ABSTRACT
THAT imposing edifice, The Principles of Sociology ,1 THAT whose construction took two decades to complete, incorporated many architectural features, the design of which Spencer had adumbrated many years before. In a series of letters on the Proper Sphere of Government, published in the Non conjormist newspaper in 1842, and republished as a pamphlet in 1843, Spencer expressed a belief in the conformity of social phenomena to invariable laws-in human progression as determined by such laws-in the moral modification of man as caused by social discipline-in the tendency of social arrangements of themselves to assume a stable equilibrium-in the repudiation of State control over various departments of social life-and in the limitation of State action to the maintenance of equitable relations among citizens. 2 In Social Statics, 1850, there is everywhere manifested a recognition of the evolution of man and of society, as in both cases determined by the incidence of conditions-the actions of circumstances, and of the fact that organic and social evolution arc expressions of the same law. It is further mJ.intained that the essence of the social process is the interaction bf:'twecn in di vid uals and society, behveen the units and the mass, and their adaptation as a result of the adjustment of the natures of men to society and of the social organization to the nature of its constituent units. Where adaptation incomplete, and the machinery of society is disjointed and creaking, social evils and imperfections will necessarily result. Fortunately, there is ahrays available the lubricating oil of Evolution to minimize and ultimately to abolish all social friction. The universal tendency is towards harmonious adaptation, perfect equilibrium. In support of this argument, Spencer adduces two biological laws. The first will ruthlessly exterminate individuals who cannot adapt themselves-the survival of the fittest--a dogma that Spencer had arrived at before Darwin. The second will favour individuals whose natures have become adapted to social life, and transmit their acquired modifications to a next generation-a Lamarckian dogma which Spencer accepted. This more perfect adaptation is a phase in a process of universal development that is ever tending towards the creation of higher and stili higher types of being. Throughout nature there runs a transcendental and spiritual force in virtue of which nature, and society as part of nature, evolve according to immanent laws tmvards a final "individuation." Coleridge and Schelling, biology and physics, Idealism and Materialism are inextricably interwoven.
