Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 19.djvu/871

Rh the worth of mental acquisitions for practical purposes, and points to its conquests over the material world as proofs of its useful services to man. But it is a far higher service to have disclosed the true method of nature and determined man's real position in the universe; because only as these are understood can human conditions be permanently improved. Spencer's philosophy assumes this higher sphere of beneficent influence, and throughout its whole development it bears upon the final and regnant problem of the regulation of human conduct. Each division of his system has its intrinsic interest as a new exposition of principles determined by the great reorganizing law of evolution; but "First Principles," the "Principles of Biology," the "Principles of Psychology," and the "Principles of Sociology," are only so many foundations for the ultimate exposition of the "Principles of Ethics." The constitution of nature as an ever-unfolding order, the laws of life, the laws of mind, and the laws of social relation, are successively expounded with a view to their final bearing upon the right and wrong of human actions.

The inspiration of these labors was a profound interest in the moral welfare of society; and there are many who can now appreciate the sagacious forecast that could discern an approaching emergency of thought for which it was imperatively necessary to prepare. While yet the idea of evolution was derided as a fanciful conceit of visionary minds, Herbert Spencer knew that it was soon to become the governing law of the world's best intelligence. He saw that, among the great changes that would follow, the traditional theories of morality would be sure to suffer irreparable damage, and that morality itself might lose its force if not fortified by a new authority. The synthetic philosophy was accordingly laid out in its complete logical order more than twenty years ago, to meet the inevitable emergency that has now arisen, and the wisdom of this prescience is attested by the eager interest with which the "Data of Ethics" was lately received in every civilized country.

The aim of Spencer's philosophy is, therefore, to organize that scientific knowledge of nature and human nature which shall be most valuable for guidance, alike of the individual in his personal and private sphere, and of society in its relations with the individual. This system establishes the principles by which the freedom of the citizen and the duty of the state are determined. There, as nowhere else, we are shown the growth and conditions of human liberty, and the forces that have hindered and the forces that have promoted its progress.

Nor has the reader to go far for evidence of what we say. The last installment of his system that Spencer has given us is luminous with new instruction upon this subject. The article on "The Militant Type of Society"—long, but not too long—printed in the present number of the "Monthly," exemplifies in an impressive if not a startling way the obstructive agencies of social progress. A succeeding article on "The Industrial Type of Society" will complete the view by showing what causes have been most powerful in producing beneficent social and political effects. The reader will find in those papers exemplifications of the enlarged utility which dominates Spencer's system, and for which he will look in vain in any preceding philosophy.

These, then, are the leading reasons why this system of thought has attained its "remarkable influence," and merely to conceive which "is itself an education to an age." But if the bare conception of it, even before it is finished, has so benign and improving an influence, what may we not expect from it when it is studied and understood, and becomes a power in the public