INTRODUCTION 



of treating the Spencerian doctrine in these 

 volumes. 



The " Cosmic Philosophy," even when con- 

 sidered quite apart from its more original por- 

 tions, is nowhere a mere summary of the Spen- 

 cerian system, in so far as that system had been 

 formulated at the time when the book ap- 

 peared. Whatever the degree of Fiske's agree- 

 ment with Spencer's opinions, his mode of lit- 

 erary treatment is much more independent 

 than is customary in the contemporary disci- 

 ple who is portraying his master's position. 

 Fiske freely abbreviates, rearranges, introduces 

 episodes of his own into the discussion, gives 

 accounts of matters that Spencer had discussed, 

 not in the System of Synthetic Philosophy, 

 but in separate essays, and in general feels au- 

 thorized to restate the case as he himself has 

 rethought it. One of the most notable and 

 recurrent literary features of the discussion is 

 the treatment of Comte, whose views are com- 

 pared with Spencer's at various places. This 

 feature is sufficiently explained by the above- 

 mentioned plan of the original course of lec- 

 tures at Harvard. Nevertheless, as was also 

 indicated at the outset of this Introduction, 

 we have here precisely that side of the " Cos- 

 mic Philosophy " which least continuously 

 interests a reader of the twentieth century, 

 xlii 



