An examination of the structural principles of Mr. Herbert Spencer's philosophy : intended as a proof that theism is the only theory of the universe that can satisfy reason

Front matter

AN EXAMINATION

OF

THE STRUCTURAL PRINCIPLES

Preface

pERHAPS it is the fate of all great systems of Philosophy that they should be open to many different interpretations, according as they strike different readers, but it can hardly be questioned, I think, that Mr. Spencers Philosophy is singularly of this character. Many claim him as a Materialist, but nothing can be plainer than that he repudiates Materialism with all his heart. With more justice perhaps, some claim him as the very chief of empirics, but his system seems to me to have little in common with any system of empiricism. It must be allowed that he is an Agnostic, but it is very much open to question whether Agnosticism is any necessary and structural part of his Philosophy, and whether it may not be a mere excrescence which only deforms and degrades a true and noble system. It is in this latter aspect that it appears to myself ; and this volume is written for the purpose of shewing that, if the system be made one logical and consistent whole, it is congruous with nothing but Theism. I have also attempted to shew that the system, when thus made consistent with itself, affords a scientific demonstration of the truth of the Theistic hypothesis which is of a higher and more

XIV

PREFACE.

convincing character than has been presented to any former age.

The endeavour has been made to strip the argument, as far as possible, of all technical terms, — to remember that the highest merit of style is simplicity,— and to write the whole work in such a fashion that to understand it in every part, and decide as to the validity of the reasoning, shall demand of no one nothing more than enlarged common sense. If a few philosophical terms have been necessarily employed they will, I think, be found to be hardly more than elementary conceptions, and such as can be mastered without much difficulty by any one of good intelligence.

My thanks are due to the Council of the Victoria Institute for permission to reprint a few pages in Chapters VIII., IX., X., and XI., which had previously formed parts of papers read before, and published by, the Institute.

Part I. — General Principles

CHAP. PAGE

I. Introductory Remarks i

II. The Structure of the System ... 7

III. The Structure of the System ( contmued ) . 18

IV. The Chief Classes of Replies yet made to

Mr. Spencer ..... 34

V. The Existence of Mind and Matter : a Structural Principle of Mr. Spencer’s System . 50

VI. The Antagonism of Mind and Matter : a

Structural Principle of the System . 61

VII. Is Mr. Spencer’s “ Force ” Intelligent or

Unintelligent? . . . .7 3

VIII. The Attempted Transition from Matter to

IX. The Distinction between Substance and Phenomena : a Structural Principle of the System . . . . . .91

X. Substance and Phenomena regarded as one

and the same . . . . .102

XI. Mr. Spencer’s Theory of the Will . . m

XII. An attempted Reconciliation of these Contradictions . . . . .132

XIII. Mr. Spencer’s Theory of Conscience and the

Moral Faculty . . . ,136

XIV. An Examination of his Theory of Conscience 148

XV. The Alternative Proposition ; a Universe

without Mind . . . .165

XVI

CONTENTS.

Part Ii.— Religious Principles

CHAP. PAGE

I. The Unknowable . . . .179

II. The Knowable Element bounded by the Unknowable ..... 206

III. The Teleological aspect of Evolution . 228

IV. The Bias of Agnosticism . . . 259

V. The Final Alternative : Intellect, or Intellect and Goodness . . .271

VI. The Final Test : Establishment of complete

CONGRUITY . . . . .278

VII. The Union of Religion and Science now

reached: Its Scientific Aspect . . 314

VIII. The Union of Religion and Science now

reached : Its Religious Aspect . 332

PART I.

GENERAL PRINCIPLES.

Chapter I Introductory Remarks

WENTY years have now elapsed since Mr. Herbert

1 Spencer’s “System of Philosophy” began to make its appearance, and by the confession of friends and foes alike it has taken one of the first places in the philosophical world. Written in a style of great beauty, reaching a high perfection in its arrangement, displaying much scientific learning, and a far greater scientific and philosophical grasp, above all, making a more daring attempt than any philosophy before, it just falls in with the fearless and untrammelled spirit of the leading men of the age, and provides for their thought the large channel it demands. Possibly this is one of the chief causes of its popularity. The age has been bursting its bonds ; the new wine of science will not dwell in the old bottles of thought ; a larger race has been seeking larger dwelling-places, and Mr. Spencer has been the teacher who has most of all satisfied that desire.

