1 86 PIONEERS OF EVOLUTION. 



fold forms of progress going on around us are uni- 

 formly significant of this tendency." 



Homo sum: humani nihil a me alienum puto: " I 

 am a man and nothing human is foreign to me." 

 This oft-quoted saying of the old farmer in the Self- 

 Tormentor of Terence might be affixed as motto 

 to Herbert Spencer's writings from the tractate on 

 the Proper Sphere of Government to the concluding 

 volume of the Principles of Sociology. For thought 

 of human interests everywhere pervades them; social 

 and ethical questions are kept in the van throughout. 

 Philosophy is brought from her high seat to mix 

 in the sweet amenities of home, in the discipline of 

 camp, in the rivalry of market; and linked to con- 

 duct. Conduct is defined as " acts adjusted to ends," 

 the perfecting of the adjustment being the highest 

 aim, so that " the greatest totality of life in self, in 

 ofifspring, and in fellow-men " is secured, the limit 

 of evolution of conduct not being reached, " until, 

 beyond avoidance of direct and indirect injuries to 

 others, there are spontaneous efiforts to further the 

 welfare of others." Emerson puts this ideal into 

 crisp form when he speaks of the time in which a 

 man shall care more that he wrongs not his neigh- 

 bour than that his neighbour wrongs him ; then will 

 his " market-cart become a chariot of the sun." 



That humanity is the pivot round which Mr. 

 Spencer's philosophic system revolves is seen in the 

 earliest Essays, and notably in his making mental 

 evolution the subject of the first instalment of his 



