ABSTRACT
The general pressure of the time was towards specialism— division of labour—as the most fruitful method. Spencer chose to risk the imputation of being a sciolist and an intellectual adventurer. The endeavour to work by pure Induction is always doomed to futility, and a reversion to the Deductive always brings Metaphysics in its train. The Spencerian bridges over the chasms and crevasses of nature and of thought in tracing the doctrines of Evolution, are often condemned, e.g., the bridge from the Inorganic to the Organic found in crystallisation, the Emergence of the Conscious from the Unconscious, the arrival of Justice in the mind of Man. The thought summarised and condensed in the formulae of “Evolution” has revolutionised the Sciences and enriched the Arts of practical life. The older mystics would say that God chose Herbert Spencer through whose brain he should rethink these great later thoughts and propagate them through the world.
