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 attempted; 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 systematic statement to arrive at a clearer and more assured guidance in the conduct of human affairs. As the older philosophies disavowed the end of utility, a philosophy which is the outcome of science, and rests upon the established 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 regarded 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 proceeded, 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 encyclopædic 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 pecuniary 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 eminent position and power, as when the Saturday Review declared him to be "the greatest organizer of thought that had appeared in England since Newton." 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. McCosh years ago spoke of his "giant mind," and in his late address before the Evangelical Alliance referred to him as the Titanic thinker of England.
But from various causes Mr. Spencer's work did not take hold of the general public. All the masterly papers that are now collected in his several volumes of essays had been published anonymously in the reviews, and he was comparatively but little known in the literary world. His form of publication of "The Philosophical System" by subscription was not calculated 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 misrepresentations 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 publicity. 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 recently felt it incumbent on him to make a speech to arrest the increasing influence of his opinions.
But this restriction of Mr. Spencer'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.
