That an essential characteristic of advancing Science is increase in definiteness,appears indeed almost a truism, when we remember that Science may be describedas definite knowledge, in contradistinction to that indefinite knowledgepossessed by the uncultured. And if, as we cannot question, Science has,in the course of ages, been evolved out of this indefinite knowledge of theuncultured, then, the gradual acquirement of that great definiteness whichnow distinguishes it, must have been a leading trait in its evolution. §137. The arts, industrial and aesthetic, supply illustrations perhapsstill more striking. Palaeolithic flint implements show the extreme wantof precision in men's first handiworks. Though a great advance on these isseen in the tools and weapons of existing savage tribes, yet an inexactnessin forms and fittings distinguishes such tools and weapons from those ofcivilized races. In a smaller degree, the productions of the less-advancednations are characterized by like defects. A Chinese junk, with all its containedfurniture and appliances, nowhere presents a line that is quite straight,a uniform curve, or a true surface. Nor do the utensils and machines of ourancestors fail to exhibit a similar inferiority to our own. An antique chair,an old fireplace, a lock of the last century, or almost any article of householduse that has been preserved for a few generations, proves by contrast howgreatly the industrial products of our time excel those of the Past in theiraccuracy. Since planing machines have been invented, it has become possibleto produce absolutely straight lines, and surfaces so truly level as to beair-tight when applied to each other. While in the dividing-engine of Troughton,in the micrometer of Whitworth, in microscopes that show fifty thousand divisionsto the inch, and in ruled divisions up to 200,000, we have an exactness asfar exceeding that reached in the works of our great-grandfathers, as theirsexceeded that of the aboriginal celt-makers.
In the Fine Arts there has been a parallel progress. From the rudely-carvedand painted idols of savages, through the early sculptures characterizedby limbs without muscular detail, wooden-looking drapery, and faces devoidof individuality, up to the later statues of the Greeks or some of thosenow produced, the increased accuracy of representation is conspicuous. Comparethe mural paintings of the Egyptians with the paintings of medieval Europe,or these with modern paintings, and the more precise rendering of the appearancesof objects is manifest. It is the same with fiction and the drama. In themarvellous tales current among Eastern nations, in the romantic legends offeudal Europe, as well as in the mystery-plays and those immediately succeedingthem, we see great want of correspondence to the realities of life; alikein the predominance of supernatural events, in the extremely improbable occurrences,and in the vaguely-indicated personages. Along with social advance, therehas been a progressive diminution of unnaturalness -- an approach to truthof representation. And now, cultivated men applaud novels and plays in proportionto the fidelity with which they exhibit characters. improbabilities, likethe impossibilities which preceded them, are disallowed; and we see fewerof those elaborate plots which life rarely furnishes: realities are moredefinitely pictured. §138. Space might be filled with evidences of other kinds, but thebasis of induction is already wide enough. Proof that all Evolution is fromthe indefinite to the definite, we find not less abundant than proof thatall Evolution is from the homogeneous to the heterogeneous.
It should, however, be added that this advance in definiteness is nota primary but a secondary phenomenon -- is a result incidental on other changes.
The transformation of a whole that was originally diffused and uniform intoa concentrated combination of multiform parts, implies progressive separationboth of the whole from its environment and of the parts from one another.
While this is going on there must be indistinctness. Only as the whole gainsdensity, does it become sharply marked off from the space or matter lyingoutside of it; and only as each division draws into its mass those peripheralportions which are at first imperfectly disunited from the peripheral portionsof neighbouring divisions, can it acquire anything like a precise outline.
That is to say, the increasing definiteness is a concomitant of the increasingconsolidation, general and local. While the secondary re-distributions areever adding to the heterogeneity, the primary redistribution, while augmentingthe integration, is incidentally giving distinctness to the increasinglyunlike parts as well as to the aggregate of them.
But though this universal trait of Evolution is a necessary accompanimentof the traits set forth in preceding chapters, it is not expressed in thewords used to describe them. It is therefore needful further to modify ourformula. The more specific idea of Evolution now reached is -- a change froman indefinite, incoherent homogeneity, to a definite coherent heterogeneity,accompanying the dissipation of motion and integration of matter.
