Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 74.djvu/13

instability of the homogeneous," "the rhythm of motion," "the multiplication of effects," and such single terms as "aggregation," "segregation," "equilibration," "dissolution," are all fraught with profound significance, and most of the processes described by them take place in all departments of nature. The introduction and illustration of these terms and the description of the processes of nature of which they are the names, would alone make "First Principles" an immortal work.

It is true that Spencer failed to see the essential distinction between cosmic and organic evolution, and when it was pointed out in 1877,^[1] as it was not his own idea, he characteristically ignored it. He also missed the principles of creative synthesis, cosmic, organic and social synergy and sympodial development, which are quite as important as those set forth in "First Principles." But he is to be judged for what he did rather than by what he did not do. There is, however, one omission, which, deliberate and intentional though it was, has not been condoned by his readers. This is his failure to elaborate these fundamental principles of inorganic nature in a manner proportionate to that in which he elaborated the principles of biology, psychology, sociology and ethics. Uniform regret has been expressed by his readers, including his warmest admirers, that he should have abandoned this great work so auspiciously begun, and hurried on to the more special and complex sciences before laying an adequate foundation for them. The present writer was among those to express this regret and to maintain that his excuse for omitting the two volumes upon which the "Synthetic Philosophy" would and should have rested, viz., that the scheme would have been too extensive for him to complete it, and that "the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed method is of more immediate importance," was not a sufficient or valid excuse. It is generally felt that if these two volumes had been written, which might have borne the title of "Principles of Cosmology," it would be small matter whether the "Principles of Ethics" ever saw the light or not.

The world was even left in the dark as to how and in what order he would have treated inorganic nature had he written the omitted volumes. It is true that in the opening paragraph of the first volume of the "Principles of Sociology" he says:

Of the three broadly-distinguished kinds of Evolution, we come now to the third. The first kind, Inorganic Evolution, which, had it been dealt with, would have occupied two volumes, one dealing with Astrogeny and the other with Geogeny, was passed over because it seemed undesirable to postpone the more important applications of the doctrine for the purpose of elaborating those less important applications which logically precede them.

The bare names, therefore, which he would have given to the two

1. Popular Science Monthly, October, 1877, Vol. XI., pp. 672-682.