Herbert Spencer, 7 



eating up his substance and bringing in nothing. The most 

 important impulse toward success was given to them by our 

 own countryman, Prof. Edward L. Youmans, who, as an 

 English friend said to me, really discovered Spencer. This 

 discovery was accomplished, as Prof. Youmans himself tells 

 us, through reading the "Principles of Psychology." Of 

 this, even he could make nothing at first, and he threw it 

 aside with some impatience. But his sister, Miss Eliza A. 

 Youmans, took up the discarded volume, read it with care, 

 and told her brother that it was a new revelation in phi- 

 losophy. In truth, then, we ought to say it was Miss You- 

 mans who discovered Spencer. Her brother, however, soon, 

 came to realize the importance of the discovery, and did 

 quite enough to vindicate his claim to a partner's share of 

 the credit. He interested himself practically in promoting 

 the circulation of Mr. Spencer's works. The Messrs. Ap- 

 pleton, through his efforts, took up their publication, and 

 for the first time a character and standing were given to 

 them, in some degree commensurate with their importance. 



Little by little recognition came, until by-and-by it 

 dawned upon the thinking world that Herbert Spencer was 

 the foremost philosopher of his day. It is gratifying to 

 know that, after a while, his books began to yield him an 

 income (though by no means a large one), and this is the 

 case at the present time.* 



Mr. Spencer is a bachelor. Evidently he has had no 

 time to get married. He was not, however, a recluse, till 

 obliged to be by the exigences of his work and the neces- 

 sity of caring for his health. In 1879 I missed the pleas- 

 ure of meeting him at a dinner party, because, as he wrote, 

 he had engaged to take two ladies to the opera that evening. 

 Observe that he took two ladies ; he knew how to protect 

 himself ; it is a mistake to suppose that philosophers are 

 never practical ! He has always entered into social life as 



* It is a mistake to suppose that Mr. Spencer was ever in a condition of pov- 

 erty. He saw, however, that his expenditures for the publication of his works 

 would necessarily soon exhaust his means, and was distressed, not on account 

 of immediate wants, hut with the prospect of having to abandon his cherished 

 undertaking. The exact circumstances of the rendering of American assistance 

 for the completion of his works were set forth in a letter written by Prof. You- 

 mans to the New York Tribune, in June, 1872. About $7000 was raised by 

 American friends for this purpose. The amount was accepted by Mr. Spencer, 

 "as a trust to be used for public ends," and was employed chiefly to defray the 

 expenses attendant upon the compilation of the tables of the "Descriptive So- 

 ciology." 



