CHAPTER IX. 



THE APOSTLE OF EVOLUTION. 

 18631864. Age 42-43. 



THE next year (1863) was the mid-year of the war, 

 the year of the great victories at Gettysburg, Vicks- 

 burg, and Chattanooga, but none the less a time of 

 sore anxiety, for no one could as yet see how near the 

 end was. The publishing business, in which Mr. You- 

 mans had already so many broad and generous inter- 

 ests bound up, suffered severely. Telegrams from 

 the battlefield withdrew people's attention from sci- 

 ence and philosophy ; and the violent fluctuations of 

 an ill-advised currency of inconvertible paper added 

 to the losses of a curtailed publishing trade. " As 

 things are," said Mr. W. H. Appleton one day, " it is 

 no object to publish any book ; we would rather stop 

 business if it were possible." The plates of Social 

 Statics were offered, by way of experiment, to " three 

 of our best publishers. They liked the book, and 

 were aware of the favourable position of the author 

 in this country, but they did not want to publish any- 

 thing. They were compelled to issue a book now 

 and then to keep their names before the public, but 

 would far rather sell the works of other houses than 

 manufacture themselves." 



I cannot expect to give you a satisfactory account of 

 the sta.te of things here [wrote Youmans to Spencer a little 



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