And she went back to the house,
refusing
to hear anything
more.
more.
Warner - World's Best Literature - v23 - Sha to Sta
13695 (#521) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13695
as there are yellow leaves in the rough roads. Therefore true
Christians leave the table-cloth spread and the fire lighted, that
the dead may take their meals, and warm the limbs stiffened by
the cold of cemeteries.
But if there are true adorers of the Virgin and her Son,
there are also the children of the Black Angel [the Devil], who
forget those who have been nearest their hearts. Wilherm Pos-
tik was one of the latter. His father had quitted life without
having received absolution; and as the proverb says, "Kadion
is always the son of his father. " Therefore he cared only for
forbidden pleasures, danced during church-time when he could,
and drank during mass with beggarly horse-jockeys. Yet God
had not failed to send him warnings. In one year he had seen an
ill wind strike his mother, his sisters, and his wife; but he had
consoled himself for their deaths by inheriting their property.
The rector vainly warned him in sermon, that he was a
subject of scandal to all the parish. Far from correcting Wil-
herm, this public advice had only the result of making him give
up church, as might easily have been foreseen; for it is not by
snapping the whip one brings back a runaway horse. So he set
about living more as he chose than ever,- as faithless and law-
less as a fox in the brush.
Now it happened in that time that the fine days came to
an end, and the feast of the dead arrived. All baptized folk put
on their mourning-garments, and went to church to pray for the
dead; but Wilherm dressed himself in his best, and took the road
to the neighboring town.
All the time the others spent in relieving souls in pain, he
passed there drinking brandy with the sailors, and singing verses
composed by the millers [i. e. , coarse songs]. He did this until
nearly midnight; and did not think of returning until the others.
grew weary of wrong-doing. He had an iron constitution for
pleasure; and he left the inn the last one, as steady and active
as when he had entered.
But his heart was hot with drink. He sang aloud along the
road, songs which usually even the boldest would only whisper;
he passed the crucifixes without lowering his voice or lifting his
hat; and he struck the thickets of broom with his stick right and
left, without fear of wounding the souls which fill the ways upon
that day.
## p. 13696 (#522) ##########################################
13696
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He thus reached a crossway from which there were two paths
to his village. The longer was under the protection of God,
while the shorter was haunted by the dead. Many people cross-
ing it by night had heard noises and seen things of which they
did not speak, except when with others and within reach of holy-
water. But Wilherm feared only thirst; therefore he took the
shortest path, where his clogs clattered on the pebbles.
Now the night was moonless; the wind rattled down the leaves,
the springs rolled sadly along the bank, the bushes shivered like
a man in fear; and in the silence, Wilherm's steps sounded like
those of giants: but nothing frightened him, and he kept on.
As he passed the old ruined manor, he heard the weather-
cock, which said to him:—
"Go back, go back, go back! >>
Wilherm went on his way. He reached the cascade, and the
water murmured:
"Do not pass, do not pass, do not pass! "
He set his foot on the stones polished by the stream, and
crossed. As he reached a worm-eaten oak, the wind whistling
through the branches repeated: -
"Stay here, stay here, stay here! "
But Wilherm struck the dead tree with his stick, and hurried on.
At last he entered the haunted valley. Midnight sounded
from three parishes. Wilherm began to whistle the tune of
'Marionnik. ' But just as he was whistling the fourth verse, he
heard the sound of a cart, and saw it coming towards him cov-
ered with a pall.
Wilherm recognized the hearse. It was drawn by six black
horses, and driven by the "Ankon" [phantom of death], who held
an iron whip and repeated ceaselessly:-
――
-
"Turn aside, or I will overturn you. "
Wilherm made way for him without being disconcerted.
"What are you doing here, Paleface? " he demanded boldly.
"I seize and I surprise," answered the Ankon.
"So you are a robber and a traitor? " went on Wilherm.
"I strike without look or thought. "
"That is, like a fool or a brute. But why are you in such a
hurry to-day? "
"I am seeking Wilherm Postik," answered the phantom, pass-
ing by.
## p. 13697 (#523) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13697
The merry Wilherm burst out laughing, and went on.
As he reached the little hedge of blackthorn which led to the
washing-place, he saw two women in white who were hanging
linen on the bushes.
"Upon my life! here are some girls who are not afraid of
the dew," said he. "Why are you out so late, little doves? "
"We are washing, we are drying, we are sewing," answered
the two women at once.
"But what? " asked the young man.
"The shroud of a dead man who still talks and walks. "
"A dead man! My faith! What is his name? "
"Wilherm Postik. "
The fellow laughed louder than at first, and went on down
the rough little path. But as he advanced, he heard more and
more distinctly the blows of wooden beetles against the stones;
and soon he could see the washerwomen of night pounding their
grave-clothes, as they sang the sad refrain:-
"Unless a Christian our doom can stay,
Until Judgment Day we must wash away;
To the sound of the wind, in the moon's pale light,
We must wash and wash our grave-clothes white. "
As soon as they saw the merry fellow, all cried out and ran
up to him, offering him their winding-sheets and asking him to
wring them out.
"That's too trifling a service to be refused among friends,"
answered Wilherm gayly: "but one at a time, fair washerwomen;
a man has only two hands for wringing as well as for embracing. "
Then he set down his stick, and took the end of the shroud
which one of the dead women offered him; being careful to twist
the same way she did, for he had learned from old people that
thus only could he escape being broken to pieces.
But as the shroud was thus turning, behold, the other washer-
women surrounded Wilherm; and he recognized his aunt, his
wife, his mother, and his sisters. They all cried, "A thousand
curses on him who lets his people burn in hell! A thousand
curses! " And they shook their thin hair, lifting their white
beetles; and from all the washing-places of the valley, from the
moors above, from all the hedges, voices repeated, "A thousand
curses! a thousand curses! "
XXIII-857
## p. 13698 (#524) ##########################################
13698
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
Wilherm, frightened out of his wits, felt his hair standing up
on his head. In his dismay, he forgot the precaution he had
taken until then, and began to wring the other way. At the very
same instant, the shroud pressed his hands like a vise, and he
fell crushed by the iron arms of the washerwoman.
At daybreak, while passing the washing-place, a young girl
from Henvik named Fantik ar Fur, stopping to put a branch of
holly in her pitcher of fresh milk, saw Wilherm stretched on the
blue stones. She thought that brandy had overcome him there,
and plucking a rush, drew near to waken him; but seeing that
he remained motionless, she was frightened, and ran to the vil-
lage to give the alarm. The people came with the rector, the
bell-ringer, and the notary who was also the mayor. The body
was lifted and placed on an ox-cart: but every time the blessed
candles were lighted they went out, so it was evident that Wil-
herm Postik had gone to damnation; and his body was placed
outside the cemetery, under the stone wall, where dogs and un-
believers rest.
THE FOUR GIFTS
From Le Foyer Breton'
I'
F I HAD an income of three hundred crowns, I would go to
live at Quimper, where there is the finest church of Cornou-
aille, and where there are weather-vanes on the roofs of the
houses. If I had two hundred crowns, I would dwell at Carhaix,
on account of its game and the sheep on its heath. But if I had
only a hundred crowns, I should want to keep house at Pont-Aven,
for there is the greatest abundance of everything. At Pont-Aven
you may have the butter for the price of the milk, the chicken
for the price of the egg, the linen for the price of the green flax.
Thus one sees good farms there; where salt pork is served
three times a week, and where even the shepherds eat as much
bread mixed of wheat and rye as they like.
In one of these farms lived Barbaïk Bourhis,—a brave-hearted
woman, who supported her house as if she had been a man, and
who owned fields and crops enough to keep two sons at school.
Now Barbaïk had one niece who earned more than her keep
cost; so she was able to put the gains of each day with those
of the day before.
## p. 13699 (#525) ##########################################
EMILE SOUVESTRE
13699
But savings too easily won always beget some plague. By
heaping up wheat you draw rats to your barns, and by hoarding.
crowns you beget avarice in your heart. Old Bourhis had come
to care for nothing except increasing her property, and to esteem.
those only who paid a large sum to the collector every month.
So she looked angry whenever she saw Dénès, the day-laborer
from Plover, chatting with her niece behind the gable. One
morning when she had surprised them again, she cried harshly
to Téphany:-
"Isn't it a shame that you should be chatting all the time like
this, with a young man who hasn't anything, when there are so
many others who would gladly buy you a silver ring? "
"Dénès is a good worker, and a true Christian," answered the
young girl.
"Some day or other he will find a farm to rent,
where he can bring up children. "
"And you want to be their mother? " interrupted the old
woman. "God forbid! I would rather see you in the door-yard
well than this vagabond's wife. No, no: it shall never be said
that I brought up my sister's daughter only to have her marry a
man who could put his whole fortune in his tobacco pouch. "
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions? " answered Téphany gently.
"What matters fortune! " repeated the scandalized mistress of
the farm. "Ah! So you have come to despise the goods God
gives us? May the saints take pity on us! Since this is the
way of it, you piece of effrontery, I forbid you ever to speak to
Dénès; and if he appears at the farm again, I will go to the
rector, and have him put you in his Sunday admonition. "
"Oh!
You would not do that, aunt! " cried Téphany, terri-
-
fied.
"As surely as there is a Paradise, I will do it! " answered
the old woman angrily; "but in the mean time, do you go to
the washing-place, wash the linen, and dry it on the hawthorn
bushes: for since you have had an ear for the wind from Plover,
nothing is done, and your two arms are not worth the five
fingers of a one-armed cripple. "
Téphany tried in vain to reply. Mother Bourhis pointed im-
periously to the bucket, the soap, and the washing-beetle, order-
ing her to go at once.
