204 Edward Livingston Yoiimans. 



— has just published the ablest thing yet against Spencer 

 in the March Christian Examiner. There is concession of 

 second-rate ability, but a mean ingenuity in concentrating 

 upon Spencer all the blistering rays of theological odium, 

 and that, too, with a vast pretence for caring only for the 

 truth. It is a panic appeal, a scream, to the entire theo- 

 logical world that their day of judgment is at hand, and 

 that Herbert Spencer, materialist and atheist, is the head 

 devil who is engineering the headlong movement. It is all 

 right enough, and at any other time would be of no ac- 

 count, but just now It embargoes " liberal Christianity," 

 and leaves us to raise money out of the " world, the flesh, 

 and the devil." Well, if these will give the money, I will 

 vote them the true saints and bet on their chances of para- 

 dise. I am going to work at this thing at once, and don't 

 mean to be bluffed. 



I got a letter from my brother in London yesterday, who 

 stated that Spencer had received one from Mill the day be- 

 fore expressing regret and proposing a remedy, but did it in 

 such a way as, of course, to elicit a prompt and decided re- 

 fusal. Tact is all-essential in such a matter. I have Mill's 

 letter, and it is noble, though not adroit. Spencer exacted 

 a promise that it should not go out of my hands. If I 

 come to Boston, as I may before long, I will bring it. I 

 am now going to work, and will advise you of the result 

 of the experiment. I will send this to Roberts's care, 

 thinking perhaps it will get more prompt delivery. Write 

 me what you think of Abbot's article, and oblige me by 

 pointing out every flaw you see. 



New York, March ^, 1866. 

 Dear Sister : . . . There is nothing in reference to 

 the Spencer enterprise. Nothing whatever has been done, 



had published an able essay on the Philosophy of Time and Space in the 

 North American Review. 



