SPENCER. 



555 



ical views of modern science, is still in process of 

 development and publication. Spencer was born on 

 April 27, 1820, at Derby, England. His father was 

 a teacher of mathematics at that place, and a man of 

 wide culture and marked character, and by his fre- 

 quent discussions on radical social questions with 

 his brothers, men of the same type, did much to de- 

 velop the growing spirit of inquiry in his son. The 

 tendency to scientific study in the boy was early 

 shown in a fondness for keeping insects and watch- 

 ing their transformations, and for years the seeking 

 and rearing of caterpillars, and' the catching, press- 

 ing, and drawing of winged insects were his regular 

 occupations. He assisted his father also in physical 

 experiments. At the age of 13 he was sent to study 

 with his uncle, Rev. Thomas Spencer, rector of the 

 parish of Hinton. Here he remained for three years, 

 making special progress in mathematics. Returning 

 home he studied perspective with his father, and at 

 the age of 17 was articled to a civil engineer, and 

 was employed on the London and Birmingham Rail- 

 way. In 1841 he returned home and spent two 

 years in study, during which he collected botanical 

 specimens, practised drawing and modelling, and 

 showed strong inventive inclinations, manifested by 

 improvements in the arts of watchmaking, type 

 manufacture, etc. In 1843, after some attempts to 

 obtain literary employment in London, he returned 

 to engineering labors. But the railroad-building 

 mania which had long prevailed suddenly abated, 

 and the demand for engineers fell off. 



Spencer's earliest essay in literature was in the 

 form of professional papers contributed to the Civil 

 Enginear and Artisun's Journal; but his career in this 

 direction fairly began in a series of letters " On tho 

 Proper Sphere of Government," which appeared in 

 the Nonconformist in 1842. The influence of the de- 

 bates to which lie had listened in his boyhood, and 

 his own reflections on similar subjects, had given 

 him decided and radical opinions on the nature and 

 limitations of civil authority, which were indicated 

 in these articles. His theory was that the govern- 

 mental function should bo limited to tho protection 

 of life, property, and order, tho settlement of tho 

 general relations of society being left to individual 

 social action. These letters were reprinted in pam- 

 phlet form, and constituted the basis of his later 

 published views on the same subject, in which he 

 Las persistently advocated the contraction of the 

 sphere of government and the leaving of the princi- 

 pal questions of social science and political econ- 

 omy to outwork themselves under the influence of 

 natural law and without governmental interference. 

 He believes that all wrongs will right the'mselves if 

 left alone, and that political tinkering but checks 

 the growth of true remedial influences. 



Spencer, soon after ceasing the practice of his 

 profession, took up his residence in London, and 

 from 1848 to 1852 was engaged in literary work on 

 the Economist, the Westminster Review, and the Klin- 

 burgh Keeieif. At the house of the editor of the 

 Westminster he met O. H. Lewes and Miss Evans 

 ("George Eliot"), both of whom became his life- 

 long friends. In 1851 appeared his first important 

 work, Socinl Statics, or the Conditions Essential to Hu- 

 man Hupping** Specified and the First Developed. 

 This remarkable essay advocates a theory of society 

 widely different from any prevailing one. It is full 

 of radical and original views, and, while following 

 the line of argument of his pamphlet of 1842, is a 

 far more complete and well-digested study of social 

 science. It is still widely popular, especially in 

 America, and though it does not fully represent the 

 author's later views, and is probably impractica- 

 ble in many of its suggestions, it remains a most 

 valuable text-book of democratic political philoso- 

 phy. 



In 1855 appeared from his pen another work of 

 great originality and value, The Principles of Psy- 

 chology, a philosophical endeavor to analyze the rela- 

 tions between mind and matter, in which he first 

 showed his strong inclination to the hypothesis of 

 evolution. His thoughts had been led in this di- 

 rection by his studies of social law, his writings on 

 which are full of evolutionary conceptions. As his 

 views took a wider range than the theory of society, 

 he began to look upon the whole development of 

 nature from an evolutionary stand-point, and gradu- 

 ally to organize in his mind that philosophy of evo- 

 lution which it has been the work of all his later 

 life to develop. According to his view old cosmo- 

 logical and scientific ideas were giving way and 

 others taking their place, and it was evident that 

 science must be reconstructed on a broader and 

 more general basis than had satisfied the minds of 

 preceding thinkers. The idea of the unity of nature 

 and the interdependence of the sciences was stead- 

 ily growing, and several writers had advocated the 

 developmental hypothesis as applied to the world 

 of animals. The mind of Spencer was full of this 

 new philosophy, which shows its influence in 

 everything he wrote. The period from 1850 to 1860 

 was with him one of great mental activity, during 

 which he produced numerous review articles in ad- 

 dition to his published volumes. Among these were 

 essays on "The Philosophy of Stylo;" "Manners 

 and Fashion ; " " Progress, its Law and Cause ; " 

 " The Development Hypothesis;" "The Theory of 

 Population," "The Genesis of Science," "The 

 Nebular Hypothesis," etc. These papers have been 

 republished in the United States in several volumes, 

 entitled IttustratioiU of Universal Progress; Essays, 

 Moral, Political, and ^Esthetic ; Education: Intellect- 

 tut!, Moral, and Physical; and Recent Discussions. 

 They all show the evolutionary tendency of lii.s 

 thoughts, which were steadily advancing to the con- 

 ception of evolution as a universal law and tho solo 

 principle of development in the universe. In his 

 Principles of Psychology he dealt with the mind in 

 all its manifestations as a product of development, 

 holding that as the body was evolved by insensible 

 stages from the germ to the complex organism, so 

 was the mind. He took the ground that the mental 

 faculties have gradually developed through the 

 whole range of animal life, under the influence of 

 experience and the long-continued moulding of en- 

 vironing nature. This was the first attempt to apply 

 the theory of evolution to psychological phenomena. 

 Spencer's step forward was a bold one, which met 

 with but little acceptance from zoologists, and was 

 decried by the world at large. The doctrine has 

 won a much wider audience since then, however, 

 Spencer's views having been adopted by several 

 succeeding writers on psychology, while many stu- 

 dents consider the Principles of Psychology, as finally 

 revised, his greatest work. 



By 1858 Spencer had completed his mental study 

 of the principle of evolution as applied to the phe- 

 nomena of nature, and had fully outworked in his 

 thoughts the conception that evolution is a universal 

 process, dependent on the laws of matter and force, 

 and affecting and controlling all that takes place in 

 nature, from the genesis of the atom to that of the 

 human soul. In this year appeared his treatise on 

 The Nebular Hypothesis, and while writing it his 

 views of evolution unfolded till it expanded in his 

 mind to a universal law, while all branches of knowl- 

 edge appeared to him to be mutually dependent, 

 and to be underlaid by this single principle. These 

 views were not reached, like those of Darwin, through 

 original scientific observation. Spencer's early ten- 

 dency to scientific study made but little progress, 

 and he did not become a specialist in any branch of 

 science. Yet through persistent reading he became 



