570.1 377 



Mr Herbert Spencer's Biology l 



WHAT strikes one most forcibly on reading the " Principles of 

 Biology " in this new and enlarged edition is the extra- 

 ordinary range and grasp of its author, the piercing keenness of his 

 eye for essentials, his fertility in invention and the bold sweep 

 of his logical method. In these days of increasingly straitened 

 specialism it is well that we should feel the influence of a thinker 

 whose powers of generalization have seldom been equalled and 

 perhaps never surpassed. In no narrow or carping spirit should 

 we approach the work of one who has done so much for the cause 

 of evolution. We may set our queries against this or that matter 

 of detail, or may enter a protest against the acceptance, without 

 more conclusive proof, of certain broader principles ; but we should 

 not dwell on minor defects nor allow more grave differences of 

 opinion to blind us to the gift which Mr Herbert Spencer placed in 

 our hands thirty-four years ago, and has borrowed for awhile that he 

 may return it to us with added weight. 



The phrase ' added weight ' is perhaps ambiguous. The volume 

 of the work is materially increased, and new sections of much 

 interest have been added. But though the intellectual weight has 

 also been augmented, it is an open question whether it would not 

 have been wiser to leave intact a treatise of such unique historical 

 importance and value, relegating corrections and additions to notes 

 and appendices. With all the labour and care Mr Spencer has 

 expended on it during the last two years, it cannot be said that, 

 having due reference to the contemporary state of knowledge in 

 each case, the revised volume of 1898 holds the same position as 

 the original work of 1864. 



The scheme and method of the Principles of Biology and the 

 manner in which Mr Spencer develops his subject are presumably 

 so familiar as to render anything more than the briefest summary 

 unnecessary. Starting in Part I. with the Data of Biology, the com- 

 position and properties of organic matter, the actions of external 

 forces on it, its reactions to these forces, and its characteristic modes 

 of metabolism, are severally discussed, and the conception of Life, 



1 "The Principles of Biology," by Herbert Spencer, vol. i. Revised and Enlarged 

 Edition. 8vo, xii + 706 pp. London: Williams & Norgate. 1898. Price 18s. 



2 D 



