EDITOR'S TABLE. 



127 



agency, therefore, by which the best 

 literature of the day and of all days 

 should be brought home to people's 

 hearts through the tones of a sympa- 

 thetic human voice could not fail, in 

 course of time, to produce very bene- 

 ficial effects both mental and moral. 

 Within the household itself nothing 

 is more humanizing than good read- 

 ing (aloud) ; and this would be pro- 

 moted by such public readings and 

 such instruction as we have in view. 

 We hear not infrequently of gifts of 

 a million dollars or more to a single 

 university; and we think it is time 

 that something should be done for 

 those who have no opportunity to 

 become very learned, but whose 

 minds might by proper effort be at- 

 tuned to what is best in literature, 

 and thus raised above the dreary level 

 of commonplace ideas and petty per- 

 sonal concerns. 



SPENCEB AND DARWIN. 



A COUPLE of years ago, as some 

 of our readers will remember, a book 

 was published under the title of 

 From the Greeks to Darwin, in which 

 the history of the doctrine of evolu- 

 tion was sketched, or at least pur- 

 ported to be sketched, from the earli- 

 est times down to our own day. The 

 most remarkable thing about the 

 book was that, of set purpose, it 

 ignored the greatest thinker on evo- 

 lutionary lines that the world had 

 ever seen ; we mean, of course, Her- 

 bert Spencer. This omission was 

 duly noticed in our columns at the 

 time, and there is no need to go over 

 the ground again. What we wish 

 to say to-day is that, if Mr. Spencer's 

 position in relation to the doctrine 

 of evolution needed any vindication, 

 it has received it in ample measure 

 in Mr. Edward Clodd's recently pub- 

 lished book, Pioneers of Evolution, 

 and in the article by Mr. Grant Allen 



contributed to the Fortnightly Re- 

 view and republished in our last 

 number. No one can read either the 

 one or the other without feeling that 

 to discuss evolution in its broader 

 aspects without making due mention 

 of Spencer is like narrating the dis- 

 covery of America with but slight 

 mention of Columbus. To Mr. 

 Spencer we owe a rational and sys- 

 tematic statement of the doctrine of 

 universal evolution; to Darwin we 

 owe an original and lucid explana- 

 nation of the natural process by 

 which species are modified and new 

 species formed. The latter was in- 

 deed a most solid and substantive 

 piece of work, but it did not furnish 

 the general formula of evolution, 

 which but for the labors of Herbert 

 Spencer would still be to seek. It 

 was Darwin himself who said of 

 Spencer : " I suspect that hereafter 

 he vrill be looked upon as by far the 

 greatest living philosopher in Eng- 

 land ; perhaps equal to any that have 

 lived." 



We feel how times have changed 

 when to be recognized as a potent 

 contributor to the establishment of 

 the doctrine of evolution is one of 

 the highest honors, if not the high- 

 est honor, which a philosophical 

 thinker can enjoy. When Darwin 

 published liis Origin of Species, and 

 for some years later, his name was 

 cast out as evil ; to-day it is difficult 

 to keep an admiring public from 

 claiming for him the authorship of 

 that much wider scheme of evolu- 

 tion for which Mr. Spencer properly 

 stands sponsor. The record, how- 

 ever, is very clear, and no one needs 

 to be in error as to the respective 

 achievements of the two men. Both 

 have done great work for the intel- 

 lectual emancipation of mankind, 

 and the names of both will go down 

 with glory to posterity. 



