560 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



machinations and behests. In this 

 growth of Protestantism against the 

 immoral tyranny of the old political 

 church is our hope. Mr. George rightly 

 appeals to the spirit and method of sci- 

 ence, applied to political and social af- 

 fairs, as the great agency of national 

 redemption, and time will show that 

 the appeal is well taken. The great 

 love of intellectual advancement is 

 bound in time to give us a science of 

 politics grounded in principles of truth, 

 instead of the quackish arts of parti- 

 sanship, just as certainly as it has given 

 us a science of navigation, agriculture, 

 and chemical manufactures. 



LITERARY NOTICES. 



SPENCER'S " EDUCATION." CHEAP EDI- 

 TION. 



Education : Intellectual, Moral, and 

 Physical. By Herbert Spencer. New 

 York: D. Appleton & Co. Pp. 283. 

 Price, 50 cents, paper covers. 



This little work has now been twenty 

 years before the public, and during that 

 time has gradually made its way to all parts 

 of the civilized world. It has been rendered 

 into the principal languages of Europe, and 

 is well known by complete or partial repro- 

 duction in India, China, and Japan. The 

 eminent directors of public education in 

 different countries have taken the initiative 

 in procuring its translation.* The principles 

 it develops have been avowedly followed in 

 numerous instances in shaping the policy 

 of public instruction, and in organizing edu- 

 cational institutions ; and it has exerted a 

 strong influence upon the mental and moral 



* A noteworthy illustration of this has come 

 to hand since the present article was put in 

 type. The first part of Spencer's "Education" 

 "What Knowledge is of Most Worth?"" has 

 just been translated into modern Greek by the 

 late Minister of Education in Greece. It is sig- 

 nificant that, while the New World colleges are 

 neglecting and resisting modern knowledge, 

 that the traditional ascendancy of ancient clas- 

 sics may be maintained, the Greek authorities, 

 on the old, sacred, classical ground, are modern- 

 izing their education upon the principle that, 

 in the hierarchy of knowledges, science is su- 

 preme. 



culture of families, and upon the intellectual 

 life of individuals. Desirous of still further 

 extending an influence so well approved, 

 Mr. Spencer a year or two ago issued a 

 cheap edition of the book in England, and 

 the American publishers have now wisely 

 imitated his example. 



We do not propose here to notice the 

 book in the usual manner, as most of our 

 readers are no doubt quite familiar with its 

 contents. But this is a suitable occasion 

 to recall the circumstances of its origin ; 

 and the more so as thereby some explana- 

 tion will be afforded of its remarkable in- 

 fluence and success. 



The four parts which compose the vol- 

 ume were originally contributed by Mr. 

 Spencer to several English periodicals from 

 1854 to 1859. The period in which they 

 were written, 1850 to 1800 from his thir- 

 tieth to his fortieth year was the most 

 fruitful in his intellectual career, and may 

 be characterized as preeminently the crea- 

 tive and constructive decade of his life. It 

 was the time of the rapid development and 

 organization of his great ideas. It was then 

 that he arrived at the conception of evolu- 

 tion as a universal law and the basis of a 

 new philosophy ; and that he drew up a de- 

 tailed plan of the reorganization of knowl- 

 edge from the new point of view. The pe- 

 riod referred to was one of transition, or 

 rather of matvring, for from early years 

 the subject of progress and development in 

 nature and society had taken a strong hold 

 of Mr. Spencer's mind. All his publica- 

 tions during these ten years are colored and 

 pervaded by the dominant conception of 

 evolution. His work took a wide range, 

 chiefly in the form of elaborate articles 

 printed in leading periodicals. Between 

 1850 and 1860 he published no less than 

 twenty-five of these essays on a great vari- 

 ety of subjects elucidating the principles of 

 evolution, and illustrating their biological, 

 social, intellectual, moral, and political ap- 

 plications. 



Among the subjects then dealt with, 

 Mr. Spencer's thoughts were especially and 

 powerfully attracted to the working of evo- 

 lutionary law in the sphere of mind. This 

 was a new point of view in mental science. 

 While metaphysicians were confining their 

 studies mainly to mind as an abstraction 