The young girl obeyed; but her heart swelled with grief and
resentment.
## p. 13700 (#526) ##########################################
13700
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"Old age is harder than the stones of the farm-house sill,"
she thought, "yes, a hundred times harder; for by continual
dropping, rain wears out the stone, but tears cannot soften the
will of old people. God knows that chatting with Dénès was
the only pleasure I had. If I cannot see him any more, I might
as well enter a convent! And yet the good angel was always
with us.
Dénès taught me only beautiful songs; talked to me
only about what we would do when we were husband and wife
together on a farm,-he cultivating the land and I taking care
of the stables. Is it forbidden then honestly to give ourselves
to each other in hope and courage? God would not have made
marriage if it was a sin to think of marrying some day; and he
would not have given us judgment if he forbade us to choose.
Ah! it is doing me a great wrong to keep me from knowing
Dénès better, for he is the only one who holds my heart. "
While thus talking to herself, Téphany had reached the wash-
ing-place. As she went to set down her bucket of linen on one
of the white stones, she saw an old woman who was not of the
parish, and who was leaning her head against a little blackthorn
staff yellowed by fire. In spite of her trouble, Téphany saluted
her.
-
"My aunt [a Breton title of respect] is enjoying the fresh air
under the alders? " she said, placing her load farther off.
"Who has only the roof of the sky for house, rests where he
may," answered the old woman in a trembling voice.
"Are you so deserted? " asked Téphany compassionately; "and
have you no relative left who can make you a place at his fire-
side? "
"All have long been dead," answered the unknown; "and I
have no other family than kind hearts. "
The young girl took the bread, spread with lard, which Bar-
baïk had wrapped in a bit of linen and placed near her beetle.
"Here, poor aunt," she said, offering it to the beggar. "To-
day at least you shall dine like a Christian, with the bread of
the good God: only remember my dead parents in your prayers. "
The old woman took the bread, then looked at Téphany.
«<
Those who aid, deserve to be aided," she said. "Your eyes
are still red because Barbaïk, the miser, has forbidden you to talk
to the young man from Plover; but he is an honest-hearted
fellow, who only wishes what is right, and I will give you a
means of seeing him every day. "
## p. 13701 (#527) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13701
"You! " exclaimed the young girl, stupefied at finding the
beggarwoman so well informed.
"Take this long brass pin," answered the old woman; “and
every time you put it on, Mother Bourhis will have to go out
and count her cabbages. As long as you wear the pin, you will
be free; and your aunt will not return until the pin is back in
its case. "
With these words the beggar rose, made a sign of farewell,
and disappeared.
Téphany remained astonished.
Evidently the old woman was
not a beggar, but a saint or a singer of truth [i. e. , a fairy
fortune-teller].
At all events, the young girl clutched the pin fast, quite
determined to test its power on the morrow.
Therefore, toward the hour when Dénès usually came, she
placed it at her collar. Barbaïk immediately took her sandals and
went into the door-yard, where she began to count her cabbages.
Then from the door-yard she went to the orchard, and from the
orchard to the other fields; so that the young girl could chat as
long as she liked with the young man from Plover.
It was the same the next day, and all the following days for
several weeks. As soon as the pin was taken from its case, the
good woman ran to her cabbages; always beginning over again
to calculate how many there were of big ones, of little ones, of
smooth ones and frizzled ones.
At first Dénès seemed charmed with this liberty; but little
by little he became less eager. He had taught Téphany all his
songs.
He had told her all his plans. Now he was obliged to
seek something to tell her, and to get it ready beforehand as
a minister does his sermon. Sometimes, even, giving his carting
and wheeling as excuse, he did not come at all; and Téphany
had her trouble for nothing. She saw that her lover's affection
had cooled, and became more sad than before.
One day when she had waited in vain for the young man,
she took her pitcher and went to the fountain, her heart heavy
with grief.
As she reached it, she saw the same old woman who had
given her the magic pin. She was standing near the spring;
and seeing Téphany, she began with a little laugh like a grass-
hopper's note:-
"Ah! Ah! The pretty girl is happier, isn't she, now that
she can converse with her lover at any hour of the day? "
## p. 13702 (#528) ##########################################
13702
EMILE SOUVESTRE
"Alas! for that I must be with him," answered Téphany
sadly, "and familiarity has rendered my company less pleasing to
him. Ah! aunt, since you gave me the means of seeing him
every day, you should have given me at the same time enough
wit to keep him. "
"Is that what my daughter would like? " asked the old wo-
man. "Then here is a feather plucked from the wing of a wise
angel. When she places it in her hair, nothing can stop her;
for she will have as much wit and cunning as Master Jean him-
self" [mischievous elf].
Téphany, red with joy, seized the feather; and the next day,
before Dénès's visit, she stuck it in her blue hair-band. At the
same instant it seemed to her that the sun was rising in her
mind. She knew all that the kloeirs take ten years to learn,
and many things that the wisest do not know at all; for with the
learning of men, she had too the cunning of women. So Dénès
was astonished at all she said to him. She spoke in verse like
the bazvalanes [matchmakers], knew more songs than the beggars
of Scaër, and repeated the local stories told at all the lime-kilns
and mills of the country.
The young man returned the next day, and the following
days; and Téphany always found something new to tell him.
Dénès had never seen a man or a woman with so much wit;
but after enjoying it, he grew frightened. Téphany had not
been able to keep from wearing her feather for others than him.
Her songs and malicious speeches were repeated everywhere, and
every one said:-
"She has a bad heart. Whoever marries her will be led by
the bridle.
>>
--
The young man from Plover repeated this prediction to him-
self; and as he had always thought he would rather hold the
bridle than wear it, he began to find it more difficult to laugh
at Téphany's pleasantries.
One day when he was going to a dance in a new barn, the
young girl exercised all her wit to keep him away; but Dénès,
who did not wish to be influenced, would not listen to her, and
repulsed her prayers.
"Ah! I see very well why you are so anxious about the new
barn," said Téphany, vexed. "You will meet Azilicz of Penenru
there! "
Azilicz was the prettiest girl in the canton; and according to
all her good friends, the most coquettish. Penenru was near
## p. 13703 (#529) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13703
Plover; so the pretty girl and Dénès had become acquainted from
living in the same neighborhood.
"Yes, Azilicz will be there," said Dénès, who liked to make
his sweetheart jealous; "and to see her is worth going a long
way. "
"Go then where your heart leads you," said the young girl,
wounded.
And she went back to the house, refusing to hear anything
more.
But she sat down on the hearth, overcome with sadness; and
after thinking a long time, she exclaimed as she threw down the
wonderful feather which had been given her:—
"What good does wit do young girls, since the men are drawn
by beauty as flies by the sun? Ah! what I needed, old aunt,
was not to be the most learned, but the most beautiful. "
"Be then also the most beautiful," answered a voice suddenly.
Téphany turned, astonished, and saw near the door the old
woman with the thorn staff, who said to her:-
-
"Take this necklace; and as long as you wear it around your
neck, you will seem among other women like the queen of the
fields among other wild flowers. "
Téphany could not repress a cry of joy. She hastened to
put on the necklace, ran to her little mirror, and stood there
delighted. Never was girl so pink and so white,-so charming
to look at.
Wishing to judge at once of the effect she produced upon
Dénès, she dressed in her best; put on her woolen stockings and,
her buckled shoes, and took the road toward the new barn.
But behold, when she reached the cross-road, she met a young
lord, who at sight of her made his coachman stop.
"By my life! " he cried with admiration, "I did not know
there was such a beautiful creature in the country; and if it were
to cost me my soul, she must bear my name. "
But Téphany answered him:-
«Go on, sir.
Go on your way. I am only a poor peasant
used to winnowing, and milking, and mowing. "
"And I will make you a great lady! " answered the lord, tak-
ing her hand and trying to lead her to his carriage.
The young girl hung back.
"I do not wish to marry any one but Dénès, the laborer from
Plover," she said resolutely.
## p. 13704 (#530) ##########################################
13704
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He wished to insist; but when he saw her approaching the
ditch in order to escape into the wheat-field, he ordered his serv-
ants to seize her and put her by force in the carriage, which
started again on a gallop.
At the end of an hour they reached the castle, which was
built of cut stones and covered with slate, as the houses of the
nobility are. The young lord sent out for a priest to marry
them; and since, while they were waiting, Téphany refused to
listen to him and tried to escape, he had her shut up in a great
room closed by three bolted doors, and ordered his servants to
guard her. But with her pin Téphany sent them all to the gar-
den to count cabbages; with her feather she discovered a fourth
door hidden in the wood-work; and she escaped. Then, fervently
recommending herself to God, she fled through the underbrush
like a hare which has heard the hounds.
She went as long as she could, until night began to fall.
Then she saw the belfry of a convent, and knocked at the little
grated door to ask for shelter; but on seeing her the porter shook
her head.
"Go on, go on," she said: "there is no place here for such
pretty girls running on the roads alone at this hour. "
And closing the gate, she went away without listening to any-
thing more.
Forced to go on, Téphany stopped at the door of a farm-
house where several women were chatting with some young fel-
lows, and made the same request as at the convent.
The mistress of the house hesitated to answer; but all the
young men, amazed at Téphany's beauty, exclaimed at once, offer-
ing to take her to their fathers' houses, and each one trying to
promise her more than the others. From promises they came
to quarrels, and from quarrels to blows; so that the frightened
women began to scold Téphany, telling her it was a great shame
to come and trouble the men with her beauty. The poor girl,
beside herself, tried to escape; but the young men pursued her.
Then she remembered her necklace; and tearing it from her
neck, she threw it around that of a sow which was browsing in
the spearwort. At the same instant the charm vanished from
her, and all the young men began to chase the frightened beast.
