r*o ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE EDITED BY J. REYNOLDS GREEN, D.Sc. HERBERT SPENCER ENGLISH MEN OF SCIENCE E^DITKD BY DR J. REYNOLDS GREEN. With Photogravure Frontispiece. Small Cr. 8vo, vs. 6d. net per vol. PRIESTLEY. By Dr THORPE, C.B., F.R.S. FLOWER. By Prof. R. LYDEK- KER, F.R.S. HUXLEY. By Prof. AINSWORTH DAVIS. BENTHAM. By B. DAYDON JACKSON, F.L.S. DALTON. /. M. DENT &> CO. All Rights Reserved J. ARTHUR THOMSON, M.A. REGIUS PROFESSOR OF NATURAL HISTORY IN THE UNIVERSITY OF ABERDEEN- AUTHOR OF THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LIFE ; THE SCIENCE OF LIFE OUTLINES J OF ZOOLOGY ; PROGRESS OF SCIENCE ; ETC. ETC. PUBLISHED IN LONDON BY J. M. DENT & CO. AND IN NEW YORK BY E. P. DUTTON & CO. i 906 B V & A V -a O C, 99.^776 CONTENTS PAGE INTRODUCTION ..... vii CHAP. I. HEREDITY i II. NURTURE ..... 7 III. PERIOD OF PRACTICAL WORK . 17 IV. PREPARATION FOR LIFE-WORK . 27 V. THINKING OUT THE SYNTHETIC PHILOSOPHY 37 VI. CHARACTERISTICS: PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL 52 VII. CHARACTERISTICS : EMOTIONAL AND ETHICAL 74 VIII. SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST : THE DATA OF BIOLOGY . 93 IX. SPENCER AS BIOLOGIST : INDUCTIONS OF BIOLOGY . 1 1 o .XC^C. SPENCER AS CHAMPION OF THE EVOLUTION- IDEA . 135 XI. As REGARDS HEREDITY . .154 -All. FACTORS OF ORGANIC EVOLUTION . .180 XIII. EVOLUTION UNIVERSAL . 209 XIV. PSYCHOLOGICAL .... 232 XV. SOCIOLOGICAL .... 242 XVI. THE POPULATION QUESTION . .259 XVII. BEYOND SCIENCE .... 269 .-7 CONCLUSION .... 278 INDEX ..... 283 INTRODUCTION THIS volume attempts to give a short account of Herbert Spencer s life, an appreciation of his char acteristics, and a statement of some of the services he rendered to science. Prominence has been given to his to his to his Autobiography, Principles of Biology, and as a evolutionist little has been position cosmic ; but said of his psychology and sociology, which require another volume, or of his ethics and politics, or of his agnosticism the whetstone of so many critics. Our appreciation of Spencer s services is therefore partial, but it may not for that reason fail in its chief aim, that of illustrating the working of one of the most scientific minds that ever lived, " whose excess of science was almost unscientific." The story of Spencer s life is neither eventful nor picturesque, but it commands the interest of all who admire faith, courage, and loyalty to an ideal. It is a story of plain living and high thinking, of one who, though vexed by an extremely nervous temperament, was as resolute as a Hebrew prophet in delivering his message. It is the story of a quiet servant of science, indifferent to conventional honours, careless about " sensa getting on," disliking controversy, tionalism, and noise, trusting to the power of truth alone, that it must prevail. Another aspect of interest is that Spencer was an arch-heretic, one of the flowers of Nonconformity, viii INTRODUCTION against theology and against metaphysics, against monarchy and against molly-coddling legislation, against classical education and against socialism, against war and against Weismann. So that we can hardly picture the man who has not some crow to pick with Spencer. It is not to be wondered at, then, that we find extraordinary difference of opinion as to the value of the great Dissenter s deliverances. In 1894, Prof. Henry Sidgwick spoke of Herbert Spencer as " our most eminent living philosopher," and in the same sentence described him as "an impressive survival of the drift of thought in the first half of the nineteenth century." Some have likened him to a second Aris totle, while others assure us that the author of the Synthetic Philosophy was not a philosopher at all. Similarly there are scientists who tell us that Spencer may have been a great philosopher, but that he was too much of an a priori thinker to be of great account in science. Many critics, indeed, devote so much time and ability to demonstrating Spencer s incom petence, in this or that field of thought, that the reader is left with the impression that it must be a tower of strength which requires so many assaults. And there are others, neither philosophers nor scientists, who are content to dismiss Spencer with saying that the least in the Kingdom of Heaven is greater than he. Yet this much is conceded by most, that Herbert Spencer was an unusually keen intellectual combatant, who took the evolution- formula into his strong hands as a master-key, and tried (teaching others to try better) to open there with all the locked doors of the universe all the immediate, though none of the ultimate, riddles, INTRODUCTION ix physical and biological, psychological and ethical, social and religious. And this also is conceded, that his life was signalised by absolute consecration to the pursuit of truth, by