It may be we are not yet in a position to estimate aright the dimensions of the “ System,” and to forecast the rank posterity will assign to it. Before this can be done there must sit that court as of angels, which Ralph Waldo Emerson has reminded us is the only tribunal that can determine the value of any book. None but the great men of all time can decide what will be the ultimate verdict on a matter. Unquestionably there are those who hold Mr. Spencer’s volumes to contain principles that will never pass away, but will form the enduring landmarks of philosophic thought. Others, again, deride his claims

Introductory Remarks.

to any special eminence, and sometimes speak of his system as if it were a philosophical romance. But both classes, the one by their possibly exaggerated notions of his power, and the other by their equally unjust depreciation, serve to prove that he and his system are notable factors in the thought of this generation, which must, in some way or other, be reckoned with. Meanwhile, his admirers may rest content with the knowledge that his reputation is more than European, and that it is likely rather to increase than grow less.

In one respect he has been singularly fortunate. Just at the moment he began his system, a new idea — one of the most startling ever given to the world — had been put forth, and that idea enlarged the bounds of human thought to a greater degree than the discovery of America enlarged the times of Elizabeth. It would be a psychological study of great interest to learn the exact part played by each of the two men who have most of all fashioned the doctrine of Evolution. One of them has lately gone to his rest, with a scientific reputation rivalled only by that of Newton. The other is, doubtless, Mr. Spencer. It may be that the bold outlines of his thought had been sketched for him, and that he contributed comparatively little to these. But it seems rather true that whilst Mr. Darwin, along with Wallace, Joule, Grove, and Helmholtz, dealt with special parts only of the vast conception, to Mr. Spencer alone belongs the honour of shaping all those parts into one commanding unity, and bringing every event of our stellar universe into the sweep of one all-comprehending Law. At any rate, Mr. Spencer and Mr. Darwin have worked faithfully side by side, independently of each other, yet materially helping each other, — the one shewing Evolution in physical nature, the other carrying it over the whole realm of mind and social activity, — and forming in their union one solid and homogeneous whole.

The importance which attaches to any great philosophy, and to Mr. Spencer’s in particular, forbids that his system should be allowed to go unchallenged. Those who look

Introductory Remarks .

beneath the surface of a nation’s life will probably be of opinion that a current philosophical system contributes more than any other single factor to the formation of the generation that accepts it. Necessarily it means the greatest thought held by that generation — the theory which it regards as the most complete explanation of the universe. It is the one idea which brings into its all-comprehending universality every other idea. Of necessity, then, it determines the bold lines of the thought of that generation ; it makes the channel along which the bulk of its intellect will move ; it fashions all its highest thinkers ; it gives prominence and influence to those who agree with it ; and, by a severe natural selection, it cuts off or condemns to obscurity those who dissent. In so far as it prevails it determines the atmosphere the nation will breathe, the mental and moral levels on which it will live. It supplies the great mass of the raw material of thought which others will elaborate into finished mental products. Art, Poetry, Science, Ethics, Politics, Religion, are profoundly affected by it ; it enters into the deepest springs of character and conduct, and structurally modifies a nation’s life. If it be lofty and profound, the great bulk of the nation’s thought will become, under its inspiring influence, rich and deep, will wear the glow of health, and be instinct with unexpressed power ; but if it be shallow and pretentious, it will be not less than an intellectual and moral curse. It can scarcely be necessary to bring forward the testimony of history in proof of these propositions. The enlargement and growth of science consequent on the philosophy of the universe propounded by Newton ; the relative shallowness brought about by the empiricism of Locke, culminating in the materialism of Condillac and Diderot, leading to a fearful moral descent, which ended in the first French Revolution ; the mental and moral majesty which marked the thought of Europe after Kant sent out his Kritik, and some similar phenomena which stand nearer to our own day, all serve to shew how powerfully and profoundly a nation’s life is influenced by the philosophy which is in the ascendant.

