EDITOR'S TABLE. 



243 



basis of the widest and most recent 

 results of science. From this point of 

 view it was a higher unification of 

 knowledge than had been hitherto at- 

 tempted; but it was more than this. 

 As the truths and science of Nature 

 have proved in various ways helpful 

 to man in the practical concerns of life, 

 it was the higher object of their sys- 

 tematic statement to arrive at a clearer 

 and more assured guidance in the con- 

 duct of human affairs. As the older 

 philosophies disavowed the end of 

 utility, a philosophy which is the out- 

 come of science, and rests upon the es- 

 tablished truths of Nature, may claim 

 the service of humanity as its highest 

 end. The scheme was, therefore, so 

 bold an innovation that it found favor 

 with but few. By many it was re- 

 garded as an intrinsically impossible 

 undertaking, and by others as a futile 

 endeavor of any one intellect. But 

 Mr. Spencer had well surveyed his 

 ground ; and, as the work quietly pro- 

 ceeded, there was soon evidence that 

 the execution was equal to the promise, 

 and that the enterprise had fallen into 

 the hands of one who had a genius for 

 it. As an example, Mr. John Stuart 

 Mill gave his testimony to the ency- 

 clopaedic scientific preparation of Mr. 

 Spencer for such a work, and at a crisis 

 of the undertaking he came forward 

 and offered to assume the whole pecu- 

 niary responsibility of its continuance, 

 on the ground that its failure would be 

 a public calamity. At the same time, 

 the leading organs of British opinion 

 began to concede Mr. Spencer's emi- 

 nent position and power, as when the 

 Saturday Review declared him to be 

 " the greatest organizer of thought that 

 had appeared in England since New- 

 ton." It was noteworthy, also, that 

 men of the highest mark who had 

 studied him most thoroughly were the 

 readiest to concede his power, as when 

 Dr. McOosh years ago spoke of his 

 " giant mind," and in his late address 

 before the Evangelical Alliance re- 



ferred to him as the Titanic thinker of 

 England. 



But from various causes Mr. Spen- 

 cer's work did not take hold of the 

 general public. All the masterly pa- 

 pers' that are now collected in his sev- 

 eral volumes of essays had been pub- 

 lished anonymously in the reviews, and 

 he was comparatively but little known 

 in the literary world. His form of 

 publication of " The Philosophical Sys- 

 tem" by subscription was not calcu- 

 lated to attract general readers, while 

 its formidable character repelled many 

 at the outset. As it was supposed to 

 be a destructive system, and its author 

 a dangerous man, the misrepresenta- 

 tions of the press were so gross and 

 malignant that Mr. Spencer refused to 

 furnish his series to them, and was 

 thus cut off from that source of pub- 

 licity. Yet his subscribers embraced 

 the most thoughtful men of England, 

 and upon many of these he made a 

 strong impression. While the mass of 

 English readers knew nothing about 

 him, students were devouring his works 

 and accepting his views. Calling at 

 the London book-shops for the " works 

 of Spencer," you would be handed the 

 " Faerie Queene," and, when you said 

 " Herbert Spencer," the rejoinder would 

 be, " We never heard of him." Yet, at 

 the same time, the serious attention of 

 the House of Lords was called by one of 

 its members to the growing influence of 

 Spencer's ideas in the universities, and 

 even the Premier of England has re- 

 cently felt it incumbent on him to make 

 a speech to arrest the increasing influ- 

 ence of his opinions. 



But this restriction of Mr. Spen- 

 cer's readers mainly to scholarly circles 

 has resulted in two evils : the first was 

 that other men appropriated his ideas, 

 and, by translating them into popular 

 forms, made reputations for themselves 

 at his expense ; and the second was, 

 that the most erroneous and distorted 

 conceptions were formed by the public 

 of the character of the system itself. 



