EDITOR'S TABLE. 



4'3 



case, but wholly groundless. Mr. Spen- 

 cer is the last man to perpetrate a fal- 

 lacy of this kind. He may be an in- 

 valid, but he is clear-headed enough to 

 deal with this subject on its logical mer- 

 its. When Mr. Schurz, at the dinner, 

 made a reference to " dyspeptic philos- 

 ophers "although Spencer is a man of 

 excellent digestion Mr. Beecher aptly 

 replied that, "at any rate, Spencer's 

 books have no dyspepsia." It seems to 

 have curiously occurred to many that 

 the tables could be turned upon Mr. 

 Spencer by referring to his own case, 

 although for the life of us we can not 

 see how his own experience of the very 

 matter he was treating could have dis- 

 qualified him from speaking upon it 

 with pertinence and intelligence. But 

 he did not choose to make it a personal 

 matter, although if he had done so it I 

 would have redoubled the force of his 

 argument. Mr. Spencer did undoubted- 

 ly break down badly, and long ago, and 

 has suffered the painful consequences 

 of it ever since. 



But his invalidism has certainly been 

 of a kind not to affect the clearness, 

 rectitude, and soundness of his thought. 

 His work for a quarter of a century is 

 not only marvelous in its amount, but 

 it is unparalleled in its originality, aeute- 

 ness of insight, literary finish, and log- 

 ical stability. No faintest taint can be 

 traced anywhere in his books of the 

 nervous exhaustion of their author. 

 And the abundant reason is, that Spen- 

 cer has followed his own prescription, 

 aud made relaxation, amusement, and 

 recreation, in every form, a daily re- 

 ligious duty. By making work always 

 subordinate to the unbending that is 

 essential to its highest quality, he has 

 proved the value of recreations as tribu- 

 tary, not only to length of life, but to 

 the perfection of work. When, there- 

 fore, he spoke to the Americans upon 

 the subject, and warned them of the 

 dangers of their high-pressure civiliza- 

 tion, we have no right to assume that 

 there is any personal equation of un- 



healthiness on his part to be corrected. 

 We are bound to take his advice as a 

 sound thinker of unclouded discern- 

 ment, and well disciplined in the work 

 of drawing safe conclusions from dis- 

 criminated facts. 



But Mr. Spencer's argument is far 

 from ; depending upon breakdown sta- 

 tistics that he may have observed or col- 

 lected from others. The lesson that he 

 inculcated is broadly derived from his 

 social studies, and from his doctrine of 

 the evolution of society. lie pointed 

 out that the social ideals of men are 

 subject to change that fighting as a 

 universal passion has passed away, and 

 that work as a universal passion has 

 taken its place. In this there has been 

 an euormous improvement, but the ex- 

 isting ideal is not a finality. It remains 

 to take a further step forward by organ- 

 izing more completely the means of hu- 

 man enjoyment. No advent of a poet- 

 ical or prophesied millennium is to be 

 expected, but men can nevertheless ad- 

 vance in this life to a happier state. 

 And this becomes an immediate and 

 practical question with every individ- 

 ual. The problem is only to be solved 

 by making rational enjoyment, in 

 larger measure, the object of life, and 

 of each day in life. This is the proper 

 end of knowledge and of work. It is 

 true beyond question that the lives of 

 immense multitudes in this country are 

 narrowed down to the one absorbing 

 gratification of money-getting, to the 

 exclusion of all other gratifications. Of 

 the nobler capacities of enjoyment they 

 know nothing, and they have lost the 

 power of even becoming interested in 

 anything but the purpose that enslaves 

 them. Can this be defended as a nor- 

 mal or satisfactory condition of the in- 

 dividual, or of a society largely com- 

 posed of such individuals? Work is 

 not an end, nor is study an end: work 

 brings a surplus of means, and study 

 should show how to use it for the most 

 varied gratification both should be- 

 tributary to completer and richer life. 



