The daily morning journal and courier., 1895-12-26

have thought him merely as devoting himself to philosophy out of the abundance of his material wealth and comfort. The truth is far otherwise. No man ever lived a more ascetic life or denied himself more for the sake of the task he had undertaken for human ity. In his evidence given before the commission on copyright he tells us in plain words, though in the most se- yerely impersonal and abstract manner, the story of his hard and noble fight during the unrecognized days of his early manhood. Not a fight for bread, not fight for fame, remember, but fight for truth. For his first book, Social Statics," in 1850, he could not find a publisher willing to take any risk; so he was obliged to print it at his own cost and sell it on commission The edition consisted of only 79O copies, and it took no less than fourteen years to sell. Such are the rewards of seri- ous thought in our generation. Five years later he printed the original form of the Principles of Psychology,
 Again no publisher would undertake the risk and he published on commits sion. Once more 75o copies were print ed and the sale was very slow. T gave away a considerable number, says Mfr. Spencer pathetlcally, and the remainder sold in twelve and half years" During all that time, We may conclude from the sequel he not only made nothing out of those two impor- tant and valuable books, but was actu- ally kept out of pocket for his capital sunk in them.
 Before the initial volume, First Principles.' was finished" he observes, "I found myself still losing. During the issue of the second volume, the 'Prin- Ciples of Biology I was still losing, In the middle of the third volume I was losing so much that I found I was frittering away all I possessed. I went back upon my accounts and found that in the course o& fifteen years l had lost nearly fl ,200-adding interest, more than fl 200. As I was evidently going on ruining myself, I issued to the subscribers a notice of cessation
 He had been living meanwhile in the most economical way possible" in spite of which he found that he had trenched to that large extent on his very small capital. Spartan fare had not suhiced to make his experiment successful. Nevertheless, he continued to publish. as he bravely expresses it, q may say. by accident" Twice be- fore in the course of those fifteen weary years he had been able to persevere, in spite of losses, by bequests of money. Or this third occasion, just as he was on the very point of disseminating
 the production of his great work, prop erty which he inherited came to him in the nick of time to prevent such a catastrophe. Any other man in the world would have invested his money and fought shy in future of the siren of philosophy. Not so MT. Spencer. To him life is thought. He went courage ously on with his forlorn hope in pub liShing and it Is some consolation to know that he was repaid in the end, though late and ill., for his single mind ed devotion. In twenty-four years after he began to publish he had retrieved his position, and was abreast of his losses. Think of that, you men of busi- ness! TWenty-four years of hard mental
 work for no pay at all, and at the end of it to find yourself just where you started! Since that time, it is true, MT. Spencer's works have brought him in, l by degrees, a satisfactory revenue; but | consider the pluck and determination of the man who could fight so long, in | spite of poverty, against such terrible l eXperiences.-Revie of Reviews.