New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-23
HERBERT SPENCER.
The Autobiography of ProdigiOuS
EgOtiSt.

The impression left by this voluminoUs mar
ratiye is one OF man Of great intellectual
powers who took himself too seriously. Herbert
Spencer as portrayed Oy himself would seem TO
have been an extraordinarily self-absorbed ana
hurrorless individual, man VINO allowed his
high intele stual prescriptions so to react upon
his intercourse with human beings as to make
his long life an affair OF the fewest possible
merely natural sensations. In his first volume
referring TO Huxley's lively mentality he tells
this anecdote: "A witticism Of his at my eX-
penge has remained with me these twenty years
He Was one OF q circle ia which tragedy was
the topic, when nay name came up in connec-
ton with some opinion or other; whereupon ne
remarked: Oh! you know, Spencer's idea Of
tragedy is a deduction killed by a fact" In
consciously in this apt saying Huxley was
rrophesving the character OF his friends auto
biorra ply. The book is written in kind Of dry
light Il is not so much human document as
It is scientific report. From a certain point OF
view it might seem as though nothing could be-
in the circumstances. more desirable A scien-
tifc report is the sort OF thing reasonably 10
be expected from man like Spencer. One feels
that In that way the truth about him could be.
perhaps. most successfully set forth. But, as
matter OF fact. the philosophers literary apu-
tude failed him on this important occasion. He
produced when he wrote this book neither a CO.
aerent study of his personality nor luminous
exposition Of the growth Of his mind. Instead he
drew up q record Of facts that is much too long,
being filed TO overlooking with uninportant de-
tails and that is for long stretches as dull IS
ditch water.
The absence OF hunor from Spencers make
Up is curiously shown IN his failure to see in
himself the faults that he sees IN others, TO
apply to his own experience the thoughts pro-
voked IN him by things outside himself Take.
FOR example this very question Of detail in biog-
raphys Il nave seen nothing more Of Carlyles
Cromwell than is 20 be gathered from the re-
views" he writes 10 his friend Lott "As you
correctly surmise, have no intention Of wading
through It. II. after a thorough examination of
the subject, Carlyle tells us that Cromwell was a
sincere man. reply that am heartily glad TO
hear St and that I am content 10 take his word
for IT, not thinking st worth while 10 investigate
al the evidence which has led him to that con-
clusion." This was written when he IN his
fwentiesA Years after he gave a similar Illus
tration OF his point OF view TO Professor You
mans. when the two were at Holyrood together.
To some question put by the guide Spencer re-
piled. Il am happy TO say don't know" Re
1erring to the incident, he says. Probably the
remark or question referred to Queen Mary.
On this. as on kindred occasions. thus implied
my satisfaction. partly in having used time
and brain space for knowledge better worth
having. and partly in expressing my small
epect for gossip about people Of no intrinsic
worth. whether dead or living" Professor You
mans was amused. but wonder If even that
etanch advocate OF the Spencerian hypothesis
would not have blenched little before the testi-
mory offered in these volumes to his hero's
Willingness. not only at Holyrood. but every
where else, to consider the world solely as II
affected his own intellectual concerns. Spencer
had no room In his, mind for Queen Mary, but
he expects US to find room in our minds for the
most trivial Incidents in his own career Nay he
thinks IL worth while to Introduce his autobiog-
raphy with nearly seventy pages about his dis
tant and immediate forefathers, and. though he
appears TO have had notion that he could justi-
fly the excursion by indicating hereditary ele-
ments in his story. his efforts in this direction
meet with scant success. 1t may, moreover, be
remarked in passing that no obviously good
purpose is served by his revelation Of the fact
that his father was not kind to his mother
The account Of his boyhood yields little that is
OF interest He had taste for drawing and
spent good many hours in the pursuit Of ento-
molOgy. In his preface he says Neither in boy
hood nor youth did receive a single lesson in
English" and his education in general does not
seem TO have amounted to much but he observes
that when he thirteen his conceptions OF
physical principles and processes had considera-
bic clearness." and that he had "a fair acquaint-
snce with sundry special phenomena in physics
and chemistry" In his boyhood he was all but
drowned In the Derwent He was good runner;
that In fact, was evidently his only athletic ac-
complishment AS a lad he walked most OF the
way home from Hinton Charterhouse. near Bath
10 Derby, TO escape from his uncle's house. where
The scheme laid out for his instruction was not
&c his taste. He had IN his earlier years a habit
o. castle building which persisted even into
manhood. when It passed gradually into the
Of L.
BILE" But he falls 70 appeal to US very strongly
On his recital OF these and other matters. and
we are glad when in the course Of his autobiog-
raphy. he reaches the stage at which while stiu
IN his teens. he addressed himself to the pro-
fession OK engineering. He was clever and in
dustrious, and made fair progress His expert
tnce on the construction Of railways and bridges
was important 20 him. * Il does not prove OF
much importance TO his reader. It is plain that
he liked TO recall the little adventures of that
period He tells US how a coach truck practical
ly ran away with him on one occasion and how
In 1910 he found himself in a somewhat pre-
csrious position on a rope ladder suspended from
the balustrade OF the bridge over the Severn at
Worcester. He also notes that in his earlier
engineering days his spelling was defective, an
odd circumstance.
TO this time belongs the awakening OF his
interest IN fossil remains a dim foreshadowing
OF the thoughtful exercises 20 which he was
ultimately 20 dedicate his life. He paid some
attention 10 architecture and sculpture. and he
read a good deal Some OF his time was given
30 reflections on the best way IN which TO go
about the construction OF a universal language
the predominant aim OF which would be brevity
In other words. engineering. though not aban-
doned was losing its hold upon him. and he
began vaguely TO dream OF a literary career
Bis first independent venture was a pamphlet