626 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



to suspend labor entirely for varying intervals to recover his working 

 condition. When he entered upon his philosophical undertaking in 

 I860 laying out twenty years of original work his health was so in- 

 secure that many thought the project foolhardy, and that it would 

 prove fatal to him. But, forced by painful experience to economize 

 his energies, he has become an adept in the art of taking care of him- 

 self; so that, instead of breaking down, his condition has perhaps im- 

 proved with the progress of his work. He would probably never 

 have been able to lorite the volumes of his philosophy, but in 1859 he 

 adopted the expedient of dictation to an amanuensis, and attributes 

 his power of going on to the immense economy and advantages of this 

 practice. He has latterly not been so well as usual, for, though turn- 

 ing off a large amount of work on " The Principles of Sociology," and 

 also carrying along the " Descriptive Sociology," both of which works 

 are well advanced, he has yet been interrupted by more prolonged in- 

 tervals of inability to labor. He has, besides, had to spend a great 

 deal- of his force in attention to business, which is not a very exhilarat- 

 ing occupation, as he has now sunk nearly |20,000 in the pi-eparation 

 and publication of his " Descriptive Sociology." He has, besides, had 

 to maintain a burdensome correspondence, which growing at last in- 

 tolerable, he has lately sought relief by lithographing the following 

 form of a letter, which will explain itself : 



" Mr. Herbert Spencer regrets that he must take measures for diminishing 

 the amount of his correspondence. 



" Being prevented by his state of health from writing more than a short 

 time daily, he makes but slow progress with the work he has undertaken, and 

 this slow progress is made slower by the absorption of his time in answering 

 those who write to him. Letters inviting him to join committees, to attend 

 meetings, or otherwise to further some public object ; letters requesting inter- 

 views and autographs; letters asking opinions and explanations these, to- 

 gether with presentation copies of books that have to be acknowledged, entail 

 hindrances which, small as they may be individually, are collectively very 

 serious very serious, at least, to one whose hours of work are so narrowly 

 limited. 



" As these hindrances increase, Mr. Spencer finds himself compelled to do 

 something to prevent them. After long hesitation, he has reluctantly decided 

 to confine himself absolutely to the task which he is endeavoring to accomplish 

 to cut himself off from all engagements that are likely to occupy any atten- 

 tion, however slight, and to decline all correspondence not involved by his im- 

 mediate work. 



" To explain the absence of a special reply to each communication, he has 

 . adopted the expedient of lithographing this general reply ; and he hopes that 

 'the reason given will sufiiciently excuse him for not answering, in a more direct 

 way, the letter of Mr. . 



" 37 Queen's Gardens, Batswateb, W." 



