CHAPTER XXVI 



MY FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES — SPENCER, HUXLEY, 

 MIVART, ETC. 



Soon after my return home, in 1862 or 1863, Bates and 

 I, having both read " First Principles " and been immensely 

 impressed by it, went together to call on Herbert Spencer, 

 I think by appointment. Our thoughts were full of the 

 great unsolved problem of the origin of life — a problem 

 which Darwin's " Origin of Species " left in as much obscurity 

 as ever — and we looked to Spencer as the one man living 

 who could give us some clue to it. His wonderful exposition 

 of the fundamental laws and conditions, actions and inter- 

 actions of the material universe seemed to penetrate so 

 deeply into that " nature of things " after which the early 

 philosophers searched in vain and whose blind gropings are 

 so finely expressed in the grand poem of Lucretius, that we 

 both hoped he could throw some light on that great problem 

 of problems. I forget the details of the interview, but I 

 think Bates was chief spokesman, and expressed our immense 

 admiration of his work, and that as young students of nature 

 . we wished to have the honour of his acquaintance. He was 

 very pleasant, spoke appreciatively of what we had both 

 done for the practical exposition of evolution, and hoped 

 we would continue to work at the subject. But when we 

 ventured to touch upon the great problem, and whether he 

 had arrived at even one of the first steps towards its solution, 

 our hopes were dashed at once. That, he said, was too funda- 

 mental a problem to even think of solving at present. We 

 did not yet know enough of matter in its essential constitution 

 nor of the various forces of nature ; and all he could say was 



23 



