Influence of Spencer 29 



(i) that external environment acts on living beings 

 (in adapting this principle, Spencer was xin- 

 doubtedly much fortified by Buckle's History oj 

 Civilization, which was published in 1856); (2) 

 that living beings adapt their structures and 

 functions to the external environment, and (3) 

 that such acquired characteristics are inherited (a 

 belief on the basis of which Maine and others 

 defended the hereditary principle of the House of 

 Lords) . Darwin, on the other hand, did not believe 

 in the doctrine of purposive adaptation to environ- 

 ment, but he did believe in accidental variations, 

 and that those accidental variations which suited 

 the environment were perpetuated by inheritance. 

 Nevertheless, Spencer's sociological theory, based 

 on struggle, became incorporated as an integral 

 part of the popular understanding of the theory of 

 evolution. There is even some justification for the 

 view that Spencer was more responsible than 

 Darwin himself for the "social Darwinism" which 

 has come to represent the Darwinian theory in 

 public opinion ever since. It is largely through 

 Spencer's contributions that the extreme individ- 

 ualism of an age chiefly under the influence of 

 Adam Smith and Bentham, and in revolt against 

 governmental interference in economic affairs, 

 fell into "social Darwinism." This strong ten- 

 dency toward the laissez-faire doctrine which was 

 dominant in the aristocratic intellectual atmos- 

 phere in which Spencer wrote, was reinforced by 

 Spencer's strong abhorrence to actual government 



