380 FA ward Lio'mfjstoii Youmaiis : 



ber, 18G3, that I made liis acquaintance. I had already 

 published, in 18G1, an article in one of the quarterly 

 reviews in which ]\Ir. Spencer's Avork was referred to ; and 

 another in 1863, in which the law of Evolution was 

 illustrated in connection with certain problems of the 

 science of language. The articles were anonymous, as was 

 then the fashion, and Mr. Youman's curiosity was aroused. 

 There were so few people then who had any conception of 

 Avhat Mr. Spencer's Avork meant, that they could have been 

 counted on one's fingers. At that time I kncAV of only 

 three the late Prof. Gurney, of Harvard; Mr. George 

 Roberts, now an eminent patent lawyer in Boston ; and 

 Mr. John Clark, noAv of the Prang Educational Company. 

 I have since knoAvn that there Avere at least tAvo or three 

 others about Boston, among others, my learned friend the 

 Eev. W. P. Alger, besides several in other parts of the 

 country. When Ave sometimes ventured to observe that 

 Mr. Spencer's Avork Avas as great as KcAvton's, and that his 

 theory of Evolution Avas going to remodel human thinking 

 upon all subjects Avhatever, people used to stare at us and 

 take us for idiots. Any one member of such a small 

 community Avas easy to find ; and I have always dated a 

 ncAV era in my life from the Sunday afternoon Avhen Mr. 

 Yovimans came to my room in Cambridge. It Avas the 

 beginning of a friendship such as hardly comes but once to 

 a man. At that first meeting I kncAV nothing of him 

 except that he was the author of a text-book of chemistry 

 which I had found interesting, in spite of its having been 

 crammed doAvn my throat by an old-fashioned memorizing 

 teacher who, I am convinced, never really kncAV so much 

 as the difference betAveen oxygen and antimony. At first 

 it Avas a matter of breathless interest to talk Avith a man 

 Avho had seen Herbert Spencer. But one of the immediate 

 results of this interview Avas the beginning of my own 

 (()rres{)ondence with ]Mr, Si)encer, Avhich led to manifold 

 results. And from that, time forth it always seemed as if, 

 Avhenever any of the good or lovely things of life came to 

 my lot, somehow or other Edward Youmans Avas either the 

 cause of it or at any rate intimately concerned Avith it. 

 The sphere of his unselfisli goodness Avas so Avide and its 

 quality so i)otent that one could not come into near 

 relations Avith him Avitlioiit Ix'eoniing in all manner of 

 unsuspected Avays strcngtliened and enriched. 



