No More Learning

"
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


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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. "
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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


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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. On every page are many and apt illustrations taken
from some one of each of the sciences, and showing how thorough is
the mastery of the principles of each one.
After this work Mr. Spencer writes:-"In logical order should
here come the application of these First Principles to Inorganic
Nature. But this great division it is proposed to pass over: partly
because, even without it, the scheme is too extensive; and partly
because the interpretation of Organic Nature after the proposed
method is of more immediate importance. The second work of the
series will therefore be 'The Principles of Biology. "-This, although
XXIII-858


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first published in 1864, is still a classic, and without rival for giv-
ing the broad generalizations which hold true of all living beings;
whether they be of that simple unorganized form which the Amoeba
displays, the organized representatives of the vegetable kingdom with
its ferns, palms, and stately forest trees, or such animals as the
earthworm, the butterfly, the lion, or man. Charles Darwin's 'Origin
of Species by Means of Natural Selection, or the Preservation of
Favoured Races in the Struggle for Life,' dealing with organic evo-
lution alone, was published a few years previously-but after, of
course, the enunciation of the general principle of Evolution by Mr.
Spencer; and the results are incorporated in these two large vol-
umes, and form a strong buttress to the truth of the philosophy.
How exceedingly near Mr. Spencer was to discovering the principle
of Natural Selection - or as he has since named it, 'Survival of the
Fittest may be seen by readers of the first edition of 'Social Stat-
ics'; for it contains a paragraph from which a skillful dialectician
could easily prove that this was really in the author's mind when
it was written! That such was the case, however, Mr. Spencer has
denied. After expounding the laws holding good of all living beings,
the volume goes on to speak hopefully of human population in the
future. "Pressure of population and its accompanying evils will dis-
appear; and it will leave a state of things requiring from each indi-
vidual no more than a normal and pleasurable activity. Cessation in
the decrease of fertility implies cessation in the development of the
nervous system; and this implies a nervous system that has become
equal to all that is demanded of it—has not to do more than is nat-
ural to it. But that exercise of faculties which does not exceed what
is natural constitutes gratification. In the end, therefore, the ob-
tainment of subsistence, and discharge of all the parental and social
duties, will require just that kind and that amount of action needful
to health and happiness. "
-
In 1868 commenced the issue in parts of the 'Principles of Psy-
chology,' a very much amplified edition of the work first published in
1855, and so revised as to form a consistent and systematic part of
the philosophy, the lapse of time between the two editions enabling
the hypothesis to take a much higher development. In this learned
treatise we see all the phenomena of mind—the emotions, the feel-
ings, and the will-evolved from the simplest constituents, and prob-
lems of the most abstract kind, and of exceeding difficulty in logic
and metaphysics, dealt with from the evolution standpoint and fully
developed; it concludes with a brief outline of the special psychol-
ogy of man considered as the unit of which societies are composed.
With these volumes "a final remark worth making is, that the æs-
thetic activities in general may be expected to play an increasing


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part in human life as evolution advances. Greater economization of
energy, resulting from superiority of organization, will have in the
future, effects like those it has had in the past. The order of activi-
ties to which the aesthetic belong, having been already initiated by this
economization, will hereafter be extended by it: the economization
being achieved both directly through the improvement of the human
structure itself, and indirectly through the improvement of all appli-
ances, mechanical, social, and other. A growing surplus of energy
will bring a growing proportion of the aesthetic activities and gratifi-
cations; and while the forms of art will be such as yield pleasurable
exercise to the simpler faculties, they will in a greater degree than
now appeal to the higher emotions. "
In June 1874, the first part of the Principles of Sociology' was
published; and the whole of Vol. i. , the largest of the series, com-
pleted by 1876. The first division, the 'Data of Sociology,' is entirely
taken up with a description of the interpretation likely to be given
by the primitive man- the savage, or the uncivilized- of the various
phenomena which occur at every moment around him:
"Changes in the sky and on the earth, occurring hourly, daily,
and at shorter or longer intervals, go on in ways about which the
savage knows nothing,-unexpected appearances and disappearances,
transmutations, metamorphoses. While seeming to show that arbitra-
riness characterizes all actions, these foster the notion of a duality
in the things which become visible and vanish, or which transform
themselves; and this notion is confirmed by experiences of shadows,
reflections, and echoes.
-
"The impressions thus produced by converse with external nature
favor a belief set up by a more definite experience- the experience
of dreams. Having no conception of mind, the primitive man regards
a dream as a series of actual occurrences; he did the things, went to
the places, saw the persons dreamt of. Untroubled by incongruities,
he accepts the facts as they stand; and in proportion as he thinks
about them, is led to conceive a double which goes away during
sleep and comes back. This conception of his own duality seems
confirmed by the somnambulism occasionally witnessed.
"More decisively does it seem confirmed by other abnormal insen-
sibilities. In swoon, apoplexy, catalepsy, and the unconsciousness
following violence, it appears that the other-self, instead of returning
at all, will not return for periods varying from some minutes to some
days. Occasionally after one of these states, the other-self tells what
has happened in the interval; occasionally prolonged absence raises
the doubt whether it is not gone away for an indefinite period.
"The distinction between these conditions of temporary insensibil-
ity and the condition of permanent insensibility is one which, some-
times imperceptible to instructed persons, cannot be perceived by the


