376 Edward Liaingston Yomnans : 



places, and enlarges his sphere of influence in a way that is 

 not easy to estimate. Clearly an earnest lecturer, of 

 commanding intelligence and charming manner, with a 

 great subject to teach, must have an opportunity for sowing 

 seeds that will presently ripen in a change of opinion or 

 sentiment, in an altered way of looking at things on the 

 part of whole communities. Xo le(!turer has ever had a 

 better opportunity of this sort than Edward Youmans, and 

 none ever made a better use of his opportunity. His gifts 

 as a talker were of the highest order. The commonest and 

 plainest story, as told by Edward Younuins, had all the 

 breathless interest of the most thrilling romance. Abso- 

 lutely unconscious of himself, simple, straightforward, and 

 vehement, wrapped up in his subject, the very embodiment 

 of faith and enthusiasm, of heartiness and good cheer, it 

 w^as delightful to hear him. And when we join with all 

 this his unfailing common sense, his broad and kindly view 

 of men and things, and the delicious humor that kept 

 flashing out in quaint, pithy phrases such as no other man 

 would have thought of, and such as are the despair of 

 anyone trying to remember and quote them, we can seem to 

 imagine what a power he must have been with his lectures. 



When such a man goes about for seventeen years, 

 teaching scientilic truths for Avhich the world is ripe, we 

 may be sure that his work is great, albeit we have no 

 standard whereby we can exactly measure it. In hundreds 

 of little towns with queer names did this strong personality 

 appear and make its way and leave its effects in tlie shape 

 of new thoughts, new questions, and enlarged hospitality of 

 mind, among the inhabitants. The results of all this are 

 surely visible to-day. In no i)art of the English world has 

 Herbert Spencer's ])hilosophy met witli siu-h a general and 

 cordial reception as in the United States. This may, no 

 doubt, be largely ex])lained by a reference to general causes ; 

 but as it is almost always necessary, along with our general 

 (iauses, to take into the accoimt some ])ersonal influence, so 

 it is in tliis case. It is safe to say that among the agencies 

 whicli (hiring the ])ast iifty years have so remarkably 

 broadened the mind of the American ])eo})le, very few have 

 been more ])otent than the gentle and subths but pervasive 

 work done by Edward Youmans with his lectures, and to 

 this has been largely due the hospitable reception of 

 Herbert Spencer's ideas. 



It was in l<sr)() that ]Mr. Youmans fell in with a review 

 of "S])encer's l*rinci})les of Tsychology," by Dr. Morell, in 



