SPENCER, HERBERT, an English author, b. in Derby in 1820. He was educated his father. W. G. Spencer, a teacher, chiefly of mathematics, and his uncle, the rev. Thomas Spencer, a clergyman of the established church, well known for his liberal opinions on political and ecclesiastical questions. At the age of 17 he became a civil engineer; but after about 8 years abandoned the profession, in consequence of the large intinx of young men brought into it during the railway mania, and the consequent undue competition. During the 8 vears of his engineering life lie contributed va•ious papers to the Civil Engineer's and A•chitect's Journal. His first productions in general literature were in the shape of a series of letters on the "Proper Sphere of Government," published in the lconconibrmist newspaper in 1842, which were some time after reprinted as a pamphlet. From the close of 1842 to the middle of 1853 he was engaged on the Economi4, then edited by the laic James Wilson, M. P.; and during this time he pub
Milted his first considerable work, Social Statics. Shortly afterward he began to write for the quarterly reviews, most of his articles appearing in the Westminster, and utitera in the British, British Quarterly, Edinburgh, etc. In 1855 appeared his Principles of Psychology. In 1860 he commenced a connected series of philosophical works, designed to unfold in their natural order the principles of biol ogy, psychology, sociology, and morality. To this series belong, besides the P.,yehology (2 volA., new ed. 1371-72), First Principles (1832, 2d. cd. 1867); Principles of Bio.?ogy (1804); Principles of Sociology (parts 1 to 4, 1876-80); and The Data of Ethics (part of Principles of Ethics, 1879). Education was published iu 1861; The Study of Sociology in 1872; and Descriptive Sociobyy in 1873-78. Spencer has developed and applied uni versally the theory of evolution.