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HERBERT SPENCER
savage. The normal unconsciousness of sleep from which a man's
double is readily brought back, is linked by these abnormal kinds of
unconsciousness from which the double is brought back with diffi-
culty, to that lasting kind of unconsciousness from which the double
cannot be brought back at all. Still analogy leads the savage to infer
that it will eventually come back.
Such resurrection, shown
by the universal fear of the dead to be vaguely imagined even by
the lowest races, becomes clearly imagined as the idea of a wander-
ing duplicate is made definite by the dream theory.
•
"The second-self ascribed to each man, at first differs in nothing
from its original. It is figured as equally visible, equally material;
and no less suffers hunger, thirst, fatigue, pain. Indistinguishable
from the person himself,-capable of being slain, devoured, or other-
wise destroyed a second time,- the original ghost, soul, spirit, differ-
entiates slowly in supposed nature. Having at the outset but a
temporary second life, it gradually acquires a permanent one; while
it deviates more and more in substance from body, becoming at
length etherealized.
"This double of the dead man, originally conceived as like him in
all other respects, is conceived as having like occupations; and from
this belief in a second life thus like the first, and also like in the
social arrangements it is subject to, there result the practices of
leaving with the corpse food, drink, clothes weapons, and of sacri-
ficing at the grave domestic animals, wives, slaves.
The
place in which this life after death is believed to be passed, varies
with the antecedents of the races.
Hence at the grave are
left fit appliances for the journey: canoes for the voyage, or horses
to ride, dogs to guide, weapons for defense, money and passports
for security. And where burial on a mountain range entails belief
in this as a residence of ancestral ghosts, or where such a range has
been held by a conquering race, the heavens, supposed to be access-
ible from the mountain-tops, come to be regarded as the other-world,
or rather as one of the other-worlds.
·
"The doubles of dead men, at first assumed to have but temporary
second lives, do not, in that case, tend to form in popular belief an
accumulating host; but they necessarily tend to form such a host
when permanent second lives are ascribed to them. Swarming every-
where, capable of appearing and disappearing at will, and working in
ways that cannot be foreseen,- they are thought of as the causes of
all things which are strange, unexpected, inexplicable.
"But while primitive men, regarding themselves as at the mercy
of surrounding ghosts, try to defend themselves by the aid of the
exorcist and the sorcerer, who deal with ghosts antagonistically, there
is simultaneously adopted a contrary behavior towards ghosts,-a
propitiation of them. .
Out of this motive and its observances


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come all forms of worship. Awe of the ghost makes sacred the
sheltering structure of the tomb; and this grows into the temple,
while the tomb itself becomes the altar. From provisions placed
for the dead, now habitually and now at fixed intervals, arise reli-
gious oblations, ordinary and extraordinary,—daily and at festivals.
Immolations and mutilations at the grave pass into sacrifices and
offerings of blood at the altar of a deity. Abstinence from food
for the benefit of the ghost develops into fasting as a pious practice;
and journeys to the grave with gifts become pilgrimages to the
shrine. Praises of the dead and prayers to them grow into reli-
gious praises and prayers. And so every holy rite is derived from a
funeral rite. . . . Besides those aberrant developments of ancestor-
worship which result from identification of ancestors with idols,
animals, plants, and natural powers, there are direct developments
of it. Out of the assemblage of ghosts, some evolve into deities
who retain their anthropomorphic characters. As the divine and the
superior are, in the primitive mind, equivalent ideas; as the living
man and reappearing ghost are at first confounded in early beliefs;
as ghost and god are convertible terms, - we may understand how
a deity develops out of a powerful man, and out of the ghost of a
powerful man, by small steps. Within the tribe, the chief, the magi-
cian, or some one otherwise skilled, held in awe during his life as
showing powers of unknown origin and extent, is feared in a higher
degree when, after death, he gains the further powers possessed by
all ghosts; and still more the stranger bringing new arts, as well
as the conqueror of superior race, is treated as a superhuman being
during life and afterwards worshiped as a yet greater superhuman
being. Remembering that the most marvelous version of any story
commonly obtains the greatest currency, and that so, from genera-
tion to generation, the deeds of such traditional persons grow by un-
checked exaggerations eagerly listened to, we may see that in time
any amount of expansion and idealization can be reached. ”
The foregoing long excerpt will serve two important purposes: for
it shows not only the admirable power of the author to sum up in a
short space the long arguments and illustrations of many chapters,-
of, in the present instance, more than four hundred pages,--but also
it furnishes a brief résumé of one of his original theories, showing how
his writings are permeated through and through by the principle of
evolution; how one fact naturally leads to the next, and this fact to
another, and so on until at last we stand in awe before the stupen-
dous generalization to which these steps have led us. Stupendous
is the grasp of intellect involved; stupendous in that, compelled to
acknowledge the truth of each of the steps, we are forced to accept
the veracity of the larger truth to which we have ascended.
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Part ii. is entitled 'The Inductions of Sociology,' and deals with
all the varied forms which societies have, and their growths, struct-
ures, and functions, the sustaining, distributing, and regulating sys-
tems, the relations of these structures to the surrounding conditions,
the dominant forms of social activities entailed, and the metamor-
phoses of types caused by changes in the activities. It is here that
we come across the great division, or dichotomization, of all societies
into the militant and the industrial; into those which are framed on
the principle of compulsory co-operation, and those which are framed
on the principle of voluntary co-operation. These "two types, when
evolved to their extreme forms, are diametrically opposed; and the
contrasts between their traits are amongst the most important with
which Sociology has to deal. " In fact, without a thorough grasp
of this, a great deal of the author's work upon Society would be dif-
ficult to comprehend,-it underlies so much, and is so frequently
coming to the surface. It must not be imagined that these are the
highest types of society; for "some pages might be added respecting
a possible future social type, differing as much from the industrial as
this does from the militant, -a type which, having a sustaining sys-
tem more fully developed than any we know at present, will use the
products of industry, neither for maintaining a militant organization,
nor exclusively for material aggrandizement, but will devote them to
carrying on the higher activities. As the contrast between the mili-
tant and the industrial types is indicated by inversion of the belief
that individuals exist for the benefit of the State, into the belief that
the State exists for the benefit of individuals, so the contrast between
the industrial type and the type likely to be evolved from it is indi-
cated by inversion of the belief that life is for work, into the belief
that work is for life. " The multiplication of institutions and appli-
ances for intellectual and æsthetic culture, and for kindred purposes,
not of a directly life-sustaining kind, but having gratification for their
immediate purpose, tends to support this prospect.
The many facts contemplated in these "Inductions" unite in
proving that social evolution forms a part of evolution at large, and
fulfills in all respects the general formula: there is integration both
by simple increase of mass, and by coalescence and re-coalescence of
masses; there is a change from homogeneity to heterogeneity,—from
the simple tribe alike in all its parts, to the civilized nation full
of unlikenesses; there is greater coherence,- for while the wander-
ing tribe is held together by no bonds, a civilized nation will hold
together for hundreds of years, nay, thousands; there is greater defi-
niteness, arrangements become settled and slowly more precise, cus-
toms pass into laws which become more fixed and specific, and all
institutions, at first confusedly intermingled, slowly separate at the


