in one aspect is but matter in motion. ... The world of ideas is in some way presented through, and embodied in, the world of sense; and the sensible can be summarised in terms of matter, motion and force."[1]
It would not be difficult to raise objections to the form of this statement, but, for our present purpose, the substance is sufficient. Spencer's formula of evolution is an attempt to coördinate all orders of phenomena, in so far as they can be summarized in terms of matter, motion, and force. Such an attempt would only be invalid if such summary were impossible.
Such an expression of the conception of universal evolution, if valid, is of the greatest philosophical value. While the great generalizations of the indestructibility of matter and the conservation of energy can be described as fundamental laws of being, a true formula of evolution would be an ultimate principle of the cosmic process of becoming.
According to Spencer's formula, evolution in its primary aspect, consists of "an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion." The contrary process, dissolution, is similarly "an absorption of motion and concomitant dissipation of matter." In examining this primary aspect of the formula, it is first of all necessary to assure ourselves that integration of matter and dissipation of motion are necessary concomitants. On this matter Spencer remarks:
"These are truisms. Constituent parts cannot aggregate without losing some of their relative motion; and they cannot separate without more relative motion being given to them. We are not concerned with any motion which the components of a mass may have with respect to other masses, we are concerned only with the motion they have with respect to one another. Confining our attention to this internal motion and to the matter possessing it, the axiom that we have to recognize is that a pro- gressing consolidation involves a decrease of internal motion, and that increase of internal motion involves a progressing unconsolidation."[2]
