SKETCH OF HERBERT SPENCER. 625 



a detailed report upon it with proposals for remedy to the town coun- 

 cil, which was printed by that body. The summer of that year was 

 spent in a visit at Hinton, and while there he modeled a bust of his 

 uncle, having during the previous year given some attention to that 

 art. lie also there commenced contributing to the Nonconformist a 

 series of letters on the proper sphere of government. These were 

 completed in the autumn. Shortly after there was commenced in 

 England a movement called the complete-suffrage agitation, which 

 arose out of a pamphlet published by the editor of the Nonconformist, 

 Mr. Miall. In this agitation Mr. Spencer took an active part, becom- 

 ing the local secretary for Derby, and he was afterward delegate to a 

 conference at Birmingham, where a futile attempt was made to co- 

 operate with the Chartists. In the spring of 1843 he went to London, 

 with the vague idea of getting some literary occupation, and while 

 there he made an engineering engagement, which lasted a few months 

 till the work was complete. Returning then to Derby, he was again 

 occupied chiefly with inventions. The railway mania, which was 

 rising in 1844, drew him again to engineering, and he was for some 

 months in charge of a London office, where he had at one time about 

 sixty men under him. That winter and the subsequent spring were 

 spent before parliamentary committees. But the lines in which he 

 was interested failed to be chartered, and he then had much experi- 

 ence in legal proceedings, helping the engineer to recover his charges. 



During 1846 and the beginning of 184Y he was occupied with 

 inventions, and took out a patent for a sawing and planing machine, 

 but, the friend who joined him in it going to India, the business 

 dropped through. During these years he contributed papers to the 

 Philosophical Magazine and to the Zooist, in one of which he pro- 

 pounded a view respecting the nature of sympathy, which he after- 

 ward found that Adam Smith had previously proposed. In 1848 he 

 commenced writing " Social Statics." In the autumn of that year he 

 was engaged as the sub-editor of the Economist, and during 1849 and 

 1850 while occupying that post he completed the volume, his first -con- 

 siderable work, " Social Statics." 



It is unnecessary to sketch here the intellectual labors of Mr. 

 Spencer, as that has been already done with some degree of fullness 

 in our pages.* 



Much solicitude regarding the disturbed health of Mr. Spencer 

 has been expressed by many who are interested in the progress of his 

 work, and exaggerated rumors have been circulated respecting it. 

 As we have said, his constitution was never robust, but it was sound 

 in the earlier portions of his life. His health gave way when thirty- 

 five years old, from intense application in writing " The Principles of 

 Psychology," published in 1855. Since that time he has been incapa- 

 ble of steady mental application, and has been compelled frequently 



' See Popular Science Monthly for November, 1874. 

 VOL. vni. 40 



