Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative - free ebook by Herbert Spencer

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Essays: Scientific, Political, & Speculative

Herbert Spencer

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TABLE I.

TABLE I.

Passing from the Sciences concerned with the ideal or unoccupied forms of relations, and turning to the Sciences concerned with real relations, or the relations among realities, we come first to those Sciences which treat of realities, not as they are habitually manifested, but with realities as manifested in their different modes, when these are artificially separated from one another. While the Abstract Sciences are wholly ideal, relatively to the Abstract-Concrete and Concrete Sciences; the

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ESSAYS: SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL, & SPECULATIVE.

ESSAYS: SCIENTIFIC, POLITICAL, & SPECULATIVE.

BY HERBERT SPENCER. LIBRARY EDITION, (OTHERWISE FIFTH THOUSAND) Containing Seven Essays not before Republished, and various other additions. VOL. I. WILLIAMS AND NORGATE, 14, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN, LONDON: AND 20. SOUTH FREDERICK STREET. EDINBURGH. 1891. LONDON: G. NORMAN AND SON, PRINTERS, HART STREET, COVENT GARDEN....

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PREFACE

PREFACE

Excepting those which have appeared as articles in periodicals during the last eight years, the essays here gathered together were originally re-published in separate volumes at long intervals. The first volume appeared in December 1857; the second in November 1863; and the third in February 1874. By the time the original editions of the first two had been sold, American reprints, differently entitled and having the essays differently arranged, had been produced; and, for economy's sake, I have

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TABLE II.

TABLE II.

We come now to the third great group. We have done with the Sciences which are concerned only with the blank forms of relations under which Being is manifested to us. We have left behind the Sciences which, dealing with Being under its universal mode, and its several non-universal modes regarded as independent, treat the terms of its relations as simple and homogeneous; which they never are in Nature. There remain the Sciences which, taking these modes of Being as they are habitually connected w

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TABLE III.

TABLE III.

That these great groups of Sciences and their respective sub-groups, fulfil the definition of a true classification given at the outset, is, I think, tolerably manifest. The subjects of inquiry included in each primary division, have essential attributes in common with one another, which they have not in common with any of the subjects contained in the other primary divisions; and they have, by consequence, a greater number of attributes in which they are severally like the subjects they are

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BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

BAIN ON THE EMOTIONS AND THE WILL.

[ First published in The Medico-Chirurgical Review for January, 1860.] After the controversy between the Neptunists and the Vulcanists had been long carried on without definite results, there came a reaction against all speculative geology. Reasoning without adequate data having led to nothing, inquirers went into the opposite extreme, and confining themselves wholly to collecting data, relinquished reasoning. The Geological Society of London was formed with the express object of accumulating ev

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POSTSCRIPT REPLYING TO CRITICISMS.

POSTSCRIPT REPLYING TO CRITICISMS.

Among objections made to any doctrine, those which come from avowed supporters of an adverse doctrine must be considered, other things equal, as of less weight than those which come from men uncommitted to an adverse doctrine, or but partially committed to it. The element of prepossession, distinctly present in the one case and in the other case mainly or quite absent, is a well-recognized cause of difference in the values of the judgments: supposing the judgments to be otherwise fairly comparab

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THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN.

THE COMPARATIVE PSYCHOLOGY OF MAN.

[ Originally read before the Anthropological Institute, and afterwards published in Mind, for January, 1876.] While discussing with two members of the Anthropological Institute the work to be undertaken by its psychological section, I made certain suggestions which they requested me to put in writing. When reminded, some months after, of the promise I had made to do this, I failed to recall the particular suggestions referred to; but in the endeavour to remember them, I was led to glance over th

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NOTE.

NOTE.

The preceding pages originally formed the second portion of a pamphlet entitled The Classification of the Sciences: to which are added Reasons for dissenting from the Philosophy of M. Comte, which was first published in 1864. For some time past this pamphlet has been included in the third volume of my Essays, &amp;c., and has been no longer accessible in a separate form. There has recently been diffused afresh, the misconception which originally led me to exhibit my entire rejection of those

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I.

I.