Introductory Remarks.

Students of history, taking in large areas of time, may, indeed, see the nations swaying to and fro under the power of great philosophical systems, as corn is swayed hither and thither by the breeze. Its philosophy is the master-force which fashions a people. For this cause the greatest intellects of all time have always aspired to the philosophical throne. They have seen that “ philosopher” is the highest title mortal can wear. Patriot, poet, artist, statesman, lawgiver, prophet, are all bound up in it.

But there is a special reason why Mr. Spencer’s philosophy cannot be accepted without careful examination. For in addition to its vast range and universality, there is the further fact that it deals with — and, as some hold, overthrows — the foundations of Morals and of Religion, and seeks to conduct the race along a path which, in all human history, has never been trodden before. If it really does this, if it puts aside the old foundations of ethic principles, clearly it urges us to take a leap in the dark, which no nation or people has ever yet tried. That would be an experiment in morals, with no landmarks to guide us, on the widest and most enduring scale, the issues whereof, if disastrous, would be the most tremendous and appalling calamity that has ever happened to our race. But putting aside this as improbable, there is another aspect of Mr. Spencer’s system, which, if that system be accepted even in its main outlines, will be found to effect a silent revolution in all our modes of thought. For if Evolution is to become a structural idea of the world’s theory of things, if it is finally to be accepted as universally as the theory of gravitation — and this is what men of science proclaim — it cannot be doubted that it will structurally modify every thought we at present hold. It must decompose and crystallize into new shapes the entire bulk of our intellectual material. If it conquers it must conquer completely ; it must and will be the mental sovereign of our world; all Science, Art, Poetry, Theology, Ethics, Politics, must be fashioned as it requires, or die a lingering but certain death ; and by it

Introductory Remarks.

all human things must be made new. The task which will in that case lie before this generation, will be to shape its thought along the lines furnished by this theory ; to build its whole intellectual structure in the way it prescribes. It must be, therefore, a work of the last importance to find out how much of the theory accords with the truth, and what it is that is logically necessitated thereby.

It seems to me, however, only just and right that the structural principles of Mr. Spencer’s system should be examined, and their validity decided on, before dealing with any of his details. This is indeed a canon of criticism which I hold to be of universal application. The broad outlines of a writer’s thought should first be examined, and, if they are found to be in accordance with truth, no slight defect in details ought to. hide that great excellence ; whereas, if, on the contrary, they are structurally untrue, that fatal blot ought to condemn the whole work, no matter how ingeniously the smaller matters may be dealt with. This is the principle contended for by Mr. Ruskin in “The Stones of Venice,” and it seems to me it should apply to all art. Critics, it is to be feared, have but seldom acted upon it. Too often they have only been intent on securing a dialectical victory. Not a little of the argument presented against Mr. Spencer appears of this character; but I must hold that philosophers should set higher aims before them than mere logical triumph. A British philosopher, it seems to me, should aim to wear the stainless ermine of a British judge. He should be such a lover of truth, as well as so large and lofty in mould, as to be incapable of giving other than a just verdict on the facts presented ; and he should live in such sympathetic fellowship with all who sit on mental thrones, as to realise that, if he yields to any unworthy bias, others will soon come after him who will set aside his judgments for those more in accordance with truth. He should aim to win that supreme excellence of a judge, expressed when men say, “ His decisions have never been reversed.” All after ages have honoured them as models of large and luminous wisdom.

Introductory Remarks.

