Herbert Spencer and the Doctrine of Evolution. 547 



its atheistic tendency, its monstrosity and cruelty, to suppose a God, or 

 what is called God, hiding himself behind all these millions of ages, and 

 setting all this in motion by inexorable law that evolves its products by 

 natural selection, but gives neither idea, nor knowledge, nor revelation 

 of God, but, on the contrary, makes it impossible that God should be a 

 father or should ever interpose for the guidance or benefit of his creatures, 

 or indeed should ever have acted with personal will and purpose, benevo- 

 lence, and power, as their Creator? .... 



' By their scheme, there never was, and never could have been, a deity 

 interposing to instruct Adam, to educate Abraham, to inspire Joseph, to 

 put down oppressing Pharaoh, to change the rod of Moses into a serpent, 

 to create an additional frog, louse, or mosquito, in Egypt ; to call for the 

 waters of a deluge, to spread abroad a rainbow, to speak to the rain to fall 

 on one piece of ground and not on another ; to commission a famine, or a 

 pestilence, or a flash of lightning ; every drop of rain, and every shower, 

 and every ray of light, and every blade of grass, having been so unalterably 

 woven out of the original supply of force in the web of order, continuous 

 and unbroken forever, as not to admit of a possibility of interference or 

 alteration." 



NOTE B. Page 510. 



IN regard to Mr. Spencer's education, a few words may be added. As 

 a child he had a delicate constitution, and his father, feeling the danger 

 of exposing him to the usual course of education, kept him from school, 

 and attended to his early instruction himself. In this respect his case 

 was like that of Mr. Mill, but the plan pursued was very different. For, 

 while young Mill's mind was forced out by a stern coercive discipline, 

 that of Spencer was led out by awakening an interest in knowledge, and 

 guiding and encouraging the spontaneous tendencies of his mind. His 

 father was a professed mathematical teacher, and the son's mathematical 

 studies began early, and were continued systematically with a view to his 

 prospective vocation as a civil engineer. This course was chosen because 

 Herbei't early exhibited a marked aptitude for mechanics, mathematics, 

 and scientific studies, and because the occupation of engineering would 

 combine useful employment with outdoor activity, which was favourable 

 to health, and was demanded by his slender constitution. Mr. Mill's 

 early education was purely one of books, and in his autobiography he 

 expresses regret that he never had the discipline of trying experiments in 

 science, or even the advantage of seeing them. Young Spencer, on the 

 other hand, went early into the practical work of science. He cultivated 

 natural history, collected an herbarium, and experimented in physics and 



