The Intermountain Catholic. (Salt Lake City [Utah] ;) 1899-1920, 1903-12-12
HERBERT SPENCER.

In the death of Herbert Spencer, England loses
one of its greatest men. He born i'll Derby,
England, in 1920 At the age of II he became
civil engineer, which, after eight years, he aban-
doned for a higher and more exalted avocation
destined for him by nature. As writer Herbert
Spencer had equal IN all England To him is
awarded the prize of merit, against such writ
ers as Buckle and John Stuart Mill. All his works
denote man of strong mind and an independent
writer whilst his language is chastc, and what may
be termed classical English. His intellectual SUI
premacy he maintained i'll England for nearly sey-
enty years, and he will be always remembered an
eminent scientist and profound philosopher. But
Mr. Spencer, notwithstanding his deep thought, la
borious and industrious works, not always log
zeal in his conclusions, consistent with his own
premises. Some of his theories were not only UNI
Christian but they were unscientifc. In his Prln-
ciples of Philosophy he restricts all knowledge to
what is known through the senses, or the sensible
world l. e. the material world. First principles,
origin and causes, he designates as unknOwabe.
The science of life OH which he writes, is treated
only organicaly. He describes the whole process
of assimilation in a scientific But the
vital spark that does the work silently and with
precision, was him the unknown quantity, and
therefore he passed it lie knew that the body
or stomach minus this living power could not con-
vert food into chye, BONE flesh and blood, yet
that vital spark, the immortal soul, which Is the
primary cause of all that takes place IN the as
similation of food he discarded. In the work,
treating of generation, reproduction, he strongly
adhered to the theory of metagenesis, which sub
verts the Biblical account of creation, that every
kind produces its like Whether in later years he
abandoned his theory unsclentlhc, the reader Is
not aware, but we have it on the authority OF DIR.
Durham of Boston, whose fame was widespread
and whose authority as naturalist IS generally
admitted that metagenesls as applied to aphlds,
was wrong "I have" said he, "been making my
observations for some years on these little organ
sms, and find that what we have taken for meta
genesis is only of the different stages IN the
process of reproduction, for | have discovered the
young aphid properly formed and enveloped in the
so-caed virgin or sexless mother" Spencers theory
of evolution was, like that of the old pagan phi
osophers, that matter, fire, water and the elements
alone produced all things. Man was not originally
created, but, like Topsy, "growed." His First
Principles of New System of Philosophy is also
unsatisfactory. as its trend is to lead doubling
minds away from certain knowledge and entange
them, by his false philosophy and unverifed scien-
tifc theories. The account of creation as given IN
Genesis he denies because it did not harmonic
with his philosophy Yet he admitted his inability
to give any scientific or philosophical account OF
the origin of the universe. He writes; Respecting
the origin of the universe, three verbally 1ntelglbe
suggestions may be made. We may assert that 1t
Is elfeXisent, that it is set-created or that 1t
is created by external agency. Selt-eHstence the
first suppostion, he rejects, because, as he said,
and truly too, such supposition Is absolutely in
conceivable AN impossible idea. The second sup
position namely that it is self he must,
a philosopher, necessarily deny, because to create
means action. which would imply that the world
acted before it existed. He also denied that it
created by any external agency. But his reasons
for this denial and that he would admit
First Cause. and presupposed that the external
agent, like the builder of mansion or factory,
would require materials to construct the universe.
Then he asks But whence come the materials e
We know not what answer pagan philosophers
could give to his query but Christian philosophers,
who believe in God and all his attributes, would
answer that He created all things from nothing.
For Him there was 10 need of pre-existing
erials, as all things came into existence by 'the
sole word of his power"
This Mr., Herbert Spencer failed to discover in
his philosophy. He followed in the line of anti
Christian writers who at the beginning of the last
century laid claim to all scientific knowledge. Her
bert Spencer, their pupil was the most brilliant of
them all. Unfortunately his thoughts, in the be-
ginning, We're directed in the wrong channel. From
him lesser lights, who proclaimed themselves ag
nostics received their training, and in the dark