00000149.htm

138 HERBERT SPENCER

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 in-
clination 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 modifica-
tions, physically caused and inherited, I adopted the
last supposition; inadequate as was the evidence, and
great as were the difficulties in the way. Its con-
gruity 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" (Autobio-
graphy•, 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 " Non-
conformist" in 1842 on "The Proper Sphere of Govern-
ment," " 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 s^ep toward the general doctrine of Evolution."



	138 HERBERT SPENCER 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 in- clination 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 modifica- tions, physically caused and inherited, I adopted the last supposition; inadequate as was the evidence, and great as were the difficulties in the way. Its con- gruity 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" (Autobio- graphy•, 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 " Non- conformist" in 1842 on "The Proper Sphere of Govern- ment," " 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 s^ep toward the general doctrine of Evolution."