Téphany went on in spite of fatigue; and finally reached her
aunt's farm, very weary, and still more sad. Her wishes had suc-
ceeded so ill thus far that it was several days before she made
## p. 13705 (#531) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13705
another. However, Dénès came more and more irregularly. He
had undertaken to cultivate a warren, and worked there from
morning to night. When the young girl expressed regret at not
seeing him, he always answered that his work was their only
resource, and that one must have dowries and inheritances to
spend time chatting.
Then Téphany began to complain and to wish.
"God pardon me! " she said to herself; "but what I should
have asked was not liberty to see Dénès every day, for he is tired
of it; nor wit, for he is afraid of it; nor beauty, for it causes
trouble and distrust: but instead, money, with which one is mas-
ter of oneself and others. Ah! if I dared make one more request
of the old aunt, I should be wiser. "
"Be satisfied," said the voice of the old beggar, whom Téphany
could not see. "If you look in your right pocket you will find a
little box. Rub your eyes with the ointment it contains, and you
will have in yourself a treasure. "
The young girl quickly sought in her pocket, found the box,
opened it, and was rubbing her eyes as directed when Barbaïk
Bourhis entered.
She, who for some time had been losing whole days in spite
of herself at counting cabbages, seeing all the farm work behind-
hand, only wanted an occasion to vent her ill-temper on some
one. Finding her niece seated and idle, she clasped her hands.
"So that is the way you work when I am out! " she ex-
claimed. "Ah! I am
"Ah! I am no longer surprised to find ruin in the
house! Aren't you ashamed thus to steal the bread of a rela-
tive ? »
Téphany wanted to excuse herself, but Barbaïk's anger was
like milk heated over a brush fire: as soon as it boils, it bub-
bles up and goes over. From reproaches she passed to threats,
and from threats to a blow. Téphany, who had borne the rest
patiently enough, could not help weeping; but judge her sur-
prise when she saw that each of her tears was a beautiful pearl,
round and shining.
Mother Bourhis, who also perceived this, cried out with admi-
ration and began to gather them.
Dénès, who entered at this moment, was not less amazed.
"Pearls! genuine pearls! " he cried, taking them.
"It's a fortune! " said Barbaïk, who went on gathering them.
"Ah! what fairy has bestowed this gift? "
## p. 13706 (#532) ##########################################
13706
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"No one must know about it, Dénès; I will share with you,
but with no one else. Keep on, my girl, keep on. You will
profit too. "
He thought only of
She held her apron, and Dénès his hat.
the pearls, and forgot they were tears.
Téphany, choking, tried to escape; but her aunt stopped her,
reproaching her with wanting to wrong them, and repeating what-
ever would make her weep more. The young girl sought to
control herself, and wiped her eyes.
"It's over already! " cried Barbaïk. "Ah! Blessed Mary! If
I had such a gift, I would not want to stop any more than the big
spring on the green road. Can't we beat her a little to see? "
"No," interrupted Dénès: "we must not tire her too much at
first. I will go at once to town and find out how much each
pearl is worth. "
Barbaïk and he went out together, guessing the value in ad-
vance, and settling the division, in which Téphany was forgotten.
She pressed her clasped hands against her heart with a sigh,
and raised her eyes to heaven; but they fell upon the old beg-
gar, who, leaning upon her staff in the darkest corner of the
hearth, was looking at her with a mocking air. The young girl
trembled; and seizing the pin, the feather, and the box of oint-
ment-
—
"Take them back, take them all back," she cried wildly.
"Misfortune to those who are not content with what God gave!
He had endowed me according to his wisdom, which I foolishly
questioned Carry liberty, wit, beauty, and riches to others. I
am not, and I do not want to be, anything but the simple girl
I was, loving and serving as well as I could. "
"Very well, Téphany," answered the old woman. "The trial
is over: let it profit you. The Trinity sent me to give you this
lesson. I am your guardian angel: now that you understand the
truth you will live tranquilly, for God has promised peace to
well-intentioned hearts. "
With these words the beggar changed into an angel gleaming
with light, dispersing the perfume of incense and violets through
the house, then vanishing like a flash.
Téphany forgave Dénès for wanting to sell her tears. Be-
come less exacting, she accepted such happiness as one may have
upon earth; and she married the young man from Plover, who
was always a good husband and a courageous worker.
## p. 13706 (#533) ##########################################
## p. 13706 (#534) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER.
D. Grosch
## p. 13706 (#535) ##########################################
!
:
***
1
1. L
! . . PULIT
+
## p. 13706 (#536) ##########################################
## p. 13707 (#537) ##########################################
13707
-
HERBERT SPENCER
(1820-)
BY F. HOWARD COLLINS
T
HE author of 'A System of Synthetic Philosophy,' 'Education,'
'Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative,' 'The Study
of Sociology,' and many other articles in periodicals and
newspapers, was born at Derby on the 27th of April, 1820. His
father, William George Spencer, was a schoolmaster in the town, and
published a work entitled 'Inventional Geometry):
a series of ques-
tions, problems, and explanations, intended to familiarize the pupil
with geometrical conceptions, to exercise his inventive faculty, and
to prepare him for Euclid and the higher mathematics. » Though
this work received but little notice when first issued, it is now, after
many years, coming into use among those teachers who desire to
give a more rational course of study to their younger scholars prior
to commencing Euclid; to which this little work forms a most excel-
lent introduction, as may be gathered from Mr. Herbert Spencer's own
words:-
"To its great efficiency, both as a means of providing interest in
geometry, and as a mental discipline, I can give personal testimony.
I have seen it create in a class of boys so much enthusiasm that they
looked forward to their geometry lesson as a chief event in the week.
And girls, initiated in the system by my father, have frequently
begged of him for problems to solve during the holidays. "
Another work of his, 'Lucid Shorthand,' was completed in MS. in
1843, but has only recently been published by his son, who also con-
tributes a preface.
Herbert Spencer's surroundings were in fact early differentiated
from "the daily round-the common task" of most boys. The con-
versation which came to his ears was more permeated with the
rational interpretation of surrounding phenomena - why and how did
such-and-such a thing happen - than is usual now; and still more so
at the time of which we write. Herbert Spencer's innate love of nat-
ural science, and his marvelous faculty of observation, so wonderfully
displayed in all his writings, were without doubt largely nourished
and increased by his father's love for nature, and especially ento-
mology; a science to which the son devoted much of his leisure,—
## p. 13708 (#538) ##########################################
13708
HERBERT SPENCER
collecting, describing, and drawing most of the insects about his home.
Soon after the age of thirteen, he spent some time under the roof
of his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Spencer, chairman of the Bath Union,
and author of many pamphlets dealing principally with the meth-
ods for ameliorating the condition of the poorer people in his and
other parishes. The mathematical training which he received here
enabled him on his return home to become assistant teacher in his
father's school; but finding the occupation uncongenial, and the rail-
way mania being then at its height, Spencer at the age of seventeen
joined the profession of railway engineering, and during the next
eight years surveyed different parts of the country for the construc-
tion of lines. One of these - the Birmingham to Gloucester - may
be mentioned, as it is interesting from containing one of the steepest
inclines in England. During this period he contributed papers on
technical subjects to the engineering journals; and described new
methods and instruments shortening in a great degree many of the
laborious calculations entailed by railway-surveying, locomotive-engine
testing, bridge-making, and so forth. The original drawings made
by Mr. Spencer to explain and accompany these inventions, are very
remarkable from their extreme neatness and accuracy. They appear
indeed, to those who have had the opportunity of seeing them, to be
the result of engraving on copper.
At the age of twenty-two, the opening to the path of his future
life may be dimly discerned in some letters which he wrote to the
Nonconformist (newspaper) on 'The Proper Sphere of Government,'
and which were subsequently published as a pamphlet. From this
time the literary bent of his nature developed and came into greater
prominence; for, giving up railway engineering, he went to London,
and from writing articles and leaders in the Economist,—the most
important weekly newspaper in England dealing with finance and the
matters included under the old term "political economy," - became
in 1848 its sub-editor, which office he held for five years. This
appointment may be looked upon as one of much value to the future
philosopher: it gave a certain amount of leisure, while the occupation
it entailed drew his mind more and more to those problems of Soci-
ology with which his reputation will ever be associated, while at the
same time it kept him in touch with some of the best intellects of
the time, and many lifelong friendships were then formed.
It may be of interest here to mention how some of Mr. Spencer's
real leisure has been passed. A severe winter at Birmingham, when
surveying for the railway, led him to practice skating, and this to
designing a peculiar form of skate bringing the foot nearer to the
ice than usual, and enabling the "outside edge" to be swung with
much greater facility, even by those having weak ankles. Fishing
## p. 13709 (#539) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13709
was always a favorite amusement; and as he says now in conversa-
tion, some of his happiest times were spent in later years fly-fishing
for salmon on the west coast of Scotland, when in fact staying with
some very old friends in Argyllshire. Of the pastimes usually asso-
ciated with indoors, two may be mentioned,- billiards and music :
the latter, up to the present day, giving him exceeding pleasure
when well performed and of that school to which he is partial,-Bee-
thoven, or a simple ballad sung with real feeling, but never a mere
display of what has been aptly called "musical gymnastics"; mere
difficulties of execution, however well surmounted, never appealing to
him.
Two years after he obtained the appointment on the Economist
appeared his first volume, and one of importance, 'Social Statics: or
the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First
of them Developed. ' This was out of print for many years, some of
its views not being in accord with the more mature ones of the
author; hence in 1892 he published an "abridged and revised » edi-
tion, together with The Man versus the State,'
a series of essays
to which allusion will be made as the time of their publication comes
to be dwelt with. The original edition of Social Statics' is note-
worthy as being the only work which Mr. Spencer wrote with his
own hand, all subsequent ones being dictated to a shorthand aman-
uensis.
