EDWARD LIVINGSTON YOUMANS. 13 



to publish, it, which, was, of course, a grave mistake from the 

 business point of view. Mr. Youmans, however, was not sorry 

 for this, for it gave him the opportunity to place Mr. Spencer's 

 books where he could do most to forward their success. 



Some years before, during his blindness, his sister had led him 

 one day into the store of Messrs. D. Appleton & Co. in quest of a 

 book, and Mr. William H. Appleton had become warmly inter- 

 ested in him. I believe the firm now look back to this chance 

 visit as one of the most auspicious events in their annals. He 

 became by degrees a kind of adviser as regarded matters of publi- 

 cation, and it was largely through his far-sighted advice that the 

 Appletons entered upon the publication of such books as those 

 of Buckle, Darwin, Huxley, Tyndall, Haeckel, and others of like 

 character, always paying a royalty to the authors, the same as to 

 American authors, in spite of the absence of an international 

 copyright law. As publishers of books of this sort the Appletons 

 have come to be pre-eminent. It is obvious enough nowadays 

 that such books are profitable from a business point of view. 

 But thirty years and more ago this was by no means obvious. 

 We were very provincial. Reprints of English books, transla- 

 tions from French and German, were sadly behind the times. In 

 the Connecticut town where I lived people would begin to wake 

 up to the existence of some great European book or system of 

 thought after it had been before the world anywhere from a 

 dozen to fifty years. In those days, therefore, it required some 

 boldness to undertake the reprinting of new scientific books, and 

 none have recognized more freely than the Appletons the impor- 

 tance of the part played by Mr. Youmans in this matter. His 

 work as adviser to a great publishing house and his work as 

 lecturer re-enforced each other, and thus his capacity for useful- 

 ness was much increased. 



When Mr. Spencer's book on Education failed to find favor 

 in Boston, the Appletons took it, and thus presently secured 

 the management of the philosophical series. This brought Mr. 

 Youmans into permanent relations with Mr. Spencer and his 

 work. In 1861 Mr. Youmans was married, and in the course of 

 the following year made a journey in Europe with his wife. It 

 was now that he became personally acquainted with Mr. Spencer, 

 and found him quite as interesting and admirable as his books. 

 Friendships were also begun with Huxley and other foremost 

 men of science. From more than one of these men I have heard 

 the warmest expressions of personal affection for Mr. Youmans, 

 and of keen appreciation of the aid that they have obtained in 

 innumerable ways from his intelligent and enthusiastic sympa- 

 thy. But no one else got so large a measure of this support as Mr. 

 Spencer. As fast as his books were republished, Mr. Youmans 