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same time that each within itself marks off more distinctly its com-
ponent parts.
Part iii. , 'Domestic Institutions,' deals with the general phenomena
of race maintenance, and the diverse interests of the species, of the
parents, and of the offspring; the primitive relations of the sexes
from the early period of promiscuity to the latest form, that of mo-
nogamy; and the status of women and of children. In all of which
the law of evolution in general is shown to hold good, and that the
higher traits in the relations of the sexes to one another and to child-
ren, which have accompanied social evolution, have been made pos-
sible by those higher traits of intelligence and feeling produced by
the experiences and disciplines of progressing social states.
One of the most prominent changes in the future may be the
greater care of parents by offspring. "At present the latter days of
the old whose married children live away from them, are made
dreary by the lack of those pleasures yielded by the constant soci-
ety of descendants; but a time may be expected when this evil will
be met by an attachment of adults to their aged parents, which, if
not as strong as that of parents to children, approaches it in strength.
When the earlier stages of education passed through in the
domestic circle have come to yield, as they will in ways scarcely
dreamt of at present, daily occasions for the strengthening of sym-
pathy, intellectual and moral, then will the latter days of life be
smoothed by a greater filial care, reciprocating the greater parental
care bestowed in earlier life. "
Part iv. , Ceremonial Institutions,' shows how the formula of evo-
lution is conformed to by the history of Trophies, Mutilations, Pres-
ents, Visits, Obeisances, Titles, Badges, Costumes, and all the varied
forms of class distinction. It is shown that "rules of behavior are
not results of conventions at one time or other deliberately made, as
people tacitly assume: contrariwise, they are the natural products of
social life which have gradually evolved. " They are of course char-
acteristic of the militant type of society, and tend to fade and decay
as industrialism and voluntary co-operation develop.
Part v. , Political Institutions,' contains an account of the evolu-
tion of governments as determined by natural causes. Setting out
with an unorganized horde including both sexes and all ages, we
see that when some public question, such as that of migration or of
defense against enemies, has to be decided, the assembled individuals
fall more or less clearly into two divisions. The elder, the stronger,
and those whose sagacity and courage have been proved by experi-
ence, will form the smaller part who carry on the discussion; while
the larger part, formed of the young, weak, and undistinguished, will
be listeners who do no more than express from time to time as-
sent or dissent. Among the leaders there is sure to be some one


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HERBERT SPENCER
distinguished warrior, or aged hunter, who will have more than his
individual share in forming the plan finally acted upon. That is to
say, the entire assemblage will resolve itself, as in every public meet-
ing of the present day, into three parts, which will eventually develop
into that of chief or king; a ministry, or representative and consult-
ative body; and the general electorate. Or, in the formula of evolu-
tion, the advance will be from small incoherent social aggregates to
great coherent ones, which while becoming integrated will pass from
uniformity to multiformity, and from indefiniteness to definiteness of
political organization. But the conclusion of profoundest moment, to
which all lines of argument converge, is that the possibility of a high
social state, political as well as general, fundamentally depends on
the cessation of war. Persistent militancy, maintaining adapted insti-
tutions, must inevitably prevent, or else neutralize, changes in the
direction of more equitable institutions and laws; while permanent
peace will of necessity be followed by social ameliorations of every
kind. A study of Political Institutions' may lead some to think
whether the arrangements they are advocating involve increase of
that public regulation characterizing the militant type, or whether
they tend to produce that better regulation, that greater individuality,
and that more extended voluntary co-operation, characterizing the
industrial type.
Among social phenomena, those presented by 'Ecclesiastical Insti-
tutions,' Part vi. , illustrate very clearly the general law of evolution.
From the primitive undifferentiated social aggregate, in which domes-
tic, civil, and religious subordination are at first carried on in like
ways by the same agencies, develops the definite, coherent, and
heterogeneous ecclesiastical organization. With this structural differ-
entiation is a functional differentiation of deep and profound signifi-
cance. Two sacerdotal duties, which were at first parts of the same,
have been slowly separating: the first is the carrying on of worship,
the second is the insistence on rules of conduct. If we compare
modern with medieval Europeans, when fasts were habitual, penances
common, and men made pilgrimages and built shrines, we see that
with social progress has gone a marked diminution of religious
observances, and a marked increase in ethical injunctions and exhort-
ations. At the present day dogmatic theology, with its promises of
rewards and threats of damnation, bears a diminishing ratio to the
insistences on justice, honesty, kindness, and sincerity. And now,
what may we infer will be the evolution of religious ideas and senti-
ments throughout the future? "The conception of the First Cause,
which has been enlarging from the beginning, must go on enlarging,
until by disappearance of its limits it becomes a consciousness which
transcends the forms of distinct thought, though it forever remains a
consciousness. " "One truth must grow ever clearer,- the truth that


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there is an Inscrutable Existence everywhere manifested, to which
man can conceive neither beginning nor end. Amid the mysteries
which become the more mysterious the more they are thought about,
there will remain the one absolute certainty, that he is ever in the
presence of an Infinite and Eternal Energy, from which all things
proceed. »
In due course, were they written, should here follow the remaining
parts of the Principles of Sociology,' dealing with Progress - Lin-
guistic, Intellectual, Moral, Esthetic; but as Mr. Spencer says in the
preface to the last volume he has written, for an invalid of seventy-
six to deal adequately with topics so extensive and complex is obvi-
ously impossible. In strict order these parts should of course have
appeared before the 'Principles of Ethics'; but Mr. Spencer thought
it better to pass over them, fearing that the state of his health,
which for some years had been below its usual low average, might
prevent his completing that part of the Philosophy to which all the
preceding volumes led, and which, with many others of the highest
intellect, he thought to be the most important of all. This work was
completed in April 1893, although the first part, The Data of Ethics,'
had been published some years previously; Mr. Spencer "being the
more anxious to indicate in outline, if he cannot complete, this final
work, because the establishment of rules of right conduct on a scien-
tific basis is a pressing need. Now that moral injunctions are losing
the authority given by their supposed sacred origin, the seculari-
zation of morals is becoming imperative. Few things can happen
more disastrous than the decay and death of a regulative system no
longer fit, before another and fitter regulative system has grown up
to replace it. "
Part i. of the 'Principles of Ethics'-the 'Data of Ethics'—is con-
cerned with the various views which may be held about conduct;
and shows that "no school can avoid for the ultimate moral aim a
desirable state of feeling, called by whatever name— gratification,
enjoyment, happiness. Pleasure somewhere, at some time, to some
being or beings, is an inexpugnable element of the conception. " We
then have those generalizations furnished by Biology, Psychology, and
Sociology, which underlie a true theory of living; passing on to the
discussion on Selfishness and Unselfishness,-"egoism and altruism,”
-showing that a pure and unqualified form of either is impossible,
and that there must be a compromise or "conciliation"; which leads
us, on the evolution hypothesis, to a consideration of absolute and
relative ethics, or the conduct of the ideal man as existing in the
ideal social state, and the conduct of man as he is in existing soci-
ety, surrounded by the evils of a not perfect adaptation.
Part ii. , The Inductions of Ethics,' is a statement of those rules
of human action which are registered as essential laws by all civilized