Moreover, Mr. Spencer himself has set a worthy example. Singularly courteous and painstaking in his treatment of antagonists, even when assailed with no little acerbity, he has, in addition, lately put before us one of the highest and most refined codes of honour that has yet been propounded. In his latest work, the “Data of Ethics,” he reminds us that, as life becomes highly evolved it passes from a state of warfare to a state of peace; and, from making adjustments which hinder the lives of others, it rises into a condition where the adjustments made no longer interfere with their welfare. In other words, that is the largest and most highly developed nature which most fully observes the law of love. This seems as beautiful, amidst the common rivalries of the world around us, as those sublime glimpses in the Jewish prophets of a state in which men neither hurt nor destroy, and it looks like a prophecy of such a time. It is in this spirit that this volume is written. Every adjustment made in it has been contrived so as to trench in the smallest possible degree, on the adjustments made by Mr. Spencer. Only he is too wise and great not to know that no system can be just, can observe his own canon, and can endure, which is not intellectually true. In so far as it is untrue it is manifestly hindering the proper adjustment of other lives. To that extent it is the common enemy of mankind. All, then, that will be done is to point out, as courteously as possible, where it seems to me to deviate from the truth. And a repeated perusal of Mr. Spencer’s works has so impressed me with a sense of his love of truth as to produce the conviction that he will welcome any truth, even if it sets aside some of his cherished opinions.

Chapter II. The Structure Of The System

First Principles. — Principles of Biology. — Principles of Psychology.

IT is Mr. Spencer’s contention that he has unified all knowledge — that he has reduced every science to one single principle — and has thus comprehended in that one principle every event in the stellar universe that has ever occurred. This unity is absolutely essential to the maintenance of his system of philosophy ; if he has succeeded in doing this, it must be accounted a most wonderful exploit : if he has not, his system is not a logical whole, and as a philosophy it falls to pieces. In this latter case, parts of it may cohere closely, and remain of great philosophical value, but it is then only a system in ruins, and cannot possibly be accepted by men of intelligence as an adequate explanation of all things.

In order to determine whether one logical principle does run through it from beginning to end, and whether it is one consistent and homogeneous whole, it will be necessary for us to travel over the outline of its entire mental structure. We can do this with considerable rapidity, although that outline in the philosophy itself stretches through not less than 4,500 pages.

The volumes whose structure we must examine are “ First Principles,” “Principles of Biology,” “Principles of Psychology,” “ Principles of Sociology,” and the “ Data of Ethics.” These form the stones of that mighty arch which is claimed to stretch in one unbroken line from star-dust to Shakspere.

“ First Principles ” commences with “ the Unknowable.” It is shewn that both Religion and Science contain some ultimate truth ; that the ultimate religious ideas, and the ultimate scientific ideas, are alike unthinkable; that Creation, Self- existence, the Absolute, the Infinite, on the religious side, and Time, Space, Matter, Motion, Force, Personality, on the scientific side, utterly refuse to come as clear and legitimate conceptions within the range of our intellects ; that hence the universe discloses an omnipresent and omnipotent Power, which Power must remain Uncomprehended and Incomprehensible a, and that in this admission of mutual weakness and limitation, Religion and Science may find a lasting reconciliation.

Thus ends the first part of “ First Principles.” Though not in strictness a part of Mr. Spencer’s philosophy at all — being only the introduction to that system, and in no sense forming any portion of its structure — it has yet, from its apparent onslaught on all forms of religious belief, attracted more attention, and aroused more hostility, than all the rest of his writings put together. But it is, in itself, comparatively insignificant; probably it would have died without much notice but for the philosophy with which it is united, and although it seems a menace to religion, this is almost entirely on account of the terms employed, and if we set these aside, and take only the thought conveyed, the alarming propositions are seen to be mere truisms ; they actually form a part of the Athanasian Creed, and are accepted by every section of Christendom.

He then deals with “ The Knowable,” which forms the realm proper to philosophy. Philosophy is defined as the unification of the known, of all the truths contributed by science ; and it is shewn that the existence of subject and object, of self and not-self, has a deeper warrant than any other truth whatever. Those modes of the not-self, which we call Space, Time, Matter, Motion, Force, are then severally analysed, and are shewn to be resolvable into the simpler conception that Force persists. It is then shewn that our sense of the indestructibility of Matter, and the continuity of Motion, comes from the conception that Force must persist, and the methods of science are proved to take it for granted as axiomatic. Thus the ‘‘Persistence of Force” is proved to be the

a Mr. Spencer prefers the terms “ Unknown " and “Unknowable,” but the words above used more exactly and philosophically express his thought. This is shewn in the chapter in this volume on “ The Unknowable.”

