SPENCERS SYSTEM OF PHILOSOPHY. 



THE PHILOSOPHY OF EVOLUTION. 



By HERBERT SPENCER. 



This great system of scientific thought, the most original and important men- 

 tal undertaking of the age, to which Mr. Spencer has devoted his life, is now well 

 advanced, the published volumes being : First Principles, The Principles of Bi- 

 ology, two volumes, and The Principles of Psychology, vol. i., which will bo 

 shortly printed. 



This philosophical system differs from all its predecessors in being solidly 

 based on the sciences of observation and induction ; in representing the order 

 and course of Nature ; in bringing Nature and man, life, mind, and society, under 

 one great law of action ; and in developing a method of thought Which may serve 

 for practical guidance in dealing with the affairs of life. That Mr. Spencer is the 

 man for this great work will be evident from the following statements : 



" The only complete and systematic statement of the doctrine of Evolution 

 with which I am acquainted is that contained in Mr. Herbert Spencer's ' System 

 of Philosophy ; ' a work which should be carefully studied by all who desire to 

 know whither scientific thought is tending."— T. H. Huxley. 



" Of all our thinkers, he is the one who has formed to himself the largest new 

 scheme of a systematic philosophy." — Prof. Masson. 



" If any individual influence is visibly encroaching on Mills in this country, it 

 is his."— Ibid. 



" Mr. Spencer is one of the most vigorous as well as boldest thinkers that 

 English speculation has yet prodnced." — John Stuart Mill. 



" One of the acutest metaphysicians of modern times."— Ibid. 



" One of our deepest thinkerB."— Dr. Joseph D. Hooker. 



It is questionable if any thinker of finer calibre has appeared in our coun- 

 try."— George Henry Lewes. 



"He alone, of all British thinkers, has organized a philosophy."— Ibid. 



" He is as keen an analyst as is known in the history of philosophy ; I do not 

 except cither Aristotle or Kant."— George Ripley. 



" If we were to give our own judgment, we should say that, since Newton, 

 there has not in England been a philosopher of more remarkable speculative and 

 systematizing talent than (in spite of some errors and some narrowness) Mr. Her- 

 bert Spencer."— London Saturday Review. 



" We cannot refrain from offering our tribute of respect to one who, whether 

 for the extent of his positive knowledge, or for the profundity of his speculative 

 insight, has already achieved a name second to none in the whole range of Eng- 

 lish philosophy, and whose works will worthily sustain the credit of English 

 Ihooght in the present generation."— Westminster Review. 



