Edward Livingston Ybumans 87 



fifty years have so remarkably broadened the mind 

 of the American people, very few have been more 

 potent than the gentle and subtle but pervasive 

 work done by Edward Youmans with his lectures, 

 and to this has been largely due the hospitable 

 reception of Herbert Spencer's ideas. 



It was in 1856 that Youmans fell in with a 

 review of " Spencer's Principles of Psychology," 

 by Dr. Morell, in "The Medico-Chirurgical Re- 

 view." This paper impressed him so deeply that 

 he at once sent to London for a copy of the book, 

 which had been published in the preceding year. 

 It will be observed that this was four years before 

 the Darwinian theory was announced in the first 

 edition of the " Origin of Species." l 



After struggling for a while with the weighty 

 problems of this book, Youmans saw that the theory 

 expounded in it was a long stride in the direction 

 of a general theory of evolution. His interest in 

 this subject received a new and fresh stimulus. 

 He read " Social Statics," and began to recognize 

 Spencer's hand in the anonymous articles in the 

 quarterlies in which he was then announcing and 

 illustrating various portions or segments of his 

 newly discovered law of evolution. One evening 

 in February, 1860, as Youmans was calling at a 



1 See above, p. 49. 