―――――
The seed which has germinated into the pronounced individualism
of Herbert Spencer may be discerned here in its embryonic state:
"Liberty of action being the first essential to exercise of faculties,
and therefore the first essential to happiness; and the liberty of each,
limited by the like liberties of all, being the form which this first
essential assumes when applied to many instead of one, it follows
that this liberty of each, limited by the like liberties of all, is the
rule in conformity with which society must be organized. Freedom
being the prerequisite to normal life in the individual, equal freedom
becomes the prerequisite to normal life in society. And if this law
of equal freedom is the primary law of right relationship between
man and man, then no desire to get fulfilled a secondary law can war-
rant us in breaking it. "
Considering the state of knowledge in 1852, when special crea-
tion, as contrasted with evolution, was the firm and almost universal
belief, we are fully justified in alluding to a short essay which Mr.
Spencer wrote in this year as singularly noteworthy; for the "devel-
opment hypothesis," as the theory of evolution was then called, is
contrasted with special creation, and the latter shown to be logically
indefensible: -- "Which, then, is the most rational hypothesis? that
of special creations, which has neither a fact to support it nor is
-
-
## p. 13710 (#540) ##########################################
13710
HERBERT SPENCER
even definitely conceivable; or that of modification, which is not only
definitely conceivable, but is countenanced by the habitudes of every
existing organism ? »
Two years later a long essay on 'Manners and Fashion' was pub-
lished in the Westminster Review, showing how society develops on
its political, religious, and ceremonial sides; how the old forms which
society successively throws off have all been once vitally united with
it, have severally served as protective envelopes within which a
higher humanity was being evolved. "They are cast aside only
when they become hindrances - only when some inner and better
envelope has been formed; and they bequeath to us all that was in
them of good. The periodical abolitions of tyrannical laws have left
the administration of justice not only uninjured but purified. Dead
and buried creeds have not carried with them the essential morality
they contained, which still exists, uncontaminated by the sloughs of
superstition. And all that there is of justice, kindness, and beauty,
embodied in our cumbrous forms of etiquette, will live perennially
when the forms themselves have been forgotten. "
The British Quarterly Review of the same year contained a long
and valuable article on 'The Genesis of Science,' from which the
conclusion is reached: "Not only that the sciences have a common.
root, but that science in general has a common root with language,
classification, reasoning, art; that through civilization these have
advanced together, acting and reacting upon each other just as the
separate sciences have done; and that thus the development of intel-
ligence in all its divisions and subdivisions has conformed to this
same law which we have shown that the sciences conform to. "
The year 1855 showed that the doctrine of evolution had taken
definite and systematic form in the author's mind, for the first edi-
tion of the Principles of Psychology' was published. As this sub-
sequently forms a part of the Synthetic Philosophy,' its consideration
may well be delayed until we come to deal with that as a whole.
Similarly the essay published in 1857, 'Progress: Its Law and Cause,'
as the ideas and illustrations in it are incorporated in First Prin-
ciples. '
<
The year 1860 will be remarkable for all time as the date when
Mr. Spencer issued his prospectus of 'A System of Philosophy,' an-
nouncing that he "proposes to issue in periodical parts a connected
series of works which he has for several years been preparing,"
and giving a detailed outline of them. He announced in all ten vol-
umes; and during the thirty-six years that have since elapsed, he has
accomplished, in spite of such ill health as would have deterred
most men from writing at all, the magnificent total of ten complete
volumes, — out of the eleven to which the system has expanded in
## p. 13711 (#541) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13711
development, in addition to innumerable essays and letters on sub-
jects of interest in the domain of politics and economics in their
widest sense to sociology, in fact.
In the interim between the issue of this prospectus and the first
volume of the series, Mr. Spencer republished, with additions, four
essays in a small volume, entitled 'Education: Intellectual, Moral, and
Physical'; which has since become the most popular of his works,
and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Russian, Hun-
garian, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Swedish, Greek, Bohemian, Japanese,
Chinese, and some others, too numerous to mention. It is of such
immense value to all those who desire to bring up children on
rational principles, that it merits an instructive quotation from each
of the chapters. The question asked in the first chapter, What knowl-
edge is of most worth? is answered in these words:
"Paraphrasing an Eastern fable, we may say that in the family of
knowledges, Science is the household drudge, who in obscurity hides
unrecognized perfections. To her has been committed all the work;
by her skill, intelligence, and devotion, have all conveniences and
gratifications been obtained: and while ceaselessly ministering to the
rest, she has been kept in the background, that her haughty sisters
may flaunt their fripperies in the eyes of the world. The parallel
holds yet further. For we are fast coming to the dénouement, when
the positions will be changed, and while these haughty sisters sink
into merited neglect, Science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth
and beauty, will reign supreme. "
Of intellectual education:
"While men dislike the things and places that suggest painful
recollections, and delight in those which call to mind bygone pleas-
ures, painful lessons will make knowledge repulsive, and pleasurable
lessons will make it attractive. The man to whom in boyhood,
information came in dreary tasks along with threats of punishment,
and who was never led into habits of independent inquiry, is un-
likely to be a student in after years; while those to whom it came
in natural forms, at the proper times, and who remember its facts as
not only interesting in themselves, but as a long series of gratify-
ing successes, are likely to continue through life that self-instruction
commenced in youth. "
In moral education:-
"Remember that the aim of your discipline should be to pro-
duce a self-governing being; not to produce a being governed by others.
Were your children fated to pass their lives as slaves, you could
not too much accustom them to slavery during their childhood; but
as they are by-and-by to be free men, with no one to control their
daily conduct, you cannot too much accustom them to self-control
while they are still under your eye. "
-
## p. 13712 (#542) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13712
In physical education:
"Perhaps nothing will so much hasten the time when body and
mind will both be adequately cared for, as a diffusion of the belief that
the preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there
is such a thing as physical morality: men's habitual words and acts
imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they
please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to nature's dictates they
regard simply as grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more
or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their
dependents, and on future generations, are often as great as those
caused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree
criminal.
The fact is, that all breaches of the laws of health
are physical sins. When this is generally seen, then, and perhaps not
till then, will the physical training of the young receive the attention
it deserves. "
On June 5th, 1862, was issued the first installment of the Phi-
losophy: the first part of 'First Principles' dealing with 'The Un-
knowable,' and showing that the only possible reconciliation of
Science and Religion lies in the belief of an Absolute, transcending
not only human knowledge but human conception, indeed :-
"The consciousness of an inscrutable Power manifested to us
through all phenomena has been growing ever clearer; and must
eventually be freed from its imperfections. The certainty that on the
one hand such a Power exists, while on the other hand its nature
transcends intuition and is beyond imagination, is the certainty
towards which intelligence has from the first been progressing. To
this conclusion Science inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines;
while to this conclusion Religion is irresistibly driven by criticism.
And satisfying as it does the most rigorous logic, at the same time
that it gives the religious sentiment the widest possible sphere of
action, it is the conclusion we are bound to accept without reserve
or qualification. "
-:
The second part, entitled 'The Knowable,' deals with the body of
knowledge constituting what is usually termed Philosophy or Meta-
physics; treats of Space, Time, Matter, Motion, and Force, consid-
ered in themselves and in their relation to each other; and expounds
those highest generalizations now being disclosed by Science, which
are severally true not of one class of phenomena, but of all classes
of phenomena, and which are thus the keys to all classes of phe-
nomena. From the study of these components of all phenomena the
author passes to the law of their composition, "the law of the con-
tinuous redistribution of matter and motion. " This, having to cover
all phenomena,—whether of inorganic nature, of life, of mind, of soci-
ety, or of morals,- is necessarily defined in very abstract terms:-
"Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation
## p. 13713 (#543) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13713
of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, inco-
herent homogeneity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during
which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation. "
This extremely generalized conception, forming as it does the
centre around which the whole of this philosophy revolves, will, to the
ordinary reader, prove difficult of comprehension without reading the
volume from which it is taken, when a more clear understanding of
its implications will arise. The remaining chapters then show that
the redistribution of matter and motion must everywhere take place
in those ways, and produce those traits, which celestial bodies, organ-
isms, minds, and societies alike display:-
:-
"Thus we
are led to the conclusion that the entire process of
things as displayed in the aggregate of the visible Universe, is
analogous to the entire process of things as displayed in the smallest
aggregates.
"Motion as well as matter being fixed in quantity, it would seem
that, the change in the distribution of matter which motion effects
coming to a limit in whichever direction it is carried, the indestruct-
ible motion thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution. Apparently,
the universally coexistent forces of attraction and repulsion — which,
as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes -
produce now an immeasurable period during which the attractive
forces predominating cause universal concentration, and then an im-
measurable period during which the repulsive forces predominating
cause universal diffusion; alternate eras of Evolution and Dissolution.
And thus there is suggested the conception of a past during which
there have been successive Evolutions analogous to that which is
going on; and a future during which successive other such Evolutions
may go on-ever the same in principle but never the same in con-
crete result. "
None of Mr. Spencer's works exhibit more clearly the philosophic
grasp of the author in dealing with such stupendous problems, or his
knowledge of the principles of such a science as astronomy; in fact,
from none can a better idea be formed of his truly encyclopædic
knowledge.
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13695
as there are yellow leaves in the rough roads. Therefore true
Christians leave the table-cloth spread and the fire lighted, that
the dead may take their meals, and warm the limbs stiffened by
the cold of cemeteries.
