ment, and many defaulted on payments due for instalments received. Spencer went on as long as he could, paying out of his pocket the deficit which every issue involved. At last his funds and his courage were exhausted, and he issued to the remaining subscribers an announcement that he could no longer continue his work.
Then came one of the encouraging incidents of history. Spencer's greatest rival, who had held the field of English philosophy before the publication of First Principles, and now saw himself superseded by the philosopher of evolution, wrote to him as follows, on February 4, 1866:
Dear Sir:
On arriving here last week, I found the December livraison
of your Biology, and I need hardly say how much I regretted
the announcement in the paper annexed to it.…I propose that you should write the next of your treatises, and
that I should guarantee the publisher against loss.…I
beg that you will not consider this proposal in the light of a
personal favor, though even if it were I should still hope
to be permitted to offer it. But it is nothing of the kind—it is a simple proposal of coöperation for an important public purpose, for which you give your labor and have given
your health. I am, Dear Sir,
Very truly yours,
J. S. Mill.[1]Spencer courteously refused; but Mill went out among his friends and persuaded several of them to subscribe for 250 copies each. Spencer again objected, and could not be moved. Then suddenly came a letter from Prof. Youmans, saying that Spencer's American admirers had bought, in his name, $7000 of public securities, of which the interest or dividends were to go to him. This time he yielded. The spirit of the gift renewed his inspiration; he resumed his task; and for forty years he kept his shoulder to the wheel, until all the Synthetic Philosophy had arrived safely into print.
- ↑ Autob., ii, 156.
