Evening star. [volume] (Washington, D.C.) 1854-1972, 1895-12-21
REWARDS OF PHILOSOPHY.
How Herbert Spencer LabOred and
What He Got In Return.

| From the Review of Reviews
Herbert Spencer's first important work,
Social Statics," was published in 1850,
when he was just thirty. The great work
| OF his life-the System of Synthetic Phi
losophy"-was taken up in earnest ten
years later
Inc sacrifices involved in the preparation
and production of the gigantic work thus
heralded to the world were little short of
heroic Those who know Mr. Spencer by
| his books alone may have thought of him
merely as devoting himsef' to philosophy
| out of the abundance of fis material
wealth and comfort. The truth is far 9th
erwise. No man ever lived a more ascetic
life or denied himself more for the sake of
the task he had undertaken for humanity.
In his evidence given before the commits
sion on copyright he tells us in plain words,
though in the most severely impersonal
ana abstract manner. the story of his hard
ana noble hight during the unrecognized
days OF his early manhood.
Not fight for bread not a fight for
Tame, remember, but fight for truth. For
MS first book. Social Statics." in 1850, he
could not find a publisher willing to take
any risk; so he was Obliged to print 1t at
ms own cost and sell 1t on commission
Inc edition consisted of only seven hun
dred and fifty copies: and it took no less
imam fourteen years to sell. Such are the
l.
tion! Five years later he printed the orig
inal form of the Principles Of Psychoi-
ogy.' =
Again no publisher would undertake the
risk. and he published on commission
Once more seven hundred and fifty copies
We're printed and the sale was very slow
Il gave away considerable number" SAYS
Mr. Spencer patheticAlly. land the remain
ger sold in twelv6 and half years" Dur
ing all that time.ywe may conclude from
the sequel, he not only made nothing out
OF those two important and valuable books,
but was actually kept out of pocket for his
capital sunk in them.
Before the initial volume, First Prin-
cfpleS, was finished" he observes Il found
myself still losing. During the issue of the
second volume. the Principles of Biology.
I was still losing. In the middle of the
third volume l was losing so much that I
found l was frittering away all possessed
Went back upon my accounts and dis
covered that i'm the course of fifteen years
l had lost nearly f1.2OO-adding interest,
more than f1,2O0 AS I was evidently going
on running myself. I issued to the sub
scribers notice of cessation"
He had been living meanwhile, in "the
most economical way possibe;' in spite of
which he found he had trenchcd to a large
extent on his very small capital. Spartan
fare had not sufficed to make his expert
| ment successful Nevertheless, he contin-
| ued to publish. as he simself bravely
phrases it, Il may say. by accident" Twice
before in the course of those fifteen weary
year ne Hdu DCen aDle 10 DerSeNere, in
spite of losses. by requests of money On
this third occasion, just he was on the
very point of disseminating the production
| or his great work. property which he had
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 fu-
ture of the siren of philosophy. Not so
| Mr.. Spencer. To him life is thought. He
went courageousy on with his forlorn hope
| in publishing, and it is some consola ton to
knew that he was repaid in the end,
| though late and i'll. for his single-minded
| devotion In twenty-four years after he
began to publish he had retrieved his posi-
| ton. and was abreast of his losses. Think
| of that, you men of business. Twenty-four
| years of hard mental work for no pay at
| all. and at the end to find yourself just
| where you started! Since that time. 1t is
| true, Mr.. Spencer's works have brought
| him in by degrees. a satisfactory revenue;
| but consider the pluck and determine ton
| Of the man who could fight so long in spite
of poverty, against such terrible expe-
| rienceS