30 MY LIFE 



lapse of individuals into slavery, at one period of the process 

 altogether indispensable. I do not in the least believe tbat 

 from the primitive system of communistic ownership to a high 

 and finished system of State ownership, such as we may look 

 for in the future, there could be any transition without passing 

 :li rough such stages as we have seen, and which exist now. 



" Argument aside, however, I should be disinclined to 

 commit myself to any scheme of immediate action, which, as 

 I have indicated to you, I believe, at present, premature. For 

 myself, I feel that I have to consider not only what I may do 

 on special questions, but also how the action I take on special 

 questions may affect my general influence ; and I am disinclined 

 to give more handles against me than are needful. Already, 

 as you will see by the inclosed circular, I am doing in the way 

 of positive action more than may be altogether prudent. 



" Sincerely yours, 



" Herbert Spencer. " 



I do not remember, and I do not think that Henry George 

 either stated or implied that the course of civilization " might 

 have been different " from what it has been. His whole work 

 was devoted to showing the injustice and the evils of private 

 property in land, just as Herbert Spencer himself had done 

 in " Social Statics " ; and both works are alike beneficial, inas- 

 much as they demonstrate these facts and serve as incentives 

 and guides for our future attempts to remedy them. If Mr. 

 Spencer had not hastily laid aside the book, owing to this 

 prepossession against it, even he might have been benefited 

 by the thorough examination of the whole subject which 

 Mr. George gave, while he could hardly have failed to admire 

 its admirable and forcible exposition of the problem and his 

 often eloquent delineations of its results. I remember that 

 some years earlier, when I asked Herbert Spencer what he 

 thought of Buckle's " History of Civilization,'' which I took 

 for granted that he had read, his reply was somewhat similar 

 to that here given in the case of Henry George — that on 

 looking into the book he saw that its fundamental assumption 

 was erroneous, and therefore he did not care to read it. I 



