic root, might serve as a life-saving screen +until coincident congenital variations in the direction of swarthiness +had time to grow strong and become of selection value. We can also +imagine that a stock without great mental ability might succeed, in +conditions where a premium was put on brains, by their application and +docility, till eventually innate variations in the direction of real +cleverness became established in the stock. Similarly, many animals by +increased 'will-power' or intelligence may survive until bodily +variations of an adaptive kind arise to economise the higher energies. +Here and everywhere we venture to say that the more anthropomorphic we +can _reasonably_ make our conception of organic evolution the truer it +is likely to be. + +A third answer to Spencer's second difficulty is afforded by Weismann's +subtle theory of Germinal Selection.] + +(3) "Advantageous variations, not preserved in nature as they are by the +breeder, are liable to be swamped by crossing or to disappear by +atavism." + +[We have already referred to various answers to this difficulty--in +terms of Isolation, Prepotency, and other conceptions. But the answer +which will occur to everyone at the present time is in terms of +"Mendelism," into a discussion of which we cannot enter. Suffice it to +say, that for the cases with which he dealt, Mendel has given evidence +that variations which arise suddenly and are discontinuous--mutations, +as De Vries calls them--are not likely to be swamped by in-breeding with +the normal form, and that he has given a reason why this swamping does +not occur.] + +In regard to the second directive factor--Isolation, Spencer had no +criticism to offer. It seemed to him that "in whatever way effected, the +isolation of a group subject to new conditions and in course of being +changed, is requisite as a means to permanent differentiation." + +But after allowing full play to variation and modification, selection +and isolation, Spencer felt that "though all phenomena of organic +evolution must fall within the lines indicated, there remain many +unsolved problems." "We can only suppose that as there are devised by +human beings many puzzles apparently unanswerable till the answer is +given, and many necromantic tricks which seem impossible till the mode +of performance is shown; so there are apparently incomprehensible +results which are really achieved by natural processes. Or, otherwise, +we must conclude that since Life itself proves to be in its ultimate +nature inconceivable, there is probably an inconceivable element in its +ultimate workings." + + + + +CHAPTER XIII + +EVOLUTION UNIVERSAL + + _The Starting-point--Inorganic Evolution--What Spencer tried to + do--Summary of his Evolutionism--Notes and Queries--The Origin of + Life--Evolution of Mind--Ascent of Man--The Scientific Position_ + + +Every attempt to describe how our world has come to be as it is must +begin somewhere. It must postulate an initial state of Being from which +to start any particular chapter in the story of Becoming. How the +simplest conceivable raw material began--if it ever began--the +evolutionist cannot tell. + +_The Starting-point._--Spencer began as far back as his scientific +imagination could take him--with "formless diffused matter." With this +to start with, he utilised the "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace, which +showed how the planetary system may have arisen by the diffused matter +becoming aggregated through the force of attraction into different +centres. This theory has been corroborated and improved by subsequent +researches in thermodynamics and spectroscopy, and in a modified form it +is very generally accepted. The researches of Sir Norman Lockyer on +"Inorganic Evolution" (1900) and of M. Faye (Sur l'origine du monde, +2nd. ed., Paris 1885) have strengthened and broadened the foundation of +Spencer's Evolutionism; many inquiries point to the idea that matter has +a homogeneous constitution; and the recent revolutionary discoveries +centred in "radio-activity" have given new life to the view that the +eighty odd elements of the chemist have had a long history behind them, +and have evolved from simple homogeneous units. The alchemists' dream +seems to be coming true, for we hear whispers of the transmutation of +elements. "It may be true," as Prof. R. K. Duncan says in his _New +Knowledge_ (1905) "that all bodily existence is but the manifestation of +units of negative electricity lying embosomed in an omnipresent ether of +which these units are, probably, a conditioned part." + +_Inorganic Evolution._--We cannot follow this fascinating new story of +inorganic evolution, but we wish to point out that the progress of +science since Spencer wrote his _First Principles_ has tended to justify +him in beginning with formless diffused homogeneous matter. Were that +work being written to-day, it would have to be entirely recast. It would +probably begin (as Prof. Duncan sketches) with units of negative +electricity, assuming motion and carrying with them bound portions of +the ether in which they are bathed, becoming corpuscles endowed with the +primary qualities of matter superimposed upon those of electricity. +"Corpuscles congregating into groups or various configurations +constitute essentially the atoms of the chemical elements, locking up in +these configurations super-terrific energies, and leaving but "a slight +residual effect" as chemical affinity or gravitation with which we +attempt to carry on the work of the world. These atoms, congregating in +their turn as nebulae and under the slight residual force of gravitation +condense into blazing suns. The suns decay in their temperature and +become ever more and more complex in their constitution as the atoms +lock themselves into multiple forms. We then see these multiple atoms +developing up into the molecules of matter to form a world. We see the +molecules growing ever more and more complex as the world grows colder +until we attain to organic compounds. We see these organic compounds +united to form living beings and we see these living beings developing +into countless forms, and, after aeons of time, evolving into a dominant +race which is Us" (_The New Knowledge_, pp. 252-3). Of course there is +both imagination and faith in Prof. Duncan's "We see," but no one at all +aware of recent advances will doubt that the scientific cosmogony is +evolving rapidly, and that its movement is towards a fuller revelation +of the Unity of Nature. + +_What Spencer tried to do._--Spencer's aim was to show that "our +harmonious Universe once existed potentially as formless diffused +matter, and has slowly grown into its present organised state." He +sought to account for its growing "in terms of Matter, Motion, and +Force." Of course he was careful to explain that "the interpretation of +all phenomena in terms of Matter, Motion, and Force, is nothing more +than the reduction of our complex symbols of thought, to the simplest +symbols; and when the equation has been brought to its lowest terms the +symbols remain symbols still." His common denominator for all phenomena +was "Matter, Motion, and Force," but he also recognised a greatest +common measure--"the unknown Cause co-extensive with all orders of +phenomena," "the unknown Reality which underlies all things," "a Power +of which the nature remains for ever inconceivable," and of which +phenomena are merely the manifestations. But while he was technically an +abstract Monist, he was practically a "mechanist," believing that it was +feasible to redescribe all evolution in terms of mechanical categories. +The scientific ideal to which he looked forward is expressed in the +sentence: "Given the Persistence of Force, and given the various +derivative laws of Force, and there has to be shown not only how the +actual existences of the inorganic world necessarily exhibit the traits +they do, but how there necessarily result the more numerous and involved +traits exhibited by organic and super-organic existences--how an +organism is evolved, what is the genesis of human intelligence, whence +social progress arises?" (_First Principles_, p. 555). He looked forward +to a unification of knowledge, to "_one science_, which has for its +object-matter the continuous transformation which the universe +undergoes." "Evolution being a universal process, one and continuous +throughout all forms of existence, there can be no break, no change from +one group of concrete phenomena to another without a bridge of +intermediate phenomena." + +_Summary of Spencer's Evolutionism._--Spencer drew up the following +summary for publication in Appleton's _American Cyclopaedia_.[10] + + 1. Throughout the universe, in general, and in detail, there is an + unceasing redistribution of matter and motion. + + 2. This redistribution constitutes evolution where there is a + predominant integration of matter and dissipation of motion, and + constitutes dissolution where there is a predominant absorption of + motion and disintegration of matter. + + 3. Evolution is simple when the process of integration, or the + formation of a coherent aggregate, proceeds uncomplicated by other + processes. + + 4. Evolution is compound when, along with this primary change from + an incoherent to a coherent state, there go on secondary changes, + due to differences in the circumstances of the different parts of + the aggregate. + + 5. These secondary changes constitute a transformation of the + homogeneous into the heterogeneous--a transformation which, like + the first, is exhibited in the universe as a whole and in all (or + nearly all) its details--in the aggregate of stars and nebulae; in + the planetary system; in the earth as an inorganic mass; in each + organism, vegetal or animal (von Baer's law); in the aggregate of + organisms throughout geologic time; in the mind; in society; in all + products of social activity. + + 6. The process of integration, acting locally as well as generally, + combines with the process of differentiation to render this change, + not simply from homogeneity to heterogeneity, but from an + indefinite homogeneity to a definite heterogeneity; and this trait + of increasing definiteness, which accompanies the trait of + increasing heterogeneity, is, like it, exhibited in the totality of + things, and in all its divisions and sub-divisions down to the + minutest. + + 7. Along with this redistribution of the matter composing any + evolving aggregate there goes on a redistribution of the retained + motion of its components in relation to one another; this also + becomes, step by step, more definitely heterogeneous. + + 8. In the absence of a homogeneity that is infinite and absolute, + this redistribution, of which evolution is one phase, is + inevitable. The causes which necessitate it are:-- + + 9. The instability of the homogeneous, which is consequent upon the + different exposures of the different parts of any limited aggregate + to incident forces. The transformations hence resulting are + complicated by-- + + 10. The multiplication of effects: every mass and part of a mass on + which a force falls sub-divides and differentiates that force, + which thereupon proceeds to work a variety of changes; and each of + these becomes the parent of similarly multiplying changes: the + multiplication of these becoming greater in proportion as the + aggregate becomes more heterogeneous. And these two causes of + increasing differentiations are furthered by-- + + 11. Segregation, which is a process tending ever to separate unlike + units, and to bring together like units, so serving continually to + sharpen or make definite differentiations otherwise caused. + + 12. Equilibration is the final result of these transformations + which an evolving aggregate undergoes. The changes go on until + there is reached an equilibrium between the forces which all parts + of the aggregate are exposed to, and the forces these parts oppose + to them. Equilibration may pass through a transition stage of + balanced motions (as in a planetary system), or of balanced + functions (as in a living body), on the way to ultimate + equilibrium; but the state of rest in inorganic bodies, or death in + organic bodies, is the necessary limit of the changes constituting + evolution. + + 13. Dissolution is the counterchange which sooner or later every + evolved aggregate undergoes. Remaining exposed to surrounding + forces that are unequilibrated, each aggregate is ever liable to be + dissipated by the increase, gradual or sudden, of its contained + motion; and its dissipation, quickly undergone by bodies lately + animate, and slowly undergone by inanimate masses, remains to be + undergone at an indefinitely remote period by each planetary and + stellar mass, which, since an indefinitely remote period in the + past, has been slowly evolving: the cycle of its transformations + being thus completed. + + 14. This rhythm of evolution and dissolution, completing itself + during short periods in small aggregates, and in the vast + aggregates distributed through space completing itself in periods + which are immeasurable by human thought, is, so far as we can see, + universal and eternal: each alternating phase of the process + predominating--now in this region of space, and now in that--as + local conditions determine. + + 15. All these phenomena, from their great features down to their + minutest details, are necessary results of the persistence of force + under its forms of matter and motion. Given these in their known + distributions through space, and their quantities being + unchangeable, either by increase or decrease, there inevitably + result the continuous redistributions distinguishable as evolution + and dissolution, as well as all those special traits above + enumerated. + + 16. That which persists, unchanging in quantity, but ever-changing + in form, under these sensible appearances which the universe + presents to us, transcends human knowledge and conception; is an + unknown and an unknowable power, which we are obliged to recognise + as without limit in space, and without beginning or end in time. + +And the universal formula of Evolution stands thus: "Evolution is an +integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during +which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a +definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion +undergoes a parallel transformation" (_First Principles_, p. 396). + +_Notes and Queries._--(1) It should be noted that Spencer never +suggested that he had explained the origin of things. On the contrary, +"While the genesis of the Solar System, and of countless other systems +like it, is thus rendered comprehensible, the ultimate mystery remains +as great as ever. The problem of existence is not solved: it is simply +moved further back." What he offered was a genetic description, and that +is all that the scientific evolutionist ever offers. + +(2) In the strict sense Spencer was no materialist. "Though the relation +of subject and object renders necessary to us these antithetical +conceptions of Spirit and Matter, the one is no less than the other to +be regarded as but a sign of the Unknown Reality which underlies both." +"Matter, Motion, and Force are but symbols of the Unknown Reality." +"Only in a doctrine which recognises the Unknown Cause as co-extensive +with all orders of phenomena, can there be a consistent Religion, or a +consistent Philosophy." "Were we compelled to choose between the +alternatives of translating mental phenomena into physical phenomena, or +of translating physical phenomena into mental phenomena, the latter +alternative would seem the more acceptable of the two." + +It is one of the difficulties of Spencer's system that even when he is +using physical concepts he is thinking of these not merely as symbols by +which to formulate the routine of our sense-experience, but as symbols +of the reality behind matter and motion of which we do not know +anything. He works with the concept which he calls "the persistence of +force," and when the reader is feeling its inadequacy to meet the +situation, he is bluffed by the reminder--"By persistence of force we +really mean the persistence of some Power which transcends our knowledge +and conception": "Asserting the persistence of Force is but another mode +of asserting an Unconditioned Reality without beginning or end." + +(3) When an investigator in giving an account of a process insists on +using higher