But if there are true adorers of the Virgin and her Son,
there are also the children of the Black Angel [the Devil], who
forget those who have been nearest their hearts. Wilherm Pos-
tik was one of the latter. His father had quitted life without
having received absolution; and as the proverb says, "Kadion
is always the son of his father. " Therefore he cared only for
forbidden pleasures, danced during church-time when he could,
and drank during mass with beggarly horse-jockeys. Yet God
had not failed to send him warnings. In one year he had seen an
ill wind strike his mother, his sisters, and his wife; but he had
consoled himself for their deaths by inheriting their property.
The rector vainly warned him in sermon, that he was a
subject of scandal to all the parish. Far from correcting Wil-
herm, this public advice had only the result of making him give
up church, as might easily have been foreseen; for it is not by
snapping the whip one brings back a runaway horse. So he set
about living more as he chose than ever,- as faithless and law-
less as a fox in the brush.
Now it happened in that time that the fine days came to
an end, and the feast of the dead arrived. All baptized folk put
on their mourning-garments, and went to church to pray for the
dead; but Wilherm dressed himself in his best, and took the road
to the neighboring town.
All the time the others spent in relieving souls in pain, he
passed there drinking brandy with the sailors, and singing verses
composed by the millers [i. e. , coarse songs]. He did this until
nearly midnight; and did not think of returning until the others.
grew weary of wrong-doing. He had an iron constitution for
pleasure; and he left the inn the last one, as steady and active
as when he had entered.
But his heart was hot with drink. He sang aloud along the
road, songs which usually even the boldest would only whisper;
he passed the crucifixes without lowering his voice or lifting his
hat; and he struck the thickets of broom with his stick right and
left, without fear of wounding the souls which fill the ways upon
that day.
## p. 13696 (#522) ##########################################
13696
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He thus reached a crossway from which there were two paths
to his village. The longer was under the protection of God,
while the shorter was haunted by the dead. Many people cross-
ing it by night had heard noises and seen things of which they
did not speak, except when with others and within reach of holy-
water. But Wilherm feared only thirst; therefore he took the
shortest path, where his clogs clattered on the pebbles.
Now the night was moonless; the wind rattled down the leaves,
the springs rolled sadly along the bank, the bushes shivered like
a man in fear; and in the silence, Wilherm's steps sounded like
those of giants: but nothing frightened him, and he kept on.
As he passed the old ruined manor, he heard the weather-
cock, which said to him:—
"Go back, go back, go back! >>
Wilherm went on his way. He reached the cascade, and the
water murmured:
"Do not pass, do not pass, do not pass! "
He set his foot on the stones polished by the stream, and
crossed. As he reached a worm-eaten oak, the wind whistling
through the branches repeated: -
"Stay here, stay here, stay here! "
But Wilherm struck the dead tree with his stick, and hurried on.
At last he entered the haunted valley. Midnight sounded
from three parishes. Wilherm began to whistle the tune of
'Marionnik. ' But just as he was whistling the fourth verse, he
heard the sound of a cart, and saw it coming towards him cov-
ered with a pall.
Wilherm recognized the hearse. It was drawn by six black
horses, and driven by the "Ankon" [phantom of death], who held
an iron whip and repeated ceaselessly:-
――
-
"Turn aside, or I will overturn you. "
Wilherm made way for him without being disconcerted.
"What are you doing here, Paleface? " he demanded boldly.
"I seize and I surprise," answered the Ankon.
"So you are a robber and a traitor? " went on Wilherm.
"I strike without look or thought. "
"That is, like a fool or a brute. But why are you in such a
hurry to-day? "
"I am seeking Wilherm Postik," answered the phantom, pass-
ing by.
## p. 13697 (#523) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13697
The merry Wilherm burst out laughing, and went on.
As he reached the little hedge of blackthorn which led to the
washing-place, he saw two women in white who were hanging
linen on the bushes.
"Upon my life! here are some girls who are not afraid of
the dew," said he. "Why are you out so late, little doves? "
"We are washing, we are drying, we are sewing," answered
the two women at once.
"But what? " asked the young man.
"The shroud of a dead man who still talks and walks. "
"A dead man! My faith! What is his name? "
"Wilherm Postik. "
The fellow laughed louder than at first, and went on down
the rough little path. But as he advanced, he heard more and
more distinctly the blows of wooden beetles against the stones;
and soon he could see the washerwomen of night pounding their
grave-clothes, as they sang the sad refrain:-
"Unless a Christian our doom can stay,
Until Judgment Day we must wash away;
To the sound of the wind, in the moon's pale light,
We must wash and wash our grave-clothes white. "
As soon as they saw the merry fellow, all cried out and ran
up to him, offering him their winding-sheets and asking him to
wring them out.
"That's too trifling a service to be refused among friends,"
answered Wilherm gayly: "but one at a time, fair washerwomen;
a man has only two hands for wringing as well as for embracing. "
Then he set down his stick, and took the end of the shroud
which one of the dead women offered him; being careful to twist
the same way she did, for he had learned from old people that
thus only could he escape being broken to pieces.
But as the shroud was thus turning, behold, the other washer-
women surrounded Wilherm; and he recognized his aunt, his
wife, his mother, and his sisters. They all cried, "A thousand
curses on him who lets his people burn in hell! A thousand
curses! " And they shook their thin hair, lifting their white
beetles; and from all the washing-places of the valley, from the
moors above, from all the hedges, voices repeated, "A thousand
curses! a thousand curses! "
XXIII-857
## p. 13698 (#524) ##########################################
13698
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
Wilherm, frightened out of his wits, felt his hair standing up
on his head. In his dismay, he forgot the precaution he had
taken until then, and began to wring the other way. At the very
same instant, the shroud pressed his hands like a vise, and he
fell crushed by the iron arms of the washerwoman.
At daybreak, while passing the washing-place, a young girl
from Henvik named Fantik ar Fur, stopping to put a branch of
holly in her pitcher of fresh milk, saw Wilherm stretched on the
blue stones. She thought that brandy had overcome him there,
and plucking a rush, drew near to waken him; but seeing that
he remained motionless, she was frightened, and ran to the vil-
lage to give the alarm. The people came with the rector, the
bell-ringer, and the notary who was also the mayor. The body
was lifted and placed on an ox-cart: but every time the blessed
candles were lighted they went out, so it was evident that Wil-
herm Postik had gone to damnation; and his body was placed
outside the cemetery, under the stone wall, where dogs and un-
believers rest.
THE FOUR GIFTS
From Le Foyer Breton'
I'
F I HAD an income of three hundred crowns, I would go to
live at Quimper, where there is the finest church of Cornou-
aille, and where there are weather-vanes on the roofs of the
houses. If I had two hundred crowns, I would dwell at Carhaix,
on account of its game and the sheep on its heath. But if I had
only a hundred crowns, I should want to keep house at Pont-Aven,
for there is the greatest abundance of everything. At Pont-Aven
you may have the butter for the price of the milk, the chicken
for the price of the egg, the linen for the price of the green flax.
Thus one sees good farms there; where salt pork is served
three times a week, and where even the shepherds eat as much
bread mixed of wheat and rye as they like.
In one of these farms lived Barbaïk Bourhis,—a brave-hearted
woman, who supported her house as if she had been a man, and
who owned fields and crops enough to keep two sons at school.
Now Barbaïk had one niece who earned more than her keep
cost; so she was able to put the gains of each day with those
of the day before.
## p. 13699 (#525) ##########################################
EMILE SOUVESTRE
13699
But savings too easily won always beget some plague. By
heaping up wheat you draw rats to your barns, and by hoarding.
crowns you beget avarice in your heart. Old Bourhis had come
to care for nothing except increasing her property, and to esteem.
those only who paid a large sum to the collector every month.
So she looked angry whenever she saw Dénès, the day-laborer
from Plover, chatting with her niece behind the gable. One
morning when she had surprised them again, she cried harshly
to Téphany:-
"Isn't it a shame that you should be chatting all the time like
this, with a young man who hasn't anything, when there are so
many others who would gladly buy you a silver ring? "
"Dénès is a good worker, and a true Christian," answered the
young girl.
"Some day or other he will find a farm to rent,
where he can bring up children. "
"And you want to be their mother? " interrupted the old
woman. "God forbid! I would rather see you in the door-yard
well than this vagabond's wife. No, no: it shall never be said
that I brought up my sister's daughter only to have her marry a
man who could put his whole fortune in his tobacco pouch. "
"What matters fortune when one has health, and when the
Virgin can read our intentions? " answered Téphany gently.
"What matters fortune! " repeated the scandalized mistress of
the farm. "Ah! So you have come to despise the goods God
gives us? May the saints take pity on us! Since this is the
way of it, you piece of effrontery, I forbid you ever to speak to
Dénès; and if he appears at the farm again, I will go to the
rector, and have him put you in his Sunday admonition. "
"Oh!
You would not do that, aunt! " cried Téphany, terri-
-
fied.
"As surely as there is a Paradise, I will do it! " answered
the old woman angrily; "but in the mean time, do you go to
the washing-place, wash the linen, and dry it on the hawthorn
bushes: for since you have had an ear for the wind from Plover,
nothing is done, and your two arms are not worth the five
fingers of a one-armed cripple. "
Téphany tried in vain to reply. Mother Bourhis pointed im-
periously to the bucket, the soap, and the washing-beetle, order-
ing her to go at once.
The young girl obeyed; but her heart swelled with grief and
resentment.
## p. 13700 (#526) ##########################################
13700
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"Old age is harder than the stones of the farm-house sill,"
she thought, "yes, a hundred times harder; for by continual
dropping, rain wears out the stone, but tears cannot soften the
will of old people. God knows that chatting with Dénès was
the only pleasure I had. If I cannot see him any more, I might
as well enter a convent! And yet the good angel was always
with us.
