EDITOR'S TABLE. 



411 



his works, that his conclusions will 

 not meet with any considerable accept- 

 ance. The fact that they are Christian 

 in their essence is rather a hindrance 

 to their acceptance, since conventional 

 Christianity practically repudiates the 

 ideal morality of its founder." 



The presidents of colleges have found 

 tliemselves called upon to define their 

 position in regard to the " Data of 

 Ethics," and their outgivings, though 

 somewhat discordant, are none the less 

 instructive. 



It is now nearly ten years since 

 President Porter, of Yale, in a little 

 book on " Man," said in relation to Her- 

 bert Spencer: "No well-read student 

 of philosophy can hesitate to believe 

 that, notwithstanding the zeal of his ad- 

 mirers, he will cease to be the wonder 

 of the hour; that as soon as the secret 

 of his plausibility is exposed he will suf- 

 fer a more complete neglect than he 

 will fairly deserve." These were omi- 

 nous words, and coming from such a 

 source they led many to expect that 

 very soon some powerful hand would 

 strip the mask from a pretender and 

 consign him to speedy oblivion. Mean- 

 time, the lugubrious prophecy remained 

 unfulfilled. Dr. Porter, however, con- 

 tinues to be of the same mind, aad 

 after this long time he comes forward 

 and with unseemly malediction again 

 foretells the unmasking of this preten- 

 tious wn-iter, whom he elsewhere likens 

 to a " dexterous juggler." Yet, instead 

 of collapsing and vanishing in accord- 

 ance with this portentous Porterian pro- 

 gramme, Spencer emerges in a new 

 field into which the President of Yale 

 finds it necessary to follow him with a 

 six-columned article in "The Indepen- 

 dent." Some pleasant things are said of 

 the " Data of Ethics " and its author, 

 but Mr. Spencer is sharply indicted for 

 not making enough of the metaphysical 

 notion of personality. Dr. Porter de- 

 clares : " Indeed, personality is a concep- 

 tion which is utterly foreign to any and 



every part of his theory, as it logically 

 should be. This grand and damning 

 defect will one day be discovered and 

 confessed when the factitious glamour 

 which now invests it is dispelled." 



Theologians have ever been free in 

 the application of damnatory expletives 

 to scientific ideas which do not conform 

 to their standards, and the President is 

 here merely conforming to the long- 

 prevalent custom of his party. But, so 

 long as these execrable defects of Spen- 

 cer's theories are yet spoken of as 

 things to be " one day discovered," 

 would it not be well to pretermit this 

 little game of sinister augury, and be 

 content to curse defects already discov- 

 ered ? 



The President of the College of 

 New Jersey has also paid his respects 

 to the " Data of Ethics " in the 

 " Princeton Review," but he is at 

 wide disagreement with his brother 

 of Yale. In fact, they are squarely 

 antagonistic in their estimates of Spen- 

 cer, past, present, and future. Dr. 

 McOosh does not think that he is ei- 

 ther a sham to be exposed, or a thinker 

 to be soon forgotten. He opens his 

 article by saying: "Herbert Spencer 

 commands our respect by his terrible 

 earnestness. He has an end to live for, 

 ! and he lives for it. For it he has given ' 

 up professional pursuits and profits (he 

 was an engineer), and for many years 

 immediate fame and popularity. For 

 at least thirty years a grand system of 

 speculative physics founded on the re- 

 cent discoveries in biology has been 

 developing in his brain, and he must 

 unfold it and give it forth in spite of 

 obstacles, witli or without encourage- 

 ment from surroundings in the world. 

 He is to a large extent the author, and 

 is certainly the organizer and the very 

 embodiment, personification, and ex- 

 pression of development." Again Dr. 

 McCosh says: "What may be the esti- 

 mate of his philosophy at the end of 

 this century I will not take upon myself 

 to predict. As embracing so many es- 



