Evolution; Knowledge, Theory of; Philosophy and religion
One further remark is needed. To the conclusion that the changes with
which Evolution _commences_, are thus necessitated, remains to be added
the conclusion that these changes must _continue_. The absolutely
homogeneous must lose its equilibrium; and the relatively homogeneous
must lapse into the relatively less homogeneous. That which is true of
any total mass, is true of the parts into which it segregates. The
uniformity of each such part must as inevitably be lost in multiformity,
as was that of the original whole; and for like reasons. And thus the
continued changes which characterize Evolution, in so far as they are
constituted by the lapse of the homogeneous into the heterogeneous, and
of the less heterogeneous into the more heterogeneous, are necessary
consequences of the persistence of force.
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Footnote 16:
The idea developed in this chapter originally formed part of an
article on “Transcendental Physiology,” published in 1857. See
_Essays_, pp. 279–290.
CHAPTER XIV.
THE MULTIPLICATION OF EFFECTS.
§ 116. To the cause of increasing complexity set forth in the last
chapter, we have in this chapter to add another. Though secondary in
order of time, it is scarcely secondary in order of importance. Even in
the absence of the cause already assigned, it would necessitate a change
from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous; and joined with it, it makes
this change both more rapid and more involved. To come in sight of it,
we have but to pursue a step further, that conflict between force and
matter already delineated. Let us do this.
When a uniform aggregate is subject to a uniform force, we have seen
that its constituents, being differently conditioned, are differently
modified. But while we have contemplated the various parts of the
aggregate as thus undergoing unlike changes, we have not yet
contemplated the unlike changes simultaneously produced on the various
parts of the incident force. These must be as numerous and important as
the others. Action and re-action being equal and opposite, it follows
that in differentiating the parts on which it falls in unlike ways, the
incident force must itself be correspondingly differentiated. Instead of
being as before, a uniform force, it must thereafter be a multiform
force—a group of dissimilar forces. A few illustrations will make this
truth manifest.
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