Evolution, the Master‑Key (1906)
By C. W. Saleeby
This book argues that evolution is not merely a biological theory but the “master‑key” to all domains of knowledge. Saleeby applies evolutionary principles to matter, life, mind, morality, and even religion, showing how science can illuminate questions once left to philosophy or theology.
Evolution, the master-key; a discussion of the principle of evolution as illustrated in atoms, stars, organic species, mind, society, and morals.
Caleb Williams Saleeby was an English physician, writer, and journalist known for his support of eugenics. During World War I, he was an adviser to the Minister of Food and advocated the establishment of a Ministry of Health
The first proofs of the following pages reached me from across the Atlantic on the same day as a report of Professor George Darwin's Presidential Address to the British Association reached us from South Africa. In that fine address, entitled " Evolutionary Speculation," the illustrious son of an immortal father discussed the evolution of worlds and atoms, and suggested that the principle is of universal application.
The leader-writer in the Times, commenting on the address, stated that only within the last few years has anyone ventured to maintain the principle of universal evolution first held by Heraclitus. Neither the journalist nor the professor mentioned the name of Herbert Spencer.
Thus I take it that an attempt to show how the Synthetic Philosophy stands in relation to the most advanced knowledge will not be entirely superfluous, even for Anglo-Saxon readers. I know, of course, that hero-worship and reverence for our predecessors have nowadays accounted somewhat bourgeois and superfluous virtues, and I shall be sorry if any exhibition of them in the following pages grates upon the reader. Nevertheless, I shall continue, whenever possible, to express my recognition of a debt that I never can repay.
Contents
Part I — General
I. Introductory: The Meaning of Evolution – p.3
II. The Philosophic Temper – p.16
III. What Is Meant by Philosophy? – p.28
IV. The Foundation of Evolution – p.38
V. The Evolution of the Idea – p.55
Part II — Inorganic Evolution
VI. Cosmic Evolution – p.69
VII. Atomic Evolution – p.83
Part III — Organic Evolution
VIII. General – p.95
IX. The Origin of Life – p.101
X. Heredity and Variation – p.116
XI. The Factors of Organic Evolution – p.121
XII. The Origin of Man – p.135
XIII. Eugenics: The Future of Man – p.140
XIV. Spencer’s Contributions to Biology – p.154
Part IV — Superorganic Evolution
XV. The Evolution of Mind – p.163
XVI. The Test of Truth – p.179
XVII. The Human Will – p.185
XVIII. The Origin of Our Ideas – p.211
XIX. General – p.223
XX. The Evolution of Religion – p.233
XXI. Evolution and Marriage – p.238
XXII. Evolution and Education – p.242
XXIII. The Evolution of Morality – p.249
XXIV. The Principles of Conduct – p.263
Part V — Evolution and Optimism
XXV. The Varieties of Optimism – p.271
XXVI. Some Popular Fallacies – p.279
XXVII. The Grounds of Rational Optimism – p.301
Part VI — Dissolution
XXVIII. The Meaning of Dissolution – p.313
XXIX. The Law of Universal Rhythm – p.321
Part VII — Evolution and the Religion of the Future
XXX. The Question of Questions – p.331
XXXI. The Unknowable – p.339
XXXII. On Mind as Unknowable – p.348
XXXIII. Our Knowledge of the Unknowable – p.361
Subject Index – p.371
Index to Names – p.375
The name of the book seems as occult book but it contain logical scientific claims. Everything evolve even Religions and morals.
Reading from Chapter VII — Atomic Evolution
Our survey of evolution as witnessed in the inanimate world, operating for infinite periods before and after the development of life in any particular part of the cosmos such as our earth, must now turn from the realm of the telescope to one so minute that even the microscope is powerless to reveal its secrets. No improvement in mechanism will ever enable us to see an atom, for the very nature of light precludes the possibility.
The discovery of evolution among atoms is revolutionary, defying the most cherished dogmas of the chemist. Evolution as a universal doctrine must be rejected if we accept the conventional teaching that matter consists of some seventy‑five or eighty varieties of unalterable elementary atoms. If these have existed unchanged from eternity, “unbroken and unworn,” as Clerk‑Maxwell said, then evolution is a myth or at best a half‑truth. Spencer could not accept this view and rejected it in First Principles, though he gave us no prophetic discussion of the matter.
The reader knows that radium and radioactivity have demonstrated evolution in this sphere also, “atomic evolution” having become a familiar phrase in recent years. Yet the first assertion of this truth goes back much further than Spencer, almost to the inception of the atomic theory itself. Empedocles, the brilliant pupil of Democritus, the first atomist, declared a belief in atomic evolution and correctly described its chief mode of action. Much has been made of the coincidence that Darwin and Wallace each expressed, almost simultaneously, the idea Spencer later called “the survival of the fittest.” But not only had Spencer already enunciated the same truth of societies, and Hay and Wells of organisms as far back as 1813, Empedocles had asserted it of atoms themselves more than two thousand years before.
He taught that those atomic forms would survive which were most accurately fitted for the conditions — “adapted to the environment,” as Spencer would say. Thus, from the earliest atomists to the latest discoveries of radioactivity, the principle of evolution has shown itself universal, reaching even into the invisible foundations of matter.
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