542 POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



In all humane effort, the more scientific the methods em- 

 ployed the better will be the results. According to Charles 

 Kingsley, " scientific method needs no definition it is simply 

 the exercise of common sense." 



HERBERT SPENCER AT SEVENTY-NINE. 



THE portrait of Herbert Spencer, which forms the frontispiece 

 to this number of the Monthly, is from a photograph taken 

 soon after he reached the age of seventy-eight. Though of late 

 years his health has been unusually feeble, this is scarcely reflected 

 in the face, which still retains in a marked degree the expression 

 of intellectual strength that was so characteristic of his prime. 



About the time Mr. Spencer completed the Synthetic Philoso- 

 phy, or, as it is better known, the Philosophy of Evolution, with the 

 publication of the third volume of the Principles of Sociology, we 

 gave an account of The Man and his Work, from the pen of Prof. 

 "William H. Hudson, who had for a number of years acted as his sec- 

 retary, and was so familiar with his thought that he afterward pub- 

 lished an Introduction to the Philosophy, which Mr. Spencer him- 

 self has cordially commended. It was naturally supposed by his 

 many friends that having practically carried out his original plan as 

 laid down in his prospectus thirty-six years before, Mr. Spencer 

 would throw off the cares and vexations of authorship, to enjoy the 

 rest and relaxation that his arduous and long-continued labors had 

 earned. But this, it seems, he was not inclined to do. Apparently 

 as active intellectually as ever, he has kept at work to the full ex- 

 tent of his physical ability, devoting himself mainly to such addi- 

 tions and modifications of his published writings as new knowledge 

 and the advance of thought have made necessary. This persistent 

 industry, unusual, to say the least, in one so far advanced in life, 

 the presentation of his latest portrait, and the interest which the 

 world takes in the doings of a man who has so profoundly influenced 

 the thought of his time, make this a fitting opportunity to refer to 

 some of the later incidents in his career. 



Though never inclined to plume himself on the importance or 

 the grandeur of his great undertaking, wondering now that he ever 

 had the " audacity " to begin it, and regarding its completion as more 

 an " emancipation " than a triumph, Mr. Spencer is nevertheless 

 entitled to the satisfaction which comes from the contemplation 

 in the evening of a long life of the fulfillment of the purpose to 

 which that life has been devoted. Although he speaks of the series 



