22 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



clared Mr. Spencer to be nothing better than a " stock-writer, who 

 writes equally well upon all subjects." 



These are not the circumspect and instructive utterances which we 

 should look for from men of authority whose opinions are sought and 

 are valued by the public ; they are gross and inexcusable misrepre- 

 sentations, and exemplify a style of criticism that is now so freely in- 

 dulged in that It requires to be met, in the common interest of justice 

 and truth. By their estimates of Mr. Spencer, the gentlemen quoted 

 have raised the question of his position as a thinker, and the character 

 and claims of his intellectual work. I follow their lead, and propose, 

 on the present occasion, to bring forward some considerations which 

 may help to a more trustworthy judgment upon the subject. Assum- 

 ing the foregoing statements to be representative, it will be worth 

 while to see what becomes of them under examination. My object 

 will be, less to expound or to defend Mr. Spencer's views, than to 

 trace his mental history, and the quality and extent of his labors, as 

 disclosed by an analysis and review of his published writings. 



And, first, let us glance at the general condition of thought in re- 

 lation to. the origination of things when he began its investigation. 

 Character is tested by emergencies, as well in the world of ideas as in 

 the world of action ; and it is by his bearing in one of the great crises 

 of our progressive knowledge of Nature that Mr. Spencer is to be 

 measured. 



Down to the early part of the present century it had generally 

 been believed that this world, with all that it contains, was suddenly 

 called into existence but a few thousand years ago in much the same 

 condition as we now see it. Throughout Christendom it was held, 

 with the earnestness of religious conviction, that the universe was a 

 Divine manufacture, made out of nothing in a week, and set at once 

 to running in all its present perfection. This doctrine was something 

 more than a mere item of faith ; it was a complete theory of the 

 method of origin of natural things, and it gave shape to a whole 

 body of science, philosophy, and common opinion, which was inter- 

 preted in accordance with this theory. The problem of origins was 

 thus authoritatively solved, and life, mind, man, and all Nature, were 

 studied under the hypothesis of their late and sudden production. 



But it was difficult to inquire into the existing order of Nature 

 without tracing; it backward. Modern science was long restrained 

 from this procedure by the power of traditional beliefs, but the force 

 of facts and reasoning at length proved too strong for these beliefs, 

 and it was demonstrated that the prevailing notion concerning the 

 recent origin of the world was not true. Overwhelming evidence was 

 found that the universe did not come into existence in the condition 

 in which we now see it, nor in any thing like that condition, but that 

 the present order of things is the outcome of a vast series of changes 

 running back to an indefinite and incalculable antiquity. It was 



