504 Edward Livingston Youmans. 



scientific achievement, any vast enlargement or further 

 generalization of the modern scientific doctrine of evolu- 

 tion." To the same effect, Mr. Emerson, when recently 

 called upon by a newspaper interviewer to furnish his 

 opinions of great men, declared Mr. Spencer to be nothing 

 better than a " stock writer, who writes equally well upon 

 all subjects." 



These are not the circumspect and instructive utter- 

 ances which we should look for from men of authority 

 whose opinions are sought and valued by the public ; they 

 are gross and inexcusable misrepresentations, and exem- 

 plify a style of criticism that is now so freely indulged in 

 that it requires to be met, in the common interest of jus- 

 tice and truth. By their estimates, of Mr. Spencer, the 

 gentlemen quoted have raised the question of his position 

 as a thinker, and the character and claims of his intellec- 

 tual work. I follow their lead, and propose, on the present 

 occasion, to bring forward some considerations which may 

 help to a more trustworthy judgment upon the subject. 

 Assuming the foregoing statements to be representative, 

 it will be worth while to see what becomes of them under 

 examination. My object will be, less to expound or to 

 defend Mr. Spencer's views, than to trace his mental his- 

 tory, and the quality and extent of his labours as disclosed 

 by an analysis and review of his published writings. 



And first, let us glance at the general condition of 

 thought in relation to the origination of things when he 

 began its investigation. Character is tested by emergen- 

 cies, as well in the world of ideas as in the world of action ; 

 and it is by his bearing in one of the great crises of our 

 progressive knowledge of Nature that Mr. Spencer is to be 

 measured. 



Down to the early part of the present century it had 

 generally been believed that this world, with all that it 

 contains, was suddenly called into existence but a few 



