The Apostle of Evolution. 



/ 3 



regard for symmetry and disregard for fact, and who were, 

 from their want of scientific training, unable to detect the 

 essential fallaciousness of his system. Of these, the m(jst 

 notable example was the late Mr. Buckle. Besides him, I 

 can name but seven men who have been, in any appreciable 

 degree, influenced by Comte ; and of them, four, if not 

 five, are scarcely known to the public. 



29 Bloomsbury Square, W. C, March 26, 1864. 

 My dear Youmans : Thanks for the two letters which 

 I have received since I wrote last. Probably you have 

 been somewhat surprised at not receiving an answer before 

 now ; but I have been for the last six weeks wholly ab- 

 sorbed in writing a pamphlet on The Classification of the 

 Sciences, with an appendix repudiating the philosophy of 

 Comte. An article on First Principles, in the Revue des 

 Deux Mondes for February 15, which speaks of me as be- 

 longing to the " positive " school, has led me to take this 

 step, and I have postponed everything else until this 

 needful work was done. The pamphlet will be published 

 here in a few days. I am having papier-mache impressions 

 taken from the type, which I w^ll send to you by the next 

 steamer, so that you will be able to cast stereotype plates 

 and print at once. I think an extensive distribution of this 

 pamphlet in the United States will be desirable. 



New York, April 12, 1864. 

 My dear Mr. Spencer : After more delay than I an- 

 ticipated our new book is published and presents a very 

 satisfactory appearance. I have taken the liberty, as you 

 will see, of making some changes, which seemed demanded 

 by circumstances. Besides putting headings over alternate 

 pages, I have broken up some of your larger paragraphs, 

 so as to lighten the pages and render them more attractive 

 to miscellaneous readers. It was not easy to find points of 

 cleavage, so closely runs the thought, but I tried to violate 