categories than the sequences appear to require, he is +guilty of "_a transcendentalism_," e.g., if he says that an instinctive +action is rational, or that digestion is a psychical process. Similarly, +when an investigator in giving an account of a process insists on using +lower categories than the sequences appear to require, he is guilty of +"_a materialism_," _e.g._, if he says that a rational act is simply a +higher reflex, or that digestion is simply a chemical reaction. +Therefore, although Spencer was not a materialist, we think that he was +guilty of gross "materialisms," of attempting to give a false simplicity +to the facts, _e.g._, in his attempt to trace the evolution of mind in +terms of the evolution of the nervous system, and in his universal +evolution-formula which is wholly in terms of Matter and Motion. + +(4) By keeping throughout to mechanical categories, Spencer gives a +semblance of simplicity and precision to his evolutionism, and his skill +is such that the unwary reader is led gently on from orders of facts +where mechanical categories (if not Spencer's) do certainly suffice, to +other orders of facts--in immaterial evolution--where they seem +strangely irrelevant. But if the reader, having his suspicions aroused +by sundry jolts and jars in the onward sweep of the chariot of First +Principles, begins to inquire into the reality of the apparent +mechanical precision, he is likely to be disillusioned. Thus, at an +early stage, he may discover that Spencer uses the word "force" without +special definition in at least five senses,[11] which is not reassuring. + +As we have no expertness in these matters, we would submit the verdict +of a recognised authority, Prof. Karl Pearson. One of Spencer's +principles is "the redistribution of force," which he states in the +following words:-- + + "A decreasing quantity of motion, sensible or insensible, always + has for its concomitant an increasing aggregation of matter, and + conversely an increasing quantity of motion, sensible or + insensible, has for its concomitant a decreasing aggregation of + matter." + +In regard to this Prof. Pearson remarks: "This principle has, so far as +I am aware, no real foundation in physics... it seems, so far as I can +grasp it at all, to flatly contradict the modern principle of the +conservation of energy"... the keystone of Spencer's system. + +(5) What has taken place since Spencer stereotyped his _First +Principles_ seems to us to have rendered it almost useless to attempt a +detailed criticism of his scheme of evolution--wonderful and stimulating +as it was and is. He spoke of his delight in "intellectual hunting," and +a great huntsman he certainly was, but the _venue_ has changed since his +day. He did not fully nor always rightly utilise the chemistry and +physics of his time, and we have now to deal with a new chemistry and a +new physics. + +Mr J. B. Crozier speaks of Spencer as "of all thinkers ancient or modern +the one whose power of analysing, decomposing, and combining the complex +web of Matter, Motion, and Force is the most incontestable and assured." +He describes Spencer's system as "No mere logical castle built of air +and definitions, and assuming in its premises, like the systems of the +metaphysicians, the very difficulties to be explained, but a great +granite pile sunk deep in the bed-rock of the world, each stone a +scientific truth, and all so compacted and dove-tailed together that it +was difficult to find anywhere a logical flaw among their seams." + +This is one view, but another will be found in Prof. James Ward's +Gifford Lectures on "Naturalism and Agnosticism," in Mr Malcolm +Guthrie's three volumes of criticism, and in several luminous papers by +Principal James Iverach. + +When we think of the evolution of the world and all that is therein--of +a universal process of Becoming--we recognise that at an uncertain time +the earth was framed, that living organisms appeared by and by, that by +and by some of these exhibited mental as well as bodily life, and that +finally man emerged, a rational and social person. This is a convenient +and unified retrospect, but when we go further and say that all this +evolution is expressible in one descriptive formula whose terms are +mechanical, we are going further than our present knowledge warrants. +Even Spencer did not really carry his evolution-formula throughout, for +he admitted that "the development of Mind itself cannot be explained by +a series of deductions from the Persistence of Force," though he covered +his retreat by the suggestion that Mind is the subjective concomitant of +the objective nervous system which has been evolved according to +formula. But even if this _tour de force_ seemed legitimate, we should +still be unable to accept a universal formula of Evolution in terms of +mechanism. For we are not at present able to think of the facts of +bodily life in terms of mechanical categories. Thus, in short, when we +enter the chariot of Spencer's Evolution-formula, and attempt to make an +intellectual journey--"one and continuous" from the primitive nebula to +human society, we confess to suffering serious joltings. We must admit +that on that chariot at least we have never been able to arrive. Let us +refer briefly to three of the worst jolts--at the origin of Life, at the +origin of Mind, at the origin of Man. + +_Origin of Life._--It is much to be regretted that Spencer "had to omit +that part of the System of Philosophy, which deals with Inorganic +Evolution. Two volumes are missing." The closing chapter of the second +volume was to have dealt with "the evolution of organic matter--the step +preceding the evolution of living forms." It is tantalising to learn +that he habitually carried with him in thought the contents of this +unwritten chapter, for it would certainly have been interesting reading. +He did, however, give us some hint of his views. + +First of all negatively, Spencer did not believe in any alleged cases of +spontaneous generation; he did not believe that any creature like an +Infusorian could arise from not-living matter; he did not believe in an +"absolute commencement of organic life," or in a "first organism." But +just as the chemist is able to build up complex organic compounds from +simple substances, so Spencer supposed that organic compounds were +evolved in nature. He supposed the evolution of some substance like +protein, which is capable of existing in many isomeric forms, and of +forming with itself and other elements, substances yet more intricate in +composition. "To the mutual influences of its metamorphic forms under +favouring conditions, we may ascribe the production of the still more +composite, still more sensitive, still more variously-changeable +portions of organic matter, which, in masses more minute and simpler +than existing Protozoa, displayed actions verging little by little into +those called vital." By a continuance of the process, the nascent life +displayed became gradually more pronounced. + +No one who is aware of recent achievements in chemical synthesis, or of +the recent "vitalising" of the concept of matter, or of the apparent +simplicity of life in its humblest expressions, will seek to foreclose +the question of the possible origin of living matter from not-living +matter. The conclusion which most biologists accept is, that while there +is no known evidence of not-living matter giving origin to living +organisms, this does not exclude (_a_) the possibility that this once +took place, or (_b_) the possibility that it may be made to take place +again. It must always be remembered, however, that there is a great gap +between a drop of living matter and an integrated living organism. We +may firmly say that if living matter was once evolved from not-living +matter, it must have been the outcome of long preparatory processes, +that if it occurred, we cannot at present suggest "how" except in the +vaguest way, and that if we knew it had occurred we should still be +unable to _explain the organism_ in terms of its antecedents. + +_Evolution of Mind._--Spencer speaks of the evolution-process as one and +continuous throughout, but he felt, as other thorough-going +evolutionists feel, that the emergence of psychical phenomena is a +difficulty in the way of unified formulation. + +"Let it be granted that all existence distinguished as objective, may be +resolved into the existence of units of one kind. Let it be granted that +every species of objective activity may be understood as due to the +rhythmical motions of such ultimate units; and that among the objective +activities so understood, are the waves of molecular motion propagated +through nerves and nerve-centres. And let it further be granted that +all existence distinguished as subjective, is resolvable into units of +consciousness similar in nature to those which we know as nervous +shocks; each of which is the correlative of a rhythmical motion of a +material unit, or group of units. Can we then think of the subjective +and objective activities as the same? Can the oscillation of a molecule +be represented in consciousness side by side with a nervous shock, and +the two be recognised as one? No effort enables us to assimilate them. +That a unit of feeling has nothing in common with a unit of motion, +becomes more than ever manifest when we bring the two into +juxtaposition" (_Principles of Psychology_, i. p. 158). + +He concluded that "there is not the remotest possibility of interpreting +Mind in terms of Matter." Since our "ideas of Matter and Motion, merely +symbolic of unknowable realities, are complex states of consciousness +built out of units of feeling," "it seems easier to translate so-called +Matter into so-called Spirit, than to translate so-called Spirit into +so-called Matter, which latter is, indeed, wholly impossible." + +The obvious difficulty, of which Spencer was well aware, is "how mental +evolution is to be affiliated on Evolution at large, regarded as a +process of physical transformation? + +"Specifically stated, the problem is to interpret mental evolution in +terms of the redistribution of Matter and Motion. Though under its +subjective aspect Mind is known only as an aggregate of states of +consciousness, which cannot be conceived as forms of Matter and Motion, +and do not therefore necessarily conform to the same laws of +redistribution; yet under its objective aspect, Mind is known as an +aggregate of activities manifested by an organism--is the correlative, +therefore, of certain material transformations, which must come within +the general process of material evolution, if that process is truly +universal. Though the development of Mind itself cannot be explained by +a series of deductions from the Persistence of Force, yet it remains +possible that its obverse, the development of physical changes in a +physical organ, may be so explained; and until it is so explained, the +conception of mental evolution as a part of Evolution in general, +remains incomplete" (_Principles of Psychology_, i. p. 508). + +Therefore Spencer passes to discuss the genesis of nervous systems and +nervous functions, and by treating Mind as a mere aspect or +epiphenomenon, eventually gets "an adequate explanation of nervous +evolution, and the concomitant evolution of Mind," the Ultimate Reality +being always postulated as the amalgam. + +"See then our predicament. We can think of Matter only in terms of Mind. +We can think of Mind only in terms of Matter, when we have pushed our +explorations of the first to the uttermost limit, we are referred to the +second for a final answer; and when we have got the final answer of the +second, we are referred back to the first for an interpretation of it. +We find the value of _x_ in terms of _y_; then we find the value of _y_ +in terms of _x_; and so on we may continue for ever without coming +nearer to a solution. The antithesis of subject and object, never to be +transcended while consciousness lasts, renders impossible all knowledge +of that Ultimate Reality in which subject and object are united" +(_Principles of Psychology_, i. 627). + +_Ascent of Man._--Spencer was careful to say that it is not necessary to +suppose "an absolute commencement of social life" or "a first social +organism." But an ascent has to be accounted for however gradual the +inclined plane may be, and like the origin of life, and the evolution of +mind, the ascent of man to the level of a rational and social person is +a very difficult problem, to the solution of which Spencer paid +relatively little attention. + +From our frankly biological point of view there seems considerable +warrant for the suggestion that Man arose as a saltatory or transilient +variation or "sport" in a gregarious Simian stock, which was not too +hard-pressed by a struggle for subsistence either as regards food or +climate, which was not too severely menaced by ever-persecuting stronger +foes, which lived in conditions implying some measure of temporary +isolation, in-breeding, and daily "brain-stretching" education. It seems +likely that the transilient advance was in the direction of increased +cerebral complexity, associated with greater freedom of speech, and a +strengthened sense of kinship. It may be imagined that the advance +occurred in times of relative peace and in a stimulating environment, +where the seasons were well-defined, or where recurrent vicissitudes +gave an advantage to memory and capacity for prevision. + +Various useful suggestions have been made as to the possible factors in +the evolution of man. (_a_) When the incipient man with his growing +brain got on to his hind-legs, and walked more or less erect upon the +earth, the new attitude, however prompted, would leave the hands more +free for manipulation, for using a stone, a tool, or a weapon, for +feeling round things and appreciating their three dimensions, it would +react on other parts of the body, such as the spinal column, the pelvis, +and perhaps even the larynx. In his address to the Anthropological +Section of the British Association in 1893, Dr Robert Munro directed +attention to three propositions: (1) the mechanical and physical +advantages of the erect position, (2) the consequent differentiation of +the limbs into hands and feet, and (3) the causal relation between this +and the development of the brain. + +(_b_) Fiske and others have called attention to the prolonged helpless +infancy, so characteristic of human offspring, and illustrated in a less +marked degree among Simian races. It would tend, in conditions not too +severe, to tighten the family bond, and to evolve gentleness and a habit +of altruistic outlook. It should also be remembered that the type of +brain which characterises man is marked by its relative poverty in +inherited instinct and by its eminent educability. + +(_c_) The influence of the family was probably an important factor, +fostering sympathy and mutual aid, prompting talk and division of +labour. Even in early days, children would educate their parents. It +must be remembered that many animals exhibit family life, and also +pairing for prolonged periods or for life. + +(_d_) If we grant the incipient man a growing, plastic, and restless +brain, a strong feeling of kinship, some family ties, an erect attitude, +the habit of using his hands and voice, all of which the anthropoid +analogy suggests, and if we deny him sufficient physical strength to +keep his foothold by virtue of that alone, then it seems more than a +platitude to say that natural selection would favour the development of +wits, and not only of wits, but in the widest sense (partly through +sexual selection) of "love," which became a new source of strength. + +(_e_) With the development of tool-using and sentence-making, with +recognition of the seasons as a fundamental illustration of the +uniformity of nature, with the gaining of a firmer foothold in the +struggle for existence, with slowly increasing altruism and sociality, +and with the occasional emergence of the genius, there might gradually +arise--in permanent products, in symbols and songs, in traditions and +customs--an external heritage, which, it appears to us, has been the +most potent factor in securing and furthering human evolution. + +Ignorant as we are as to the factors in human evolution, there is a +convergence of various lines of evidence towards the conclusion that man +must have come of a social stock. It is difficult to conceive of his +survival on any other supposition. In