88 A Century of Science 



friend's house in Brooklyn, the Rev. Samuel John- 

 son, of Salem, handed him the famous prospectus 

 of the great series of philosophical works which 

 Spencer proposed to issue by subscription. Mr. 

 Johnson had obtained this from Edward Silsbee, 

 who was one of the very first Americans to become 

 interested in Spencer. The very next day You- 

 mans wrote a letter to Spencer, offering his aid in 

 procuring American subscriptions and otherwise 

 facilitating the enterprise by every means in his 

 power. With this letter and Spencer's cordial 

 reply began the lifelong friendship between the 

 two men. It was in that same month that I first 

 became aware of Spencer's existence, through a 

 single paragraph quoted from him by Lewes, and in 

 that paragraph there was immense fascination. I 

 had been steeping myself in the literature of mod- 

 ern philosophy, starting with Bacon and Descartes, 

 and was then studying Comte's " Philosophic Posi- 

 tive," which interested me as suggesting that the 

 special doctrines of the several sciences might be 

 organized into a general body of doctrine of uni- 

 versal significance. Comte's work was crude and 

 often wildly absurd, but there was much in it that 

 was very suggestive. In May, 1860, in the Old 

 Corner Bookstore in Boston, I fell upon a copy of 

 that same prospectus of Spencer's works, and read 