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nations: in other words, the generalizations of expediency. Disre-
garding the conventional limits of ethics, here are treated such mat-
ters as aggression, robbery, revenge, justice, generosity, humanity,
veracity, obedience, industry, temperance, and chastity: and we are
shown that with militancy goes pride in aggression and robbery,
revenge and lying, obedience to despotic rulers, and contempt for
industry; while with industrialism all these feelings are reversed,—
leading to the not unreasonable inference that there needs but a
continuance of absolute peace externally, and non-aggression inter-
nally, to insure the molding of man into a form naturally charac-
terized by all the virtues!
Part iii. , The Ethics of Individual Life,' is short, and deals with
those modes of private action which must result from the eventual
equilibration of internal desires and external needs. The headings of
the chapters - Activity, Rest, Nutrition, Stimulation, Culture, Amuse-
ments, Marriage, and Parenthood-are instructive as showing the
scope here given to "Ethics. " Generally, this division gives definite-
ness to the idea of proportion; to the maintenance, that is, of bal-
anced amounts of the activities, bodily and mental, required for
complete health and happiness. Until the activities are spontaneously
regulated by the natural promptings, these ethics must keep clearly
in view, and continually emphasize, the needs to which the nature
has to be adjusted; but the nature must not be too much strained
out of its inherited form, for the normal remolding can go on but
slowly.
Part iv. , Justice,' coincides in area with the author's first work
alluded to above, 'Social Statics,' but differs in its treatment, in leav-
ing out entirely all supernaturalistic interpretation; in definitely set-
ting forth and elaborating a biological origin for Ethics; and in
making much more frequent use of inductive verification. The for-
mula of Justice here given is most important, and of far-reaching
consequences in Mr. Spencer's individualistic theory of politics. It
is, "Every man is free to do that which he wills, provided he infringes
not the equal freedom of any other man. " Calling the several partic-
ular freedoms of each man his rights, we find them enumerated under
such titles as physical integrity, free motion, property, free exchange
and contract, free industry, free belief and worship, free speech and
publication. And absolute Ethics asserts each of these. But the pres-
ervation of the species, or that variety of it constituting a society.
being an end which must take precedence of individual preserva-
tion, it follows that relative Ethics justifies, and indeed warrants,
such equitably distributed taxation, whether of property, industry.
belief, or what not, as may be required for maintaining social order
and safety. There has still to be considered, from the ethical point
of view, the political position of women. Now, men are liable to


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13723
furnish contingents to the army and the navy; hence, ethically con-
sidered, as women have not to furnish them, their equal "political
rights" cannot be entertained until there is permanent peace, when
only will it be possible to consider such equalization. The rights of
children are complicated by the fact that while at first they are de-
pendent on their parents for general sustentation, they but gradually
and slowly grow out of this state and become independent and able
to support themselves. 'Justice' then goes on to consider the duties
of the State, which are defined as the maintenance of the conditions
under which each citizen may gain the fullest life compatible with
the fullest lives of his fellow-citizens. And many reasons are given
that this can only be done efficiently by limiting as far as possible
the number and variety of those duties.
In Part v. we have Negative Beneficence,'- a few short chapters
dealing with those minor self-restraints which are dictated by what
may be called passive sympathy. Free competition, free contract,
undeserved payments, displays of ability, and the administration of
blame and praise, are all areas in which negative beneficence may
legitimately be displayed. The most eminent professional men may
so restrain their practice by enlarged fees, as not to ruin those only
a little less able; the unexpected occurrence of rock in a tunnel
which has been contracted for, may justify a payment beyond the
price contracted for; unmusical street musicians without their un-
deserved payments would take to some occupation for which they
are less unfit; and those capable of monopolizing the whole attention
of a dinner party may so restrain themselves as to allow the less dis-
tinguished to join in the exchange of thoughts. The origin of the
obligation to this beneficence is of course conduciveness to happi-
ness, immediate or remote, or both; and consequent conduciveness to
maintenance of the species or the variety, regarded as hereafter the
recipient of increased happiness.
This being the origin also of 'Positive Beneficence,' we are nat-
urally led on to Part vi.
, comprehending all those modes of conduct
dictated by active sympathy, which imply pleasure in giving pleas-
ure, modes of conduct that social adaptation has induced and must
render ever more general; and which, in becoming universal, must fill
to the full the possible measure of human happiness. Of the various
beneficences here treated are the marital, the parental, the filial, aid
to the sick and injured, to friends, to poor, and social and political
altruism. Beyond these there is the beneficent regulation of conduct
toward those who occupy positions of subordination; and here is a
large sphere opened for the anodyne influence of sympathy. Along
with the substitution of industrialism for militancy, there has been
a relaxation of those customs which remind men of their respective


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grades, until we now find one trait of a true gentleman defined as
the ability successfully to make those who rank below him in the
social scale at ease in his presence. And here we are brought round
once more to the fact that our present social state is transitional.
The dictates of absolute ethics being kept before us as the ideal, we
must little by little mold the real into conformity with them as fast
as the nature of things permits; meanwhile letting the chief tempo-
rary function of beneficence be to mitigate the sufferings accompany-
ing the transition. The miseries of re-adaptation are necessary; but
there are accompanying unnecessary miseries which may with uni-
versal advantage be excluded.
"It seems not only rational to believe in some further evolution,
but irrational to doubt it-irrational to suppose that the causes
which have in the past worked such wonderful effects, will in the
future work no effects. Not expecting that any existing society will
reach a high organization, nor that any of the varieties of men now
living will become fully adapted to social life, a few yet look forward
to the evolution of a Humanity adjusted to the require-
ments of its life. And along with this belief there arises, in an
increasing number, the desire to further the development.
Hereafter, the highest ambition of the beneficent will be to have a
share - even though an utterly inappreciable and unknown share—in
the making of Man. ' Experience occasionally shows that there may
arise extreme interest in pursuing entirely unselfish ends; and as time
goes on, there will be more and more of those whose unselfish end
will be the further evolution of Humanity. While contemplating from
the heights of thought that far-off life of the race never to be en-
joyed by them, but only by a remote posterity, they will feel a calm
pleasure in the consciousness of having aided the advance towards
it. "
•
These words end the 'System of Synthetic Philosophy. ' Before,
however, making any general remarks upon it, we will allude to two
works which the author completed while it was in progress.
The one was 'The Study of Sociology,' published simultaneously
in the Contemporary Review in England, and in the first numbers of
the Popular Science Monthly in America, in 1873; subsequently in
the 'International Scientific Series,' and then in the library edition,
making it uniform with all the author's other works. After Educa-
tion' it is the most popular, very many thousands having been sold,-
a fact in part attributable to the literary style, which differs entirely
from that of the 'System' in being as light and popular as the subject-
matter permits. The early chapters deal with the crying need there
is for a science of Society: or to put it in other words, for a science
which may serve to the representatives in parliaments and senates


