Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
each other, in the system that is gradually establishing itself of
settling international disputes by congresses, as well as in the
breaking down of commercial barriers and the increasing facilities of
communication, we may trace the incipient stage of a European
confederation—a still larger integration than any now established.
But it is not only in these external unions of groups with groups,
and of the compound groups with each other, that the general law is
exemplified. It is exemplified also in unions that take place
internally, as the groups become more highly organized. These, of which
the most conspicuous are commercial in their origin and function, are
well illustrated in our own society. We have integrations consequent on
the simple growth of adjacent parts performing like functions: as, for
instance, the junction of Manchester with its calico-weaving suburbs. We
have other integrations that arise when, out of several places producing
a particular commodity, one monopolizes more and more of the business,
and leaves the rest to dwindle: as witness the growth of the Yorkshire
cloth-districts at the expense of those in the west of England; or the
absorption by Staffordshire of the pottery-manufacture, and the
consequent decay of the establishments that once flourished at
Worcester, Derby, and elsewhere. And we have those yet other
integrations produced by the actual approximation of the
similarly-occupied parts: whence result such facts as the concentration
of publishers in Paternoster Row; of lawyers in the Temple and
neighbourhood; of corn-merchants about Mark Lane; of civil engineers in
Great George Street; of bankers in the centre of the city. Industrial
combinations that consist, not in the approximation or fusion of parts,
but in the establishment of common centres of connexion, are exhibited
in the Bank clearing-house and the Railway clearing-house. While of yet
another genus are those unions which bring into relation the more or
less dispersed citizens who are occupied in like ways: as traders are
brought by the Exchange and the Stock-Exchange; and as are professional
men by institutes, like those of Civil Engineers, Architects, &c.
Here, as before, it is manifest that a law of Evolution which holds of
organisms, must hold too of all objective results of their activity; and
that hence Language, and Science, and Art, must not only in the course
of their development display increasing heterogeneity and definiteness,
but also increasing integration. We shall find this conclusion to be in
harmony with the facts.
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