Spencer

Spencer, HERBERT (b. 1820), metaphysician, was born at Derby, his father being a tutor in that town. It was from his father and his uncle, a clergyman, that he chiefly received his education. When seventeen years old he was apprenticed to a civil engineer, and followed the profession for about eight years, writing articles on various subjects connected with it for an engineering journal. His first work of a general character was a series of letters on The Proper Sphere of Government published in 1842. Coming to London, he became sub-editor of The Economist, and while holding that post published Social Statics, parts of which he has since formally withdrawn. Meanwhile, he wrote very frequently for the reviews, and in 1855 brought out his important Principles of Psychology, which partly anticipated the Darwinian theory. In this work he laid it down that all phenomena could be explained by the evolution law, and in 1860 issued the synopsis of his System of Synthetic Philosophy, which attracted great attention in England and throughout Europe and gave him a prominent place among modern philosophers. In 1861 appeared his acute study of Education, which has been translated into many languages, and this was followed by his Essays, Scientific Political, and Speculative (1858-63), The Classification of the Sciences (1864), and The Study of Sociology (1873). He was engaged during this period on the realisation of his great system of philosophy, and had published the following portions of his plan: First Principles (1862), The Principles of Biology (1864), and The Principles of Psychology (1872). Since then he has brought out further instalments, such as The Principles of Sociology (1876), Ceremonial Institutions (1879), Political Institutions (1882), Ecclesiastical Institutions (1885), The Data of Ethics (1879), The Factors of Organic Evolution (1887), The Principles of Ethics (1892), The Principles of Sociology (1896). With this last book he finally completed, amid universal congratulation, the great work he had set himself to perform, in spite of almost continuous ill-health. His works have been widely translated, and their author has been offered many academic honours, which he has always declined.