Within the recollection of men now in middle life, opinion concerning the derivation of animals and plants was in a chaotic state. Among the unthinking there was tacit belief in creation by miracle, which formed an essential part of the creed of Christendom; and among the thinking there were two parties, each of which held an indefensible hypothesis. Immensely the larger of these parties, including nearly all whose scientific culture gave weight to their judgments, though not accepting literally

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APPENDIX A.

APPENDIX A.

Some fourteen or more years ago, an American friend requested me, with a view to a certain use which he named, to furnish him with a succinct statement of the cardinal principles developed in the successive works I had published and in those I was intending to publish. This statement I here reproduce. Having been written solely for an expository purpose, and without thought of M. Comte and his system, it will serve better than a statement now drawn up since it is not open to the suspicion of bei

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II.

II.

Ask a plumber who is repairing your pump, how the water is raised in it, and he replies—"By suction." Recalling the ability which he has to suck up water into his mouth through a tube, he is certain that he understands the pump's action. To inquire what he means by suction, seems to him absurd. He says you know as well as he does, what he means; and he cannot see that there is any need for asking how it happens that the water rises in the tube when he strains his mouth in a particular way. To th

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APPENDIX B.

APPENDIX B.

On pp. 119 and 120 , I have pointed out that the followers of M. Comte, swayed by the spirit of discipleship, habitually ascribe to him a great deal which was the common inheritance of the scientific world before he wrote, and to which he himself laid no claim. Kindred remarks have since been made by others, both in England and in France—the one by Mr. Mill, and the other by M. Fouillée. Mr. Mill says:— “The foundation of M. Comte’s philosophy is thus in no way peculiar to him, but the general p

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ON LAWS IN GENERAL, AND THE ORDER OF THEIR DISCOVERY.

ON LAWS IN GENERAL, AND THE ORDER OF THEIR DISCOVERY.

[ The following was contained in the first edition of First Principles. I omitted it from the re-organized second edition, because it did not form an essential part of the new structure. As it is referred to in the foregoing pages, and as its general argument is germane to the contents of those pages, I have thought well to insert it here. Moreover, though I hope eventually to incorporate it in that division of the Principles of Sociology which treats of Intellectual Progress, yet as it must be

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THE VALUATION OF EVIDENCE.

THE VALUATION OF EVIDENCE.

[ First published in The Leader for June 25, 1853. ] With Spirit-rappings and Table-movings still the rage, and with the belief in Spontaneous Combustion still unextinguished, it seems desirable that something should be said in justification of that general scepticism with which the philosophical meet the alleged wonders that periodically turn the heads of the nation. Nothing less than a bulky octavo would be needed to contain all that might be written on the matter; and unfortunately such an oc

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POSTSCRIPT (1873).

POSTSCRIPT (1873).

The union of two different ideas, not before placed side by side, has generated this thought. In the first number of the Principles of Biology , issued in January 1863, and dealing, among other “Data of Biology,” with organic matter and the effects of forces upon it, I ventured to speculate about the molecular actions concerned in organic changes, and, among others, those by which light enables plants to take the carbon from carbonic acid (§ 13). Pointing out that the ability of heat to decompos

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MILL versus HAMILTON—THE TEST OF TRUTH.

MILL versus HAMILTON—THE TEST OF TRUTH.

[ First published in The Fortnightly Review for July 1865. ] British speculation, to which, the chief initial ideas and established truths of Modern Philosophy are due, is no longer dormant. By his System of Logic , Mr. Mill probably did more than any other writer to re-awaken it. And to the great service he thus rendered some twenty years ago, he now adds by his Examination of Sir William Hamilton’s Philosophy —a work which, taking the views of Sir William Hamilton as texts, reconsiders sundry

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POSTSCRIPT.

POSTSCRIPT.

Especially do I feel called upon by courtesy to make some response to one who, in the Quarterly Review for October, 1873, has dealt with me in a spirit which, though largely antagonistic, is not wholly unsympathetic; and who manifestly aims to estimate justly the views he opposes. In the space at my disposal, I cannot of course follow him through all the objections he has urged. I must content myself with brief comments on the two propositions he undertakes to establish. His enunciation of these

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THESES.

