HERBERT SPENCER 111 



so chiefly to eschew the criticism of fools and to protect his inner 

 freedom. 



There is no justification whatever for the statement that Spencer 

 was "all brains and no heart." He was not sentimental, but very 

 sensitive. Of course the accomplishment of his life's work did 

 absorb the greatest part of his energy, including his emotional 

 energy, and a man carrying such a burden on his shoulders could 

 not be expected to run errands for others. 



As in the case of Leonardo da Vinci, the predominance of his 

 intellectual concerns partly explains his sexual indifference, which 

 overwhelming interests of another sort could but aggravate, as 

 he became more engrossed in his work. At any rate, Spencer 

 does not seem to have ever experienced love. When he was 

 twenty, he came nearer to it than ever before or afterward, but 

 this little encounter seems very shadowy indeed and would not 

 even be quoted in the biography of a more normal person. Later, 

 while he was editing the Economist, he often took to the theater, 

 to share his free tickets, a young girl (she was a year older than 

 he) who then enjoyed some small notoriety for her translation of 

 Strauss's Life of Jesus. They saw a great deal of one another, but 

 although there is no woman for whom Spencer ever had a higher 

 esteem, there is no warrant for the statement that they ever were 

 in love. Leaving temperament aside, maybe if Spencer had had a 

 little more imagination and pluck, they would have married. And 

 just try to imagine what would have happened if Herbert Spencer 

 and George Eliot had been man and wife! Pity that such experi- 

 ments are impossible and that each life is definitive. Anyhow, I 

 do not think, as far as I know them both, that Spencer would 

 have made her happy; at least he could not have inspired her as 

 deeply as did, later, George Henry Lewes. 



It is very interesting to compare Spencer and Comte, and I love 

 to bring them together in the field of my memory. Spencer did 

 not like allusions to Comte apropos of himself, and he refused to 

 own any indebtedness to his illustrious predecessor. It is true that 

 he never made a formal study of Comte's works, yet he knew 



