292 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



Descriptive Sociology, and think we shall get a suitable 



man. 



SAVILE CLUB, December /tf, 1871. 



MY DEAR SISTER: I have fixed upon December 3oth to 

 sail, and shall go in the Russia, the quickest and safest for 

 the winter passage. There is still much to do in the next 

 fortnight, and I shall want the whole of it, yet the body of 

 the work is done. It will go on though I leave. Last 

 Monday night I met Spencer and Tyndall at Huxley's at 

 dinner to consider matters. It was precious different from 

 my first dinner there six months ago. They are fairly in 



ably have gone on calling us all " positivists " to this day, had not Huxley, 

 once in a moment of happy inspiration, fired off the term " agnostic." It 

 took so beautifully that people have by this time almost forgotten that 

 there ever was any such thing as " positivism " ; and as a missile of theo- 

 logical vituperation the word " agnostic " is so innocent of all definite sig- 

 nificance that nobody need mind being pelted with it. 



Since writing this footnote, I find among Mr. Spencer's letters the 

 following, which explains my own objection to the name " Synthetic." It 

 was a question of a title for a brief exposition of Spencerian philosophy by 

 Dr. Gazelles : 



38 QUEEN'S GARDENS, BAYSWATER, W., April 10, 1874. 



MY DEAR YOUMANS : I send on the annexed leaf a copy of the title- 

 page as I think it should run. Synthetic Philosophy would be a damper 

 to most, even when it was intelligible which it would be to but few. 

 Evolution Philosophy will, on the contrary, be attractive, and will con- 

 vey some idea of the book. I have prefixed the word " Outline " to give 

 further definiteness to the conception. Truly yours, 



HERBERT SPENCER. 



Outline of the Evolution Philosophy. By Dr. M. E. Gazelles. Trans- 

 lated from the French by the Rev. O. B. Frothingham. With an Appen- 

 dix by E. L. Youmans. 



In using the name " Cosmic " I was actuated by the feeling that it 

 would be less unintelligible and less of a " damper " than the other name. 

 In a certain sense, too, " Cosmic " is a distinctive epithet as applied to a 

 philosophy which excludes miracle and exhibits law as the " harmony of 

 the world." No doubt, however, " Evolution Philosophy " was the title 

 best adapted for leading the " public " into wisdom's narrow path. 