Dénès taught me only beautiful songs; talked to me
only about what we would do when we were husband and wife
together on a farm,-he cultivating the land and I taking care
of the stables. Is it forbidden then honestly to give ourselves
to each other in hope and courage? God would not have made
marriage if it was a sin to think of marrying some day; and he
would not have given us judgment if he forbade us to choose.
Ah! it is doing me a great wrong to keep me from knowing
Dénès better, for he is the only one who holds my heart. "
While thus talking to herself, Téphany had reached the wash-
ing-place. As she went to set down her bucket of linen on one
of the white stones, she saw an old woman who was not of the
parish, and who was leaning her head against a little blackthorn
staff yellowed by fire. In spite of her trouble, Téphany saluted
her.
-
"My aunt [a Breton title of respect] is enjoying the fresh air
under the alders? " she said, placing her load farther off.
"Who has only the roof of the sky for house, rests where he
may," answered the old woman in a trembling voice.
"Are you so deserted? " asked Téphany compassionately; "and
have you no relative left who can make you a place at his fire-
side? "
"All have long been dead," answered the unknown; "and I
have no other family than kind hearts. "
The young girl took the bread, spread with lard, which Bar-
baïk had wrapped in a bit of linen and placed near her beetle.
"Here, poor aunt," she said, offering it to the beggar. "To-
day at least you shall dine like a Christian, with the bread of
the good God: only remember my dead parents in your prayers. "
The old woman took the bread, then looked at Téphany.
«<
Those who aid, deserve to be aided," she said. "Your eyes
are still red because Barbaïk, the miser, has forbidden you to talk
to the young man from Plover; but he is an honest-hearted
fellow, who only wishes what is right, and I will give you a
means of seeing him every day. "
## p. 13701 (#527) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13701
"You! " exclaimed the young girl, stupefied at finding the
beggarwoman so well informed.
"Take this long brass pin," answered the old woman; “and
every time you put it on, Mother Bourhis will have to go out
and count her cabbages. As long as you wear the pin, you will
be free; and your aunt will not return until the pin is back in
its case. "
With these words the beggar rose, made a sign of farewell,
and disappeared.
Téphany remained astonished.
Evidently the old woman was
not a beggar, but a saint or a singer of truth [i. e. , a fairy
fortune-teller].
At all events, the young girl clutched the pin fast, quite
determined to test its power on the morrow.
Therefore, toward the hour when Dénès usually came, she
placed it at her collar. Barbaïk immediately took her sandals and
went into the door-yard, where she began to count her cabbages.
Then from the door-yard she went to the orchard, and from the
orchard to the other fields; so that the young girl could chat as
long as she liked with the young man from Plover.
It was the same the next day, and all the following days for
several weeks. As soon as the pin was taken from its case, the
good woman ran to her cabbages; always beginning over again
to calculate how many there were of big ones, of little ones, of
smooth ones and frizzled ones.
At first Dénès seemed charmed with this liberty; but little
by little he became less eager. He had taught Téphany all his
songs.
He had told her all his plans. Now he was obliged to
seek something to tell her, and to get it ready beforehand as
a minister does his sermon. Sometimes, even, giving his carting
and wheeling as excuse, he did not come at all; and Téphany
had her trouble for nothing. She saw that her lover's affection
had cooled, and became more sad than before.
One day when she had waited in vain for the young man,
she took her pitcher and went to the fountain, her heart heavy
with grief.
As she reached it, she saw the same old woman who had
given her the magic pin. She was standing near the spring;
and seeing Téphany, she began with a little laugh like a grass-
hopper's note:-
"Ah! Ah! The pretty girl is happier, isn't she, now that
she can converse with her lover at any hour of the day? "
## p. 13702 (#528) ##########################################
13702
EMILE SOUVESTRE
"Alas! for that I must be with him," answered Téphany
sadly, "and familiarity has rendered my company less pleasing to
him. Ah! aunt, since you gave me the means of seeing him
every day, you should have given me at the same time enough
wit to keep him. "
"Is that what my daughter would like? " asked the old wo-
man. "Then here is a feather plucked from the wing of a wise
angel. When she places it in her hair, nothing can stop her;
for she will have as much wit and cunning as Master Jean him-
self" [mischievous elf].
Téphany, red with joy, seized the feather; and the next day,
before Dénès's visit, she stuck it in her blue hair-band. At the
same instant it seemed to her that the sun was rising in her
mind. She knew all that the kloeirs take ten years to learn,
and many things that the wisest do not know at all; for with the
learning of men, she had too the cunning of women. So Dénès
was astonished at all she said to him. She spoke in verse like
the bazvalanes [matchmakers], knew more songs than the beggars
of Scaër, and repeated the local stories told at all the lime-kilns
and mills of the country.
The young man returned the next day, and the following
days; and Téphany always found something new to tell him.
Dénès had never seen a man or a woman with so much wit;
but after enjoying it, he grew frightened. Téphany had not
been able to keep from wearing her feather for others than him.
Her songs and malicious speeches were repeated everywhere, and
every one said:-
"She has a bad heart. Whoever marries her will be led by
the bridle.
>>
--
The young man from Plover repeated this prediction to him-
self; and as he had always thought he would rather hold the
bridle than wear it, he began to find it more difficult to laugh
at Téphany's pleasantries.
One day when he was going to a dance in a new barn, the
young girl exercised all her wit to keep him away; but Dénès,
who did not wish to be influenced, would not listen to her, and
repulsed her prayers.
"Ah! I see very well why you are so anxious about the new
barn," said Téphany, vexed. "You will meet Azilicz of Penenru
there! "
Azilicz was the prettiest girl in the canton; and according to
all her good friends, the most coquettish. Penenru was near
## p. 13703 (#529) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13703
Plover; so the pretty girl and Dénès had become acquainted from
living in the same neighborhood.
"Yes, Azilicz will be there," said Dénès, who liked to make
his sweetheart jealous; "and to see her is worth going a long
way. "
"Go then where your heart leads you," said the young girl,
wounded.
And she went back to the house, refusing to hear anything
more.
But she sat down on the hearth, overcome with sadness; and
after thinking a long time, she exclaimed as she threw down the
wonderful feather which had been given her:—
"What good does wit do young girls, since the men are drawn
by beauty as flies by the sun? Ah! what I needed, old aunt,
was not to be the most learned, but the most beautiful. "
"Be then also the most beautiful," answered a voice suddenly.
Téphany turned, astonished, and saw near the door the old
woman with the thorn staff, who said to her:-
-
"Take this necklace; and as long as you wear it around your
neck, you will seem among other women like the queen of the
fields among other wild flowers. "
Téphany could not repress a cry of joy. She hastened to
put on the necklace, ran to her little mirror, and stood there
delighted. Never was girl so pink and so white,-so charming
to look at.
Wishing to judge at once of the effect she produced upon
Dénès, she dressed in her best; put on her woolen stockings and,
her buckled shoes, and took the road toward the new barn.
But behold, when she reached the cross-road, she met a young
lord, who at sight of her made his coachman stop.
"By my life! " he cried with admiration, "I did not know
there was such a beautiful creature in the country; and if it were
to cost me my soul, she must bear my name. "
But Téphany answered him:-
«Go on, sir.
Go on your way. I am only a poor peasant
used to winnowing, and milking, and mowing. "
"And I will make you a great lady! " answered the lord, tak-
ing her hand and trying to lead her to his carriage.
The young girl hung back.
"I do not wish to marry any one but Dénès, the laborer from
Plover," she said resolutely.
## p. 13704 (#530) ##########################################
13704
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
He wished to insist; but when he saw her approaching the
ditch in order to escape into the wheat-field, he ordered his serv-
ants to seize her and put her by force in the carriage, which
started again on a gallop.
At the end of an hour they reached the castle, which was
built of cut stones and covered with slate, as the houses of the
nobility are. The young lord sent out for a priest to marry
them; and since, while they were waiting, Téphany refused to
listen to him and tried to escape, he had her shut up in a great
room closed by three bolted doors, and ordered his servants to
guard her. But with her pin Téphany sent them all to the gar-
den to count cabbages; with her feather she discovered a fourth
door hidden in the wood-work; and she escaped. Then, fervently
recommending herself to God, she fled through the underbrush
like a hare which has heard the hounds.
She went as long as she could, until night began to fall.
Then she saw the belfry of a convent, and knocked at the little
grated door to ask for shelter; but on seeing her the porter shook
her head.
"Go on, go on," she said: "there is no place here for such
pretty girls running on the roads alone at this hour. "
And closing the gate, she went away without listening to any-
thing more.
Forced to go on, Téphany stopped at the door of a farm-
house where several women were chatting with some young fel-
lows, and made the same request as at the convent.
The mistress of the house hesitated to answer; but all the
young men, amazed at Téphany's beauty, exclaimed at once, offer-
ing to take her to their fathers' houses, and each one trying to
promise her more than the others. From promises they came
to quarrels, and from quarrels to blows; so that the frightened
women began to scold Téphany, telling her it was a great shame
to come and trouble the men with her beauty. The poor girl,
beside herself, tried to escape; but the young men pursued her.
Then she remembered her necklace; and tearing it from her
neck, she threw it around that of a sow which was browsing in
the spearwort. At the same instant the charm vanished from
her, and all the young men began to chase the frightened beast.
Téphany went on in spite of fatigue; and finally reached her
aunt's farm, very weary, and still more sad. Her wishes had suc-
ceeded so ill thus far that it was several days before she made
## p. 13705 (#531) ##########################################
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
13705
another. However, Dénès came more and more irregularly. He
had undertaken to cultivate a warren, and worked there from
morning to night. When the young girl expressed regret at not
seeing him, he always answered that his work was their only
resource, and that one must have dowries and inheritances to
spend time chatting.