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13725
as a guide for the making of laws and enactments for the general ben-
efit of the States; which shall serve to point out the broad principles
which should underlie the regulation of matters in a corporate society.
The difficulties of such a science are then more or less completely
dealt with. Beyond the objective difficulties,-the vitiations of evi-
dence due to random observation, enthusiasms, prepossessions, self-
interests, and so forth,-there are the subjective difficulties due to
the emotions and intellect of the observer, the bias caused by his
education, by his patriotism, by the class to which he belongs, by
his early political surroundings,-whether Tory, Liberal, or Republi-
can, by his religious environment, and by the general discipline to
which he has been subjected. The work concludes with the sciences
best adapted to train an intellect for such study.
The other work, The Man versus the State,' in four parts, was
originally published in the Contemporary Review for 1884; and is
now included, as previously mentioned, in one volume with the third
edition of Social Statics. ' The first part is entitled 'The New Tory-
ism, and shows how Toryism and Liberalism originally emerged, the
one from militancy or compulsory co-operation, and the other from
industrialism or voluntary co-operation. But as Liberalism has in
recent years been extending the system of compulsion in many, if
not all directions, it is merely a new form of Toryism.
The second part, The Coming Slavery,' is devoted to a logical
examination of socialism; and demonstrates how, if its development
be unfettered, it can lead to no other result than slavery, neither
more nor less. 'The Sins of Legislators' forms the title of the third
part; and shows how the legislator is morally blameless or morally
blameworthy, according as he has or has not made himself acquainted
with the several classes of facts obtainable by a study of legislative
experiences, and their results, in former years. "The legislator who
is wholly or in great part uninformed concerning the matters of fact
which he must examine before his opinion on a proposed law can
be of any value, and who nevertheless helps to pass that law, can no
more be absolved if misery and mortality result, than the journeyman
druggist can be absolved when death is caused by the medicine he
ignorantly prescribes. " The great political superstition of the past
was the divine right of kings. The Great Political Superstition' of
the present is the divine right of parliaments. The author here in
the fourth part shows this to be really the divine right of majorities.
"This is the current theory which all accept without proof, as self-
evident truth. " Criticism, however, shows it to be the reverse; and
hence the conclusion is drawn that "The function of Liberalism in
the past was that of putting a limit to the power of kings. The
function of true Liberalism in the future will be that of putting a
limit to the powers of parliaments. "


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Since the foregoing, Mr. Spencer has published several important
essays on the biological question, Are acquired characters inherited?
affirming, in contradistinction to Weissmann, that they are, and sup-
porting his contentions with a mass of facts which had previously
not been utilized in this connection. This problem is so extremely
complex that no definite and generally accepted conclusion seems at
present possible.
What approval, or what criticism, is it possible to pass upon the
great work of so great a man? None, will be the answer of all
those, if any there be, who thoroughly comprehend the implications
of this vast system of thought. We are too near to be able to get
the perspective necessary to see its true relations. Perhaps at some
future time, in decades and centuries to come, when minds are more
attuned to the keynote of evolution, will it be possible to form some
adequate conception of its comparative relation to knowledge in gen-
eral. In the mean time we must rest satisfied with the opinions that
have been formed by those most capable of judging.
The strength of Mr. Spencer's writings lies first in the absolute per-
fection of his logic: to use a mechanical analogy, they are as it were
the outpourings of a perfect logical machine, whose levers and cranks
are so adjusted as to work without the possibility of error; a loom in
which no strand of weft or woof has ever become entangled, and
from which the finest cloth is drawn without spot or blemish. De-
duction, Induction, and Verification are so perfectly blended that in
this nineteenth century it seems impossible to conceive their higher
development. The constituent parts of this logical method which
usually excite the greatest wonder and surprise are the brilliant and
unsurpassed power of generalization, which is ever present, and which
unites in one whole, subjects which at first appear to be as far re-
moved as the antipodes upon our globe. This of course implies the
knowledge of an immense range of subjects; and any one reading
through, say only one volume such as 'First Principles,' may easily
count up more than the metaphorical "speaking acquaintance" with
over thirty clearly and well defined sciences, commencing with An-
atomy at one end of the alphabet, and ending with Zoology at the
other. How accurate this knowledge is, may be seen by the currency
his writings have amongst men of pure science, - meaning by this
term, specialists in the smaller departments and branches of human
understanding. Any errors of detail would have been fatal to this
vogue. At the same time we are bound to admit that amongst meta-
physicians, or philosophers pur et simple, Mr. Spencer has not so large
a following. It is quite possible, however, that this may be only tem-
porary; and that as years roll on, more may rally to the standard
of a philosophy based on a greater knowledge of the human under-
standing than has ever before been brought to the world's notice.


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13727
One broad result stands out ever clearer. Mr. Spencer's develop-
ment and applications of the theory of Evolution have more pro-
foundly influenced contemporary thought, in every branch of life,
than the work of any other modern thinker. It is not for no purpose
that he has devoted the entire energies of an invalid to give an
account to us, not only of the world on which we live, and of the
other worlds which night alone shows forth, but of the whole Uni-
verse containing worlds of which we reck not.
7. Howard Collins.
MANNERS AND FASHION
Illustrations of Universal Progress>
From
WH
HOEVER has studied the physiognomy of political meetings
cannot fail to have remarked a connection between demo-
cratic opinions and peculiarities of costume. At a Chart-
ist demonstration, a lecture on Socialism, or a soirée of the
Friends of Italy, there will be seen many among the audience,
and a still larger ratio among the speakers, who get themselves
up in a style more or less unusual. One gentleman on the plat-
form divides his hair down the centre, instead of on one side;
another brushes it back off the forehead, in the fashion known as
"bringing out the intellect"; a third has so long forsworn the scis-
sors that his locks sweep his shoulders. A considerable sprin-
kling of mustaches may be observed; here and there an imperial;
and occasionally some courageous breaker of conventions exhib-
its a full-grown beard. * This nonconformity in hair is counte-
nanced by various nonconformities in dress, shown by others of
the assemblage. Bare necks, shirt-collars à la Byron, waistcoats
cut Quaker fashion, wonderfully shaggy great-coats, numerous
oddities in form and color, destroy the monotony usual in crowds.
Even those exhibiting no conspicuous peculiarity frequently indi-
cate, by something in the pattern or make-up of their clothes,
that they pay small regard to what their tailors tell them about
the prevailing taste. And when the gathering breaks up, the
*This was written before mustaches and beards had become common.


