574 Edward Livingston Yoiunans. 



mitigate the barbarism of the situation. Imperfect as it 

 may be, it is an honest procedure in behalf of the foreign 

 author; and it is now practised to an extent that should 

 materially qualify those wholesale charges of piracy. The 

 present case is to be regarded in the light of these consid- 

 erations ; and I think it will be found that the lesson to be 

 drawn from it is quite different from that which has been 

 drawn by, the English press. 



So far as the above correspondence is concerned, the 

 motives that impelled me to take the share I had in bring- 

 ing out the suppressed book are to be gathered only 

 from a scrap in a hurried private letter to Mr. Spencer; 

 but, as my act is now branded as piratical, I must be ex- 

 cused for stating more fully the reasons by which I was 

 actually influenced in the course taken. 



Mr. Harrison had an important controversy with Her- 

 bert Spencer on a grave subject, which was published in 

 the Nineteenth Century. In printing their papers I have 

 the right to assume their purpose to be that they should 

 be read as widely as possible. There was much interest 

 in this country to follow this discussion, and we accord- 

 ingly printed the articles in The Popular Science Monthly. 



But, when the controversy was finished, there was a call 

 for its republication in a separate form, more convenient, 

 accessible, and cheaper than in the pages of a magazine. 

 The demand was reasonable, and I was anxious to comply 

 with it, that the discussion might be disseminated as widely 

 as possible. I, moreover, desired the republication for the 

 same reason that I had urged Mr. Spencer to go on with the 

 controversy with Mr. Harrison. Although knowing the 

 low state of his working power, and how important it was 

 that he should not be interrupted by such side issues in 

 the prosecution of the great philosophical work upon which 

 he has been engaged for many years, it seemed to me of 



