Page:American Journal of Sociology Volume 6.djvu/170

 I 56 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SOCIOLOGY

stating them. It has been questioned, in the first place, whether he has not distinguished too sharply between the ethical and cosmic processes. In the quotations which we have made it is seen that apparently he makes the two processes mutually exclu- sive and antagonistic. But it may be asked : However much the ethical process may differ from the competitive process which prevails among the beings of lower creation, does not the for- mer, as much as the latter, constitute a part of the general cosmic process ; and does not, in truth, an adequate connotation of the term "cosmic process" comprehend all stages and methods of phenomenal development a development which, however, may assume one form in the sub-human sphere, and another in the human world ?

Undoubtedly an affirmative answer must be given to this question, as no doubt Huxley himself would agree. In fact, though some of his expressions would point otherwise, we may in justice doubt whether he was in his address even temporarily led to think otherwise. It has been pointed out that Mr. Huxley may have been consciously using, for the time being, the language of the unscientific, and the quotation from Seneca with which he prefaces his paper, Soleo enim et in aliena castra transire, non tanquam transfuga sed tanquam explorator, may indicate this. 1 Moreover, we have, in the Prolegomena which Mr. Huxley has prefixed to his address, the virtual admission of the point. In comparing the progress of plants under artificial and under natural selection, he says :

Thus it is not only true that the cosmic energy, working through man upon a portion of the plant world, opposes the same energy as it works throughout the state of nature, but a similar antagonism is everywhere mani- fest between the artificial and the natural.

And in a note he adds:

Or, to put the case still more simply : When a man lays hold of the two ends of a piece of string and pulls them, with intent to break it, the right arm is certainly exerted in antagonism to the left arm ; yet both arms derive their energy from the same original source.

This is satisfactory so far as it goes, as admitting or showing that the processes of life and development which go on in the

'By MJSS WHITE, International Journal of Ethics, Vol. V, p. 478.