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HERBERT SPENCER
varieties of head-gear displayed-the number of caps, and the
abundance of felt hats-suffice to prove that were the world at
large like-minded, the black cylinders which tyrannize over us
would soon be deposed.
The foreign correspondence of our daily press shows that
this relationship between political discontent and the disregard of
customs exists on the Continent also. Red republicanism has
always been distinguished by its hirsuteness. The authorities of
Prussia, Austria, and Italy, alike recognize certain forms of hat as
indicative of disaffection, and fulminate against them accordingly.
In some places the wearer of a blouse runs the risk of being
classed among the suspects; and in others, he who would avoid
the bureau of police must beware how he goes out in any but
the ordinary colors. Thus democracy abroad, as at home, tends
towards personal singularity.
Nor is this association of characteristics peculiar to mod-
ern times, or to reformers of the State. It has always existed;
and it has been manifested as much in religious agitations as in
political ones. Along with dissent from the chief established
opinions and arrangements, there has ever been some dissent
from the customary social practices. The Puritans, disapproving
of the long curls of the Cavaliers, as of their principles, cut
their own hair short, and so gained the name of "Roundheads. "
The marked religious nonconformity of the Quakers was marked
by an equally marked nonconformity of manners,-in attire, in
speech, in salutation. The early Moravians not only believed
differently, but at the same time dressed differently and lived
differently, from their fellow-Christians.
That the association between political independence and inde-
pendence of personal conduct is not a phenomenon of to-day
only, we may see alike in the appearance of Franklin at the
French court in plain clothes, and in the white hats worn by
the last generation of radicals. Originality of nature is sure
to show itself in more ways than one. The mention of George
Fox's suit of leather, or Pestalozzi's school name, Harry Odd-
ity," will at once suggest the remembrance that men who have
in great things diverged from the beaten track, have frequently
done so in small things likewise. Minor illustrations of this
truth may be gathered in almost every circle. We believe that
whoever will number up his reforming and rationalist acquaint-
ances, will find among them more than the usual proportion of


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13729
those who in dress or behavior exhibit some degree of what the
world calls eccentricity.
If it be a fact that men of revolutionary aims in politics or
religion are commonly revolutionists in custom also, it is not less.
a fact that those whose office it is to uphold established arrange-
ments in State and church are also those who most adhere to
the social forms and observances bequeathed to us by past
generations. Practices elsewhere extinct still linger about the
headquarters of government. The monarch still gives assent to
Acts of Parliament in the old French of the Normans; and Nor-
man French terms are still used in law. Wigs such as those we
see depicted in old portraits, may yet be found on the heads of
judges and barristers. The Beefeaters at the Tower wear the
costume of Henry VII. th's body-guard. The university dress of
the present year varies but little from that worn soon after the
Reformation. The claret-colored coat, knee-breeches, lace shirt
frills, ruffles, white silk stockings, and buckled shoes, which once
formed the usual attire of a gentleman, still survive as the court
dress. And it need scarcely be said that at levées and drawing-
rooms, the ceremonies are prescribed with an exactness, and
enforced with a rigor, not elsewhere to be found.
Can we consider these two series of coincidences as accidental
and unmeaning? Must we not rather conclude that some neces-
sary relationship obtains between them? Are there not such
things as a constitutional conservatism, and a constitutional tend-
ency to change? Is there not a class which clings to the old in
all things; and another class so in love with progress as often
to mistake novelty for improvement? Do we not find some men
ready to bow to established authority of whatever kind; while
others demand of every such authority its reason, and reject it
if it fails to justify itself? And must not the minds thus con-
trasted tend to become respectively conformist and nonconformist,
not only in politics and religion but in other things? Submis-
sion, whether to a government, to the dogmas of ecclesiastics,
or to that code of behavior which society at large has set up, is
essentially of the same nature; and the sentiment which induces.
resistance to the despotism of rulers, civil or spiritual, likewise
induces resistance to the despotism of the world's opinion. Look
at them fundamentally, and all enactments, alike of the legis-
lature, the consistory, and the saloon,-all regulations formal or
virtual,—have a common character: they are all limitations of
XXIII-859


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13730
man's freedom. "Do this-Refrain from that," are the blank
formulas into which they may all be written: and in each case
the understanding is that obedience will bring approbation here
and paradise hereafter; while disobedience will entail imprison-
ment, or sending to Coventry, or eternal torments, as the case.
may be. And if restraints, however named, and through what-
ever apparatus of means exercised, are one in their action upon
men, it must happen that those who are patient under one.
kind of restraint are likely to be patient under another; and
conversely, that those impatient of restraint in general, will on
the average tend to show their impatience in all directions.
That Law, Religion, and Manners are thus related-that their
respective kinds of operation come under one generalization -
that they have in certain contrasted characteristics of men a
common support and a common danger will, however, be most
clearly seen on discovering that they have a common origin. Lit-
tle as from present appearances we should suppose it, we shall
yet find that at first the control of religion, the control of laws,
and the control of manners, were all one control. However in-
credible it may now seem, we believe it to be demonstrable that
the rules of etiquette, the provisions of the statute-book, and the
commands of the Decalogue, have grown from the same root.
If we go far enough back into the ages of primeval Fetishism, it
becomes manifest that originally Deity, Chief, and Master of the
Ceremonies were identical. To make good these positions, and
to show their bearing on what is to follow, it will be necessary
here to traverse ground that is in part somewhat beaten, and at
first sight irrelevant to our topic. We will pass over it as quickly
as consists with the exigencies of the argument.
That the earliest social aggregations were ruled solely by
the will of the strong man, few dispute. That from the strong
man proceeded not only monarchy, but the conception of a God,
few admit; much as Carlyle and others have said in evidence.
of it. If, however, those who are unable to believe this will
lay aside the ideas of God and man in which they have been
educated, and study the aboriginal ideas of them, they will at
least see some probability in the hypothesis. Let them remem-
ber that before experience had yet taught men to distinguish
between the possible and the impossible, and while they were
ready on the slightest suggestion to ascribe unknown powers to
any object and make a fetish of it, their conceptions of humanity
-