THESES.

1. If A produces B, then 2 A will produce 2 B. This is the blank form of causal relation quantitatively considered, when the causes and effects are simple—that is, are unimpeded by other causes and uncomplicated by other effects; and whenever two or more causes co-operate, there is no possibility of determining the relation between the compound cause and the compound effect except by assuming that between each co-operating cause and its separate effect there exists this same quantitative relatio

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APPENDIX A.

APPENDIX A.

( From Nature, April 16, 1874. ) Absence from town has delayed what further remarks I have to make respecting the disputed origin of physical axioms. The particular physical axiom in connection with which the general question was raised, was the Second Law of Motion. It stands in the Principia as follows:— “ The alteration of motion is ever proportional to the motive force impressed; and is made in the direction of the right line in which that force is impressed. “If any force generates a motion

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APPENDIX B.

APPENDIX B.

[After publication of the letters from which the foregoing are reproduced, there appeared in Nature certain rejoinders containing misrepresentations even more extreme than those preceding them. There resulted a direct correspondence with two of the writers—Mr. Robert B. Hayward, of Harrow, and Mr. J. F. Moulton, my original assailant, the author of the article in the British Quarterly Review . This correspondence, in which I demanded from these gentlemen the justifications for their s

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APPENDIX C. SUMMARY OF RESULTS.

APPENDIX C. SUMMARY OF RESULTS.

Those who deny a general doctrine enunciated by Mayer as the basis of his reasonings, habitually assumed by Faraday {315} as a guiding principle in drawing his conclusions, distinctly held by Helmholtz, and tacitly implied by Sir John Herschel—those, I say, who deny this general doctrine and even deride it, should be prepared with clear and strong reasons for doing this. Having been attacked, not in the most temperate manner, for enunciating this doctrine and its necessary implications in a spec

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POSTSCRIPT.

POSTSCRIPT.

“While I cannot honestly retract anything in the substance of what I then wrote, there are expressions in the article which I very much regret, so far as they might be taken to imply want of personal respect for Mr. Spencer. For reasons sufficiently given in my reply to Mr. Hodgson, I cannot plead guilty to the charge of misrepresentation which Mr. Spencer repeats; but on reading my first article again in cold blood I found that I had allowed controversial heat to betray me into the use of

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POSTSCRIPT.

POSTSCRIPT.

In some cases the word furnished by our original tongue, and the corresponding word directly or indirectly derived from Latin, though nominally equivalents, are not actually such; and the word of Latin origin, by certain extra connotations it has acquired, may be the more expressive. For instance, we have no word of native origin which can be advantageously substituted for the word “grand.” No such words as “big” or “great,” which connote little more than superiority in size or quantity, can be

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USE AND BEAUTY.

USE AND BEAUTY.

[ First published in The Leader for January 3, 1852. ] In one of his essays, Emerson remarks, that what Nature at one time provides for use, she afterwards turns to ornament; and he cites in illustration the structure of a sea-shell, in which the parts that have for a while formed the mouth are at the next season of growth left behind, and become decorative nodes and spines. Ignoring the implied teleology, which does not here concern us, it has often occurred to me that this same remark might be

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THE SOURCES OF ARCHITECTURAL TYPES.

THE SOURCES OF ARCHITECTURAL TYPES.

[ First published in The Leader for October 23, 1852. ] When lately looking through the gallery of the Old Water-Colour Society, I was struck with the incongruity produced by putting regular architecture into irregular scenery. In one case, where the artist had introduced a symmetrical Grecian edifice into a mountainous and wild landscape, the discordant effect was particularly marked. “How very unpicturesque,” said a lady to her friend, as they passed; showing that I was not alone in my opinion

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II.

II.

All the civilized races, and probably also the uncivilized ones, are of mixed origin; and, as a consequence, have physical and mental constitutions in which are mingled several aboriginal constitutions more or less differing from each other. This heterogeneity of constitution seems to me the chief cause of the incongruities between aspect and nature which we daily meet with. Given a pure race, subject to constant conditions of climate, food, and habits {395} of life, and there is reason to belie

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POSTSCRIPT.