a deeper sense, perhaps, than +Rousseau thought of, it seems true that Man did not make Society, +Society (pre-human) made Man. + +By some means or other, probably along various paths--through +kinship-sympathies, through linguistic bonds, for economic or +life-and-death reasons, man became definitely social, and a new order of +things began, which Spencer has pictured with great skill. Just as it +was a new event in the history of Hymenopterous insects when ants made +an ant-hill, or bees a natural hive, so it was a new event in the +history of Man when unified societary groups came into being. + +Now all this is vague, and, it may be, unconvincing; but we are not +aware that Spencer had any further light to throw on the problem--a +problem so difficult that Alfred Russel Wallace, the Nestor among living +evolutionists, has declared his conviction that the development of man's +higher qualities cannot be conceived without postulating "spiritual +influx." Our point at present is that the difficulties are greater than +Spencer publicly recognised, and that his formula of evolution is not +only too remotely abstract to be relevant, but that it is in its +mechanical phrasing quite inapplicable. + +_The Scientific Position._--The idea of organic evolution suggests--that +the forms of life have had a natural history, that they have descended +from a far-distant relatively simple ancestry, that they have risen from +level to level throughout many millions of years just as individual +animals in their development rise from level to level in a few days or +months or years. It is the only scientific conception we have of the +Becoming of the world of life. + +The theory of organic evolution raises this modal interpretation into a +causal interpretation by disclosing the factors--such as Variation and +Selection--in the long process. To some minds, the known factors appear +inadequate to describe the process, especially in relation to the +emergence of mental life and the ascent of man. Thus an attempt is often +made to sit on both sides of the fence, accepting scientific factors +for what they are worth, but eking them out by postulating +"ultra-scientific" causes. This procedure, however, lands in mental +confusion; it is like trying to speak two languages at once. It is also +very premature. + +When we extend the concept of evolution to the inorganic world, we find +that it applies there also, that it enables us to resume the history of +the solar system as a whole, and of the earth in particular in a +convenient formula. Here again we are aware of factors of evolution, +which enable us to give a causal interpretation of how the inanimate +world came to be as it is. The factors are not the same as those +verifiable in organic evolution; they are in terms of the laws of motion +and other physical concepts. + +Again the idea of evolution may be applied to the forms of mental life +and to the forms of social life, and in these realms the factors are not +the same as those used in interpreting the history of organisms +(objectively considered) or the history of inanimate systems. + +In all cases the general concept of evolution is the same--the idea of +natural progressive change--but the factors are different. The reason +for this is that the organism is very different from a planet or a +crystal, that mind is quite different from metabolism, that a society is +more than the sum of its parts. + +It is quite plain that the sociological evolutionist will not advance +far if he disregards the concept of the social organism, if he shuts his +eyes to the fact that a societary form, however simple, is an integrate; +not a mere congeries of persons, but a unity with a life and mind of its +own. Yet he may quite consistently try to trace the emergence of +societary forms from a simply gregarious stock, and that again from +entirely non-social organisms. + +In the same way the psychological evolutionist will not advance far if +he disregards the distinctiveness of mental life, with principles of +its own quite different from those of the bodily life with which it is +inextricably associated. That is to say he must be more than a +physiologist of the nervous system. + +So, the biological evolutionist must admit that he cannot trace the +evolution of organisms in terms of the concepts which suffice for +inanimate systems. In so doing he does not dogmatically say that the +activity of organisms _cannot_ be described in terms of mechanism, he +only says that it has not been done; he only says that neither physics +nor physiology is at present within sight of deducing the laws of motion +of organic corpuscles from the laws of motion of other corpuscles. + +There is no reason why he should stand aloof from the theory that +inorganic and organic evolution are continuous, in other words from the +theory of the spontaneous generation of living matter at an appropriate +time in the Earth's history--a theory which is suggested by many facts. +If that is a legitimate theory it increases our respect for what we call +the inanimate, but it does not make our biological evolutionism any +easier, nor are we any nearer explaining life. The organism remains what +it is, a living creature with a behaviour which we are unable to +redescribe in terms of mechanism. And inanimate matter remains what it +is, except that we should be able to say definitely that it had once +given origin to living matter and might conceivably do so again. There +would be no gain in adding to the properties of matter a mysterious +"capacity-of-sharing-in-the-spontaneous-generation-of-life." + +Let us state the position once more. When one of the higher animals, in +the course of its development, reaches a certain, or rather uncertain, +degree of differentiation, its functioning becomes behaviour; its +activities are such that we cannot interpret them without using +psychical terms, such as awareness or intelligence. This expression of +fuller life is associated with the increased development of the nervous +system, and we have no knowledge of any psychical life apart from +nervous metabolism. Yet we remain quite unable to think of any way by +which the metabolism of nerve-cells gives rise to what we know in +ourselves as sensations or perceptions, ideas or feelings. Therefore +while we see no reason to doubt the continuity of the individual +development, we recognise as fact of experience that the merely sentient +embryo becomes a thoughtful child, whose behaviour cannot be formulated +in terms of our present biological or our present mechanical categories. + +And as it is with the individual development, so it is with the +evolution of organisms; when they exhibit a certain, or rather +uncertain, degree of differentiation they behave in a way which we +cannot interpret without using psychical terms. We know of very simple +forms whose whole behaviour seems to be summed up in one reflex action, +at least if there is more we cannot detect it; we know of other +unicellular animals whose behaviour is such that we are forced to say +that they seem to pursue the method of trial and error; and from that +level we know of a long inclined plane leading up to very alert +intelligence. Again we see no reason to doubt the continuity of the +process, though we recognise that at a certain level of organisation the +biological categories of metabolism and the like are no longer +sufficient to formulate the facts. How it is that the activity of the +nervous system does express itself in such a way, that we must use a new +set of terms--psychical ones--to cover the facts of behaviour, no one +has at present any conception. A living creature behaves in such a way +that we cannot interpret what it does in terms of the motions of the +organic corpuscles which compose it. We do not know how to formulate in +physical terms its growth, its development, its power of effective +response, its co-ordination of activities. Therefore we introduce a +special series of biological concepts, without denying that a greater +unity of formulation may some day be attained either by a further +simplification of the biological concepts or by some change in the +physical concepts, such as, indeed, seems coming about at present. + +But again, a living creature behaves in such a way that our biological +concepts are insufficient to formulate its behaviour. We do not know how +to interpret what it does without psychological concepts of thinking, +feeling, and willing. It is possible that here, too, a greater unity of +formulation may some day be attained either by a further simplification +of the psychological concepts or by some change in the biological +concepts. But sufficient unto the day is the science thereof. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[10] Quoted from Prof. W. H. Hudson's _Introduction to the Philosophy of +Herbert Spencer_. + +[11] See Karl Pearson. _The Grammar of Science_, p. 329. + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +PSYCHOLOGICAL + + _Evolution of Mind--Body and Mind--Experience and Intuitions--Test + of Truth_ + + +In seeking to appreciate Spencer's contributions to Psychology, it seems +necessary to distinguish between what he tried to do and his success in +doing it. For an attempt, especially a pioneer attempt, may have great +historical importance although it is only to a limited degree +successful. The attempts to cross a continent, or to scale a mountain, +to make a flying machine, or to discover the nature of protoplasm, may +be relative failures, but even the attempts may spell progress. They may +offer clues for other attempts, or they may show that certain ways of +attacking the problem are unpromising. And so while the doctors of +philosophy differ as to the value of many of Spencer's psychological +essays, there are few who go the length of denying their historical +interest and importance. + +(1) _Evolution of Mind._--In his imaginary review of his _Principles of +Psychology_, which is not without a grim humour, Spencer supposes the +critic to begin by saying: "Our attitude towards this work is something +like that of the Roman poet to whom the poetaster brought some verses +with the request that he would erase any parts he did not like, and who +replied--one erasure will suffice. We reject absolutely the entire +doctrine which the book contains; and for the sufficient reason that it +is founded on a fallacy." The fallacy was, of course, the +evolution-idea, and it was Spencer's chief contribution to Psychology +that he insisted on regarding the human mind as a product, the outlines +of whose history could be more or less clearly descried. In other words, +he attempted a genetic interpretation of our mental life in the light of +antecedent simpler expressions of mentality in the child and in the +animal world. In so doing he was a pioneer, and he doubtless made a +pioneer's mistakes. None the less he helped to effect for psychology the +transition from a static and morphological mode of interpretation to one +which is distinctively kinetic, physiological, and historical. That this +is nowadays the mood of all psychologists is well-known. Thus one of our +leading modern exponents says, "We may define psychology as the science +of the development of mind."[12] + +Spencer sought to make mental processes more intelligible by disclosing +the gradualness of their evolution. "It is not more certain that, from +the simple reflex action by which the infant sucks, up to the elaborate +reasoning of the adult man, the progress is by daily infinitesimal +steps, than it is certain that between the automatic actions of the +lowest creatures and the highest conscious actions of the human race, a +series of actions displayed by the various tribes of the animal kingdom +may be so placed as to render it impossible to say of any one step in +the series, Here intelligence begins." Objectively, with data drawn +from the animal world and from child-study, he attempted to trace the +evolution of mind from reflex action through instinct to reason, memory, +feeling, and will, by the interaction of the nervous system with its +gradually widening environment. Subjectively, in his analytic task, he +endeavoured to show that all mental states are referable to primitive +elements of consciousness or units of feeling, which he called nervous +or psychical shocks. + +Spencer's general position is thus summed up:-- + + "The Law of Evolution holds of the inner world as it does of the + outer world. On tracing up from its low and vague beginnings the + intelligence which becomes so marvellous in the highest beings, we + find that under whatever aspect contemplated, it presents a + progressive transformation of like nature with the progressive + transformation we trace in the Universe as a whole, no less than in + each of its parts. If we study the development of the nervous + system, we see it advancing in integration, in complexity, in + definiteness. If we turn to its functions, we find these similarly + show an ever-increasing inter-dependence, an augmentation in number + and heterogeneity, and a greater precision. If we examine the + relations of these functions to the actions going on in the world + around, we see that the correspondence between them progresses in + range and amount, becomes continually more complex and special, and + advances through differentiations and integrations like those + everywhere going on. And when we observe the correlative states of + consciousness, we discover that these, too, beginning as simple, + vague, and incoherent, become increasingly numerous in their kinds, + are united into aggregates which are larger, more multitudinous, + and more multiform, and eventually assume those finished shapes we + see in scientific generalisations, where definitely-quantitative + elements are co-ordinated in definitely-quantitative relations" + (_Principles of Psychology_, i. p. 627). + +In Spencer's system mind is a secondary and derivative expression of +life; it emerges after corporeal evolution has made some strides; it is +always dependent on the development of the nervous system. This is an +inference from the facts of individual development and racial evolution, +which clearly show that mental life emerges from antecedent stages in +which only bodily life can be discerned. And if mental life were a +merely incidental quality, like the possession of red blood, there would +be no objection to the inference. But since mental life is almost from +the first a necessary postulate--wherever we have to deal with +behaviour--and as we are quite unable to suggest how it can arise out of +metabolism, it seems more scientific, at present, to regard the +potentiality of mind as being just as primitive as metabolism. It should +be noted that the most recent researches[13] on the behaviour of the +simplest animals disclose something more than reflex actions, namely a +pursuit of the method of trial and error, involving some of the +fundamental qualities seen in higher animals. + +Just as inorganic evolution must have made many advances before +organisms became possible, so organic evolution must have made many +advances before the mental side of life could find distinct expression. +But as we cannot retranslate the daily activities of even a very simple +animal into chemico-physical language, we are forced at present to +conclude that what is called inanimate matter has somehow wrapped up +with it the potentiality of life; and as we cannot retranslate behaviour +into the metabolism of nerve-cells, we are forced at present to conclude +that life has somehow wrapped up with it the potentiality of mind. In +other words, what is called the evolution of mind is a genetic +description of the stages in its emergence from its state of universal +potentiality. + +(2) _Body and Mind._--A second service Spencer rendered to Psychology +was that of linking it to Biology. He gave clear expression to the +doctrine, which many workers had been reaching towards, of the +correlation of mind and body. Although sagacious thinkers at many +different dates had pointed out that the flesh not only wars against the +spirit, but in a humiliating way conditions its activity, the +recognition of the intimate correlation of body and mind was still +requiring its advocate when Spencer wrote his _Psychology_. Ignoring +what had been clearly shown even by Descartes and the truth in Hartley's +_Observations on Man_ (1749), there was still a school who practically +dealt with the mind and its faculties on the one side, the body and its +functions on the other side, as entirely independent existences. The old +idea that character inheres in the ghost, and that the body is merely +the ghost's house, having no causal relation to it, still lingered in +more or less refined form when Spencer set himself to show "that, in +both amounts and kinds, mental manifestations are in part dependent on +bodily structures. Mind is not as deep as the brain only, but is, in a +sense, as deep as the viscera." In a detailed way, he sought to show +that "the amounts and kinds of the mental actions constituting +consciousness vary, other things equal, according to the rapidity, the +quantity, and the quality, of the blood-supply; and all these vary +according to the sizes and proportions of the sundry organs which unite +in preparing blood from food, the organs which circulate it, and the +organs which purify it from waste products." To put it concretely, he +contended that when we consider Handel, for instance, "so wonderfully +productive, so marvellous for the number and vigour of his musical +compositions," we must also remember that he had an unusually active +digestion. "And not the quantity of mind only, but the quality of mind +also, is in part determined by these psycho-physical connections. Amount +and structure of brain being the same, not only may the totality of +feelings and thoughts be greater or less according as this or that +viscus is well or ill-developed, but the feelings and thoughts may also +be favourably or unfavourably modified in their kinds." So morality, as +well as mind, is as deep as the viscera. + +Here again the general truth which Spencer forcibly expounded, though it +was not of course peculiarly his, is one that has met with almost +universal recognition. As Prof. G. F. Stout says:-- + + "The life of the brain is part of the life of the organism as a + whole, and inasmuch as consciousness is the correlate of + brain-process, it is conditioned by organic process in general. It + is clear that the unity and connection of psychical states cannot + be clearly conceived without taking into account the unity and + connection of the processes of the organism as a whole."