ESSAY-REVIEWS 145 



them is that the schoolmaster's conviction is almost universally accepted because 

 it is instilled into children, and grows and strengthens with their growth ; 

 Spencer's doctrines were received with detestation because, appealing to men of 

 mature age, they were opposed to the whole system of thought on which the 

 English nation prides itself, the system of induction by accumulation of corroborat- 

 ing instances. Not that he did not accumulate instances. He collected and pro- 

 duced them in dazzling and overwhelming abundance ; but it was evident that 

 their collection and production were posterior, and not anterior, to the doctrines 

 they illustrated, and therefore they were received with suspicion. 



Mr. Elliot introduces his subject by drawing a very apt contrast between the 

 teaching of Spencer and the teaching of the German school of philosophy, and 

 shows how inevitably and necessarily the one tends to produce liberty and peace, 

 the other, despotism and war. The latter is now admitted by every one, and 

 might have been foretold even by those who knew nothing of German philosophy, 

 if they had noticed the effect it had upon Carlyle, who introduced it into this 

 country, and was saturated with it. Carlyle, though a Scotsman, though a member 

 of the nation that is more passionately attached to personal freedom than any 

 nation in the world except the Swiss, became, under the influence of German 

 philosophy, a worshipper of brute force, of despotism and of war. Spencer was 

 the great apostle of Freedom, and he recognised that freedom rests upon peace 

 and needs peace, and produces peace. At the present time it is the free nations 

 that have been attacked and driven to war by the despotically governed nations, 

 and the one despotically governed nation that joined the free nations in enforcing 

 peace by war has been compelled to throw off its despotic government and join 

 the League of Peace, which is also the League of Freedom. Spencer's advocacy 

 of peace through freedom and of freedom through peace has been first derided 

 and then neglected ; but the triumph of its adversaries has brought its inevitable 

 result in war, and has compelled all the free nations of the world to acknowledge 

 the truth of the first half of his doctrine, that peace can only be preserved by 

 freedom. It remains to be seen whether, when peace comes, freedom will result. 

 At present the omens are adverse, for never have free nations been governed 

 with such despotism as now prevails. But then we must remember first, that these 

 free nations are thus despotically governed with their own free consent ; and 

 second, that they are at war, and war always means despotism, just as despotism 

 always means war. Shall we, when war is concluded, be more free or less free 

 than before ? That is the problem that is troubling thoughtful minds. 



Next to the inculcation of the righteousness and desirability of freedom and of 

 peace, the chief concern of Spencer's life was the inculcation of the doctrine of 

 evolution ; and in this second aim he has been far more successful than in the first. 

 The doctrine of evolution is now universally accepted. It is not only accepted : 

 it is become a truism. It is assumed as a matter of course in every department, 

 not only of what is ordinarily called science, but in every region of thought and 

 of life. Even politicians, even University authorities, the last people in the 

 world to be influenced by new ideas, or by any ideas, are compelled to shape 

 their course by implicit reference to the doctrine of evolution. Even those 

 ignorant persons who look upon Spencer as an overthrown idol, as an expended 

 force, as a misguided and over-rated spinner of flimsy hypotheses, yet utilise his 

 doctrine in their daily work ; and while they talk evolution, and think evolution, 

 and base their practice on evolution, belittle the author of the doctrine of 

 evolution. Many do not even call it evolution, and do not know that they owe it 

 to Spencer. They call it Darwinism, and think they owe it to Darwin ; but 

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