i 4 4 SCIENCE PROGRESS 



evidence that establishes a prima facie case for examination, is a gigantic achieve- 

 ment ; and this Spencer undoubtedly did. He did this, and he did much more. 

 He not only formulated his theory, but he compelled the most practical nation on 

 earth to pay attention to it. He spread the knowledge of it and the recognition 

 of it over the whole civilised world. He so brought it home and hammered it 

 into the minds of men that at the present day, though it is the fashion to sneer at 

 Herbert Spencer, yet we all speak and think in terms of his great theory of 

 Evolution. He has modified permanently and for ever the mode of thought of all 

 mankind. Never again shall we think of the universe or of any part of it in 

 merely statical terms. Never again shall we think of it or any part of it as main- 

 taining its state unchanged. Spencer has taught us the truth and the meaning of 

 the hitherto meaningless dictum of Pythagoras : ndvra pet. Everything changes. 

 Change is the law of nature. Pythagoras saw this dimly and expressed it vaguely. 

 Spencer has taught us to see it clearly, and has expressed precisely not only that 

 everything changes, but also how it changes : in what direction, in obedience to 

 what law, in what succession, the changes take place. Whether he was right or 

 wrong in this particular or in that is of minor importance. What is of major im- 

 portance is that he showed us that all changes take place according to law, and 

 according to the same law ; that underlying all the superficial differences of all 

 changes in all things there is the same fundamental law. This is a very great 

 achievement. It is questionable whether it is not the greatest achievement of its 

 kind to which the human mind has ever attained ; and this alone establishes 

 Spencer's indefensible right to the title of a great man. We all know Macaulay's 

 famous simile of the child that, raised upon his father's shoulders, cries " How 

 much taller am I than papa ? " Thus it is with the little men who now belittle 

 Herbert Spencer, to whom they owe unwittingly the chief part of their mental 

 equipment. 



Of all the men that have been selected by the editor of the series of books 

 treating of Makers of the Nineteenth Century, none has a better title to a place in 

 the series than Herbert Spencer ; and he is singularly happy in his biographer. 

 Mr. Hugh Elliot has performed his task admirably ; with a thorough knowledge 

 of his subject, with a broad and firm grasp of principles ; with great critical 

 acumen ; and with a power of skilful and clear exposition in excellent English that 

 is almost as rare in biography as it is in philosophy and in science. He is neither 

 a blind idolater nor a carping critic. He fully appreciates Spencer's greatness, 

 and yet fully recognises his limitations. He expounds Spencer's doctrines clearly, 

 accurately, and fairly, and criticises them with great acuteness. He is able to 

 discern that, though some of them may have been deduced from false premisses, 

 it does not follow that they are wrong ; the fact being that Spencer, like all 

 deductive reasoners, first jumped to his conclusions by a kind of intuition, and 

 subsequently sought for them reasons that were as likely to be wrong as right, and 

 in any case did not display the method by which his conclusions were arrived at. 

 It was this mode of arriving at his conclusions first and seeking reasons for them 

 afterwards that is at the root of Spencer's dogmatism. For he was a dogmatist, 

 and a rather testy dogmatist, though he did his best to hide his dogmatism under 

 a mask of reasonableness. Nothing would have horrified and disgusted him more 

 than to compare him to a classical schoolmaster ; and yet his convictions and those 

 of the classical schoolmaster are arrived at by the same process, and supported by 

 the same means. Each starts with a settled conviction, and each seeks to prop 

 up his conviction and account for it by reasons which he seeks after his conviction 

 is settled, and pretends that they settled his conviction. The difference between 



