The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-03-26

/ Locke, Reid, Hume, Kant or Hamilton
There we're even few books on scienoe;
there were no histories or biogaphies.'
IL might be Supposed that Spencer borrowed
books from circulating libraries, but his
secretary deems II doubtful II he was ever
connected With q circulating library tn,
| late In the eos, be Joined the London Library
/ for the sake Of his assistants. Even then
| he never. or hardly ever. took out book.
In fact. he vas not a reader At all, In the
ordinary sense Of the word but only
CLEANER. he did not tear the sntrails out
Of bools, Ike Sir Wnhsm Hamilton. He
left them, for the most part, severely alone.
W.
spenoers method OF composition has
bean previously described but Of course
Mr.. Collier. having long been his amanu-
ensis. Il qualified TO throw new light upon
IL. We are told that b him the act Of dicta-
don betrayed scarcely an effort. Smoking
half Of a cigar TO promote the mental now
(his cigar having been carefully cut IN two
10 prevent e1oeas), his voice never rising
or falling the eye family liz up with the
thinkers far away look but never burning
with the prophets fame without changes Of
physiognomy OF e dnGie gesture, and Gun
Ike Goethe) always seated, he passionlessly
unrolled the panorama Of his thoughts.
There was no battle. Never was be bafiSd
Never had he to cat bis work aside, ill
process Of unconscious oerebrahOn' 70
moved the obstacle. He never while do
tating, reconstructed his sentences, or BE-
gan again, or patched. OF throw out, or
greatly added. His Ideas cana, not IN
single hle, but In platoons, and the dinculty
was to marahal them His style Of think
ing, like his way Of life, has been described
as mechanical II 20, II was q very deep
sort Of mechanism To one who through
many a forenoon saw limb after limb and
organ after organ Of some scientific Struct-
ure appear and tAlOe shape. till all At length
ErsW toggther into . natural Whola, II rather
sSsmsd 10 be an organic process that bad
nature's 0wn mnctiOn.' While Spsnosrs
thoughts, how0TD, could not bs-a8t down too
quickly the sXpreaaion Of thgmuD9dsd Offsn
TO be rooEst. or at least abhnsviHtsd At
the end Of q month spencgr would subject
. manuscript to q oArsfI1 revision, ganarally
oOndenAing, puttinEG word for phTHsa, and
an Gptar word or phrHss for Oue les Gpt but
otherwise Gltsring Htt1s. n was character
lsti0 thRths WOnld than OaTTy the manuscript
10 the printing ofioe with his own hand, hay
ing too little confidence I'M G0yBrnmant In
Etttution 10 intTust 1t 10 the post ofios. he
not only rBvissd the hrst proof, but ouIIOoted
the rUviss and final revise, and IN all three
stages this copy would be Rad by an as
distant, WHOSE sugpnt1nnS would be 10
speCtfuIly hsedsd-
1t WIS to be expected that, with q mind so
overlooking as was 6psnDar's, his oonvsrsa-
ton would DO exceptionally interesting.
Mr.. Collier taStlhss that his wealth Of
scisutihc mUwlsdRB and his insxhRustible
abundance Of nav ideas made his discourse
a EOurus Of rare instruction and unfailing
delight. In point Of mSre style 1t was
often enough dSoOuFl. He would plunge
into . long GsntBnos without knowing how
il was to end, pills up qualifications and
parentbessB, diverge ON this side and that,
leap over all obstacles, and, finally, arrive
at his goal not that he had finished what
he had to say, but politeness bRde him
STOP BE was at bis best, we rHHd, with
single interloCutUrs, especially with men
Ike LswU and Balm. His superiority
was then unmistakabls, He had, indeed.
nom Of HuxlSy's wit OF ready sword play. |
though his capacity for deyising all manner
Of arguments In support Of any position |
he might take up made him formidable |
debatsr. But what struck one most on
such occasions was his sagacity. His |
thought was usually deepsr and always
wider, than bis interloCut0r's. ConEidern-
lions tho other had overlooked. or facts
unknown TO him, were brought 10 light, |
and seemed to change tho whole complsIion
Of the matter IN hand His ssorotaIy's
conclusion Is that. had Spencer been for
tunate enough TO find a tudicious Boswell,
he might figure IN tho syes Of poBtsrity /
a. advantageously a. does johnson, or
Goethe, OF Carlyle.
We observe. lastly. that Spencer is oom-
pared by the msn who probably knew him
best with Henry WILL In this particular,
that, while he knew how 10 say and do the
right thing With men, be was not equally
felicitous with women. Mr.. Collier re-
calls that an accomplished lady, once we'll
known In hterHture used to say that al
ways. when she was talking with Spencer,
she felt as II she we're being rubbed the
wrong way It Is suggested that, in the
earlier and middle years Of his life, when
he had taken up unpopular opinions and
was tsbOoed in literature in company with
other scientific heretics Of the day, he ex-
pectsd to meet With opposition, especially
from women, and armed himself In adj
vance. OF course, q man does not assume
q chip-ou-tbe-shouldsr posture without
being the worse for n. His secretary
thinks. however, that the attitude Of readi-
ness TO repel attack was doubtless rolln-
qushed as opposition grew rarer and more
and as his views we're received
with greater sympathy. II is admitted
nevertheless, that Spencer. like Htzjames
stephen, who had never known q woman
that was worth talking to for FIVE minutes
together was too purely masculine to do
full Justice to the other sex. That he
knew George Eliot and admired her was
due properly to me fact that be never re-
garded the great novelist as a normal
woman M.W,H,
Mr.. wagner 90 the Americans.
Mcclure, Phillips A Co. publish under the