[14] + +As Prof. James Ward says[15]:-- + + "Modern science is content to ascertain co-existences and + successions between facts of mind and facts of body. The relations + so determined constitute the newest of the sciences, + psychophysiology or psychophysics. From this science we learn that + there exist manifold correspondences of the most intimate and + exact kind between states and changes of consciousness on the one + hand, and states and changes of brain on the other. As respects + complexity, intensity, and time-order, the concomitance is + apparently complete. Mind and brain advance and decline _pari + passu_; the stimulants and narcotics that enliven or depress the + action of the one tell in like manner upon the other. Local lesions + that suspend or destroy, more or less completely, the functions of + the centres of sight and speech, for instance, involve an + equivalent loss, temporary or permanent, of words and ideas." + +_Experience and Intuitions._--The history of psychology discloses a long +drawn-out dispute between schools of "empiricists," who said "all our +knowledge is derived from experience," and schools of "intuitionalists," +who said, "Nay, but we have innate ideas or intuitions which transcend +experience." A parallel dispute was long continued in regard to moral +ideas. Between the disputants Spencer appeared as a peace-maker, and the +reconciliation he proposed was in terms of evolution. We can best +express it by a sentence from a letter to John Stuart Mill:-- + + "Just in the same way that I believe the intuition of space, + possessed by any living individual, to have arisen from organised + and consolidated experiences of all antecedent individuals who + bequeathed to him their slowly-developed nervous + organisations--just as I believe that this intuition, requiring + only to be made definite and complete by personal experiences, has + practically become a form of thought, apparently quite independent + of experience; so do I believe that the experiences of utility, + organised and consolidated through all past generations of the + human race, have been producing corresponding nervous + modifications, which, by continued transmission and accumulation + have become in us certain faculties of moral intuition--certain + emotions responding to right and wrong conduct, which have no + apparent basis in the individual experiences of utility." + +In short, Spencer maintained that intellectual and moral intuitions had +arisen from gradually organised and inherited experience. "What the +transcendentalist called a _priori_ principles the evolutionist regards +as _a priori_ indeed to the individual, but _a posteriori_ to the race; +that is as race experiences which in the individual appear as +intuitions."[16] + +This was an ingenious _eirenicon_, but it does not seem to satisfy all +the philosophers, those namely who feel that intuitions--both +intellectual and moral--have a validity, universality, and compelling +necessity which cannot be accounted for if they are simply the outcome +of race-experience. The only alternative seems to be to say that their +validity depends on the nature of mind itself, or, what comes to the +same thing, because they are in harmony with the spiritual principle in +nature. + +Nor are the biologists quite satisfied with Spencer's reconciliation, +between empiricism and apriorism, for, in the form he gave it, there is +the tacit assumption that results of experience are as such +transmissible. But this is biologically a hazardous assumption. The only +alternative would be to suppose that the advance to rational intuitions +came about by the selection of variations towards that type of mental +constitution which rational and moral intuitions express--a probably +very slow process which would be sheltered by the individual moulding +himself to the social heritage in which many results of experience are +registered and entailed independently of any germ-plasm. It is possible +that there has been an underestimate of the extent to which what are +regarded as intuitions are sustained by tradition in the widest sense, +and an underestimate of the extent to which they are individually +acquired by each successive generation. + +When we speak of either instincts or intuitions arising by the selection +of variations, we need not think of such wonderful results as +originating in fortuitous mental sports; we are quite entitled to think +of definiteness in mental (at the same time neural) variation as in +bodily variation; we are quite entitled to think of mental (at the same +time neural) 'mutations' as well as bodily 'mutations'; we do not +require to burden natural selection with more than the pruning off of +irrationalities, instabilities, disharmonies, and imbecilities. Thus +even biologically we may admit that the validity of intuitions depends +on the nature of mind itself, socially confirmed from age to age. + +_Test of Truth._--Spencer took great stock in "intuitions," especially +in his _First Principles_, and yet he believed in their empirical +origin; and this leads us to ask what his test of truth was. It may be +summed up in the phrase "the inconceivability of the opposite." After a +curiously self-contradictory attempt to show by reasoning that "a +certainty greater than that which any reasoning can yield has to be +recognised at the outset of all reasoning," he states the "universal +postulate": "The inconceivableness of its negation is that which shows a +cognition to possess the highest rank--is the criterion by which its +insurpassable validity is known." + + He admitted, however, that there were limitations to the utility of + this test of truth. "That some propositions have been wrongly + accepted as true, because their negations were supposed + inconceivable when they were not, does not disprove the validity of + the test, for these reasons: (1) That they were complex + propositions, not to be established by a test applicable only to + propositions no further decomposable; (2) that this test, in common + with any test, is liable to yield untrue results, either from + incapacity or from carelessness in those who use it." In regard to + which Prof. Sidgwick says:[17] "These two qualifications surely + reduce very much the practical value of the criterion. For how are + we to proceed if philosophers disagree about the application of the + criteria? How are we to test 'undecomposability'? For notions which + on first reflection appear to us simple are so often found on + further reflective analysis to be composite. Which conclusion, + then, are we to trust, the earlier or the later? This seems to me a + serious dilemma for Mr Spencer; whichever way he answers he is in a + difficulty." + +It would seem then that Spencer did not get much further than others who +have tried to answer the question: _What is the test of truth?_ Nor for +our part can we supply the deficiency. It is probably more profitable, +as Sidgwick says, "to turn from infallible criteria to methods of +verification, from the search after an absolute test of truth to the +humbler task of devising modes of excluding error." "These verifications +are based on experience of the ways in which the human mind has actually +been convinced of error, and been led to discard it; _i.e._, three modes +of conflict, conflict between a judgment first formed, and the view of +this judgment taken by the same mind on subsequent reconsideration; +conflict between two different judgments, or the implications of two +partially different judgments formed by the same mind under different +conditions; and finally, conflict between the judgments of different +minds." In other words, what is true for us is that which survives these +conflicts, but the conflict is unceasing. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[12] G. F. Stout, _Analytic Psychology_, vol. i., 1896, p. 9. + +[13] H. S. Jennings, "Publications of Carnegie Institute," Washington, +No. 16 (1904), pp. 1-256. + +[14] _Op. cit._, p. 27. + +[15] _Naturalism and Agnosticism_, 1899, vol. i. p. 10. + +[16] W. H. Hudson, Introduction to the Philosophy of Herbert Spencer. + +[17] _The Philosophy of Kant and other Lecturers_, 1905, p. 319 + + + + +XV + +SOCIOLOGICAL + +_What Sociology is--Criticism of Sociology--Sociology and +History--Spencer's Sociological Data--Central Ideas of Spencer's +Sociology--The Idea of the Social Organism--Parallelisms between a +Society and an Individual Organism_ + + +While Spencer had little agreement with Comte, he was at one with him in +regarding Sociology as a possible science and as the crowning science. + +_What Sociology is._--By sociology is meant the study of the structure +and activity, development and evolution of social groups, which have +sufficient integration or unity to justify their being regarded as +"organisms," with a life--and a mind--of their own. That many +active-minded people persist in looking askance at sociology--as "a mass +of facts about society," and "no science," is not unnatural, since the +science is still very young and its definition is still elastic. At +certain points it necessarily comes in contact with biology, _e.g._ in +the study of heredity and eugenics; with psychology, _e.g._ in the study +of tradition and religion; with anthropology and history; with economics +and politics. But it has a distinctive place to fill as the study of +human integrates, of groups capable of acting, consciously or +unconsciously, as unities, as more than the sum of their parts. When it +has grown up and done more work, it will be justified, like Wisdom in +general, of its children, and any discussion of its claims to be a +"science" will be an anachronism. Meanwhile, though the youngest of the +sciences is still struggling for existence, we need not fear for its +safety--it is a Hercules in the cradle. + +_Criticism of Sociology._--The distrust which many thoughtful minds have +of "Sociology" is well expressed by Prof. Henry Sidgwick in one of his +essays:-- + + "It is not necessary to show that if we could ascertain from the + past history of human society the fundamental laws of social + evolution as a whole, so that we could accurately forecast the main + features of the future state with which our present social world is + pregnant--it is not needful, I say, to show that the science which + gave this foresight would be of the highest value to a statesman, + and would absorb or dominate our present political economy. What + has to be proved is that this supremely important knowledge is + within our grasp; that the sociology which professes this prevision + is really an established science."[18] + + + He goes on to say that there are two simple tests of the + establishment of a science, recognised by Comte in his discussion + of this very subject, which can be quickly and decisively applied + to the claims of existing sociology. These tests may be + characterised as (1) Consensus or Continuity, and (2) Prevision. + The former Sedgwick explains in Comte's own words: "When we find + that recent works, instead of being the result and development of + what has gone before, have a character as personal as that of their + authors, and bring the most fundamental ideas into question--then," + says Comte, "we may be sure we are not dealing with any doctrine + deserving the name of positive science." [The validity of Comte's + criterion seems very doubtful, but let that pass.] + + "Now," Sidgwick continues, "if we compare the most elaborate and + ambitious treatises on sociology, of which there happens to be one + in each of the three leading scientific languages--Comte's + _Politique Positive_, Spencer's _Sociology_, and Schaeffle's _Bau + und Leben des socialen Koerpers_--we see at once that they exhibit + the most complete and conspicuous absence of agreement or + continuity in their treatment of the fundamental questions of + social evolution." Sidgwick illustrates this, in the first place, + by taking the exceedingly difficult question of the future of + religion, and shows easily enough how the three doctors differ. + Perhaps it would have been fairer to have selected a less difficult + problem. + +It seems profitable to follow Sidgwick's contrast since it brings out +some of Spencer's characteristic doctrines. + + "If we inquire after the characteristics of the religion of which + their science leads them to foresee the coming prevalence, they + give with nearly equal confidence answers as divergent as can be + conceived. Schaeffle cannot comprehend that the place of the great + Christian Churches can be taken by anything but a purified form of + Christianity; Spencer contemplates complacently the reduction of + religious thought and sentiment to a perfectly indefinite + consciousness of an Unknowable and the emotion that accompanies + this peculiar intellectual exercise; while Comte has no doubt that + the whole history of religion--which, as he says, 'should resume + the entire history of human development,' has been leading up to + the worship of the Great Being, Humanity, personified domestically + for each normal male individual by his nearest female relatives. It + would seem that the science which allows these discrepancies in its + chief expositors must be still in its infancy." "I do not doubt + that our sociologists are sincere in setting before us their + conception of the coming social state as the last term of a series + of which the law has been discovered by patient historical study; + but when we look closely into their work it becomes only too + evident that each philosopher has constructed on the basis of + personal feeling and experience his ideal future in which our + present social deficiencies are to be remedied; and that the + process by which history is arranged in steps pointing towards his + Utopia bears not the faintest resemblance to a scientific + demonstration." + + The remark on the influence of "personal feeling and experience" + recalls the interesting sentence in the preface to Spencer's + _Autobiography_, "One significant truth has been made clear--that + in the genesis of a system of thought the emotional nature is a + large factor: perhaps as large a factor as the intellectual + nature." One cannot but ask if Sidgwick supposed that his own + contributions were uninfluenced