Then Téphany began to complain and to wish.
"God pardon me! " she said to herself; "but what I should
have asked was not liberty to see Dénès every day, for he is tired
of it; nor wit, for he is afraid of it; nor beauty, for it causes
trouble and distrust: but instead, money, with which one is mas-
ter of oneself and others. Ah! if I dared make one more request
of the old aunt, I should be wiser. "
"Be satisfied," said the voice of the old beggar, whom Téphany
could not see. "If you look in your right pocket you will find a
little box. Rub your eyes with the ointment it contains, and you
will have in yourself a treasure. "
The young girl quickly sought in her pocket, found the box,
opened it, and was rubbing her eyes as directed when Barbaïk
Bourhis entered.
She, who for some time had been losing whole days in spite
of herself at counting cabbages, seeing all the farm work behind-
hand, only wanted an occasion to vent her ill-temper on some
one. Finding her niece seated and idle, she clasped her hands.
"So that is the way you work when I am out! " she ex-
claimed. "Ah! I am
"Ah! I am no longer surprised to find ruin in the
house! Aren't you ashamed thus to steal the bread of a rela-
tive ? »
Téphany wanted to excuse herself, but Barbaïk's anger was
like milk heated over a brush fire: as soon as it boils, it bub-
bles up and goes over. From reproaches she passed to threats,
and from threats to a blow. Téphany, who had borne the rest
patiently enough, could not help weeping; but judge her sur-
prise when she saw that each of her tears was a beautiful pearl,
round and shining.
Mother Bourhis, who also perceived this, cried out with admi-
ration and began to gather them.
Dénès, who entered at this moment, was not less amazed.
"Pearls! genuine pearls! " he cried, taking them.
"It's a fortune! " said Barbaïk, who went on gathering them.
"Ah! what fairy has bestowed this gift? "
## p. 13706 (#532) ##########################################
13706
ÉMILE SOUVESTRE
"No one must know about it, Dénès; I will share with you,
but with no one else. Keep on, my girl, keep on. You will
profit too. "
He thought only of
She held her apron, and Dénès his hat.
the pearls, and forgot they were tears.
Téphany, choking, tried to escape; but her aunt stopped her,
reproaching her with wanting to wrong them, and repeating what-
ever would make her weep more. The young girl sought to
control herself, and wiped her eyes.
"It's over already! " cried Barbaïk. "Ah! Blessed Mary! If
I had such a gift, I would not want to stop any more than the big
spring on the green road. Can't we beat her a little to see? "
"No," interrupted Dénès: "we must not tire her too much at
first. I will go at once to town and find out how much each
pearl is worth. "
Barbaïk and he went out together, guessing the value in ad-
vance, and settling the division, in which Téphany was forgotten.
She pressed her clasped hands against her heart with a sigh,
and raised her eyes to heaven; but they fell upon the old beg-
gar, who, leaning upon her staff in the darkest corner of the
hearth, was looking at her with a mocking air. The young girl
trembled; and seizing the pin, the feather, and the box of oint-
ment-
—
"Take them back, take them all back," she cried wildly.
"Misfortune to those who are not content with what God gave!
He had endowed me according to his wisdom, which I foolishly
questioned Carry liberty, wit, beauty, and riches to others. I
am not, and I do not want to be, anything but the simple girl
I was, loving and serving as well as I could. "
"Very well, Téphany," answered the old woman. "The trial
is over: let it profit you. The Trinity sent me to give you this
lesson. I am your guardian angel: now that you understand the
truth you will live tranquilly, for God has promised peace to
well-intentioned hearts. "
With these words the beggar changed into an angel gleaming
with light, dispersing the perfume of incense and violets through
the house, then vanishing like a flash.
Téphany forgave Dénès for wanting to sell her tears. Be-
come less exacting, she accepted such happiness as one may have
upon earth; and she married the young man from Plover, who
was always a good husband and a courageous worker.
## p. 13706 (#533) ##########################################
## p. 13706 (#534) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER.
D. Grosch
## p. 13706 (#535) ##########################################
!
:
***
1
1. L
! . . PULIT
+
## p. 13706 (#536) ##########################################
## p. 13707 (#537) ##########################################
13707
-
HERBERT SPENCER
(1820-)
BY F. HOWARD COLLINS
T
HE author of 'A System of Synthetic Philosophy,' 'Education,'
'Essays: Scientific, Political and Speculative,' 'The Study
of Sociology,' and many other articles in periodicals and
newspapers, was born at Derby on the 27th of April, 1820. His
father, William George Spencer, was a schoolmaster in the town, and
published a work entitled 'Inventional Geometry):
a series of ques-
tions, problems, and explanations, intended to familiarize the pupil
with geometrical conceptions, to exercise his inventive faculty, and
to prepare him for Euclid and the higher mathematics. » Though
this work received but little notice when first issued, it is now, after
many years, coming into use among those teachers who desire to
give a more rational course of study to their younger scholars prior
to commencing Euclid; to which this little work forms a most excel-
lent introduction, as may be gathered from Mr. Herbert Spencer's own
words:-
"To its great efficiency, both as a means of providing interest in
geometry, and as a mental discipline, I can give personal testimony.
I have seen it create in a class of boys so much enthusiasm that they
looked forward to their geometry lesson as a chief event in the week.
And girls, initiated in the system by my father, have frequently
begged of him for problems to solve during the holidays. "
Another work of his, 'Lucid Shorthand,' was completed in MS. in
1843, but has only recently been published by his son, who also con-
tributes a preface.
Herbert Spencer's surroundings were in fact early differentiated
from "the daily round-the common task" of most boys. The con-
versation which came to his ears was more permeated with the
rational interpretation of surrounding phenomena - why and how did
such-and-such a thing happen - than is usual now; and still more so
at the time of which we write. Herbert Spencer's innate love of nat-
ural science, and his marvelous faculty of observation, so wonderfully
displayed in all his writings, were without doubt largely nourished
and increased by his father's love for nature, and especially ento-
mology; a science to which the son devoted much of his leisure,—
## p. 13708 (#538) ##########################################
13708
HERBERT SPENCER
collecting, describing, and drawing most of the insects about his home.
Soon after the age of thirteen, he spent some time under the roof
of his uncle, the Rev. Thomas Spencer, chairman of the Bath Union,
and author of many pamphlets dealing principally with the meth-
ods for ameliorating the condition of the poorer people in his and
other parishes. The mathematical training which he received here
enabled him on his return home to become assistant teacher in his
father's school; but finding the occupation uncongenial, and the rail-
way mania being then at its height, Spencer at the age of seventeen
joined the profession of railway engineering, and during the next
eight years surveyed different parts of the country for the construc-
tion of lines. One of these - the Birmingham to Gloucester - may
be mentioned, as it is interesting from containing one of the steepest
inclines in England. During this period he contributed papers on
technical subjects to the engineering journals; and described new
methods and instruments shortening in a great degree many of the
laborious calculations entailed by railway-surveying, locomotive-engine
testing, bridge-making, and so forth. The original drawings made
by Mr. Spencer to explain and accompany these inventions, are very
remarkable from their extreme neatness and accuracy. They appear
indeed, to those who have had the opportunity of seeing them, to be
the result of engraving on copper.
At the age of twenty-two, the opening to the path of his future
life may be dimly discerned in some letters which he wrote to the
Nonconformist (newspaper) on 'The Proper Sphere of Government,'
and which were subsequently published as a pamphlet. From this
time the literary bent of his nature developed and came into greater
prominence; for, giving up railway engineering, he went to London,
and from writing articles and leaders in the Economist,—the most
important weekly newspaper in England dealing with finance and the
matters included under the old term "political economy," - became
in 1848 its sub-editor, which office he held for five years. This
appointment may be looked upon as one of much value to the future
philosopher: it gave a certain amount of leisure, while the occupation
it entailed drew his mind more and more to those problems of Soci-
ology with which his reputation will ever be associated, while at the
same time it kept him in touch with some of the best intellects of
the time, and many lifelong friendships were then formed.
It may be of interest here to mention how some of Mr. Spencer's
real leisure has been passed. A severe winter at Birmingham, when
surveying for the railway, led him to practice skating, and this to
designing a peculiar form of skate bringing the foot nearer to the
ice than usual, and enabling the "outside edge" to be swung with
much greater facility, even by those having weak ankles. Fishing
## p. 13709 (#539) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13709
was always a favorite amusement; and as he says now in conversa-
tion, some of his happiest times were spent in later years fly-fishing
for salmon on the west coast of Scotland, when in fact staying with
some very old friends in Argyllshire. Of the pastimes usually asso-
ciated with indoors, two may be mentioned,- billiards and music :
the latter, up to the present day, giving him exceeding pleasure
when well performed and of that school to which he is partial,-Bee-
thoven, or a simple ballad sung with real feeling, but never a mere
display of what has been aptly called "musical gymnastics"; mere
difficulties of execution, however well surmounted, never appealing to
him.
Two years after he obtained the appointment on the Economist
appeared his first volume, and one of importance, 'Social Statics: or
the Conditions Essential to Human Happiness Specified, and the First
of them Developed. ' This was out of print for many years, some of
its views not being in accord with the more mature ones of the
author; hence in 1892 he published an "abridged and revised » edi-
tion, together with The Man versus the State,'
a series of essays
to which allusion will be made as the time of their publication comes
to be dwelt with. The original edition of Social Statics' is note-
worthy as being the only work which Mr. Spencer wrote with his
own hand, all subsequent ones being dictated to a shorthand aman-
uensis.
