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si'KM 1:1: 



SPENCER GULF 



because they are the counterparts of the states of 

 consciousness dealt with by the science of sub- 

 jective psychology. 



Objectively, an attempt is made to trace the 

 evolution of mind from reflex action through 

 instinct to reason, memory, feeling, and will, by 

 tlie inter-action of the nervous system with its 

 environment. Subjectively, mental states are 

 analysed, and it is contended that all of them 

 including those primary scientific ideas, the per- 

 ceptions of matter, motion, space, and time, 

 assumed in the First Principles can be analysed 

 into a primitive element of consciousness, some- 

 thing which can only In- defined as analogous to a 

 nervous shock. These perceptions have now become 

 1 innate in the individual. They may be called as 

 Kant called space and time forms of intuition ; 

 but they have been acquired empirically by the 

 race, through the persistence of the corresponding 

 phenomena in the environment, and from the 

 accumulated experiences of each individual being 

 transmitted in the form of modified structure to 

 his descendants. 



This principle of heredity is one of the laws by 

 which individuals are connected with one another 

 into an organic whole ; and we thus pass quite 

 naturally to what Spencer calls super-organic 

 evolution, implying the co-ordinated actions of 

 many individuals, and giving rise to the science 

 of sociology. Society, like an individual man, is 

 shown to be an organism from the fact and laws 

 of its growth, the nature of its activities, and the 

 inter <lc|enclence of its parts ; though it is dis- 

 tinguished from the individual organism in this, 

 that it is discrete, while the latter is concrete : 

 'there is no social sensorinm.' As societies pro- 

 gress in size and structure, they work on one 

 another profound metamorphoses, now by war- 

 Bt niggles and now by industrial intercourse. 



Assisted by a series of elaborate ethnographical 

 charts (Descriptive Sociology) prepared under his 

 direction, Spencer has attempted to trace the 

 development of human ideas, customs, ceremonial 

 u-ages, and political institutions. The genesis of 

 religion is traced to Ancestor-worship (q.v.), or 

 generally to worship of the dead. The notion 

 of toother life from which the notions of gods 

 and Uod are gradually evolved is originated 

 mainly hy 'such phenomena as shadows, reflec- 

 tions, and echoes these l>eing looked upon as 

 indications of a 'double' or other self, wliich is 

 ini extinguished with the death of the first self. 

 It is this fear of the dead which is the root of 

 the religious control, just as it is tin; fear of 

 the living which is the root of the political 

 control. Ceremonies and institutions alike have 

 their root in this fear of the stronger ami sub- 

 mission to the conqueror. Thus, early communities 

 Ix-ing of the predatory or militant type, tended to 

 centralised control ; while industrial communities, 

 which are now most frequent, should tend to fret; 

 institutions and to the restriction of the sphere of 

 government to the negative duty of preventing the 

 interference of one individual with his neighbour's 

 liberty. This principle of government commonly 

 expressed by the maxim lnix.tr: faire is energeti- 

 cally enforced by Spencer, against the tendency 

 of much recent legislation. A si ill higher type 

 t ban the industrial is possible in the future, by 

 inverting the belief that life is for work into 

 the belief that work is for life ; just as the indus- 

 trial type inverts the belief that individuals exist 

 for the state into the belief that the state exists for 

 individuals. 



The principles of morality are looked on by 

 Spencer as the copestone of his system, all his 

 other investigations being only preliminary to 

 them. Ethics, lie holds, 'ias its root in physical, 



biological, psychological, and social phenomena, 

 for by thorn the conditions of human activity are 

 prescribed and supplied. The best conduct is' that 

 which most fully realises evolution which promotes 

 the greatest totality of life in sell, offspring, ami 

 the race the balance of egoism anu altrni-m 

 being attained by a compromise between these 

 contending principles. The measure of life is >.u.'. 

 to le pleasure, but the Utilitarian school are at 

 fault in assuming that the end (greatest happi- 

 ness) is better Known than the means to it 

 (morality); and in ignoring the fact that accumu- 

 lated experiences of utility have liecome consoli- 

 dated in the superior races into a moral sense. 



In the above summary it has been impossible to 

 give any idea of either the strength or weakness of 

 the proof hy which this elaborate system is sup 

 ported. In general, it may be said that its st rength 

 lies in the author's brilliant power of generalisa- 

 tion, his acquaintance with many departments of 

 science, and nis unsurpassed wealth of illustration. 

 The wide knowledge which all his writings dis- 

 play of physical science, anil his constant endeavour 

 to illustrate and support his system by connecting 

 its positions with scientific facts and laws, have 

 given his philosophy great currency among men 

 of science more so, indeed, than among philo- 

 sophical experts. At the same time, not only have 

 the development and application he has given to 

 the theory of evolution profoundly influenced con- 

 temporary speculation and the recent developments 

 of psychology and ethics, but he must also l>e 

 regarded as one of the very few modern thinkers 

 who have carried out the attempt to give a system 

 atic account of the universe in its totality.' The 

 high opinion of his writings formed by foreign con- 

 temporaries has led to many academic honours 

 being pressed upon him, which have, however, all 

 alike been declined. 



Spencer's most popular works have been a small 

 volume on Education ( 1861 ), wliich has been translated 

 into many languages, and The Study of Sociology (1872), 

 which points out to the unscientific reader the difficulties 

 of a social science. He has also written The Man rerttits 

 tlie State (1881), and The Factors of Organic Erolution 

 (1887). His occasional papers have been collected and 

 published in three volumes of Etnays : Scientific, J'oliti- 

 i-nl, and Spcculatirf. An Epitome of tke Synthetic 

 Philosophy, by F. Howard Collins, was published with 

 Mr Spencer's authority in 1889 (1 vol.); there are 

 criticisms of the system by Guthrie (1879 and 1882) 

 and M'Cosh (New York, 1885); and the Outline* of 

 Cosmic Philosophy, by John Fiske ( 2 vols. Boston, 1*7-1 ), 

 is based on Spencer's system. See also Fischer, Uel>rr da* 

 Genetz der Enticielcelunff (1875) ; Michelet, Spencer i 

 System der Philosophic (1882), &nd Spenf < r* l.,]ir, ( Leip. 

 1891 ); A. D. White, Herbert Spencer : The Completion of 

 the Synthetic Philosophy (1897). 



Spencer, WILLIAM ROBERT, minor poet, was 

 second son of Lord Charles Spencer, himself the 

 second son of that Charles Spencer, tiftli Karl of 

 Sunderland, who succeeded as third Duke of Marl- 

 borough in 1733. He was l>orii in 1770, was edu- 

 cated at Harrow and Oxford, held a Commissioner- 

 ship of Stamps, spent his last ten years in Paris, 

 and died there in 1834. Among his children were 

 Aubrey-George Spencer, Bishop of Jamaica, and 

 GiMirge-John-Trevor, Bishop of Madras. He was 

 long a fashionable writer of IT/-.V </. xm-iftf and such 

 like, but. his fashionable verse is clean forgotten, 

 and his name lives alone in n few simple songs 

 and ballads, the chief ' Beth Gelert, or the Grave 

 of the Greyhound.' Yet even these are but com- 

 monplace. His poems were collected, with a brief 

 Memoir, in 1835. 



Spencer Gulf, a deep inlet on the coast of 

 South Australia, between Eyre's Peninsula on the 

 W. and Yorke Peninsula on the E. It is 180 miles 

 in length, by 90 in greatest breadth. 



