Herbert Spencer and the Doctrine of Evolution. 539 



attracted marked attention at the time ; but their author 

 was unknown, and, of course, lost the advantage of having 

 his ideas accredited to him. Up to the time when he had 

 matured his system of thought, and was ready to enter 

 upon its formal publication, he had been giving it out in 

 fragments, as its several aspects had taken shape in his 

 own mind. His articles, many of which were republished 

 in this country, thus went far toward familiarizing the pub- 

 lic mind with the general conception of Evolution, so that 

 he was actually preparing his readers to discredit his subse- 

 quent claims to his own views, which, being reproduced and 

 further diffused by others, were regarded as belonging to the 

 common stock of current ideas. So far did this go that 

 he was ultimately exposed to the imputation of plagiarism 

 for the restatement of opinions that he had first put forth, 

 but which other men had appropriated, and sent out as 

 their own. Nor was the case much helped when he be- 

 gan to publish his system of philosophy to subscribers, for 

 so limited was its distribution that it might almost have 

 been said that it was " printed for private circulation." 

 Moreover, being the owner of his own works, the interests 

 of publishers were not enlisted in their diffusion ; while the 

 assaults of the press were so malignant, and their repre- 

 sentations so false, that for years he was constrained to 

 withhold his series from the periodicals. All this was fa- 

 vourable to misconception, and left Mr. Spencer much at 

 the mercy of dishonest authorship and unscrupulous criti- 

 cism. 



Again, it must be recognized that there were difficulties 

 in appreciating his work which arose from its nature and 

 extent. While a scientific discovery, or a single definite 

 doctrine, is readily apprehended because the impression it 

 makes is narrow and sharp, an extensive system of prin- 

 ciples, which it requires power to grasp and time to master, 

 can only be imperfectly received by the general mind. The 



