570.1 377 
I 
Mr Herbert Spencer’s Biology ' 
HAT strikes one most forcibly on reading the ‘ Principles of 
Biology” in this new and enlarged edition is the extra- 
ordinary range and grasp of its author, the piercing keenness of his 
eye for essentials, his fertility in invention and the bold sweep 
of his logical method. In these days of increasingly straitened 
specialism it is well that we should feel the influence of a thinker 
whose powers of generalization have seldom been equalled and 
perhaps never surpassed. In no narrow or carping spirit should 
we approach the work of one who has done so much for the cause 
of evolution. We may set our queries against this or that matter 
of detail, or may enter a protest against the acceptance, without 
more conclusive proof, of certain broader principles; but we should 
not dwell on minor defects nor allow more grave differences of 
opinion to blind us to the gift which Mr Herbert Spencer placed in 
our hands thirty-four years ago, and has borrowed for awhile that he 
may return it to us with added weight. 
The phrase ‘added weight’ is perhaps ambiguous. The volume 
of the work is materially increased, and new sections of much 
interest have been added. But though the intellectual weight has 
also been augmented, it is an open question whether it would not 
have’ been wiser to leave intact a treatise of such unique historical 
importance and value, relegating corrections and additions to notes 
and appendices. With all the labour and care Mr Spencer has 
expended on it during the last two years, it cannot be said that, 
having due reference to the contemporary state of knowledge in 
each case, the revised volume of 1898 holds the same position as 
the original work of 1864. 
The scheme and method of the Principles of Biology and the 
manner in which Mr Spencer develops his subject are presumably 
so familiar as to render anything more than the briefest summary 
unnecessary. Starting in Part I. with the Data of Biology, the com- 
position and properties of organic matter, the actions of external 
forces on it, its reactions to these forces, and its characteristic modes 
of metabolism, are severally discussed, and the conception of Life, 
1 «The Principles of Biology,” by Herbert Spencer, vol. i, Revised and Enlarged 
Edition. 8vo, xii+706 pp. London: Williams & Norgate. 1898. Price 18s, 
2D 