magnanimous disinterestedness as to rewards, by a resolute struggle against almost overwhelming difficulties, and by an entire fearless ness in delivering the message which he believed the Unknown had given him for the good of the world. In an age of specialism he held up the banner of the Unity of Science, and he actually completed, so far as he could complete, the great task of his life greater than most men have even dreamed of that of applying the evolution-formula to everything knowable. He influenced thought so largely, he inspired so many disciples, he left so many enduring works enduring as seed-plots, if not also as achieve ments that his death, writ large, was immortality. HERBERT SPENCER CHAPTER I HEREDITY Ances try Grandparents Uncles Parents REMARKABLE parents often havecommonplace children, and a genius may be born to a very ordinary couple, yet the importance of pedigree is so patent that our first question in regard to a great man almost invari ably concerns his ancestry. In Herbert Spencer s case the question is rewarded. Ancestry. From the information afforded by the Autobiography in regard to ancestry remoter than grandparents, we learn that, on both sides of the house, Spencer came of a stock characterised by the spirit of nonconformity, by a correlated respect for something higher than legislative enactments, and by a regard for remote issues rather than immediate results. In these respects Herbert Spencer was true to his stock an uncompromising nonconformist, with " a conscience loyal to principles having superhuman above rules origins having human origins," and with an eye ever directed to remote issues. Truly it required more than "ingrained nonconformity," loyalty to principles, and far-sighted prudence to 2 HERBERT SPENCER make a Herbert Spencer, and hundreds unknown to fame have shared a similar but the must heritage ; resemblances between some of Spencer s character istics and those of his stock are too close to be dis regarded. Disown him as many nonconformists did, they could not disinherit him. Nonconformity was in his blood and bone of his bone. Grandparents. Spencer s maternal grandfather, John Holmes of Derby, was a business man and an active Wesleyan, with " a little more than the ordi of nee nary amount faculty." The grandmother, Jane Brettell, is described as commonplace," but her portrait suggests a more charitable verdict. Spencer s paternal grandfather was a schoolmaster, a "mechanical teacher," somewhat oppressed by life, " and extremely tender-hearted." If, when a news paper was being read aloud, there came an account of something cruel or very unjust, he would exclaim : I t it!" "Stop, stop, can bear Of this sensitive temperament his illustrious grandson had a large share. The most notable of the four grandparents was Catherine Spencer, nee Taylor, " of good type and "Born in both physically morally." 1758 and marrying in 1786, when nearly 28, she had eight children, led a very active life, and lived till 1843: dying at the age of 84 in possession of all her faculties." A personal follower of John Wesley, intensely religious, indefatigably unselfish, combining unswerving integrity with uniform good temper and " affection, she had all the domestic virtues in large measures." Her grandson has said that " nothing was specially manifest in her, intellectually considered, unless, indeed, what would be called sound common UNCLES 3 sense." Grandparents taken together count on an average for about a quarter of the individual inherit ance, but we would note that in Herbert Spencer s case, Catherine Spencer should be regarded as a peculiarly dominant hereditary factor. Uncles. Two of her children died in infancy, the was an invalid only surviving daughter (b. 1788) j then came Herbert Spencer s father, William George and there four other (b. 1790), were sons. Henry Spencer, a year and a half younger than Herbert Spencer s father, was " a favourable sample of the with " a dash of type," independent strong chivalry," an energetic, though in the end unsuccessful man of business, an ardent radical and with "a marked sense of humour." The next son, John, had strong in he a dividuality ; was notably self-assertive, obstinate solicitor, successful only in out-living all his brothers. Thomas, the next brother, began active life as a near a school-teacher Derby, was student of St John s, Cambridge, achieved honours (ninth wrangler), and became a clergyman of the Church of England at " " Hinton. He was a reformer," anticipating great " " " movements," a radical," a Free-Trader," a tee " an intensified totaler," Englishman." The youngest " son, William, distinguished less by extent of intel lectual acquisitions than by general soundness of a sense, joined with dash of originality," carried on his father s school, and was one of Herbert Spencer s teachers.