The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• Herbert Spencer’s Works.
• Note By the Trustees.
• Preface.
• Note.
• Family-antecedents.
• I.: Extraction.
• II.: Grandparents and Their Children.
• III.: Parents.
• Part I.: 1820—1837.
• Chapter I.: Childhood. 1820—1827. Æt. 1—7.
• Chapter II.: Boyhood. 1827—33. Æt. 7—13.
• Chapter III.: A Journey and a Flight. 1833. Æt. 13.
• Chapter IV.: Youth At Hinton. 1833—36. Æt. 13—16.
• Chapter V.: A False Start. 1836—37. Æt. 16—17.
• Part II.: 1837—1841
• Chapter VI.: Commence Engineering. 1837—38. Æt. 17—18.
• Chapter VII.: Life At Worcester. 1838—40. Æt. 18—20.
• Chapter VIII.: Some Months At Powick. 1840. Æt. 20.
• Chapter IX.: A Nomadic Period. 1840—41. Æt. 20—21.
• Part III.: 1841—1844
• Chapter X.: Return to Derby. 1841—42. Æt. 21—2.
• Chapter XI.: A Visit and Its Consequences. 1842. Æt. 22.
• Chapter XII.: Back At Home. 1842—43. Æt. 22—23.
• Chapter XIII.: A Campaign In London. 1843. Æt. 23.
• Chapter XIV.: At Home Again. 1843—44. Æt. 23—24.
• Part IV.: 1844—1848
• Chapter XV.: A Brief Sub-editorship. 1844. Æt. 24.
• Chapter XVI.: A Parliamentary Survey. 1844. Æt. 24.
• Chapter XVII.: An Interval In Town. 1845. Æt. 24—5.
• Chapter XVIII.: Another Parliamentary Survey. 1845—46. Æt. 25—26.
• Chapter XIX.: Inventions. 1846—47. Æt. 26—27.
• Chapter Xix A.: Suspense. 1848. Æt. 28.
• Part V.: 1848—1853
• Chapter XX.: Begin Journalism. 1848—50. Æt. 28—30.
• Chapter XXI.: My First Book. 1848—50 Æt. 28—30.
• Chapter XXII.: An Idle Year. 1850—51. Æt. 30—31.
• Chapter XXIII.: A More Active Year. 1852. Æt. 31—32.
• Chapter XXIV.: Leave the Economist. 1853. Æt. 33—34.
• Part VI.: 1853—1856
• Chapter XXV.: Two Months’ Holiday. 1853. Æt. 33.
• Chapter XXVI.: Writing For Quarterly Reviews. 1853—54. Æt. 33—34.
• Chapter XXVII.: My Second Book. 1854—55. Æt. 34—35.
• Chapter XXVIII.: Eighteen Months Lost. 1855—56. Æt. 35—36.
• Chapter XXIX.: Some Significant Essays. 1856—7. Æt. 36—37.
• Appendices.
• Appendix A.: Skew Arches.
• Appendix B.: Geometrical Theorem.
• Appendix C.: Velocimeter. an Instrument For Calculating Velocities On Railways, &c.
• Appendix D.: Scale of Equivalents.
• Appendix E.: Ideas About a Universal Language.
• Appendix F.: Remarks On the Theory of Reciprocal Dependence In the Animal and Vegetable Creations As Regards Its Bearing Upon PalÆontology.
• Appendix G.: Levelling Appliances.
• Appendix H.: On a Proposed Cephalograph.
• Appendix I.: Registered Binding-pins, For Securing Music and Unbound Publications.
• Appendix J.: the Form of the Earth No Proof of Original Fluidity.
• Appendix K.: Letter to the Athen Æum Concerning the Misstatements of the Rev. T. Mozley.

NOTE BY THE TRUSTEES.

This Autobiography is published as it was left by Mr. Spencer, with a few modifications, the most important of which relates to the division of the volumes. It was Mr. Spencer’s original intention that the first volume should end with Chapter XIXa. His reason was thus stated in a letter to his American publishers: “The first volume ends my engineering and miscellaneous life, and the second volume begins my literary life.” This, he said, was a “natural division.” But in order to obviate the very great inequality in thickness that would have thus existed between the two volumes, we, his trustees, in the exercise of our discretion, have ventured to adopt another “natural division,” making the first volume end with the termination of his miscellaneous work and the second volume begin with the planning of the Synthetic Philosophy.

The illustrations for Part I. having been of somewhat inferior execution, improved blocks have been prepared, from which the portraits have been printed. A sentence on page 118 referring to a photograph of Hinton Parsonage, taken from a drawing made by Mr. Spencer when a boy, has been omitted because the photograph could not be found. Some renumbering of Parts and Chapters, repagination, and a few necessary verbal corrections are the only other changes that have been made.

The statement made in Vol. II., p. 112 as to the terms under which Mr. Spencer’s works were published in America was probably written about 1886. Later, both before the coming into force of the International Copyright Act of 1892 and after that date, an alteration in the terms mentioned was made. When a book was manufactured in the United States the royalty paid by Messrs. Appleton was ten per cent. instead of fifteen per cent. It is, however, well worthy of note that over a long series of years, from 1860 onwards, a royalty payment was made by Messrs. Appleton to Mr. Spencer, although he had no legal protection for his writings in the United States.

Auberon Herbert,
H. Charlton Bastian,
David Duncan.

I feel in signing this note, drawn up by my co-trustees, upon whom the whole trouble of making the arrangements has fallen—a trouble in which I have not been able to share, owing to my absence in Egypt—that personally I should have been in favor of dividing the volume, which is over large, into two parts, and thus conforming more nearly to Mr. Spencer’s wish. But at the same time I feel that my colleagues know all the circumstances of the case, both past and present, far better than I know them; and I am quite ready to believe that they may have judged more truly than myself as regards what Mr. Spencer would have wished in the matter. I regret very much the additional trouble that my absence has entailed on them.

(Sgd) Auberon Herbert.

Post Office, Cairo,
March 3, 1904.