Spencer and Spencerism Author:Hector Carsewell Macpherson Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III EVOLUTION OF THE EVOLUTION THEORY It is a mistake to suppose that when he began —; his studies Spencer set himself consciously and j deliberate... more »ly to discover the unifying 'root of Nature's multiform manifestations. At first his mind was mainly directed to questions of a politico- social nature. In the early years of the century, political thinkers were greatly exercised about Government, its nature and limits. Brought up in a democratic circle, inheriting the traditions of Liberalism on the side of religious dissent and political Radicalism, it was natural that Spencer's early thoughts should run in a sociological direction. Ever in search of first principles, it was also natural that he should endeavor to seek the scientific basis of Government. As the earliest products of his thinking, his letters on The Proper Sphere of Grov- ernment, published in the Nonconformist newspaper in 1842, and republished in pamphlet form in 1843, demand attention. In these letters we find emphatic insistence on the view that social phenomena con- form to invariable laws: the ethical progress of man as due to social discipline, the spontaneous nature of society, with a consequent discouragement of State interference and control. Not satisfied with his treatment of the subject, Mr. Spencer resolved to deal with it on a more comprehensive scale. In 1850 appeared Social /Statics, the object of which was to base his practical views of the nature and scope of Government on a coherent set of first principles. At a later stage of the present work, when dealing with Sociology, an attempt will be made to show the nature of Spencer's contributions to political science as compared with the speculations of previous thinkers from Locke to Mill. Meanwhile, in tracing the evolution of Mr. Spen...« less