Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of DiscussionsSpencer, Herbert
Philosophy
Illustrations of Universal Progress: A Series of Discussions
Spencer, Herbert
Philosophy; Political science; Science
Mr. Spencer's philosophical series is published by D. Appleton & Co., New
York, in quarterly parts (80 to 100 pages each), by subscription, at two
dollars a year. "_First Principles_" is issued in one volume, and four
parts of Biology have appeared. We subjoin some notices of his philosophy
from American and English reviews.
_From the National Quarterly Review_ (American.)
Comte thus founded social science, and opened a path for future
discoverers; but he did not perceive, any more than previous inquirers,
the fundamental law of human evolution. It was reserved for Herbert
Spencer to discover this all-comprehensive law which is found to
explain alike all the phenomena of man's history and all those of
external nature. This sublime discovery, that the universe is in a
continuous process of evolution from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous, with which only Newton's law of gravitation is at all
worthy to be compared, underlies not only physics, but also history. It
reveals the law to which social changes conform.
_From the Christian Examiner._
Reverent and bold--reverent for truth, though not for the forms of
truth, and not for much that we hold true--bold in the destruction of
error, though without that joy in destruction which often claims the
name of boldness;--these works are interesting in themselves and in
their relation to the current thought of the time. They seem at first
sight to form the turning point in the positive philosophy, but closer
examination shows us that it is only a new and marked stage in a
regular growth. It is the positive philosophy reaching the higher
relations of our being, and establishing what before it ignored because
it had not reached, and by ignoring seemed to deny. This system
formerly excluded theology and psychology. In the works of Herbert
Spencer we have the rudiments of a positive theology and an immense
step toward the perfection of the science of psychology.... Such is a
brief and meagre sketch of a discussion which we would commend to be
followed in detail by every mind interested in theological studies.
Herbert Spencer comes in good faith from what has been so long a
hostile camp, bringing a flag of truce and presenting terms of
agreement meant to be honourable to both parties: let us give him a
candid hearing.... In conclusion, we would remark that the work of
Herbert Spencer referred to (First Principles) is not mainly
theological, but will present the latest and broadest generalizations
of science, and we would commend to our readers this author, too little
known among us, as at once one of the clearest of teachers and one of
the wisest and most honourable of opponents.
_From the New Englander._
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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