Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 45.djvu/427

Rh at any given time its dark corners, there were no corners in it that had to be left dark, the constant effort of the scientific worker, in every portion of the field, being to get light and yet more light. He loved science because in studying it he breathed the air of liberty and became conscious of intellectual growth. No sooner had he emerged from the cloud which a prolonged period of alternately partial and total blindness had cast over his early life, than he betook himself to the lecture platform, and began, as his biographer expresses it, to "interpret science for the people." In this field he accomplished most useful work. Possessing, as he did, a wonderful gift of exposition, and having the kind of mind that naturally seized upon the most instructive and interesting aspects of things, he was able both to charm and to stimulate his audiences in an unusual degree. There was about him, too, a stamp of candor, of liberality, of noble-mindedness that must have exerted a powerful influence for good upon those with whom he came into contact. Science with him was not a trade, it was a vocation; and, obeying at every moment what seemed the highest call, he was ever ready to listen to a higher.

The higher call came with his first serious introduction to the works of Herbert Spencer. Long had he been feeling his way toward some more comprehensive scientific view than any he had yet grasped, seeking, if haply he might find, some common principle of interpretation for the infinitely diverse phenomena of the universe, when an article in a London periodical directed his attention to Spencer's Psychology. The study of this work, which he shortly afterward ordered from England, convinced him, as his biographer has expressed it, that "the theory expounded was a long stride in the direction of a general theory of evolution." His interest in Spencer was strengthened by a perusal of his Social Statics and of the valuable articles he was contributing at the time to the English quarterlies, particularly the Westminster Review. The biography tells how, when he found that Spencer had issued a programme or syllabus of his proposed system of philosophy, and was soliciting subscriptions thereto, Mr. Youmans wrote to him, expressing indebtedness for the advantage he had derived from the study of what he had already written, and offering any assistance which it might be in his power to render toward the success of the forthcoming volumes. Thus was the foundation laid of one of the most honorable, interesting, and fruitful friendships of which our times possess any record. On the one side, ardent and enthusiastic devotion to an intellectual leader whose teaching was looked upon as a message of transcendent importance to the present generation; on the other, a quick and generous appreciation of that devotion and of all the practical service to which it led. Those who have not yet read the biography, and may wish to see in what ample terms Spencer acknowledged the disinterested labors of Prof. Youmans in his behalf, can not do better than turn to the book and read Spencer's letters. It was certainly the opinion of the great English philosopher that Prof. Youmans, by his energy and zeal, his tact and persuasiveness and business sagacity, almost created a public for him in America; and, by the help and encouragement thus afforded, greatly contributed to the success of his works in England.

Having adopted Spencer as his leader, Youmans never faltered in his allegiance to him. It was a case of loyal following, not of blind partisanship; if any fuller light had shone into our late friend's mind, he could not have turned away from it; for that to which he was supremely loyal was the truth. But, in point of fact, he never saw anything else in the guise of philosophy which seemed to him to possess half the merit or value for mankind that he discovered