―――――
The seed which has germinated into the pronounced individualism
of Herbert Spencer may be discerned here in its embryonic state:
"Liberty of action being the first essential to exercise of faculties,
and therefore the first essential to happiness; and the liberty of each,
limited by the like liberties of all, being the form which this first
essential assumes when applied to many instead of one, it follows
that this liberty of each, limited by the like liberties of all, is the
rule in conformity with which society must be organized. Freedom
being the prerequisite to normal life in the individual, equal freedom
becomes the prerequisite to normal life in society. And if this law
of equal freedom is the primary law of right relationship between
man and man, then no desire to get fulfilled a secondary law can war-
rant us in breaking it. "
Considering the state of knowledge in 1852, when special crea-
tion, as contrasted with evolution, was the firm and almost universal
belief, we are fully justified in alluding to a short essay which Mr.
Spencer wrote in this year as singularly noteworthy; for the "devel-
opment hypothesis," as the theory of evolution was then called, is
contrasted with special creation, and the latter shown to be logically
indefensible: -- "Which, then, is the most rational hypothesis? that
of special creations, which has neither a fact to support it nor is
-
-
## p. 13710 (#540) ##########################################
13710
HERBERT SPENCER
even definitely conceivable; or that of modification, which is not only
definitely conceivable, but is countenanced by the habitudes of every
existing organism ? »
Two years later a long essay on 'Manners and Fashion' was pub-
lished in the Westminster Review, showing how society develops on
its political, religious, and ceremonial sides; how the old forms which
society successively throws off have all been once vitally united with
it, have severally served as protective envelopes within which a
higher humanity was being evolved. "They are cast aside only
when they become hindrances - only when some inner and better
envelope has been formed; and they bequeath to us all that was in
them of good. The periodical abolitions of tyrannical laws have left
the administration of justice not only uninjured but purified. Dead
and buried creeds have not carried with them the essential morality
they contained, which still exists, uncontaminated by the sloughs of
superstition. And all that there is of justice, kindness, and beauty,
embodied in our cumbrous forms of etiquette, will live perennially
when the forms themselves have been forgotten. "
The British Quarterly Review of the same year contained a long
and valuable article on 'The Genesis of Science,' from which the
conclusion is reached: "Not only that the sciences have a common.
root, but that science in general has a common root with language,
classification, reasoning, art; that through civilization these have
advanced together, acting and reacting upon each other just as the
separate sciences have done; and that thus the development of intel-
ligence in all its divisions and subdivisions has conformed to this
same law which we have shown that the sciences conform to. "
The year 1855 showed that the doctrine of evolution had taken
definite and systematic form in the author's mind, for the first edi-
tion of the Principles of Psychology' was published. As this sub-
sequently forms a part of the Synthetic Philosophy,' its consideration
may well be delayed until we come to deal with that as a whole.
Similarly the essay published in 1857, 'Progress: Its Law and Cause,'
as the ideas and illustrations in it are incorporated in First Prin-
ciples. '
<
The year 1860 will be remarkable for all time as the date when
Mr. Spencer issued his prospectus of 'A System of Philosophy,' an-
nouncing that he "proposes to issue in periodical parts a connected
series of works which he has for several years been preparing,"
and giving a detailed outline of them. He announced in all ten vol-
umes; and during the thirty-six years that have since elapsed, he has
accomplished, in spite of such ill health as would have deterred
most men from writing at all, the magnificent total of ten complete
volumes, — out of the eleven to which the system has expanded in
## p. 13711 (#541) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13711
development, in addition to innumerable essays and letters on sub-
jects of interest in the domain of politics and economics in their
widest sense to sociology, in fact.
In the interim between the issue of this prospectus and the first
volume of the series, Mr. Spencer republished, with additions, four
essays in a small volume, entitled 'Education: Intellectual, Moral, and
Physical'; which has since become the most popular of his works,
and has been translated into French, German, Italian, Russian, Hun-
garian, Dutch, Danish, Spanish, Swedish, Greek, Bohemian, Japanese,
Chinese, and some others, too numerous to mention. It is of such
immense value to all those who desire to bring up children on
rational principles, that it merits an instructive quotation from each
of the chapters. The question asked in the first chapter, What knowl-
edge is of most worth? is answered in these words:
"Paraphrasing an Eastern fable, we may say that in the family of
knowledges, Science is the household drudge, who in obscurity hides
unrecognized perfections. To her has been committed all the work;
by her skill, intelligence, and devotion, have all conveniences and
gratifications been obtained: and while ceaselessly ministering to the
rest, she has been kept in the background, that her haughty sisters
may flaunt their fripperies in the eyes of the world. The parallel
holds yet further. For we are fast coming to the dénouement, when
the positions will be changed, and while these haughty sisters sink
into merited neglect, Science, proclaimed as highest alike in worth
and beauty, will reign supreme. "
Of intellectual education:
"While men dislike the things and places that suggest painful
recollections, and delight in those which call to mind bygone pleas-
ures, painful lessons will make knowledge repulsive, and pleasurable
lessons will make it attractive. The man to whom in boyhood,
information came in dreary tasks along with threats of punishment,
and who was never led into habits of independent inquiry, is un-
likely to be a student in after years; while those to whom it came
in natural forms, at the proper times, and who remember its facts as
not only interesting in themselves, but as a long series of gratify-
ing successes, are likely to continue through life that self-instruction
commenced in youth. "
In moral education:-
"Remember that the aim of your discipline should be to pro-
duce a self-governing being; not to produce a being governed by others.
Were your children fated to pass their lives as slaves, you could
not too much accustom them to slavery during their childhood; but
as they are by-and-by to be free men, with no one to control their
daily conduct, you cannot too much accustom them to self-control
while they are still under your eye. "
-
## p. 13712 (#542) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13712
In physical education:
"Perhaps nothing will so much hasten the time when body and
mind will both be adequately cared for, as a diffusion of the belief that
the preservation of health is a duty. Few seem conscious that there
is such a thing as physical morality: men's habitual words and acts
imply the idea that they are at liberty to treat their bodies as they
please. Disorders entailed by disobedience to nature's dictates they
regard simply as grievances, not as the effects of a conduct more
or less flagitious. Though the evil consequences inflicted on their
dependents, and on future generations, are often as great as those
caused by crime, yet they do not think themselves in any degree
criminal.
The fact is, that all breaches of the laws of health
are physical sins. When this is generally seen, then, and perhaps not
till then, will the physical training of the young receive the attention
it deserves. "
On June 5th, 1862, was issued the first installment of the Phi-
losophy: the first part of 'First Principles' dealing with 'The Un-
knowable,' and showing that the only possible reconciliation of
Science and Religion lies in the belief of an Absolute, transcending
not only human knowledge but human conception, indeed :-
"The consciousness of an inscrutable Power manifested to us
through all phenomena has been growing ever clearer; and must
eventually be freed from its imperfections. The certainty that on the
one hand such a Power exists, while on the other hand its nature
transcends intuition and is beyond imagination, is the certainty
towards which intelligence has from the first been progressing. To
this conclusion Science inevitably arrives as it reaches its confines;
while to this conclusion Religion is irresistibly driven by criticism.
And satisfying as it does the most rigorous logic, at the same time
that it gives the religious sentiment the widest possible sphere of
action, it is the conclusion we are bound to accept without reserve
or qualification. "
-:
The second part, entitled 'The Knowable,' deals with the body of
knowledge constituting what is usually termed Philosophy or Meta-
physics; treats of Space, Time, Matter, Motion, and Force, consid-
ered in themselves and in their relation to each other; and expounds
those highest generalizations now being disclosed by Science, which
are severally true not of one class of phenomena, but of all classes
of phenomena, and which are thus the keys to all classes of phe-
nomena. From the study of these components of all phenomena the
author passes to the law of their composition, "the law of the con-
tinuous redistribution of matter and motion. " This, having to cover
all phenomena,—whether of inorganic nature, of life, of mind, of soci-
ety, or of morals,- is necessarily defined in very abstract terms:-
"Evolution is an integration of matter and concomitant dissipation
## p. 13713 (#543) ##########################################
HERBERT SPENCER
13713
of motion; during which the matter passes from an indefinite, inco-
herent homogeneity, to a definite, coherent heterogeneity; and during
which the retained motion undergoes a parallel transformation. "
This extremely generalized conception, forming as it does the
centre around which the whole of this philosophy revolves, will, to the
ordinary reader, prove difficult of comprehension without reading the
volume from which it is taken, when a more clear understanding of
its implications will arise. The remaining chapters then show that
the redistribution of matter and motion must everywhere take place
in those ways, and produce those traits, which celestial bodies, organ-
isms, minds, and societies alike display:-
:-
"Thus we
are led to the conclusion that the entire process of
things as displayed in the aggregate of the visible Universe, is
analogous to the entire process of things as displayed in the smallest
aggregates.
"Motion as well as matter being fixed in quantity, it would seem
that, the change in the distribution of matter which motion effects
coming to a limit in whichever direction it is carried, the indestruct-
ible motion thereupon necessitates a reverse distribution. Apparently,
the universally coexistent forces of attraction and repulsion — which,
as we have seen, necessitate rhythm in the totality of its changes -
produce now an immeasurable period during which the attractive
forces predominating cause universal concentration, and then an im-
measurable period during which the repulsive forces predominating
cause universal diffusion; alternate eras of Evolution and Dissolution.
And thus there is suggested the conception of a past during which
there have been successive Evolutions analogous to that which is
going on; and a future during which successive other such Evolutions
may go on-ever the same in principle but never the same in con-
crete result. "
None of Mr. Spencer's works exhibit more clearly the philosophic
grasp of the author in dealing with such stupendous problems, or his
knowledge of the principles of such a science as astronomy; in fact,
from none can a better idea be formed of his truly encyclopædic
knowledge.
