90 A Century of Science 



the same as to American authors, in spite of the 

 absence of an international copyright law. As 

 publishers of books of this sort the Appletons have 

 come to be preeminent. It is obvious enough 

 nowadays that such books are profitable from a 

 business point of view ; but thirty years and more 

 ago this was by no means obvious. We Ameri- 

 cans were terribly provincial. Keprints of English 

 books and translations from French and German 

 were sadly behind the times. In the Connecticut 

 town where I lived, people would begin to wake 

 up to the existence of some great European book 

 or system of thought after it had been before the 

 world anywhere from a dozen to fifty years. In 

 those days, therefore, it required some boldness to 

 undertake the reprinting of new scientific books; 

 and none have recognized more freely than the 

 Appletons the importance of the part played by 

 Youmans in this matter. His work as adviser to 

 a great publishing house and his work as lecturer 

 reinforced each other, and thus his capacity for 

 usefulness was much increased. 



When Spencer's book on " Education " failed 

 to find favour in Boston the Appletons took it, 

 and thus presently secured the management of the 

 philosophical series. This brought Youmans into 

 permanent relations with Spencer and his work. 



