SPENCER AND THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY. 7 



their appearance, we can trace a gradual closing in from all sides, 

 as it were, upon the great generalizations which were by and by 

 to fall into their places as integral parts of a coherent system 

 of thought. As a matter of fact, these years may be regarded, 

 from the point of view of subsequent achievement, as years of 

 special and methodical training ; and these essays, diverse as they 

 are in form and matter, as separate and tentative contributions 

 toward the treatment of various isolated phenomena which were 

 ultimately to be taken up in their interrelations and dealt with 

 in the mass. It would be impossible here to subject these essays 

 one by one to anything like close analysis, even if it would mate- 

 rially further our present purpose to do so. But a few words 

 must be devoted to their general drift and character ; and, should 

 one or two of them be made the subjects of special mention, it 

 will not be because these are to be considered the most important 

 in themselves, but simply because they are the most important 

 for the object which at the moment I have in view. 



Probably the points whioh would most strike any one reading 

 these essays casually and for the first time would be their strong 

 grasp upon deep-lying principles, and their extraordinary origi- 

 nality. On every page they reveal, be the subject what it may, 

 an astonishing independence of thought, and an absolute freedom 

 from all trace of traditional methods and ideas. It was this fresh- 

 ness of treatment and firmness of touch which perhaps most at- 

 tracted the attention of thoughtful readers when they were first 

 published for the most part anonymously in the pages of the 

 various English magazines and reviews. But, turning back to 

 them to-day and regarding them in their mutual relations (as we 

 are able to do now that they have long since been available in a 

 collected and permanent form), we are impressed by something 

 beyond the depth, clearness, and vigor of mind to which they 

 everywhere bear witness. And that something is the essential 

 unity of their thought, the oneness of idea which is throughout 

 seen to underlie and inform the extraordinary diversity of mate- 

 rials with which they deal. It matters not whether the author is 

 concerned with the moot questions of physiology and psychology ; 

 or with the intrinsic principles of a correct literary style ; or with 

 the changes of the sidereal system ; or with ill-timed and hasty 

 political panaceas ; or with curiosities of social manners and be- 

 havior : all these subjects are systematically approached from one 

 point of view ; all are made to cluster about and find interpreta- 

 tion in one dominant hypothesis. And what is this hypothesis ? 

 What is this great cardinal doctrine which is thus made to weld 

 together subjects so diverse and even so incongruous that on any 

 merely superficial examination they would never be supposed to 

 possess anything in common ? It need hardly be said that it is 