by his "personal feeling and + experience." Is it not almost a truism that until science reaches + the stage of measurement or other modes of direct perceptual + verification, it must be tinctured with personal feeling? + + Sidgwick goes on to point out that similar discrepancies are + evident "when we turn from religion to industry, and examine the + forecasts of industrial development offered to the statesman in the + name of scientific sociology as a substitute for the discarded + calculations of the mere economist. With equal confidence, history + is represented as leading up, now to the naive and unqualified + individualism of Spencer, now to the carefully guarded and + elaborated socialism of Schaeffle, now to Comte's dream of securing + seven-roomed houses for all working men--with other comforts to + correspond--solely by the impressive moral precepts of his + philosophic priests. Guidance, truly, is here enough and to spare: + but how is the bewildered statesman to select his guidance when his + sociological doctors exhibit this portentous disagreement?" "Nor is + it only that they adopt diametrically opposed conclusions: we find + that each adopts his conclusion with the most serene and complete + indifference to the line of historical reasoning on which his + brother sociologist relies." + +Now this is wholesome criticism, but its force is due to the fact that +sociology is still very young. It would be equally easy to discredit +evolution-lore by showing the discrepancies between the aetiology of +Darwin and Wallace, or Spencer and Weismann. But it must not be imagined +that Sidgwick was opposed to Sociology or doubted its validity; he was +simply advocating caution. "There is no reason to despair of the +progress of general sociology; but I do not think that its development +can be really promoted by shutting our eyes to its present very +rudimentary condition." He evidently looked forward with hope to a time +"when the general science of society has solved the problems which it +has as yet only managed to define more or less clearly--when for +positive knowledge it can offer us something better than a mixture of +vague and variously applied physiological analogies, imperfectly +verified historical generalisations, and unwarranted political +predictions--when it has succeeded in establishing on the basis of a +really scientific induction its forecasts of social evolution." The +recently established "Sociological Society"[19] has in its first volume +of publications suggested many ways in which those interested can assist +in the development of this new science, and already as one of its +indirect fruits we can point to the establishment of well defined +courses of Sociology in the University of London. + +_Sociology and History._--Something must be said in regard to Spencer's +somewhat peculiar attitude to history. "I take," he said, "but little +interest in what are called histories, but am interested only in +Sociology, which stands related to these so-called histories much as a +vast building stands related to the heaps of stones and brick around +it." He went the length of saying: "Had Greece and Rome never existed, +human life, and the right conduct of it, would have been in their +essentials exactly what they now are: survival or death, health or +disease, prosperity or adversity, happiness or misery, would have been +just in the same ways determined by the adjustment or non-adjustment of +actions to requirements." When we reflect on the complex ways in which +the influence of Greece and Rome has saturated into our life, and has +become bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh, in literature and art, +in philosophy and science, so that the ideas and feelings among and in +which we live and move are hardly intelligible apart from it, we can +hardly believe our ears when we listen to Spencer's sentence. It seems +to throw a weird light on his Sociology. + +For lack of personal interest and in his preoccupation with general +movements, Spencer failed to do justice to what is ordinarily called +history. While we can sympathise with his recoil from historical studies +which lose the wood in the trees, which are like palaeontologies that +never disclose the ascent of life, the same limitation befalls every +kind of specialist study, and is almost a necessary evil, due as Spencer +would phrase it to "the imbecilities of our understanding." + +Spencer's point of view was this:-- + + "To have before us, in manageable form, evidence proving the + correlations which everywhere exist between great militant activity + and the degradation of women, between a despotic form of government + and elaborate ceremonial in social intercourse, between relatively + peaceful social activities and the relaxation of coercive + institutions, promises furtherance of human welfare in a much + greater degree than does learning whether the story of Alfred and + the cakes is a fact or a myth, whether Queen Elizabeth intrigued + with Essex or not, where Prince Charles hid himself, and what were + the details of this battle or that siege--pieces of historical + gossip which cannot in the least affect men's conceptions of the + ways in which social phenomena hang together, or aid them in + shaping their public conduct." + +Here, of course, Spencer was making game of what he termed "so-called +histories," for, to do them justice, they are not wholly composed of +gossip, else they would be more read, but he was scoring a definite +point that history is incomplete without sociological generalisation. He +did not seem to see that we need the most scrupulous historical +scholarship if we are to make sure of our generalisations. Nor did he +understand how essential it is to some minds to have in their vision of +the past just those personal details and picturesque touches, which he +despised as gossip. + +The antithesis between the sociologist and the conventional historian is +comparable to that between the biologist and the descriptive naturalist. +The painstaking scrupulous describer, with an almost personal affection +for his subjects, the gatherer of exact data to whom nothing is common +or unclean, nothing trivial or without significance, often shrinks from +the sweeping statements and far-reaching formulae of the generaliser; his +detailed knowledge makes him a purist in science, enables him to recall +difficult exceptions, makes him distrustful of the summing-up phrases +which cover a multitude of individualised occurrences. But just as the +specialist is indispensable, so there can be no science without +interpretation. + +We presume, however, that the historians agree with Spencer that their +chief aim is to give an account, as rational as is possible for them, of +the movement of human history, as Gibbon, for instance, did in his +"Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire," but that they have a scientific +instinct of recoil from generalising formulae, and probably doubt the +validity of some of Spencer's. We presume that they admit that all +events are not equally important, and that they are laws of perspective +applicable to historical pictures, but that they doubt Spencer's +competence--especially after that sentence of his regarding Greece and +Rome--to act as judge of what is important or in proportion. Just as the +descriptive naturalist justly resents any dictation from the biologist +as to what is or is not worth observing, so the descriptive historian +resents the sociologist's interference. And it is to be feared that men, +both in history and in life, were too much mere "phenomena" to the +Synthetic Philosopher, and that his Sociology was more biological than +human. + +_Spencer's Sociological Data._--Spencer may be accused of a lack of +personal interest in the details of human history, of a lack of +appreciation of what modern societies owe to the past, and of taking too +mechanical a view of social evolution, but to accuse him of _a priori_ +methods is gratuitously unjust. Darwin in his theorising was no less +scrupulously careful than he was in his monographing of barnacles, and, +however we may disagree with any of Spencer's sociological +generalisations, we must remember the carefulness with which he prepared +himself for his task. From 1867 to 1874, with the help of Mr David +Duncan, Mr James Collier, and Dr Scheppig, he worked at the compilation +of sociological data, showing "in fitly classified groups and tables, +facts of all kinds, presented by numerous races, which illustrate social +evolution under its various aspects." This detailed work was begun +solely to facilitate his own generalisations; it was published "apart +from hypotheses, so as to aid all students of Social Science in testing +such conclusions as they have drawn and in drawing others." + +Most admirable was the ideal which Spencer had before him in collecting +his data of Sociology. + + "Indications of the climate, contour, soil, and minerals, of the + region inhabited by each society delineated, seemed to me needful. + Some accounts of the Flora and Fauna, in so far as they affected + human life, had to be given. And the characters of the surrounding + tribes or nations were factors which could not be overlooked. The + characters of the people, individually considered, had also to be + described--their physical, moral, and intellectual traits. Then, + besides the political, ecclesiastical, industrial and other + institutions of the society--besides the knowledge, beliefs, and + sentiments, the language, habits, customs, and tastes of its + members--there had to be noticed their clothing, food, and arts of + life." + +_Central Ideas of Spencer's Sociology._--The central ideas of Spencer's +sociological work are thus summed up by Prof. F. H. Giddings:-- + +"Spencer's propositions could be arranged in the following order: (1) +Society is an organism; (2) in the struggle of social organisms for +existence and their consequent differentiation, fear of both the living +and the dead arises, and for countless ages is a controlling emotion; +(3) dominated by fear, men for ages are habitually engaged in military +activities; (4) the transition from militarism to industrialism, made +possible by the consolidation of small social groups into large ones, +which war accomplishes, to its own ultimate decline, transforms human +nature and social institutions; and this fact affords the true +interpretation of all social progress." + +Spencer sought to disclose the evolution of human ideas and customs, +ceremonials and institutions. He emphasised the true idea that any +society worthy of the name is an integrate like an individual organism, +with the capacity of co-ordinated action or unified behaviour distinct +from the life of the component units, and he used other biological +concepts to render social evolution more intelligible. + +He relied greatly on the influence of Fear in the early stages of social +evolution: fear of living competitors gave rise to political control--to +ceremonies and institutions; fear of the dead gave origin to religion +whose primitive expressions are seen in ancestor-worship or worship of +the dead. The conception of another life originated mainly in "such +phenomena as shadows, reflections, and echoes," and gave origin to +conceptions of gods. + +Pressure of population and competitive struggle between societies have +been potent factors in evolution, promoting differentiation and +integration, and continually tending to disappear as their ends are +achieved. Morality is developed as an adaptive expedient under the +complex struggle for existence, and industrial organisation replaces +military organisation as the social integrates grow and multiply and +coalesce. As solidarity deepens with increased peaceful synergy, the +severe centralised control, necessary when militarism is dominant, +should be replaced by greater freedom of individual life, and by a +restriction of governmental function to securing justice, to maintaining +equitable relations, preventing one individual infringing on his +neighbour's liberty. The formula of absolute justice is that "every man +is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes not the equal +freedom of any other man." In militant times the individuals exist for +the state; in industrial times the state is to be maintained solely for +the benefit of the citizens, and a better than industrial freedom is to +be looked for when it is more fully realised that life is not for work +but work is for life. Spencer believed so much in the beneficence of +peace and individual liberty, that he said "there needs but a +continuance of absolute peace externally, and a vigorous insistence on +non-aggression internally, to ensure the moulding of men into a form +characterised by all the virtues"--a fine illustration of evolutionary +optimism. To him the goal of human progress was a completed +individualism, but "the ultimate individual will be one whose private +requirements coincide with public ones. He will be that manner of man +who, in spontaneously fulfilling his own nature, incidentally performs +the functions of a social unit, and yet is only enabled so to fulfil his +own nature by all others doing the like." + +_The Idea of the Social Organism._--Spencer has been largely +responsible for popularising the conception expressed in the phrase "The +Social Organism"--that a society or societary form is in many ways +comparable to an individual organism, _e.g._ in growing, in +differentiating, in showing increased mutual dependence of its parts, +and so on. It is true that the comparison of society to an organism is +at least as old as the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle, but Spencer +was one of the first to fill in the analogy with biological details. The +idea was briefly expressed in _Social Statics_, and was elaborated in an +essay which appeared in the "Westminster Review" in January 1860. There +he likened government to the central nervous system, agriculture and +industry to the alimentary tract, transport and exchange to the vascular +system of an animal, and pointed out that like an individual organism a +society grows, becomes more complex, shows increasing inter-relations, +division of labour, and mutual dependence among its parts, and has a +life immense in length when compared with the lives of the component +units. At the same time, it should be carefully noted that it was +Spencer who introduced the term _super-organic_ as descriptive of social +phenomena, indicating thereby that the biological categories may require +considerable modification before they can be safely used in Sociology. + +_Parallelisms between a Society and an Individual Organism._--Spencer +indicated four chief parallelisms between a society and an individual +organism:-- + + (1) Starting as small aggregates both grow in size. + + (2) As they grow their initial relative simplicity is replaced by + increasing complexity of structure. + + (3) With increasing differentiation there comes about an increasing + mutual dependence of the component parts, until the life and normal + functioning of each becomes dependent on the life of the whole. + + (4) The life of the whole becomes independent of and far more + prolonged than the life of the component units. + +It is obvious that this pleasing analogy may be pursued far. Thus a +society may be compared to an organism as regards the genetic kinship of +the component units (the cells being compared to individuals); in the +fact that continued existence depends on continued functioning; in the +power of retaining integrity or viable equilibrium in spite of ceaseless +changes both internal and external; in the internal struggle of parts +which co-exists with some measure of mutual subordination; in owing its +peculiar virtue to the subtle inter-relations between its unified +elements; in its power of coalescing with another form or of giving +birth to another form; in its power of varying as a whole; in its habit +of competing with other forms, as the result of which adaptation or +elimination may ensue; and so on. In fact the analogy is far-reaching +and persuasive and it is helped over some of its difficulties by the +consideration that just as there are many grades of social-group, from +the nomad herd to the French Republic, so there are many grades of +organism from sponge to eagle. + +Schaeffle, in his famous work on the _Structure and Life of the Social +Body_ (1875), carried the metaphor of the social