Page:Mind (New Series) Volume 9.djvu/374

 360 E. E. c. JONES : effect is always more complex than its cause) and Segregation (by which is meant that aggregates composed of dissimilar units are, by some force acting indiscriminately on them all, segregated into groups of similar units, i., 238). In considering Spencer's treatment of Life and Mind, Dr. Ward explains that it is only by a confusion between a strictly mechanical and merely figuratively mechanical use of his formularies that Mr. Spencer has succeeded in persuad- ing himself of the possibility of extracting progress, history and meaning out of a purely mechanical theory. It is shown that he confuses Analysis with Abstraction, and abstracts until there is nothing left, and then in the 'rational synthesis' which follows this 'ultimate analysis," brings back elements which had really been eliminated the illegitimacy of the procedure being veiled by the principle of continuity and the gaps existing in scientific knowledge. With regard to the step from Inorganic to Organic Evolu- tion, Mr. Spencer explains that two volumes of the Synthetic Philosophy are missing the volumes on Inorganic Evolu- tion, which should come in between First Principles and The Principles of Bioloijy. " The closing chapter of the second " [volume on Inorganic Evolution], he says, " were it written would deal with the evolution of organic matter the step preceding the evolution of living forms. Habitually carrying with me in thought the contents of this unwritten chapter, I have in some cases expressed myself as though the reader had it before him, and have thus rendered some of my statements liable to misconstruction." Meanwhile no hint of any rational advance from Inorganic to Organic has been furnished either by Mr. Spencer or an} 7 of the biologists who during the last quarter of a century have been perplexed by this problem. When we come to the transition from Life to Mind we find that what has to be done is to interpret in terms of Matter, Motion and Force phenomena into which matter, motion and force do not enter (i., 266). " The difficulty is twofold ; first to get rid of extension, and then, since with extension matter goes too, to get back the real in some other form." How Mr. Spencer accomplishes this is indicated in a quotation from the Principles of Psychology, i., 401, 2nd ed. " Speaking generally therefore we may say that while the physical changes are being everywhere initiated throughout a solid, the psychical ones, or rather those out of which psychical ones arise, admit of being initiated only on a surface. . . . Those abilities which an intelligent creature possesses, of recognising diverse external objects and of adjusting its