SPENCER, HERBERT ( 1820-1903 ). A distin guished English philosopher. Tle was horn at Derby. April 27, 1820. His father was a teacher by profession, with views in advance of his time. Be believed in training the student's mind in ob servation and in reflection on objective facts in stead of mere ideas. Herbert's health was deli date in childhood, and he was largely educated at home with as much outdoor life as possible. A little later he was put in charge of his uncle, a clergyman of the Church of lie early showed a fondness for studies in nature. and for a good many years his favorite occupation was the catching and preserving of insects and the rearing of moths and butterflies: he also studied botany with sonic passion, and in these ways laid the foundation for the scientific character and in terest of his later work. His parents were both originally Methodists, but his father became a Quaker. The boy's mind, however, being an in dependent one, and having early been brought into contact with the intellectual influences cen tring about John Stuart Mill and with the scien tific spirit, he imbibed the tendencies of the age toward extreme liberalism in theological matters.
An uncle planned to send him to Cambridge, but the boy 'perseveringly objected,' and Con tinued to study privately. He had no aptitude for languages, and made little progress in the classics, but showed original constructive power in mathematics and mechanics. His father wanted him to take up teaching, but an acciden tal opportunity decided in favor of another voca tion more suitable to his tastes. In the autumn of 1837 work was offered to him under the chief engineer of the London and Birmingham Railway, with whom he spent nearly a year. For some ten years he engaged in engineering pursuits. \\ hen the railway mania finally subsided, Spencer. now twenty-six, was left, like ninny other young men, without occupation. But the time spent at home while he was looking for something to do was not wasted. He had leisure for a good deal of miscellaneous reading. lie studied Lyell's Principles of Geology, in which the doctrine of evolution as defended by Lamarck was attacked. hut came away from the reading with a favorable impression of Lamarck's doc trine as against creationism.
While he was in the railway service. still a mere boy, he wrote some articles for The Xon conformist on "the proper sphere of government," in which he outlined the principles of non-inter ference which regulated all his thinking in later life. When no more work offered as an engineer, he went to London and soon obtained employ ment on The Economist, becoming its subeditor in 1848. This position, which he held till 1852,
gave him time for his studies, and made him ac quainted with that brilliant coterie which cen tred about George Henry Lewes, George Eliot, and John Stuart Mill. During his leisure hours he wrote his first considerable work, Social Sta tics (1851). it is of a decidedly a priori char acter, and not written in the inductive spirit of his later thinking. It shows, however, his ten dency to reconcile opposing influences and to dis cover closeness of relations where others did not suspect. them. Subsequently he beCame dissatis fied with both its views and its methods, and wished to recall it from circulation. This being found impossible, in later years he revised it by omitting what lie had outgrown.
In the eight years after his leaving The Econo mist, he pursued his studies with eagerness, and published a work on Psychology (1855), which he afterwards revised and expanded into a part of his Synthetic Philosophy. Over-application brought on a serious attack of nervous prostra tion. which obliged him for the rest of his life to abridge his hours of study. He became a chronic sufferer from dyspepsia and insomnia, so that all his later work had to he done under these disad vantages. Meanwhile he had conceived a system of philosophy which should embrace the general principles of all existing knowledge. In 1800 he published a prospectus or outline of it, indicating his intention to give twenty years to its develop ment. The first instalments of the system did not meet with the reception he expected, and he feared he would have to abandon his undertak ing. But the timely aid of American friends, at the head of whom was Mr. Youmans, editor of the Popular Science Monthly. enabled him to con tinue his work. His health, however. was so precarious that at one time he feared he would not live to complete the system. With this view he suspended his labors on the main part of his work to write The Data of Ethics, which had been the object of the whole system, and in which it was intended to culminate. Fortunately, his life was prolonged sufficiently to enable him to complete the system. and to revise a part of it in order to bring it up to date. It consists of First Principles (1862) ; Principles of Biology (1864) ; Principles of Psychology (1871-72) ; Principles of Sociology (1870-89) ; Principles of Ethics (1879). He also wrote three volumes of Essays Scientific, Political, and SpeenlaIire (1858-63), and some fugitive articles including,wo essays on Weissmannism (1894, 1895). BeH died De cember 8, 1903.