Mrs. Eddy Mentioned Them March 26, 1960 Issue

Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903

[Mentioned in Miscellaneous Writings, p. 361, and in Miscellany, p. 349]

A remarkable unity of interest characterized the life of Herbert Spencer, the English philosopher. Although his father was a schoolmaster, the son received little formal education. Consequently, he had an aversion to learning by routine methods; he was not encouraged to accept the authority of others in education. He recounts that his father was always saying to him: "I wonder what is the cause of so and so. Can you tell the cause of this:" Thus the habit of searching for cause was formed.

As a young boy he developed an interest in entomology. At sixteen he contributed to a magazine an article describing "the formation of certain curiously shaped floating crystals." At seventeen he worked out a geometrical theorem, which was published in an engineering magazine. He always had access to his father's philosophical and medical magazines. In addition to the boy's wide interests, he had marked mechanical ingenuity.

At seventeen he was hired as an engineer by the London and Birmingham Railway. During the nine years spent in this work, he participated in the complete suffrage movement, investigated phrenology, and made a herbarium. His knowledge in these various fields formed a background for his writing, which he began in earnest when he was appointed subeditor on the Economist. Before giving his whole time to writing, he contributed many philosophic articles to the Westminster Review.

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Herbert Spencer, 1820-1903

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