First Principles.

ultimate truth which lies beneath every other truth we can reach, and the argument is solidly welded by shewing that not only is this truth given in consciousness, but it is impossible to imagine a consciousness so constituted as not to give it.

Properly speaking, the introduction ends here, and from this point onward to the end we have a right to demand an absolute logical unity. Our nineteenth-century world, as we know it, is now to be explained in terms of the persistence of force. From this a priori principle all things must be shewn to grow as strictly as Euclid grows out of the axioms and definitions. Of course the proofs will be scientific, and not mathematical, often inductive, as well as deductive ; but there must occur in the whole line no gap which logic refuses to cross.

From the “Persistence of Force” there are obtained, as necessary corollaries, the Persistence of the Relations among Forces — giving us what others call the uniformity of law ; what the Duke of Argyll calls “ the Reign of Law,” and “The Unity of Nature,” — and also the “Transformation or Equivalence of Forces,” in other words, the “ Correlation of the Physical Forces.” Thus these great laws, manifestly the most important and the most structural of all the principles which affect our universe, are shewn to be necessary results of the persistence of force ; and the whole net-work of law, which reaches above the starry system, and moulds a dew-drop, it is proved, might, in this way, have come into being. The solar system being accounted for on the nebular theory, it is shewn that from the solar force the chief astronomical, geological, and meteorological laws might have been produced. Thus we have obtained light, heat, electricity, magnetism, motion, vapours, clouds, rain, chemical changes, earthquakes, fissures, geological periods and strata, tides, the present crust of the earth, as well as that power which produces the attraction of gravitation. The mathematical formula which measures this attraction remains at present unaccounted for. Mr. Spencer contends that it is logically deducible from the properties of Matter, but

IO it is not easy to see what other element of the physical system might not in this way have been originated. Then, without any break whatever, and as if it were a fair logical step , we are called to pass on to vegetable and animal life; and it is shewn that neither can commence without the expenditure of pre-existing Force, in the shape of organization and heat, which looks very like “ Persistence of Force.” Then it is asserted that the “ forces which we distinguish as mental come within the same generalization b.” It is admitted that this is startling, but the contention is that there is no help for it, “the facts which necessitate it being abundant and conspicuous b.” It is then shewn that our sensations arise from the impact of physical forces upon us, that they set in motion other forces, that our emotions and ideas thus result, that thought depends on the amount and quality of the blood sent to the brain, and on chemical changes, which are both qualitative and quantitative. How motion, heat, or light, can become a mode of consciousness is admitted to be an unfathomable mystery, yet not more so than the ultimate composition of Mind and Matter. Having now obtained Man, with all his energies and powers, of course the formation of a society follows without difficulty. To make the argument stronger, and to shew that the logical leap from physical to mental forces is justified, reasoning is presented to shew that all this is a necessary corollary from the Persistence of Force. To this we shall have occasion afterwards to refer.

It is next shewn that the motion generated by the solar force always follows the line of least resistance ; and out of the working of this law he explains many hundreds of facts in Astronomy, Geology, Organic Growth, Mental Evolution, Political Economy. The conception of Evolution thus gained is then carried on through several chapters ; and it is shewn that, on this principle, many thousands of known facts in all the sciences, in Art and History, can be accounted for. From the working of this law it is shewn that large “ Homogeneous ” masses would result ;

b “First Principles,” 3rd Edition, pp. 21 1, 212.

First Principles. — Principles of Biology. 1 1

which, being very unstable, would have a great tendency to break up, or be evolved into the “Heterogeneous;” the results whereof would be the “Multiplication of Effects,” the “ Differentiation ” and “ Segregation ” of “ Individuals,” and the general development of a highly individualised and specialised type. This “ Individuality,” it is shewn, would grow, in speciality and perfectness, until its final consummation or “ Equilibration ” was gained, after which the process of “ Dissolution ” would begin. This great law, the “ Instability of the Homogeneous,” is thus shewn to be capable of accounting for some of the greatest, deepest, most complex, and most remarkable of all the movements that have gone on in our race.

