by widening dispersion, more disintegrated, the motion that is for a time retained, becomes more integrated; and so, considered dynamically, Evolution is a decrease in the relative movements of parts and increase in the relative movements of wholes using the words parts and wholes in their most general senses. The advance is from the motions of simple molecules to the motions of compound molecules; from molecular motions to the motions of masses; and from the motions of smaller masses to the motions of larger masses. The accompanying change towards greater multiformity among the retained motions, takes place under the form of an increased variety of rhythms. A multiplication of rhythms must accompany a multiplication in the degrees and modes of aggregation, and in the relations of the aggregated masses to incident forces. The degree or mode of aggregation will not, indeed, affect the rate or extent of rhythm where the incident force increases as the aggregate increases, which is the case with gravitation: here the only cause of variation in rhythm is difference of relation to the incident force; as we see in a pendulum which, though unaffected in its movements by a change in the weight of the bob, alters its rate of oscillation when its length is altered or when, otherwise unchanged, it is taken to the equator. But in all cases where the incident forces do not vary as the masses, every new order of aggregation initiates a new order of rhythm: witness the conclusion drawn from the recent researches into radiant heat and light, that the molecules of different gases have different rates of undulation. So that increased multiformity in the arrangement of matter, necessarily generates increased multiformity of rhythm; both through increased variety in the sizes and forms of aggregates, and through increased variety in their relations to the forces which move them. That these motions, as they become more integrated and more heterogeneous, must become more definite, is a proposition that need not detain us. In proportion as any part of an evolving whole segregates and consolidates, and in so doing loses the relative mobility of its components, its aggregate motion must obviously acquire distinctness. 144. How in societies the movements or functions produced by the confluence of individual actions, increase in their amounts, their multiformities, their precision, and their combination, scarcely needs insisting upon after what has been pointed out in foregoing chapters. For the sake of symmetry of statement, however, a typical example or two may be set down. At first the military activities, undifferentiated from the rest (all men in primitive societies being warriors) are relatively homogeneous, ill-combined, and indefinite: savages making a joint attack severally fight independently, in similar ways, and without order. But as societies evolve the movements of the thousands of soldiers which replace the tens of warriors, are divided and re-divided in their kinds of movements: here are gunners, there infantry, and elsewhere cavalry. Within each of the differentiated functions of these bodies there come others: there are distinct actions of privates, sergeants, captains, colonels, generals, as also of those who constitute the commissariat and those who attend to the wounded. The clustered motions that have thus become comparatively heterogeneous in general and in detail, have simultaneously increased in precision; so that in battle, men and the regiments formed of them, are made to take definite positions and perform definite acts at definite times. Once more, there has gone on that integration by which the multiform actions of an army are directed to a single end. By a co-ordinating apparatus having the commander-in-chief for its centre, the charges, and halts, and retreats are duly concerted; and a hundred thousand individual motions are united under one will. Again on comparing the rule of a savage chief with that of a civilized government, aided by its subordinate local governments and their officers, down to the police, we see how, as men have advanced from tribes of hundreds to nations of millions, the regulative action has grown large in amount; how, guided by written laws, it has passed from vagueness and irregularity to comparative precision; and how it has sub-divided into processes increasingly multiform. Or after observing how the barter that goes on among barbarians differs from our own commercial processes, by which a million's worth of commodities is distributed daily; by which the relative values of articles immensely varied in kinds and qualities are exactly measured, and the supplies adjusted to the demands; and by which industrial activities of all orders are so combined that each depends on the rest and aids the rest; we see that the kind of movement which constitutes trade, has become progressively more vast, more varied, more definite, and more integrated. § 145. A finished conception of Evolution thus includes the re-distribution of the retained motion, as well as that of the component matter. This added element of the conception is scarcely, if at all, less important than the other. The movements of the Solar System have a significance equal to that which the sizes, forms, and relative distances of its members possess. The Earth's geographical and geological structure are not more important elements in the order of Nature than are the motions, regular and irregular, of the water and the air clothing it. And of the phenomena presented by an organism, it must be admitted that the combined sensible and insensible actions we call its life, do not yield in interest to its structural traits. Leaving out, however, all implied reference to the way in which these two orders of facts concern us, it is clear that with each re-distribution of matter there necessarily goes a re-distribution of motion; and that the unified knowledge constituting Philosophy, must comprehend both aspects of the transformation. Our formula, therefore, needs an additional clause. To combine this satisfactorily with the clauses as they stand in the last chapter, is scarcely practicable; and for convenience of expression it will be best to change their order. On doing this, and making the requisite addition, the formula finally stands thus: - Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation.1 The definition of Evolution needs qualifying by introduction of the word relatively" before each of its antithetical clauses. The statement should be that "the matter passes from a relatively indefinite, incoherent homogeneity to a relatively definite, coherent heterogeneity.". |