CONCLUSION

EVEN those who have criticised Spencer's system most
severely have been generous in recognising the
grandeur of his aim. Thus Principal James Iverach,
while never sparing in his disclosure of what he
regards as the weaknesses and inconsistencies of the
Synthetic Philosophy, writes as follows : " It is a
great thing to be constrained to recognise that a
system is possible which may bring all human thought
into unity, that there may be a formula which may
express the law of change in all spheres where change
happens, and that the universe as a whole and in all
its parts forms one system. Suppose that the parti-
cular formula of Mr Spencer is inadequate, is a failure,
yet is it not something worthy of recognition, that a
man has lived who gave his life to the elaboration of
this thought, and has so far succeeded as to make
men think that such a consummation is possible and
desirable ? He has widened the thoughts of men,
has enabled them to think in larger terms, and has
done something to enable men to overcome a mere
provincialism of thought. In an age of specialism he
endeavoured to be universal. And such an endeavour
is worthy of the highest admiration."

Perhaps the greatest of Spencer's services was his
insistence on the Unity of Science, on the ideal of a
unified outlook and inlook. It may be that his
" Synthetic Philosophy " left most of the problems of; in proportion to which the habitable planets are