EDITOR'S TABLE. 



269 



our institutions, and the duties of citi- 

 zens in regard to them. 



In one respect the time of publica- 

 tion was somewhat unfortunate. The 

 results of the interview were offered to 

 the New York press to all the New York 

 newspapers at the same time and with- 

 out previous notice, and, as the columns 

 of the press are generally much crowded 

 in an active political campaign, there 

 was some difficulty in publishing the 

 communication. Several papers felt it 

 necessary to shorten it by omitting what 

 they regarded as the less important 

 parts, so that imperfect representations 

 of the interview were extensively cir- 

 culated and republished. This being 

 known, there has been a good deal of 

 call for the document in its complete 

 form, which could not be met. We have 

 accordingly thought it best to reprint 

 the interview in full. It will certainly 

 not be news to our readers, but it may 

 be well to have a permanent record of 

 it for future reference : 



Hearing that Herbert Spencer had re- 

 turned to New York in a somewhat im- 

 proved condition of health, an intimate 

 American friend obtained his consent to be 

 questioned regarding his impressions of this 

 country to the following effect : 



I believe, Mr. Spencer, that you have not 

 been interviewed since your arrival in this 

 country \ 



I have not. The statements in the 

 newspapers implying personal intercourse 

 are unauthorized, and many of them incor- 

 rect. It was said, for example, that I was 

 ill from the effects of the voyage ; the truth 

 being that I suffered no inconvenience what- 

 ever, save that arising from disturbed rest. 

 Subsequent accounts of me in respect of 

 disorders, diet, dress, habits, etc., have been 

 equally wide of the mark. 



Have these misrepresentations been an- 

 noying to you ? 



In some measure, though I am not very 

 sensitive ; but I have been chiefly annoyed 

 by statements which affect, not myself only, 

 but others. For some ten days or more 

 there went on reappearing in various jour- 



nals, an alleged opinion of mine concerning 

 Mr. Oscar Wilde. The statement that I 

 had uttered it was absolutely baseless. I 

 have expressed no opinion whatever con- 

 cerning Mr. Oscar Wilde. Naturally, those 

 who put in circulation fictions of this kind 

 may be expected to mix much fiction with 

 what fact they report. 



Might not this misrepresentation have 

 been avoided, by admitting interviewers ? 



Possibly ; but, in the first place, I have 

 not been sufficiently well ; and, in the sec- 

 ond place, I am averse to the system. To 

 have to submit to cross-examination, under 

 penalty of having ill-natured things said if 

 one refuses, is an invasion of personal lib- 

 erty which I dislike. Moreover, there is 

 implied what seems to me an undue love of 

 personalities. Your journals recall a wit- 

 ticism of the poet Heine, who said that 

 " when a woman writes a novel, she has one 

 eye on the paper and the other on some 

 man except the Countess Hahn-hahn, who 

 has only one eye." In like manner, it seems 

 to me that in the political discussions that 

 fill your papers, everything is treated in con- 

 nection with the doings of individuals some 

 candidate for office, or some " boss " or wire- 

 puller. I think it not improbable that this 

 appetite for personalities, among other evils, 

 generates this recklessness of statement. 

 The appetite must be ministered to ; and in 

 the eagerness to satisfy its cravings, there 

 comes less and less care respecting the cor- 

 rectness of what is said. 



Has what you have seen answered your 

 expectations ? 



It has far exceeded them. Such books 

 about America as I had looked into, had 

 given me no adequate idea of the immense 

 developments of material civilization which 

 I have everywhere found. The extent, 

 wealth, and magnificence of your cities, and 

 especially the splendor of New York, have 

 altogether astonished me. Though I have 

 not visited the wonder of the West, Chi- 

 cago, yet some of your minor modern places, 

 such as Cleveland, have sufficiently amazed 

 me, by the marvelous results of one gener- 

 ation's activity. Occasionally, when I have 

 been in places of some ten thousand in- 

 habitants, where the telephone is in general 

 use, I have felt somewhat ashamed of our 



