CHAPTER XXVI 



MY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES SPENCER, HUXLEY, 



MIVART, ETC. 



Soon after my return home, in 1862 or 1863, Bates and I, 

 having both read " First Principles " and been immensely 

 impressed by it, went together to call on Herbert Spencer, 

 I think by appointment. Our thoughts were full of the great 

 unsolved problem of the origin of life — a problem which Dar- 

 win's " Origin of Species " left in as much obscurity as ever — 

 and we looked to Spencer as the one man living who could 

 give us some clue to it. His wonderful exposition of the 

 fundamental laws and conditions, actions and interactions of 

 the material universe seemed to penetrate so deeply into that 

 " nature of things " after which the early philosophers searched 

 in vain and whose blind gropings are so finely expressed in 

 the grand poem of Lucretius, that we both hoped he could 

 throw some light on that great problem of problems. I forget 

 the details of the interview, but I think Bates was chief spokes- 

 man, and expressed our immense admiration of his work, and 

 that as young students of nature we wished to have the honour 

 of his acquaintance. He was very pleasant, spoke appre- 

 ciatively of what we had both done for the practical exposition 

 of evolution, and hoped we would continue to work at the 

 subject. But when we ventured to touch upon the great 

 problem, and whether he had arrived at even one of the first 

 steps towards its solution, our hopes were dashed at once. 

 That, he said, was too fundamental a problem to even think 

 of solving at present. We did not yet know enough of matter 

 in its essential constitution nor of the various forces of nature ; 

 and all he could say was that everything pointed to its having 

 been a development out of matter — a phase of that continuous 



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