620 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to thirty years, conquers, bringing the exhausted organism, which has 

 daily approached nearer and nearer to her dead self, into her dead 

 bosom. 



Why the excess of power developed during growth or ascent of 

 life should be limited as to time ; why the power that maintains tlie 

 developed body on the level plain should be limited as to time; why 

 the power should decline so that the earth should be allowed to pre- 

 vail and bring descent of life, are j)roblems as yet unsolved. We 

 call the force that resists the earth vital. We say it resists death, 

 we speak of it as stronger in the young than in the old ; but we 

 know nothing more of it really, from a physical point of view", than 

 that while it exists it opposes terrestrial weight sufficiently to enable 

 the body to move with freedom on the surface of the earth. 



These facts we accept as ultimate facts. To say that the animal 

 is at birth endowed with some reserved force, something over and 

 above what it obtains from food and air, would seem a reasonable 

 conclusion ; but we have no proofs that it is true, save that the young 

 resist better than the old. We must, therefore, rest content with our 

 knowledge in its simple form, gathering from it the lesson that 

 death, a part of the scheme of life, is ordained upon a natural term 

 of life, is beneficently planned, "is rounded with a sleep." 



-- 



SKETCH OF HERBERT SPEXCER. 



HERBERT SPENCER was born in Derby, April 27, 1820. He 

 comes of a race of pedagogues his father, grandfather, and 

 uncles, having followed the profession of teaching. He has written a 

 book upon education, which some people think " theoretical ; " but it 

 was a product of experience, for he was himself subjected to much 

 the same method as that he lays down in his work. 



The father of Mr. Spencer was a gentleman of fine culture, of 

 engaging manners, and enlightened views which he carried into prac- 

 tice as a teacher. He was strongly disinclined to the prevailing 

 method of imparting knowledge and loading the memory with book 

 acquisitions. He believed that true mental development can only 

 come through self-ihstruction, and he constantly encouraged his pupils 

 to find things out for themselves. He held it to be of great impor- 

 tance to foster independence and originality of thought. He hence 

 aimed to arouse feelings of interest, curiosity, and love of inquiry in 

 the minds of the young, and then leave them to solve their own prob- 

 lems. One of the objects he constantly sought to attain was to 

 quicken and give scope to the constructive and inventive faculties. 

 He was an excellent mathematician, but in dealing with this subject 



