Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 64.djvu/287

Rh His work justified the abandonment of certain narrow dogmas, which left an exhilarating sense of emancipation. There was more truly a Spencerian religion than any resulting from the positivism of Comte. This was particularly the case in America, and was largely responsible. Spencer opened the first volume in 1872, and contributed in all ninety-one articles. The editorial writings of E. L. and W. J. Youmans were always enthusiastically loyal to the Spencerian doctrines and the Spencerian religion. No greater service could at the time have been performed for the freedom of thought and the progress of civilization.

But the great representative of evolution, though he may be interpreted as regarding his own doctrines as final, must surely have rejoiced in the further progress of science and of thought. His works on biology and on psychology have been superseded. He clearly represented the conflicting tendencies of his age. He devoted his life to what is perhaps the last great system of synthetic philosophy, when the inductive sciences were becoming predominant. He was an ardent individualist, while advocating a theory that subordinates the individual to the world pattern. He leaves the problems of idealism and materialism face to face.

It is not necessary to enter here into details in regard to Spencer's life. Very characteristically he has left his autobiography stereotyped and ready for the press. A sketch with his portrait will be found in the issue of this magazine for March, 1876. We reproduce as a frontispiece, by the courtesy of Messrs. D. Appleton and Company, an engraving of a bust of Spencer at the age of seventy-six, modeled by Mr. Onslow Ford and presented to him by his admirers. Spencer's life was at once formal and heroic. Burdened by ill-health and comparative poverty, he would dictate to an amanuensis for fifteen minutes at a time, resulting in a productivity of some 300 words a day. Without family or intimate friends, he led a lonely life. But he never faltered in his devotion to his plans and ideals. After eighty-three years he is now dead; but his work is immortal, not only in the history of thought, but also in

 The choir invisible Whose music is the gladness of the world.

readers of this journal who are interested in the organization of science will remember that American scientific societies and institutions of learning have set aside the week in which the first day of January falls as a time of convocation for scientific meetings. Until last year the American Association for the Advancement of Science and its affiliated societies met in midsummer, while the American Society of Naturalists and a number of societies devoted to the biological sciences met in the Christmas holidays. Certain societies, such as the American Chemical Society and the Geological Society of America, held meetings at both times. All these societies met together last year at Washington during convocation week, making the largest and most influential gathering of scientific men that this country has witnessed.

There will this year be a certain amount of division. The American Association and the Naturalists with twenty affiliated societies will meet at St. Louis. The Zoologists and four other societies concerned with biology will meet at Philadelphia, and the Philosophical Association will meet at Princeton. The Economists and Historians, who have not as yet become affiliated with the scientific societies, will meet at New Orleans. It seems evident that the American Association must be a national organization and that there should be societies for the different sciences which are national in scope. Owing to the great area of the country