organism to an extreme +which has induced many to recoil from it altogether. The family is the +cell, and the body consists of simple connective tissue (expressed in +unity of speech, etc.), and of various differentiated tissues, such as +sensory and motor apparatus. The comparison is as interesting as a game, +but when we find writers speaking of the social ectoderm and endoderm, +and so forth, we cannot but feel that the metaphor is being stretched to +the breaking-point. + +Spencer was himself quite conscious that the metaphor had its +limitations, for he indicates four contrasts between a society and an +individual organism. + + (1) Societies have no specific external forms. + + (2) The units of an organism are physically continuous, but the + units of a society are dispersed persons. + + (3) The elements of an organism are mostly fixed in their relative + positions; while units of a society are capable of moving from + place to place. + + (4) In the body of an animal only a special tissue is endowed with + feeling; in a society all the members are so endowed. The social + nervous system is happily wider than the government. + +There are other limitations, _e.g._, that the social organism does not +seem to pass _necessarily_ through a curve of life ending in senility +and death; that when a particular form disappears it is usually by being +incorporated into another in whose life it shares. + +As it appears to us the real analogy is between a human societary form +and an animal societary form, such as an ant-hill or a bee-hive or a +beaver-village, and not between a society and an individual organism. +Moreover, since the biologist has not yet arrived at a clear conception +of the innermost secret of the individual organism, notably the secret +of its unity, the comparison implied in the metaphor of the social +organism is an attempt to interpret _obscurum per obscurius_. The +analogy, such as it is, is probably destined to be of more use to the +biologist than to the sociologist. + +In thinking of the unity of the individual organism--which remains in +great measure an enigma to Biology--we have to distinguish (_a_) _the +physical unity_, which rests on the fact that all the component units +are closely akin, being lineal descendants of the fertilised ovum, and +on the fact that they are subtly connected with each other in mutual +dependence and co-operation, whether by intercellular bridges, or by the +commonalty established by the vascular and nervous systems; and (_b_) +the correlated _psychical unity_, the _esprit de corps_, which in a +manner inconceivable to us makes the whole body one. That there are +organisms, like sponges, in which the psychical unity is quite +unverifiable is probably only a passing difficulty, greatly lessened by +our increasing knowledge of the life of the simplest unicellular +organisms whose behaviour is now seen to include trial by error and +other traits which we cannot interpret without using psychical terms. + +The same is true in regard to the social organism; we have here to +distinguish (_a_) _the physical unity_ which rests on hereditary kinship +and on similar environmental conditions, and (_b_) _the psychical +unity_, the "social mind," developed with relation to certain ends--"a +unity which is the end of its parts." It seems probable that in early +days, the physical unity was more prominent than later on, when, as in +the case of mixed racial groups, the psychical bond is practically +supreme. But genetic and environmental bonds do not as physical facts +constitute a society. Until there is enough of correlated psychical +unity for the group to act, however imperfectly, as a group with a mind +of its own, controlling the egoism of the individual members, there is +no human society. + +In short, if we continue to speak of a society as a social organism, we +must safeguard the analogy by remembering that the character of society +as an organism exists in the thoughts, feelings, and activities of the +component members, and that the social bonds are not those of sympathy +and synergy only, but that the rational life is intrinsically social. + +As Green said, "Social life is to personality what language is to +thought." + +The chief difficulty that Spencer had with his metaphor was that in the +individual organism there is a centred consciousness in the nervous +system, whereas the social group as a whole has no corporate +consciousness. Thus "while in individual bodies the welfare of all other +parts is rightly subservient to the welfare of the nervous system, whose +pleasurable or painful activities make up the good or ill of life; in +bodies politic the same thing does not hold, or holds only to a very +slight extent. It was well that the lives of all parts of an animal +should be merged in the life of the whole, because the whole has a +corporate consciousness capable of happiness or misery. But it is not so +with a society, since its living units do not and cannot lose individual +consciousness, and since the community as a whole has no corporate +consciousness. And this is an everlasting reason why the welfare of +citizens cannot rightly be sacrificed to some supposed benefit of the +State: but why, on the other hand, the State is to be maintained solely +for the benefit of citizens. The corporate life must here be subservient +to the lives of the parts, instead of the lives of the parts being +subservient to the corporate life" ("The Social Organism," _Essays_, +vol. i.). In other words, Spencer found the metaphor useful even when it +broke down, for it enabled him to corroborate his doctrine of +individualism. If he had pursued the analogy between the human social +group and the animal social group, such as that of bees or beavers, the +corroboration would not have been so easy, though Spencer would +doubtless have arrived at the same result. + +FOOTNOTES: + +[18] "The Scope and Method of Economic Science," _Miscellaneous Essays +and Addresses_, 1904, p. 193. + +[19] For a discussion of the validity and scope of Sociology we may +refer to the following papers: "On the Origin and Use of the word +Sociology," "Note on the History of Sociology," by Mr Victor V. +Branford; "The Relation of Sociology to the Social Sciences and to +Philosophy," two papers by Prof. E. Durkheim and Mr Branford; "Sociology +and the Social Sciences," by Prof. Durkheim and M. E. Fauconnet;--all +published in "Sociological Papers," the first volume of the Sociological +Society's Proceedings. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +THE POPULATION QUESTION + + +We have not in this volume discussed any of Spencer's contributions to +practical life, for the task of indicating his scientific position was +more than enough. Furthermore, his _Education_ is the best known of all +his works, and many of its suggestions are now realised in everyday +practice; his political recommendations are too debatable; and as to +ethical advice he has himself said: "The doctrine of Evolution has not +furnished guidance to the extent I had hoped. Most of the conclusions +drawn empirically are such as right feelings, enlightened by cultivated +intelligence, have already sufficed to establish." But there is one +practical suggestion to which we must refer, namely Spencer's +contribution to the population question. + +"The Abundance of Life"--the title of a very suggestive essay by Prof. +Joly--is one of the great facts of Nature. The river of life is always +tending to overflow its banks. Hence, in part, the "Struggle for +Existence." + +There are great differences in the number of offspring produced by +different kinds of organisms, and great differences in the +mortality-rate among the crowds of those produced. The rate of +reproduction depends primarily on the constitution of the organism, but +it also varies in response to external conditions, notably in relation +to the food-supply. Some organisms are intrinsically more reproductive +than others, thus the unicellular organisms, such as Bacteria and +Infusorians, which multiply by dividing into two or many units, head the +list; and, on the whole, it may be said that relatively simple creatures +multiply most rapidly, especially if their mode of reproduction, _e.g._, +the equipment of the germ-cells, is relatively simple and inexpensive, +and if the period required for reaching reproductive maturity is short. +But as we find very different reproductivity in animals and plants which +occupy the same grade of organisation, we are led to the conclusion, +which Weismann, for instance, has worked out, that the constitutional +capacity of producing many or few offspring has been regulated by +selection working throughout the ages, and is adapted to the particular +conditions of life. As the continuance of the race is an ideal aim, +which could not be present to the animal consciousness--not to speak of +the slumbering analogue of this in plants--all that we can say is that +in certain conditions variations towards greater fertility would be +relatively more successful because there were more of them to survive, +and that variations towards relative sterility would seal their own +doom. The survivors survived because they were many and capable of +producing many. Moreover it is possible in certain conditions that a +variation towards greater fertility may have been correlated with some +other variation, such as greater vigour on which the process of +selection could immediately operate. In any case, however, we may work +out the theory, the rate of reproductivity cannot be satisfactorily +interpreted without regarding it as in great part an adaptive character. + +But while the rate of reproduction depends upon the constitution of the +individual organism, modifiable within variable limits by the direct +influence of food, warmth, and the like, the rate of increase or +decrease in an animal or plant population depends upon the wide and +complex conditions of the entire animate and inanimate environment. In +short, it is a function of the Struggle for Existence. + +When there are no checks to prolific multiplication a single Infusorian +may become, in the course of a week, the ancestor of several millions, +and the same is true of a Bacterium within a day. Huxley has computed +that the progeny of single mother Aphis or green-fly, if they all lived +a charmed life, would in a few months literally outweigh the population +of China, which probably amounts to between two and three hundred +millions. If there were no checks to increase, a few pairs of cod-fish +and conger-eels would soon put an end to fishing and much else, by +making the North Sea solid. And apart from problematical cases, every +now and then, with locusts or voles, with rabbits in Australia, or +sparrows in America, we get a vivid glimpse of what a "spate" of life +may mean. + +In the main, however, the river of life overflows its banks only locally +and temporarily. An adjustment of the abundance of life to the +limitations of subsistence is speedily effected in nature, and the flood +subsides. The "positive checks" of disease, starvation, lack of room, +internecine competition, increase of enemies, and so on, re-establish a +balance, though perhaps with a slightly changed centre of gravity. The +struggle for existence punctuates the increase of population. + +In the history of mankind various aspects of the population question are +familiar. Whether we inquire into what is known of the history of +uncivilised races, or into present-day conditions in more or less +isolated communities and even in large countries, we read the story of +population-crises--of increase in numbers out-running the means of +livelihood. Among races in contact one often increases at a much more +rapid rate than the other, and we hear of "perils" of various colours. +Within a given race we find great differences in the fertility of +different sections or stocks and dangerous results impending. One nation +is troubled by its teeming millions, and another by its dwindling +birth-rate. The whole question is one of great biological interest and +human importance, and it is one to which Spencer had a very definite +contribution to make. + +But before we consider Spencer's theory, it may be profitable to notice +what other suggestions have been made. + +(_a_) _Malthusian._--In 1798, in his _Theory of Population_, Malthus +riveted the attention of all thoughtful men by seeking to establish the +induction that population tends to outrun the means of subsistence. In +its earliest form, his thesis was that population tends to increase in +geometrical ratio, while the means of subsistence increase only in +arithmetical ratio. So precise a statement cannot be justified, but +Malthus was right in insisting on the general fact that in certain +conditions and in certain stocks multiplication tends to exceed the +means of subsistence. His discussion of this thesis, and the conception +of "the struggle for existence" which he developed--for the phrase was +his--had a profound influence on many minds, including Spencer, Darwin, +and Wallace. + +Malthus pointed out, with abundant concrete illustration, that the +increase of population is met by "positive checks," such as disease, +starvation, war, and infanticide, and that it may also be met by +"prudential checks," such as late marriage and moral control. His +practical corollary was that to avoid the "positive checks" which are +almost always appalling and pity-moving, we must develop the "prudential +checks," which tend to prevent further swelling of the population-tide. +"To a rational being the prudential check to population ought to be +considered as equally natural with the check from poverty and premature +mortality" (Malthus, 1806). The obvious objections are, that extended +celibacy or postponed marriage tends to increase of sexual vice; that +very late marriages are biologically and psychologically inadvisable, +tending for instance _on an average_ to increased mortality in +childbirth, to less fit children, and to a diminution of the happiness +of married life; and that moral control is apt to be most exercised +where it is least needed, namely among the more highly developed stocks, +and that it is a very uncertain check since great conjugal temperance +seems often to render conception the more certain. + +(_b_) _Darwinian._--The Darwinian theory, that is the theory of Natural +Selection, supplied an important supplement to the Malthusian position. +For it pointed to the course of nature wherein the struggle for +existence has opened up the pathway of progress. Increase of population +brings about or accentuates the struggle for existence wherein the +relatively less fit are eliminated. Although this Natural Selection +works slowly it works surely, hence the Darwinian corollary is +practically nil, that is to say, a _laissez-faire_ policy. The obvious +objections are, that man as a rational and social being has a higher +standard than mere survival, and that a confidence in uncontrolled +natural selection is altogether optimistic. He cannot abrogate his task +of endeavouring, by rational selection, to accelerate what he believes +to be progressive evolution and to hinder degenerative change. Moreover, +it is not in him to stand by contemplating the mills of Nature grinding +slowly, ignoring the well-being of the individual in considering the +merely possible advancement of the species. And as a matter of fact he +is continually interfering with natural selection by introducing various +modes of what he believes to be rational selection. + +(_c_) _Neo-Malthusian._--The general position of modern Malthusians may +be summed up in a few propositions. Population has a constant tendency +to outrun the means of subsistence; over-population is a fruitful source +of pauperism, ignorance, crime and disease; the positive or +life-destroying checks are cruel, and their reduction is in the line of +social progress; abstention from marriage is for normal organisms +unnatural and anti-social, postponement of marriage is also unnatural +and tends to vice and unfitness; the check that remains to be advocated +is "prudence _after_ marriage," and by this the Neo-Malthusians most +distinctly mean attention to methods which secure small families. So far +as these scientific checks imply control and conjugal temperance and +obviate or lessen misery, they commend themselves, but the obvious +objections are, that their use is often not without its physiological +risks, and that by annulling