The San Francisco call., 1903-12-14
PAYS TRIBUTE
TO GENIUS OF
DEAD SCIENTIST
BY L. A. REDNAN.

1t is impossible in a brief space to set
forth adequately the achievements of
Herbert Spencer in the intellectual
world. A fairly clear statement, how
may be attempted. His greatest
achievement was, of course the discov-
cry and exposition of the principle of
evolution Others had perceived the op-
Grafton and results of this principle in
special fields-Kant and LapIace in the
sidereal system and Erasmus and
Charles Darwin and Lamarck in the
biological world; but their discoveries,
profound and important as they were,
failed TO disclose to them the funda-
mental law to which the subjects of
their Investigations conformed.
This law was first revealed to Her
bert Spencer, and he also was the first
to perceive its universal operation He
has shown that the transformations
induced by the law of evolution are ex-
hibited in the universe as a whole, in
its details in the planetary system, in
the earth as an inorganic mass, in each
organism, in the aggregate of or
ganisms throughout geologic time, in
the mind, in society and in all the pro-
ducts of social activity. This splendid
conception the great thinker sustained
by a wonderful wealth of illustration
drawn from phenomena ranging from a
microscopic speck of protoplasm to
measureless nebulae. swirling through
space. The credit of this wonderful
discovery is wholly due to Mr.. Spencer,
and the current bestowaI of it upon
Charles Darwin is an enormous and
objectionable error. Nor did that dis
tinguished naturalist ever make the
slightest claim to the unearned honor
which a provoking perversity thrust
upon him. Indeed. he expressly admit
ted in a letter written to Professor
John F'iske in 1874 that with the ex-
ception Of special points" he did not
even understand H. Spencer's general
doctrine
GREATEST ACHIEVEMENT
Probably Mr.. Spencer's greatest
achievement in special work was the
production, at the early age of 35, of
his Principles of Psychology" That
profound and original treatise, pub
1ished in 1855, four years before the
appearance of Mr.. Darwin's Origin of
Species and afterward Incorporated
in the Synthetic Philosophy" as
sumed as the basis of its deductions
the truth of the development hypo-
thesis" which, three years before, Mr..
Spencer had championed in an essay
in which he set forth the argument
in far Of 10 avoI,1tior x1rito
markable force and clearness. Space
does not permit the enumeration of
the ready solutions furnished by Mr..
Spencer in his Principles of Psychol-
ogy" of many Heretofore insoluble
problems. Without special training
for the undertaking, with scant knowI-
edge of the writings of the recognized
masters in metaphysical discussion,
the young philosopher, by the sole aid
of his luminous intellect penetrated
the mist of obscurity involving the
operations of the mind and traced
them from their genesis upward along
the various branches of their eyolu-
ton. He put an end at once and for
ever to the war which had been waged
for thousand years between the in
tuitionists and those who contended
that all knowledge was derived from
experience by pointing out that the So
called innate ideas were, while a priori
to the individual, posteriori to the
race. He easily exposed the fallacies
of both the realists and idealists. and
taking moiety of truth from each he
constructed his own profound theory
of ''transfigured realism" which COM
pletely harmonized the facts.
AS \ BIOLOGIST.
Herbert Spencer's contributions to
biological science were many and of
the highest order. Mr.. Darwin speaks
of the wonderful prodigality of sug-
gestion exhibited in Spencers "Princi-
pies CT Biology" In his Factors of
Organic Evolution" and in his contro-
versy with Professor Weismann Mr..
Spencer demonstrated the inadequacy
of the principle of natural selection"
as the sole cause of organic evolution,
and showed the part played by other
important factors cooperating with it.
His theory of physiological (or consti-
tutionaD units the late Grant Allen,
naturalist of distinction, characterized
as a magnificent all sided conception
built UP by an acute and subtle analyt
ical perception of all the analogous
facts in universal nature" His theory
of the origin of the vertebrate struc-
ture has now been largely accepted by
biologists, and he also contributed a
valuable speculation concerning the
genesis of the annulose type of ami
mails. AS an incident to his controversy
with Weismann upon the relative i'm
portance of the several factors of or
ganic evolution, he solved the difficult
problem of the evolution of the social
hymenoptera, a problem which, as Mr..
Darwin himself confessed, seemed to
d .
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