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CHAPTER XIII

EVOLUTION UNIVERSAL

The Starting-point—Inorganic Evolution—What Spencer
tried to do—Summary of his Evolutionism—Notes
and Queries—The Origin of Life—Evolution of Mind
—-Ascent of Man—The Scimtiftc Position

EVERY attempt to describe how our world has come
to be as it is must begin somewhere. It must
postulate an initial state of Being from which to
start any particular chapter in the story of Becoming
How the simplest conceivable raw material began—•
if it ever began—the evolutionist cannot tell.

The Starting-point.—Spencer began as far back as
his scientific imagination could take him—with
" formless diffused matter." With this to start with,
he utilised the "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace,
which showed how the planetary system may have
arisen by the diffused matter becoming aggregated
through the force of attraction into different centres.
This theory has been corroborated and improved
by subsequent researches in thermodynamics and
spectroscopy, and in a modified form it is very
generally accepted. The researches of Sir Norman
Lockyer on "Inorganic Evolution" (1900) and of
M. Faye (Sur Porigine du monde, 2nd. ed., Paris
1885) have strengthened and broadened the founda-

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	CHAPTER XIII EVOLUTION UNIVERSAL The Starting-point—Inorganic Evolution—What Spencer tried to do—Summary of his Evolutionism—Notes and Queries—The Origin of Life—Evolution of Mind —-Ascent of Man—The Scimtiftc Position EVERY attempt to describe how our world has come to be as it is must begin somewhere. It must postulate an initial state of Being from which to start any particular chapter in the story of Becoming How the simplest conceivable raw material began—• if it ever began—the evolutionist cannot tell. The Starting-point.—Spencer began as far back as his scientific imagination could take him—with " formless diffused matter." With this to start with, he utilised the "Nebular Hypothesis" of Laplace, which showed how the planetary system may have arisen by the diffused matter becoming aggregated through the force of attraction into different centres. This theory has been corroborated and improved by subsequent researches in thermodynamics and spectroscopy, and in a modified form it is very generally accepted. The researches of Sir Norman Lockyer on "Inorganic Evolution" (1900) and of M. Faye (Sur Porigine du monde, 2nd. ed., Paris 1885) have strengthened and broadened the founda- O ²°9