the responsibility of consequences, while +allowing the gratification of sexual appetites to continue, they may +have the result of increasing an already sufficiently intense sexuality, +of facilitating unchastity, and of exaggerating the tendency of marriage +to sink into "monogamic prostitution." On the other hand, it seems +probable that the transition from impulsive animalism to deliberate +regulation--somewhat mechanical though it be--would tend in some to +decrease not increase sexual intemperance. While the ideal surely is +that there should be a retention, throughout married life, of a large +measure of that self-control which must always form the organic basis of +the enthusiasm and idealism of lovers, it remains a fact that even +exemplary temperance does not obviate an unduly large family, and that +some form of Neo-Malthusian practice is in many cases the only +practicable suggestion--_pis aller_ though it be. + +(_d_) _Spencer's Contribution._--In his keen analysis of the conditions +of multiplication,[20] Spencer showed that a species cannot be +maintained unless self-preservative and reproductive powers vary +inversely, and gave a physiological reason why these two powers cannot +do other than vary inversely. If we group under the term individuation +all those race-preservative processes by which individual life is +completed and maintained, and extend the term genesis to include all +those processes aiding the formation and perfecting of new individuals, +the result of the whole argument may be tersely expressed in the +formula--_Individuation and Genesis vary inversely_. And from this +conception important corollaries follow; thus, other things equal, +advancing evolution must be accompanied by declining fertility; again, +if the difficulties of self-preservation permanently diminish, there +will be a permanent increase in the rate of multiplication, and +conversely. + +The next step was an inductive verification of these _a priori_ +inferences, and here Spencer utilised a wealth of evidence drawn from a +wide survey of the animal and vegetable world. He measured individuation +by amount of growth, degree of development, and fullness of activity, +and his result always was that genesis and individuation vary inversely. +To the question: How is the ratio established in each special case? +Spencer answered: By Natural Selection. According to the particular +conditions of the species, natural selection determines whether the +quantity of matter spared from individuation for genesis be divided into +many small ova or a few large ones; whether there shall be small broods +at short intervals or larger broods at longer intervals; or whether +there shall be many unprotected offspring, or a few carefully protected +by the parent. In other words, natural selection determines the +particular form which the antithesis between individuation and genesis +will take. Finally, Spencer introduced the following qualification. If +time be left out of account, or if species be considered as permanent, +then the inverse ratio between individuation and genesis holds +absolutely, but each advance in individual development implies an +economy: the advantage must exceed the cost, else it would not be +perpetuated. The organism has an augmentation of total wealth to share +between its individuation and its genesis, and though the increment of +individuation tends to produce a corresponding decrement of genesis, +this latter will be somewhat less than accurately proportionate. In +short, genesis decreases as individuation increases, yet not quite so +fast. If the species be evolving, the advance in individuation implies a +certain economy, of which a share may go to diminish the decrement to +genesis. + +Spencer then extended his hard-won generalisation to the case of man, in +which, as everyone knows, very high individuation is associated with all +but the lowest rate of multiplication. The same antithesis is seen on +comparing different races or nations, or even different social castes or +occupations. Where there is relatively low individuation, or where +nutrition is in obvious excess of expenditure required to get it, there +high multiplication prevails. Reviewing the various possibilities of +progressive human evolution, he concluded that this must take place +mainly on the psychical side. Hence the corollary that the culture of +man's psychical nature constantly tends to diminish the rate of +fertility, and pressure of population, which Spencer regarded as the +main incentive to progress, tends to disappear as it achieves its full +effect. The acute pressure of population, with its attendant evils, thus +tends to cease as a more and more highly individuated race busies itself +with its increasingly complex yet normal and pleasurable activities, +its rate of reproduction meanwhile descending towards that minimum +required to make good its inevitable losses. + +This was Spencer's contribution to the population question, and it is +one which suggests hope and action, and is in harmony with the growing +ideal of racial eugenics. "For it is obvious that the progress of the +species and of the individual alike is secured and accelerated whenever +action is transferred from the negative side of merely seeking directly +to repress genesis, to the positive yet indirect side of proportionally +increasing individuation. This holds true of all species, yet most fully +of man, since that modification of psychical activities in which his +evolution essentially lies, is _par excellence_ and increasingly the +respect in which artificial or rational comes in to replace natural +selection. Without therefore ignoring the latter, or hoping ever wholly +to escape from the iron grasp of nature, we yet have within our power +more and more to mitigate the pressure of population, and that without +any sacrifice of progress, but actually by hastening it. Since then the +remedy of pressure and the hope of progress alike lie in advancing +individuation, the course for practical action is clear--it is in the +organisation of these alternate reactions between bettered environment +(material, mental, social, moral) and better organism in which the whole +evolution of life is defined, in the conscious and rational adjustment +of the struggle into the culture of existence."[21] + +FOOTNOTES: + +[20] A summary of his argument is given in "The Evolution of Sex," by P. +Geddes and J. Arthur Thomson. Walter Scott, London. Revised edition, +1901. + +[21] _Evolution of Sex._ Chapter xx. + + + + +CHAPTER XVII + +BEYOND SCIENCE + + _Metaphysics--Early Attitude to Religion--Increased Sympathy with + Religion_ + + +Spencer was always clear that "life is not for work and learning, but +work and learning are for life." Thus he valued science because it is +"_fructiferous_," to use Bacon's word, making for the amelioration of +life; but he valued it still more because it is "_luciferous_," "for the +light it throws on our own nature and the nature of the Universe." He +spoke with regret of "the ordinary scientific specialist, who, deeply +interested in his speciality, and often displaying comparatively little +interest in other departments of science, is rarely much interested in +the relations between Science at large and the great questions which lie +beyond Science." He ranked himself with those who, "while seeking +scientific knowledge for its proximate value, have an ever-increasing +consciousness of its ultimate value as a transfiguration of things, +which, marvellous enough within the limits of the knowable, suggests a +profounder marvel than can be known." Thus it is not surprising to find +that he had a metaphysical system of his own, and if he had not a +religion he had at least "a humility in presence of the inscrutable," +and a reverence for Nature deeper than many religious minds exhibit. + +_Metaphysics._--"Metaphysician" was with Spencer a term of reproach, +"employed (as Prof. Sidgwick says) exclusively to designate a class of +thinkers who have followed an erroneous method to untenable +conclusions," yet he himself had a metaphysical system--which Sidgwick +defines as "a systematic view of the nature and relations of finite +minds to the material world, and to the Primal Being or ultimate ground +of Being." A critical discussion of Spencer's metaphysical and +epistemological doctrines will be found in Sidgwick's "Philosophy of +Kant and other Lectures," 1905. + +In his doctrine of "the Unknowable," in which experts discover the +influence of Kant through Hamilton and Mansel, Spencer reached the +conclusion that "no tenable hypothesis can be formed as to the origin or +nature of the Universe regarded as a whole." He offered for the +reconciliation of Religion and Science the "Supreme Verity," that "the +reality underlying appearances is totally and for ever inconceivable to +us... but we are obliged to regard every phenomenon as the manifestation +of an incomprehensible power, called Omnipresent from inability to +assign its limits, though Omnipresence is unthinkable." Similarly when +we try to understand Time, Space, Matter, Force, Consciousness, we have +to confess that the "reality underlying appearances is and must be +totally and for ever inconceivable by us." At the same time Spencer was +able to attain to some knowledge of his Unknowable, concluding, for +instance, in spite of the antithesis between subject and object, never +to be transcended while consciousness lasts, that "it is one and the +same Ultimate Reality that is manifested to us subjectively and +objectively"; that while "the manifestations, as occurring either in +ourselves or outside of us, do not persist: that which persists is the +Unknown Cause of these manifestations"--"an unconditioned Reality +without beginning or end." + +_Early attitude to Religion._--Spencer came of a religious stock, but +the traditional beliefs took no grip of him. Even as a boy he had what +may be called a cosmic outlook, but he tells us of no religious +tendrils, and if there were any they found no support in the faith of +his fathers. Though surrounded in early life by a religious atmosphere, +he never seems to have moved or even drawn breath in it. He passed by +theological beliefs as if he were immune; he developed into an agnostic +without passing through any crisis or perplexity; he had not even what +Prof. James has called "the religion of healthy-mindedness." + +The explanation of this may be looked for partly in the self-sufficiency +of his strong intellect, partly in the limitations of the emotional side +of his nature, and partly in his fine heritage of natural goodness. When +the religious mood does not arise naturally as an almost spontaneous +expression of inherited disposition and nurture-influences, it is +usually reached by one of three paths, or by more than one of these at +once. These paths to religion, which apply to the racial as well as to +the individual history, may be called the practical, the emotional, and +the intellectual approaches to faith. When men reach the limits of their +practical endeavours and find themselves baffled, when they feel the +impotence of their utmost strength, when they are filled with fear of +the past, the present, and the future, then they sometimes become +religious. When men reach the limits of their emotional strength, and +the tension of joy or of sorrow, of delight in nature or love of kin +becomes almost an oppression, then they sometimes become religious. When +men reach the limit of their intellectual endeavours after clearness and +unity and are baffled, they sometimes become religious. + +As Spencer was never at his wit's end practically, and was born too good +to be troubled by a sense of sin, and as he had a somewhat lukewarm +emotional nature, and was singularly devoid of any poetical or mystical +sense, he was not likely to approach religion by either the practical or +the emotional path. The third path, reached by baffled intelligence, was +more or less closed by Spencer's postulate of the Unknowable, though +there was even in this some tinge of religious feeling. + +He had been brought up among those who held almost as an axiom to the +belief that "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth," but +this never seems to have meant anything practically or emotionally to +him, while as a cosmological statement it seemed quite unverifiable. +Most thinkers have tried by searching to find out God, to find some way +of thinking of the ultimate origin, nature, and purpose of things, but +at an early age Herbert Spencer foreclosed this quest, and was quite +comfortable in so doing, chiefly, it must be suspected, because it never +appealed to him save as a purely intellectual puzzle. "_Nur was du +fuehlst, das ist dein Eigenthum._" + + Thus when he was twenty-six (1848) he wrote to his father, "As + regards 'the ultimate nature of things or origin of them,' my + position is simply that I know nothing about it, and never can know + anything about it, and must be content in my ignorance. I deny + nothing, and I affirm nothing, and to any one who says that the + current theory _is not_ true, I say just as I say to those who + assert its truth--you have no evidence. Either alternative leaves + us in inextricable difficulties. An _uncaused_ Deity is just as + inconceivable as an uncaused Universe. If the existence of matter + from all eternity is incomprehensible, the creation of matter out + of nothing is equally incomprehensible. Thus finding that either + attempt to conceive the origin of things is futile, I am content to + leave the question unsettled as _the insoluble mystery_"... + (_Autobiography_, i. p. 346). + +This was written in 1848, twelve years before _First Principles_, in +which he afterwards sought more fully to justify the position which +Huxley called "agnostic." + +Just because his emotions were so little engaged, the agnostic position +seemed to him a very simple and satisfactory one, and we find no +evidence that he ever tried to get below the surface of theistic or +Christian doctrine. He was so much repelled by particular +anthropomorphic and superstitious expressions or formulae of religious +belief that he never appreciated their true inwardness or value. +Otherwise, he would never have spoken of "the radical incongruity +between the Bible and the order of Nature." Otherwise he would never +have written the following passage, "The creed of Christendom is +evidently alien to my nature, both emotional and intellectual. To many, +and apparently to most, religious worship yields a species of pleasure. +To me it never did so; unless, indeed, I count as such the emotion +produced by sacred music.... But the expressions of adoration of a +personal being, the utterance of laudations, and the humble professions +of obedience, never found in me any echoes." + +_Later Attitude to Religion._--But while it seems to us preposterous to +speak of "the religion of Herbert Spencer," beyond a reverence for the +mysteries beyond science, it is important to note that in his later +years he became more appreciative of the important role that religion +has filled, and continues to fill in human life. The 'Reflections' at +the close of the _Autobiography_ illustrate this change of outlook. + +In his earlier days Spencer was an uncompromising critic of many of the +established governmental forms, such as the monarchy; in later years, +while he did not change his views, he became more acquiescent, feeling +that institutions must be judged by their relative fitness to the +average characters and conditions of the citizens at any given time. He +saw, moreover, that mere morphological changes matter little since the +temper of a people alters so slowly. There is a rhythm of change in +external forms, but the actual constitution of the social organism +varies very little. + + "We have been living in the midst of a social exuviation, and the + old coercive shell having been cast off, a new coercive shell is in + course of development; for in our day, as in past days, there + co-exist the readiness to coerce and the readiness to submit to + coercion. Here, then, I see a change in my political views which + has become increasingly marked with increasing years. Whereas, in + the days of early enthusiasm, I thought that all would go well if + governmental arrangements were transformed, I now think that + transformations in governmental arrangements can be of use only in + so far as they express the transformed natures of citizens" (1893). + +A similar change marks his ideas about religious institutions. In early +days he was an uncompromising critic of particular theological doctrines +and religious customs, but a wider knowledge convinced him almost +against his will that some sort of religious cult has been an +indispensable factor in social progress. Quite aware of the great +changes in theological thought which had taken place during his +life-time, he looked forward to a stage in which, "recognising the +mystery of things as insoluble, religious organisations will be devoted +to ethical culture." As Prof. Henry Sidgwick puts it, "Spencer +contemplates complacently the reduction of religious thought and +sentiment to a perfectly indefinite consciousness of the Unknowable and +the emotion that accompanies this peculiar intellectual exercise." + + "Thus I have come more and more to look calmly on forms of + religious belief to which I had, in earlier days, a pronounced + aversion. Holding that they are in the main naturally adapted to + their respective peoples and times, it now seems to me well that + they should severally live and work as long as the conditions + permit, and, further, that sudden changes of religious + institutions, as of political institutions, are certain to be + followed by reactions. + + "If it be asked why, thinking thus, I have persevered in setting + forth views at variance with current creeds, my reply is the one + elsewhere made: It is for each to utter that which he sincerely + believes to be true, and, adding his unit of influence to all other + units, leave the results to work themselves out." + +Largely, however, Spencer's change of mood in regard to religious creeds +and institutions resulted from "a deepening conviction that the sphere +occupied by them can never become an unfilled sphere, but that there +must continue to arise afresh the great questions concerning ourselves +and surrounding things; and that, if not positive answers, then modes of +consciousness standing in place of positive answers must ever remain." + + "An unreflective mood, he said, is general among both cultured and + uncultured, characterised by indifference to everything beyond + material interests and the superficial aspects of things."