580 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



article, addressed to a new audience, and filled with very ob- 

 jectionable misstatements. It would not do, in editing the 

 volume which was intended to be a full presentation of the 

 discussion, to leave this article out. But to print it with- 

 out corrections would be unjust to Spencer, and to the 

 readers of the book, who wanted and were entitled to the 

 completest statement of the case. There was no call for 

 anything more from Mr. Harrison, who had had his last 

 word, and declared that he should pursue the controversy 

 no further ; but there was a need that corrections by Spen- 

 cer should be supplied. He accordingly sent me the sub- 

 stance of some additions to be appended as notes, and 

 which I inserted in their appropriate places. I deny the 

 wrongfulness of this act, and the ado that has been made 

 over it seems to me perfectly absurd. Mr. Spencer did 

 what it was desirable and entirely proper that he should 

 do. He had not only the right but it was his duty to de- 

 fend himself against the erroneous representations of Mr. 

 Harrison ; and I insist that, if any apology was due either 

 way, it was from Mr. Harrison to Spencer for making the 

 misstatements, rather than from Spencer to Harrison for 

 correcting them. 



Mr. Spencer, as will be seen, prints two paragraphs 

 from a private letter of mine giving reasons which induced 

 him to favour the American reprint, and Mr. Harrison char- 

 acterizes them as chiefly "inventions." I had said, " Har- 

 rison is^coming over to lecture in this country," and Mr. 

 Harrison says he never thought of it. I wrote carelessly ; 

 but my meaning was, that he is expected to come, and in 

 this there was no "invention." It had been talked about, 

 and there was nothing unlikely in it. The coming of emi- 

 nent Englishmen to this country to lecture is certainly no 

 unusual thing. Mr. Harrison is a lecturer, a man of ideas 

 which he is interested in propagating, and is reputed to 

 have means and leisure. He has many admirers in the 