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13731
and its capacities were necessarily vague, and without specific lim-
its. The man who, by unusual strength or cunning, achieved
something that others had failed to achieve, or something which
they did not understand, was considered by them as differing
from themselves; and as we see in the belief of some Polynesians
that only their chiefs have souls, or in that of the ancient Peru-
vians that their nobles were divine by birth, the ascribed differ-
ence was apt to be not one of degree only, but one of kind.
Let them remember next, how gross were the notions of
God, or rather of gods, prevalent during the same era and after-
wards: how concretely gods were conceived as men of specific
aspects dressed in specific ways; how their names were literally
"the strong," "the destroyer," "the powerful one"; how, accord-
ing to the Scandinavian mythology, the "sacred duty of blood
revenge" was acted on by the gods themselves; and how they
were not only human in their vindictiveness, their cruelty, and
their quarrels with each other, but were supposed to have amours
on earth, and to consume the viands placed on their altars. Add
to which, that in various mythologies-Greek, Scandinavian, and
others- the oldest beings are giants; that according to a tradi-
tional genealogy, the gods, demigods, and in some cases men,
are descended from these after the human fashion; and that while
in the East we hear of sons of God who saw the daughters of
men that they were fair, the Teutonic myths tell of unions
between the sons of men and the daughters of the gods.
Let them remember, too, that at first the idea of death dif-
fered widely from that which we have; that there are still tribes
who on the decease of one of their number attempt to make the
corpse stand, and put food into his mouth; that the Peruvians
had feasts at which the mummies of their dead Incas presided,
when, as Prescott says, they paid attention "to these insensible.
remains as if they were instinct with life"; that among the
Fejees it is believed that every enemy has to be killed twice;
that the Eastern Pagans give extension and figure to the soul,
and attribute to it all the same substances, both solid and liquid,
of which our bodies are composed; and that it is the custom
among most barbarous races to bury food, weapons, and trinkets
along with the dead body, under the manifest belief that it will
presently need them.
Lastly, let them remember that the other world, as origi-
nally conceived, is simply some distant part of this world; some


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Elysian fields, some happy hunting-ground,-accessible even to
the living, and to which, after death, men travel in anticipation
of a life analogous in general character to that which they led
before. Then, co-ordinating these general facts, - the ascription
of unknown powers to chiefs and medicine-men; the belief in
deities having human forms, passions, and behavior; the imper-
fect comprehension of death as distinguished from life; and
the proximity of the future abode to the present, both in posi-
tion and character,- let them reflect whether they do not almost
unavoidably suggest the conclusion that the aboriginal god is the
dead chief; the chief not dead in our sense, but gone away, car-
rying with him food and weapons to some rumored region of
plenty, some promised land whither he had long intended to lead
his followers, and whence he will presently return to fetch them.
This hypothesis, once entertained, is seen to harmonize with
all primitive ideas and practices. The sons of the deified chief
reigning after him, it necessarily happens that all early kings
are held descendants of the gods; and the fact that alike in
Assyria, Egypt, among the Jews, Phoenicians, and ancient Britons,
kings' names were formed out of the names of the gods, is fully
explained.
From this point onwards these two kinds of authority, at first
complicated together as those of principal and agent, become
slowly more and more distinct. As experience accumulates, and
ideas of causation grow more precise, kings lose their supernat-
ural attributes; and instead of God-king, become God-descended
king, God-appointed king, the Lord's anointed, the vicegerent of
Heaven, ruler reigning by divine right. The old theory, however,
long clings to men in feeling after it has disappeared in name;
and "such divinity doth hedge a king" that even now, many on
first seeing one feel a secret surprise at finding him an ordinary
sample of humanity. The sacredness attaching to royalty attaches
afterwards to its appended institutions,—to legislatures, to laws.
Legal and illegal are synonymous with right and wrong; the
authority of parliament is held unlimited; and a lingering faith
in governmental power continually generates unfounded hopes
from its enactments. Political skepticism, however, having de-
stroyed the divine prestige of royalty, goes on ever increasing,
and promises ultimately to reduce the State to a purely secular
institution, whose regulations are limited in their sphere, and have
no other authority than the general will. Meanwhile, the religious


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13733
control has been little by little separating itself from the civil,
both in its essence and in its forms.
Thus alike in authority, in essence, and in form, political and
spiritual rule have been ever more widely diverging from the
same root. That increasing division of labor which marks the
progress of society in other things, marks it also in this sepa-
ration of government into civil and religious; and if we observe
how the morality which forms the substance of religions in
general is beginning to be purified from the associated creeds,
we may anticipate that this division will be ultimately carried
much further.
Passing now to the third species of control, that of manners,
we shall find that this too while it had a common genesis with
the others, has gradually come to have a distinct sphere and a
special embodiment. Among early aggregations of men before
yet social observances existed, the sole forms of courtesy known
were the signs of submission to the strong man; as the sole law
was his will, and the sole religion the awe of his supposed super-
naturalness. Originally, ceremonies were modes of behavior to
the God-king. Our commonest titles have been derived from his
names. And all salutations were primarily worship paid to him.
Let us trace out these truths in detail, beginning with titles.
The fact already noticed, that the names of early kings among
divers races are formed by the addition of certain syllables to
the names of their gods,-which certain syllables, like our Mac
and Fitz, probably mean "son of," or "descended from," - at
once gives meaning to the term Father as a divine title. And
when we read, in Selden, that "the composition out of these
names of Deities was not only proper to Kings: their Grandes
and more honorable Subjects" [no doubt members of the royal
race] "had sometimes the like," - we see how the term Father,
properly used by these also, and by their multiplying descend-
ants, came to be a title used by the people in general. And it
is significant, as bearing on this point, that among the most bar-
barous nations of Europe, where belief in the divine nature of
the ruler still lingers, Father in this higher sense is still a regal
distinction. When, again, we remember how the divinity at first.
ascribed to kings was not a complimentary fiction but a supposed
fact; and how, further, under the Fetish philosophy the celestial
bodies are believed to be personages who once lived among
men,- we see that the appellations of Oriental rulers, "Brother