Here we reach the end of “First Principles.” Mr. Spencer has stated his intention of re-casting its argument, so as to present the implications thereof with greater force, and also to shew how, out of the chemical laws which “First Principles” gives, there might have been produced the sixty- three elements of Chemistry, and how, from their inorganic combinations, the “ Persistence of Force” leads us on to those colloids or jellies which seem closely allied to the composition of the lowest animal organisms, and to have almost as complex a structure as they. Rejecting the notion of spontaneous generation of life, as it has been lately propounded, he holds a much more subtle and philosophical theory, on which theory science has, as yet, by no means said her last word.

The “Principles of Biology” commences here, and traces the lowest form of organic matter up to the chief structures, shapes, and functions, of the animal and vegetable world.

It is shewn that all organic matter is made up of four elements ; three highly unstable, and therefore capable of giving out vast force — one being the chief constituent of nitro-glycerine ; and the fourth, the most stable compound known, and therefore capable of making a solid structure. This composition is, therefore, specially fitted for the evolution of life. Biology is then defined, and its divisions mapped out, and we pass on to note how life has grown. It is then shewn how growth must follow from the action on the organism of the known chemical and other forces, and how development of structure and of function must likewise proceed at the same rate. Waste and repair are then explained on the same admitted principles ; and adaptation, structural adjustment, and the fixity of organic types, are shewn to be producible by the same cause. An individual is thus fashioned, and then the mode of genesis, the facts of heredity, variation, classification, and distribution in space and time, are shewn to be similarly explicable. We then pass on to an able summary of some of the chief arguments in favour of the Evolution hypothesis. It is claimed to be more reasonable, more scientific, more satisfactory to the moral sense than its rival of special Creation, and it is then shewn by arguments derived from classification, embryology, morphology, distribution in space and time, to be an hypothesis, which is in striking accord with millions of known facts, contributed by all the sciences from every kingdom of nature. It thus appears in the light of a key which will exactly fit many myriads of wards in the great lock of the universe.

The truths thus arrived at as a priori deductions from the “ Persistence of Force,” are then shewn to be capable of accounting for the whole composition of every kind of plant, from lichens and algae, to the oak and the cedar — the stem, leaves, petals, flowers, seed vessels — the composition of every kind of animal, from ascidians, worms, and centipedes, up to the highest vertebrates — the shapes, in plants, of the branches, flowers, leaves, cells. In animals and in plants alike, the shapes are shewn to obey one universal law, a corollary from the “ Persistence of Force,” and it is remarked that a formula which is capable of expressing a common character in things so unlike as a tree and a cow, a flower and a centipede, is, to say the least, very remarkable, and can hardly be accounted for, save on the supposition that it expresses the law of their formation. The same principle, or corollaries

Principles of Biology.

from it, is then shewn to explain — the different colours of flowers, and the mode of their fertilization; the differences in leaves and stems ; the pulp of sea-weed and the bark of an oak ; the formation and shape pf sapvessels ; the upward movement of the sap ; and the length of plants’ lives : and we then pass on to observe how similar results would be produced by the like principle in animals. By this means are explained the formation of respiratory organs, and bronchial tubes, and then of hairs, feathers, quills, scales. Incredible as it may appear, weighty evidence is adduced, bearing out the statement of Professor Huxley, that these last are homologous organs, and that one has grown out of the other! Still stranger is it to learn that the eye is but a modification of the common outer skin, commencing with a tactual appendage like a cat’s whisker. In the humbler animals it is only a speck of pigment, covered by an epidermis a little convex, and slightly more transparent than the skin around it. Then it is differentiated into a stalk, like a crab’s eye, which is proved to be a mere outer integument, inasmuch as it is cast away with the discarded shell. So it may be traced up, step by step, until the most finely finished eye is, in outline, accounted for. The ear is similarly explained.