268 



THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



EDITOR'S TABLE. 



SPENCER'S IMPRESSIONS OF AMERICA. 



THERE was a strong and perhaps a 

 quite laudable curiosity on the part 

 of many pople to know what impression 

 had been made upon the mind of Her- 

 bert Spencer when first coming to this 

 country. It was certainly something 

 more than an idle curiosity on the part 

 of a large number of our citizens to 

 learn his impressions, because it was 

 widely kown that he is a philosophic- 

 al student of national institutions, and 

 probably the highest living authority 

 on the science of human society. He 

 has been very widely read and much 

 studied in this country, and it was felt 

 that his views, whether favorable or 

 not, would certainly be interesting, and 

 his criticisms, if he made any, suggest- 

 ive aud valuable. 



And it was no doubt because of his 

 respect for this sincere desire, to get at 

 his real views, that Mr. Spencer persist- 

 ently declined to be hastily and prema- 

 turely interviewed by the professionals 

 of the press, whose ways of doing such 

 things are not always favorable to the 

 representation of important truths. 

 "What they generally most want is friv- 

 olous gossip and personal particulars, 

 to be dressed up for sensational pur- 

 poses, and to be had exclusively for the 

 benefit of enterprising newspapers. Mr. 

 Spencer was indeed repeatedly applied 

 to by reporters of a better character 

 who woidd have represented him in his 

 own way, and with fullness and fair- 

 ness, but the state of his health long 

 made it impossible that he could consent 

 to be questioned. 



And there was certainly plenty of 

 reason why he should be in no hurry to 

 venture upon an expression of opinion 

 regarding American social and political 

 affairs. It was easy enough to say how 

 he was struck by the external aspects 



of American life, but it was not so easy 

 to get familiar with the working of the 

 internal elements and forces of our 

 social and political life. It was easy 

 enough to compare our cities, steam- 

 boats, railroads, rural scenery, and open 

 habits of the people with those of the 

 olden countries, but a very different 

 thing to form an intelligent judgment 

 of the operation of complex institutions 

 and the slow-working social tendencies 

 in a nation that covers a continent. Per- 

 haps no living man is so well aware of 

 the magnitude and the difficulties of the 

 problems now being worked out by the 

 people of these associated States as Mr. 

 Spencer, and he could not but feel that 

 a two months' sojourn among us in a 

 very unfavorable state of health was 

 but a very insufficient preparation for 

 an intelligent verdict upon American 

 social and political problems. Yet his 

 previous occupation with such subjects 

 certainly qualified him to form opinions 

 of what he saw and heard and at the 

 proper time he had no hesitation in ex- 

 pressing them. 



And that he was prepared to speak 

 a good deal to the point, to offer views 

 of moment, and suggest weighty criti- 

 cisms, has been sufficiently proved by 

 the way his opinions have been received 

 in all quai'ters. They have been very 

 extensively published from the Atlantic 

 to the Pacific, and as extensively com- 

 mented upon. No such message from 

 any foreigner has ever compelled equal 

 attention, or been received in a better 

 spirit. There has been very wide agree- 

 ment with Mr. Spencer's most impor- 

 tant statements, and, where assent has 

 been denied, it has still been recognized 

 that the questions raised are fundament- 

 al, and that Mr. Spencer has done us 

 an eminent service in setting people to 

 thinking about the sources of danger to 



