Transcriber's Note:
The cover image was created by the transcriber and is placed in the public domain.
This volume is the first of a series described in a prospectusoriginally distributed in March, 1860. Of that prospectus,the annexed is a reprint.
Mr. Herbert Spencer proposes to issue in periodical parts aconnected series of works which he has for several years beenpreparing. Some conception of the general aim and scope ofthis series may be gathered from the following Programme.
Part I. The Unknowable.—Carrying a step further the doctrineput into shape by Hamilton and Mansel; pointing out the various directionsin which Science leads to the same conclusions; and showingthat in this united belief in an Absolute that transcends not only humanknowledge but human conception, lies the only possible reconciliationof Science and Religion.
Part II. Laws of the Knowable.—A statement of the ultimateprinciples discernible throughout all manifestations of the Absolute—thosehighest generalizations now being disclosed by Science which areseverally true not of one class of phenomena but of all classes of phenomena;and which are thus the keys to all classes of phenomena.[1]
vi[In logical order should here come the application of these First Principlesto Inorganic Nature. But this great division it is proposed to passover: partly because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive; andpartly because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposedmethod, is of more immediate importance. The second work of the serieswill therefore be—]
Part I. The Data of Biology.—Including those general truths ofPhysics and Chemistry with which rational Biology must set out.
II. The Inductions of Biology.—A statement of the leading generalizationswhich Naturalists, Physiologists, and Comparative Anatomists,have established.
III. The Evolution of Life.—Concerning the speculation commonlyknown as “The Development Hypothesis”—its à priori and àposteriori evidences.