The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1899-07-02

1t 10 TO some OF these that we invite attention
at the present time. having singled out for par
tioular notice what Mr.. Mccarthy has to tell us
about Herbert Spencer. Huxley and Tyndall
Carlyle and J. 8. Mil. Froude. Freeman and
Kingsley. Dickens. Thackeray. George Eliot.
George Meredith and Anthony Troope. Ten
nyson, Browning. swinburne and Lowell.
In q chapter in the second volume headed
men OF Light and Leading" II IL pointed out
that just as the American civil war had drawn
Mil for tho first time into the public arena OF
politics. so the Jamaica massacre made po-
litical agitator OF Herbert Spencer. The lat
tsr's noble humane sympathies. his austere
and uncom promising love OF justice. his in
stinctive detestation OF brute. blind. despotio
foroe. compelled him to come from his seclu-
sion and Join those who protested against tho
lawless and senseless massacre OF the blacks
in Jamaica. Up to that time Herbert Spen-
GERS whole life had been absorbed In a pure.
rigorous. anchorite-like devotion to knowl-
edge. From this point Of view. indeed. he
10 q wonderful phenomenon in an age like
our own. He has labored for the love OF labor
and for the good 1t does TO the world. almost
absolutely without reward. He is." Mr. Nc
earthly tells us. "a sensitive silent. self reliant
man. endowed with pure passion for knowl-
edge and the quickest, keenest love OF justice
and right. There Is something ouixotic in the
better sense OF the word In the utter disinter-
ested and self-forgetting eagerness with which
Herbert Spencer will set himself to see right
done. even In the most trivial cases Little.
commonplace instances OF unfarness or injus-
tice. such as most OF us observe every day.
and which even the most benevolent OF us
will think himself warranted In passing by
nj hia work without int
enoe. will summon into activity. into
positively unresting eagerness. all the SYM
pathies and energies OF Herbert Spencer;
nor will the great student OF life's ultimate
principles return to his own high pursuits I'M
I'll he has obtained for the poor sempstress
restitution Of the over-fare eXacted by tho ex-
tortionate omnibus conductor or seen that the
policeman on duty is not too rough in his
treatment OF the little captured pickpocket.
As ono man has m unappeasable passion for
pictures and another for horses. 80 Herbert
Spencer has passion for Justice" All this. it
seems. does not appear on first or casual ac-
Quantance; but Mr.. Mccarthy has heard many
striking and some whimsical illustrations
OF it given by Spencer's friends. II should
say there are few men OF great intel
lect and character who reveal themselves
40 little to the ordinary observer as
Herbert Spencer. In casual conversation he
does not impress one in the least. Almost all
men OF well-carned distinction seem to have
above all things strongly marked individu-
ality. You meet a man Of this class by chance;
you have no idea who he is perhaps you do
not even discover. have not an opportunity OF
discovering. that he is man OF genius or OF in
tellect. but you do almost invariably find your
self impressed with strong individual infu-
once; the man seems to be som ebody: he ia
not just like any other man" Herbert Spencer.
we are told. 10 the opposite OF this indeed. all
that DR.. johnson said Of Burke might be con-
veniently reversed in the case OF Spencer.
Tho person sheltering under hedge or
the 'ostler In the yard might talk with
him for q long while and never feel tempted
to say when he had gone. There has been
remarkable man here" A London lit
orary man. not long since dead. once told Mr.
Mccarthy that he was Induced. many years
ago. to 60 to large dinner party by the assur-
ance that Spencer was to be there and was ac-
tuelly to have the chair next to his own at
table. my friend went little late and found
himself disappointed. Next to him on one
side was man whom he knew and did not
care about: on the other side a quiet. unim-
posing parsonage. With this latter. for want
Of better. he talked. My friend started some
ordinary. conventional talk. good for nothing.
meaning nothing. The dinner was nearly over
whom my friend heard some one address his
right-hand neighbor as Spencer Amazed
out OF all decorum. he turned to the quiet re-
served man and broke out with the words:
why. you don't mean to say that you are Her.
bert SpenoerT oh. yes.' the other replied as
quietly rs ever. I am Herbert Spencer"
or Huxley. on the other hand. we read that
even In ordinary conversation. he evinced an
INT lligence SO luminous that II shed light all
around him on any topic which came within
his range. Even where strictly political ques.
lions were concerned his judgment seemed al
ways to sever at once and at a stroke the es-
sentas from the non essentials OF any propo-
sition and to cleave q way directly to the heart
mystic about him. The most superficial knowl-
edge OF his intellectual form would have fore
warned any one Of that. but there was also
nothing OF the scientific recluse about him he
had never shut himself in his shell: his flne
perceptions wore alive to all that was sterling
In art and literature. in tho world OF politics
and In tho world OF society. Il can hardly
imagine his finding any subject embarrassing
which had an interest for even the smallest
section OF humanity. Many q time | have
thought. and no doubt others have thought.
whom some political controversy was going on
and when Huxley found or made time to take
part In IT, that he would have made great
name for himself as political debater II he
had been nothing else. Although lifelong
politician myself. could not pretend to feel
any regret that Huxley had not been stolen
from science and made present Of to politics
but have often felt that If Huxley we're in tho
House OF Commons he would have proved a
most formidable antagonist to any Ministry