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13734
to the Sun," etc. , were probably once expressive of a genuine
belief; and have simply, like many other things, continued in
use after all meaning has gone out of them. We may infer too
that the titles God, Lord, Divinity, were given to primitive rulers
literally; that the nostra divinitas applied to the Roman empe-
rors, and the various sacred designations that have been borne
by monarchs, down to the still extant phrase "Our Lord the
King," are the dead and dying forms of what were once living
facts. From these names, God, Father, Lord, Divinity,―origi-
nally belonging to the God-king, and afterwards to God and the
king, the derivation of our commonest titles of respect is clearly
traceable.
――――――
There is reason to think that these titles were originally
proper names. Not only do we see among the Egyptians, where
Pharaoh was synonymous with king, and among the Romans,
where to be Cæsar meant to be emperor, that the proper names
of the greatest men were transferred to their successors, and so
became class names; but in the Scandinavian mythology we may
trace a human title of honor up to the proper name of a divine
personage. In Anglo-Saxon, bealdor or baldor means Lord; and
Balder is the name of the favorite of Odin's sons - the gods who
with him constitute the Teutonic Pantheon. How these names
of honor became general is easily understood. The relatives of
the primitive kings-the grandees described by Selden as having
names formed on those of the gods, and shown by this to be
members of the divine race-necessarily shared in the epithets,
such as Lord, descriptive of superhuman relationships and nature.
Their ever multiplying offspring inheriting these, gradually ren-
dered them comparatively common. And then they came to
be applied to every man of power: partly from the fact that
in these early days, when men conceived divinity simply as
a stronger kind of humanity, great persons could be called by
divine epithets with but little exaggeration; partly from the fact
that the unusually potent were apt to be considered as unrecog
nized or illegitimate descendants of "the strong, the destroyer,
the powerful one"; and partly also from compliment and the
desire to propitiate.
Progressively as superstition diminished, this last became the
sole cause. And if we remember that it is the nature of com-
pliment, as we daily hear it, to attribute more than is due;
that in the constantly widening application of "esquire," in the


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perpetual repetition of "your Honor" by the fawning Irishman,
and in the use of the name
>>>>
" gentleman to any coalheaver or
dustman by the lower classes of London, we have current exam-
ples of the depreciation of titles consequent on compliment; and
that in barbarous times, when the wish to propitiate was stronger
than now, this effect must have been greater,- we shall see
that there naturally arose an extensive misuse of all early distinc-
tions. Hence the facts that the Jews called Herod a god; that
Father, in its higher sense, was a term used among them by
servants to masters; that Lord was applicable to any person of
worth and power. Hence too the fact that in the later periods
of the Roman Empire, every man saluted his neighbor as Domi-
nus and Rex.
But it is in the titles of the Middle Ages, and in the growth
of our modern ones out of them, that the process is most clearly
seen. Herr, Don, Signior, Seigneur, Señor, were all originally
names of rulers—of feudal lords. By the complimentary use of
these names to all who could on any pretense be supposed to
merit them, and by successive degradations of them from each
step in the descent to a still lower one, they have come to be
common forms of address. At first the phrase in which a serf
accosted his despotic chief, mein herr is now familiarly applied in
Germany to ordinary people. The Spanish title Don, once proper
to noblemen and gentlemen only, is now accorded to all classes.
So too is it with Signior in Italy. Seigneur and Monseigneur,
by contraction in Sieur and Monsieur, have produced the term of
respect claimed by every Frenchman. And whether Sire be or be
not a like contraction of Signior, it is clear that, as it was borne
by sundry of the ancient feudal lords of France, who, as Sel-
den says,
"affected rather to be stiled by the name of Sire than
Baron, as Le Sire de Montmorencie, Le Sire de Beaulieu, and
the like," and as it has been commonly used to monarchs,
our word Sir, which is derived from it, originally meant lord
or king. Thus too is it with feminine titles. Lady - which
according to Horne Tooke means exalted, and was at first given
only to the few - is now given to all women of education.
Dame - once an honorable name, to which in old books we find
the epithets of "high-born" and "stately" affixed-has now, by
repeated widenings of its application, become relatively a term
of contempt. And if we trace the compound of this, Ma Dame,
through its contractions,- Madam, ma'am, mam, mum,- we find
―
-
__________________


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HERBERT SPENCER
that the "Yes'm" of Sally to her mistress is originally equivalent
to "Yes, my Exalted," or "Yes, your Highness. '
Yes, your Highness. " Throughout,
therefore, the genesis of words of honor has been the same.
Just as with the Jews and with the Romans, has it been with
the modern Europeans. Tracing these every-day names to their
primitive significations of lord and king, and remembering that
in aboriginal societies these were applied only to the gods and
their descendants, we arrive at the conclusion that our familiar
Sir and Monsieur are, in their primary and expanded meanings,
terms of adoration.
Further to illustrate this gradual depreciation of titles, and to
confirm the inference drawn, it may be well to notice in passing
that the oldest of them have, as might be expected, been de-
preciated to the greatest extent. Thus, master-a word proved
by its derivation and by the similarity of the connate words in
other languages (Fr. , maître for master; Russ. , master; Dan. ,
mester; Ger. , meister) to have been one of the earliest in use
for expressing lordship-has now become applicable to children
only; and under the modification of "Mister," to persons next
above the laborer. Again, knighthood, the oldest kind of dig-
nity, is also the lowest; and Knight Bachelor, which is the low-
est order of knighthood, is more ancient than any other of the
orders. Similarly too with the peerage: Baron is alike the earliest
and least elevated of its divisions. This continual degradation
of all names of honor has from time to time made it requi-
site to introduce new ones, having that distinguishing effect which
the originals had lost by generality of use; just as our habit of
misapplying superlatives has, by gradually destroying their force,
entailed the need for fresh ones. And if, within the last thou-
sand years, this process has produced effects thus marked, we
may readily conceive how, during previous thousands, the titles
of gods and demigods came to be used to all persons exercising
power; as they have since come to be used to persons of respect-
ability.
If from names of honor we turn to phrases of honor, we find
similar facts. The Oriental styles of address applied to ordinary
people "I am your slave," "All I have is yours," "I am your
sacrifice" attribute to the individual spoken to, the same great-
ness that Monsieur and My Lord do: they ascribe to him the
character of an all-powerful ruler, so immeasurably superior to
the speaker as to be his owner.