The Portland daily press., 1900-07-19

About the time that the Beers were
expected to make their attack upon
Kimberley Mr.. Rhodes made his APP
pearance there, and many OF the people
were indignant, thinking it would In
crease the desire Of the enemy to attack
them; but DR.. Ashe considered it very
plucky thing for Rhodes to do, thus
standing by the town that made him,
and with which he was so intimately
connected.
Indeed he at once raised q regiment of
his own, the Kimberley Light Horse,
paying for it all out of his own pocket,
and the De Beers Company began to
make the shells, each one being stamped
with &C. J. r. IS compliments
DR.. Ashe tells thrilling story of til
fighting, raiding and bombardment, of
the food problem and the rush for shell
ter, at which time the diamond mines
were put to an unusual use. DR.. Ashes
little volume is valuable as a bit of his
tory, as well as most entertaining.
Mr.. Macpherson in his book on Spencer
and Spencerism, endeavors to do the
work for us, which through Incidence or
lack Of leisure, we possibly have failed
to do for ourselves. In his preface he
says: "A philosophic thinker Of the first
rank is always known by the amount of
literature which his writings call forth.
Descartes, Locke, Spinoza, Hume, Kant,
Hegel-these in their respective spheres
were epoch.makers From the philosophic
germs which they scattered have sprung
whole libraries Of controversial literature.
In like manner Mr.. Herbert Spencer has
paid the penalty of his great philosophic
fame. AS an epoch-maker he too has had
to pass through the fire of hostile cr1ti-
cism. For many years his philosophy has
been the battle-ground of controversialists
who, differing among themselves in
many ways, have united in their attempts
to discredit system of thought which
threatened to destroy long-cherished
opinions and stereotyped beliefs. One
result Of this has been that to the general
public the Synthetic Philosophy. embed
ed as it has been in the works of critics,
has necessarily appeared in fragmentary
form My object in writing this book
has been to present to the general reader
Op0uCStlSIn III 1uClu, cOu0f6nO 1Oflls
Nothing can take the place of Mr.. Spen-
GERS own writings, but mastery of these
demands an amount of leisure and phil
osophic enthusiasm which are by no
means widespread. -
In his design Mr.. Macpherson has the
approval OF MIR. Spencer, and his idea
has been not to make slavish reproduc
tion of the masters writings, but to take
his stand upon the fundamental ideas OF
Synthetic Philosophy, and use them in
his own way to interpret and illustrate
the great evolutionary process.
The book opens with sketch of Mr..
Spencer and his early intellectual en-
vironment, the evolution of the evolution
theory, and his personal characteristics,
and the writer declares that whatever the.
future may have in store for philosophy,
one prediction may be confidently made,
that humanity win owe to Herbert Spen-
Ger an everlasting debt of gratitude, and
that he may rest from his 1abors with the
proud consciousness that with his own
right hand he has carved his path from
obscurity to philosophic throne, and
that he now stands among the sceptred
immortals.
Nessrs. T, g. Page. 81 Co. portland.