... "But + in both cultured and uncultured there occur lucid intervals. Some, + at least, either fill the vacuum by stereotyped answers, or become + conscious of unanswered questions of transcendent moment. By those + who know much, more than by those who know little, is there felt + the need for explanation. Whence this process, inconceivable + however symbolised, by which alike the monad and the man build + themselves up into their respective structures? What must we say of + the life, minute, multitudinous, degraded, which, covering the + ocean-floor, occupies by far the larger part of the Earth's area; + and which yet, growing and decaying in utter darkness, presents + hundreds of species of a single type? Or, when we think of the + myriads of years of the Earth's past, during which have arisen and + passed away low forms of creatures, small and great, which, + murdering and being murdered, have gradually evolved, how shall we + answer the question--To what end? Ascending to wider problems, in + which way are we to interpret the lifelessness of the greater + celestial masses--the giant planets and the Sun; in proportion to + which the habitable planets are mere nothings? If we pass from + these relatively near bodies to the thirty millions of remote suns + and solar systems, where shall we find a reason for all this + apparently unconscious existence, infinite in amount compared with + the existence which is conscious--a waste Universe as it seems? + Then behind these mysteries lies the all-embracing mystery--whence + this universal transformation which has gone on unceasingly + throughout a past eternity and will go on unceasingly throughout a + future eternity? And along with this rises the paralysing + thought--what if, of all that is thus incomprehensible to us, there + exists no comprehension anywhere? No wonder that men take refuge in + authoritative dogma!" + + "So is it, too, with our own natures. No less inscrutable is this + complex consciousness which has slowly evolved out of infantine + vacuity--consciousness which, during the development of every + creature, makes its appearance out of what seems unconscious + matter; suggesting the thought that consciousness in some + rudimentary form is omnipresent. Lastly come the insoluble + questions concerning our own fate: the evidence seeming so strong + that the relations of mind and nervous structure are such that + cessation of the one accompanies dissolution of the other, while, + simultaneously, comes the thought, so strange and so difficult to + realise, that with death there lapses both the consciousness of + existence and the consciousness of having existed." + +"Thus religious creeds, which in one way or other occupy the sphere that +rational interpretation seeks to occupy and fails, and fails the more +the more it seeks, I have come to regard with a sympathy based on +community of need: feeling that dissent from them results from inability +to accept the solutions offered, joined with the wish that solutions +could be found" (1893). + + + + +CONCLUSION + + +Even those who have criticised Spencer's system most severely have been +generous in recognising the grandeur of his aim. Thus Principal James +Iverach, while never sparing in his disclosure of what he regards as the +weaknesses and inconsistencies of the Synthetic Philosophy, writes as +follows: "It is a great thing to be constrained to recognise that a +system is possible which may bring all human thought into unity, that +there may be a formula which may express the law of change in all +spheres where change happens, and that the universe as a whole and in +all its parts forms one system. Suppose that the particular formula of +Mr Spencer is inadequate, is a failure, yet is it not something worthy +of recognition, that a man has lived who gave his life to the +elaboration of this thought, and has so far succeeded as to make men +think that such a consummation is possible and desirable? He has widened +the thoughts of men, has enabled them to think in larger terms, and has +done something to enable men to overcome a mere provincialism of +thought. In an age of specialism he endeavoured to be universal. And +such an endeavour is worthy of the highest admiration." + +Perhaps the greatest of Spencer's services was his insistence on the +Unity of Science, on the ideal of a unified outlook and inlook. It may +be that his "Synthetic Philosophy" left most of the problems of +philosophy out, but no one will deny the grandeur of his aim in seeking +to present a unified system of scientific knowledge. As Prof. A. S. +Pringle-Pattison has said: "It was much to hold aloft in an age of +specialism the banner of completely unified knowledge; and this is, +perhaps, after all, Spencer's chief claim to gratitude and remembrance. +He brought home the idea of philosophic synthesis to a greater number of +the Anglo-Saxon race than had ever conceived the idea before. His own +synthesis, in the particular form he gave it, will necessarily crumble +away. He speaks of it himself, indeed, at the close of _First +Principles_ (ed. i.), modestly enough as a more or less rude attempt to +accomplish a task which can be achieved only in the remote future and by +the combined efforts of many, which cannot be completely achieved even +then. But the idea of knowledge as a coherent whole, worked out on +purely natural (though not, therefore, naturalistic) principles--a whole +in which all the facts of human experience should be included--was a +great idea with which to familiarise the minds of his contemporaries. It +is the living germ of philosophy itself." + + + + +HERBERT SPENCER'S WORKS + +(PUBLISHED BY MESSRS WILLIAMS & NORGATE) + + +_A System of Synthetic Philosophy._ + + First Principles. 1862 and 1900. + + Principles of Biology. 2 vols. 1864 and 1898-9. + + Principles of Psychology. 2 vols. 1855 and 1876. + + Principles of Sociology, Vol. I. 1877. + Do. Vol. II. 1886. + Do. Vol. III. 1896. + + Principles of Ethics, Vol. I. 1879. + Do. Vol. II. 1892. + + Justice. + + An Autobiography. 2 vols. 1904. + +_Other Works._ + + The Study of Sociology. 1873. + + Education. 1861. + + Essays. 3 vols. + + Social Statics. 1850. + + The Man _v._ The State. + + Facts and Comments. 1902. + + Various Fragments. 1897. + + Reasons for dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte. 1864. + + A Rejoinder to Prof. Weismann. 1893. + + Weismannism once more. + + Factors of Organic Evolution. 1886. + +_Descriptive Sociology._ + +Compiled and abstracted by Dr Duncan, Dr Scheppig, and Mr Collier. +Folio. Boards. + + English. + + Ancient American Races. + + Lowest Races, Negritos, Polynesians. + + African Races. + + Asiatic Races. + + American Races. + + Hebrews and Phoenicians. + + French. + + + + +SOME REFERENCES TO LITERATURE + + +1876. Bowne, E. P. The Philosophy of Herbert Spencer: being an +examination of the "First Principles" of his System. Nelson and +Philipps, New York. + +1897. Clodd, Edward. Pioneers of Evolution. Grant Richards, London. Pp. +250. + +1889. Collins, F. Howard. An Epitome of the Synthetic Philosophy. + +1904. Crozier, J. B. Mr Herbert Spencer and the Dangers of Specialism. +_Fortnightly Review_, lxxv. Pp. 105-120. + +1875. Fischer. Ueber das Gesetz der Entwickelung mit Ruecksicht auf +Herbert Spencer. + +1874. Fiske, John. Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, based on the Doctrine +of Evolution. MacMillan & Co., London. + +1904. Gribble, Francis. Herbert Spencer: His Autobiography and His +Philosophy. _Fortnightly Review_, lxxv. Pp. 984-995. + +1879. Guthrie, Malcolm. On Mr Spencer's Formula of Evolution as an +exhaustive statement of the changes of the universe. Truebner & Co., +London. Pp. 267. + +1882. Guthrie, Malcolm. On Mr Spencer's Unification of Knowledge. +Truebner, London. Pp. 476. + +1884. Guthrie, Malcolm. On Mr Spencer's Data of Ethics, London. Pp. 122. + +Green. Mr Herbert Spencer and Mr G. H. Lewes: their application of the +Doctrine of Evolution to Thought. _Contemporary Review._ December 1877, +March and July, 1878. + +1894. Hudson, W. H. An introduction to the philosophy of Herbert +Spencer. Popular Edition. Watts & Co., 1904. Pp. 124. + +1904. Hudson, W. H. Herbert Spencer's Autobiography. _Independent +Review_, July. + +1904. Hudson, W. H. Herbert Spencer. A Character Study. _Fortnightly +Review_, January. + +1904. Iverach, James. Herbert Spencer. _The Critical Review_, xiv. Pp. +99-112, 195-209. + +1899. Mackintosh, Robert. From Comte to Benjamin Kidd. The appeal to +biology or evolution for human guidance. Macmillan & Co., London. Pp. +287. + +1900. Macpherson, Hector. Herbert Spencer. The man and his work. Chapman +& Hall, London. Pp. 227. + +1872. Martineau, James. The Place of Mind in Nature. Williams & Norgate, +London. + +1879. Martineau, James. Essays. 2 vols. Truebner & Co., London. + +1882. Michelet. Spencer's System der Philosophie. Spencer's Lehre von +dem Unerkennbaren. Leipzig, 1891. + +1898. Morgan, C. Lloyd. Mr Herbert Spencer's Biology. Natural Science, +xiii. pp. 377-383. + +1900. Pearson, K. The Grammar of Science, 2nd. Edition. A. & C. Black, +London. Pp. 548. + +1904. Pringle-Pattison, A. S. The Life and Philosophy of Herbert +Spencer. _The Quarterly Review_, vol. 200, pp. 240-267. + +1902. Sidgwick, Henry. Lectures on the Ethics of T. H. Green, Mr Herbert +Spencer and J. Martineau. Macmillan & Co., London, Pp. 374. + +1905. Sidgwick, Henry. The Philosophy of Mr Herbert Spencer. In "The +Philosophy of Kant and other lectures." Macmillan & Co., London. Pp. +475. + +1904. Sorley, W. R. The Ethics of Naturalism: a criticism, 2nd Edition, +Blackwood, Edinburgh. Pp. 338. + +1892. Sorley, W. R. Herbert Spencer. Article in Chambers's Encyclopaedia. + +1879. Sully, James. Article, "Evolution." Encyclopaedia Britannica, ninth +edition. + +1899. Ward, James. Naturalism and agnosticism. 2 vols. A. & C. Black, +London. Pp. 302 and 291. + +_British Quarterly Review._ October 1873, and January 1877. + + + + +INDEX + + +Acquired Characters, transmission of, 177 + +Adaptation, 119 + +America, visit to, 49 + +"Anti-Aggression League," 48 + +Athenaeum Club, 42 + +Autobiography, 52 + + +Baer's, Von, Law, 139, 140 + +Bateson, 190 + +Biologist, Spencer as, 93 + +_Biology, Principles of_, 94 + +"Blastodermic," 39 + +Body and Mind, 236 + +Born's experiments, 163 + + +Carlyle, 30 + +Cell-life, 120 + +Comte, August, 29, 243 + +Creation, 145 + + +Darwin, 165, 180 + +Darwinian Theory, 263 + +Death, 51 + +Descent, theory of, 146 + +Development, 113 + +_Development Hypothesis_, 31 + +Driesch, 163 + +Duncan, Prof., "The New Knowledge," 210 + +Dynamic element in life, 102 + + +_Economist, The_, Spencer as sub-editor of, 28 + +_Education_, Spencer's, 259 + +Equilibration, direct, 197 + Indirect, 198 + +_Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative_, 35 + +Evolution, factors of, 180 + External factors, 195 + Internal, 196 + Universal, 209 + Inorganic, 210 + +Evolutionism, summary of Spencer's, 212 + +Ewart, Prof. Cossar, 191 + +Experience and Intuitions, 238 + + +_First Principles_, 38 + + +Geddes, Prof., 31 + +Genesis, 123 + +George Eliot, friendship with, 31 + +Germ-cells, 150 + +Germ-cells and Sperm-cells, 167 + +Giddings, Prof. F. H., 250 + +Gribble, Francis, 83, 86 + +Growth, 110 + + +Heredity, problems of, 156 + +Hudson, Prof., 51, 80, 85, 212, 239 + +Huxley, friendship with, 32 + + +_Illogical Geology_, 36 + +"Inconceivability," 174 + +Individual Organism, comparison between it and Society, 253 + +Intuitions, Experience and, 238 + +Invalid bed, invention of, 41 + +Isolation, 190 + +Italy, tour in, 42 + +Iverach, Prof. James, 219 + + +Jennings, H. S., 235 + +Joly, Prof., 259 + + +Lewes, G. H., 30 + +Life, definition of, 98 + dynamic element in, 102 + mechanism of, 107 + origin of, 220 + + +Malthusianism, 262 + +Neo-malthusianism, 264 + +Man, Ascent of, 224 + +_Manners and Fashions_, 33 + +Mendelism, 208 + +Metabolism, 98 + +Metaphysics, Spencer's, 270 + +Mill, J. S., 39 + +Mind, evolution of, 221, 233 + Body and, 236 + +_Method in Education_, 33 + +Morgan, Prof. Lloyd, 93, 105, 171 + +_Music, the origin and function of_, 34 + + +Nutrition and Reproduction, 125 + + +Organic matter, 96 + + +Pearson, Prof. Karl, 108, 217 + +_Philosophy of Style_, 70 + +Physiological Units, 157 + +_Physiology of Laughter_, 36 + +Population, a theory of, 192 + question, 260 + +Pringle-Pattison, Prof. A. S., 89 + +_Prison ethics_, 36 + +_Progress, its Law and Cause_, 34, 193 + +_Psychology, Principles of_, 33, 235 + + +_Railway Morals and Railway Policy_, 33 + +Regeneration, 118 + +"Reader, The," 39 + +Religion, early attitude to, 271 + +Religion, later attitude, 274 + +Reproduction, Nutrition and, 125 + + +Schaeffle, 254 + +_Science, the Genesis of_, 33 + +Selection, 186, 194, 196, 204 + +Sidgwick, Prof., 241, 243-5 + +_Social Organism, The_, 36, 252 + +Special Creation, 145 + +_Social Statics_, 29 + +Sociological Society, 246 + +Sociology, 44, 242 + criticism of, 243 + and history, 247 + data of, Spencer's, 249 + +Spencer, Herbert, ancestry, 1; + boyhood, 7; + characteristics, emotional and ethical, 74; + intellectual, 54; + physical, 52; + engineering, 17; + human relations, 82; + inventions, 18, 27; + limitations, 59; + methods of work, 65; + delight in nature, 81 + +Stout, Prof. G. F., 233, 237 + +Structure and function, 115 + +_Synthetic Philosophy_, finished, 50 + + +_Transcendental Physiology_, 34, 193 + +Truth, test of, 241 + + +Variations, 182 + +Vries, H. de, 165, 190 + + +Wallace, A. R., 180, 227 + +Ward, Prof. James, 218, 237 + +Waste and Repair, 116 + +Weismann, germ-plasm theory, 159 + sexual reproduction, 129 + germinal selection, 186 + + +"X" Club, 39 + + +Youmans, Prof., 40 + + +PRINTED BY +TURNBULL AND SPEARS, +EDINBURGH + + * * * * * + +ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE + +EDITED BY + +DR J. REYNOLDS GREEN. + +_With Photogravure Frontispiece. + +Small Cr. 8vo, 25. 6d. net per vol._ + +PRIESTLEY. By DR THORPE, C.B., F.R.S. + +FLOWER. By Prof. R. LYDEKKER, F.R.S. + +HUXLEY. By Prof. AINSWORTH DAVIS. + +BENTHAM. By B. DAYDON JACKSON, F.L.S. + +DALTON. + +_J. M. DENT & CO._ + + +_All Rights Reserved_ + + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Herbert Spencer, by J. 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