POSTSCRIPT.

An opponent, or partial opponent, of high authority, whose views were published some fourteen years after the above essay, must here be answered: I mean Mr. Darwin. Diligent and careful as an observer beyond naturalists in general, and still more beyond those who are untrained in research, his judgment on a question which must be {427} decided by induction is one to be received with great respect. I think, however, examination will show that in this instance Mr. Darwin’s observations are inadequ

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MANNERS AND FASHION.

MANNERS AND FASHION.

[ First published in The Westminster Review for April 1854 .] Whoever has studied the physiognomy of political meetings, cannot fail to have remarked a connexion between democratic opinions and peculiarities of costume. At a Chartist demonstration, a lecture on Socialism, or a soirée of the Friends of Italy, there will be seen many among the audience, and a still larger ratio among the speakers, who get themselves up in a style more or less unusual. One gentleman on the platform divides his hair

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RAILWAY MORALS AND RAILWAY POLICY.

RAILWAY MORALS AND RAILWAY POLICY.

[ First published in the Edinburgh Review for October 1854 .] Believers in the intrinsic virtues of political forms, might draw an instructive lesson from the politics of our railways. If there needs a conclusive proof that the most carefully-framed constitutions are worthless, unless they be embodiments of the popular character—if there needs a conclusive proof, that governmental arrangements in advance of the time will inevitably lapse into congruity with the time; such proof may be found over

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THE MORALS OF TRADE.

THE MORALS OF TRADE.

[ First published in The Westminster Review for April 1859 .] We are not about to repeat, under the above title, the often-told tale of adulterations: albeit, were it our object to deal with this familiar topic, there are not wanting fresh materials. It is rather the less-observed and less-known dishonesties of trade, to which we would here draw attention. The same lack of conscientiousness which shows itself in the mixing of starch with cocoa, in the dilution of butter with lard, in the colo

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PRISON-ETHICS.

PRISON-ETHICS.

[ First published in The British Quarterly Review for July 1860 .] The two antagonist theories of morals, like many other antagonist theories, are both right and both wrong. The a priori school has its truth; the a posteriori school has its truth; and for the proper guidance of conduct, there must be due recognition of both. On the one hand, it is asserted that there is an absolute standard of rectitude; and, respecting certain classes of actions, it is rightly so asserted. From the fundamental

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THE ETHICS OF KANT.

THE ETHICS OF KANT.

[ From the Fortnightly Review for July 1888. This essay was called forth by attacks on me made in essays published in preceding numbers of the Fortnightly Review— essays in which the Kantian system of ethics was lauded as immensely superior to the system of ethics defended by me. The last section now appears for the first time. ] If, before Kant uttered that often-quoted saying in which, with the stars of Heaven he coupled the conscience of Man, as being the two things that excited his awe, he h

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ABSOLUTE POLITICAL ETHICS.

ABSOLUTE POLITICAL ETHICS.

[ Originally published in The Nineteenth Century for January 1890. The writing of this essay was consequent on a controversy carried on in The Times between Nov. 7 and Nov. 27, 1889, and was made needful by the misapprehensions and misrepresentations embodied in that controversy. Hence the allusions which the essay contains. The last few paragraphs of it in its original form were mainly personal in their character; and, not wishing to perpetuate personalities, I have omitted them .] Life in

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OVER-LEGISLATION.

OVER-LEGISLATION.

[ First published in The Westminster Review for July 1853 .] From time to time there returns on the cautious thinker, the conclusion that, considered simply as a question of probabilities, it is unlikely that his views upon any debatable topic are correct. “Here,” he reflects, “are thousands around me holding on this or that point opinions differing from mine—wholly in many cases; partially in most others. Each is as confident as I am of the truth of his convictions. Many of them are possessed o

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REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT—WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

REPRESENTATIVE GOVERNMENT—WHAT IS IT GOOD FOR?

[ First published in The Westminster Review for October 1857. ] Shakspeare’s simile for adversity— Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous, Wears yet a precious jewel in his head, might fitly be used also as a simile for a disagreeable truth. Repulsive as is its aspect, the hard fact which dissipates a cherished illusion, is presently found to contain the germ of a more salutary belief. The experience of every one furnishes instances in which an opinion long shrunk from as seemingly at variance

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STATE-TAMPERINGS WITH MONEY AND BANKS.

STATE-TAMPERINGS WITH MONEY AND BANKS.

[ First published in The Westminster Review for January 1858 .] Among unmitigated rogues, mutual trust is impossible. Among people of absolute integrity, mutual trust would be unlimited. These are truisms. Given a nation made up of liars and thieves, and all trade among its members must be carried on either by barter or by a currency of intrinsic value: nothing in the shape of promises -to-pay can pass in place of actual payments; for, by the hypothesis, such promises being never fulfilled, will

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PARLIAMENTARY REFORM: THE DANGERS AND THE SAFEGUARDS.

PARLIAMENTARY REFORM: THE DANGERS AND THE SAFEGUARDS.

[ First published in The Westminster Review for April 1860 .] Thirty years ago, the dread of impending evils agitated not a few breasts throughout England. Instinctive fear of change, justified as it seemed by outbursts of popular violence, conjured up visions of the anarchy which would follow the passing of a Reform Bill. In scattered farm-houses there was chronic terror, lest those newly endowed with political power should in some way filch all the profits obtained by rearing cattle and growin

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“THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM.”

“THE COLLECTIVE WISDOM.”

A test of senatorial capacity is a desideratum. We rarely learn how near the mark or how wide of the mark the calculations of statesmen are: the slowness and complexity of social changes, hindering, as they do, the definite comparisons of results with anticipations. Occasionally, however, parliamentary decisions admit of being definitely valued. One which was arrived at a few weeks ago furnished a measure of legislative judgment too significant to be passed by. On the edge of the Cotswolds, just

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POLITICAL FETICHISM.

POLITICAL FETICHISM.

[ First published in The Reader for June 10, 1865 .] A Hindoo, who, before beginning his day’s work, salaams to a bit of plastic clay, out of which, in a few moments, he has extemporized a god in his own image, is an object of amazement to the European. We read with surprise bordering on scepticism of worship done by machinery, and of prayers which owe their supposed efficacy to the motion given by the wind to the papers they are written on. When told how certain of the Orientals, if displeased

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SPECIALIZED ADMINISTRATION.

SPECIALIZED ADMINISTRATION.

[ First published in The Fortnightly Review for December 1871 .] It is contrary to common-sense that fish should be more difficult to get at the sea-side than in London; but it is true, nevertheless. No less contrary to common-sense seems the truth that though, in the West Highlands, oxen are to be seen everywhere, no beef can be had without sending two or three hundred miles to Glasgow for it. Rulers who, guided by common-sense, tried to suppress certain opinions by forbidding the books contain

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FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE.

FROM FREEDOM TO BONDAGE.

[ First published as the Introduction to a volume entitled A Plea for Liberty, &amp;c.: a series of anti-socialistic essays, issued at the beginning of 1891 .] Of the many ways in which common-sense inferences about social affairs are flatly contradicted by events (as when measures taken to suppress a book cause increased circulation of it, or as when attempts to prevent usurious rates of interest make the terms harder for the borrower, or as when there is greater difficulty in getting thing

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I.—A CONVERSATION: October 20, 1882.

I.—A CONVERSATION: October 20, 1882.

Has what you have seen answered your expectations ? It has far exceeded them. Such books about America as I had looked into had given me no adequate idea of the immense developments of material civilization which {472} I have everywhere found. The extent, wealth, and magnificence of your cities, and especially the splendour of New York, have altogether astonished me. Though I have not visited the wonder of the West, Chicago, yet some of your minor modern places, such as Cleveland, have sufficien

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II.—A SPEECH:

II.—A SPEECH:

Mr. President and Gentlemen:—Along with your kindness there comes to me a great unkindness from Fate; for, now that, above all times in my life, I need full command of what powers of speech I possess, disturbed health so threatens to interfere with them that I fear I shall very inadequately express myself. Any failure in my response you must please ascribe, in part at least, to a greatly disordered nervous system. Regarding you as representing Americans at large, I feel that the occasion is one

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