Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 6.djvu/51

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SPENCER AND EVOLUTION.
41

work of the "Principles of Sociology" upon which he has now entered, and the first part of which is issued.

Let us now recapitulate his labors in the order of their accomplishment, so as to bring them into one view:

Letters on the Proper Sphere of Government,
(Occupied several years as a Railroad Engineer.)
1842
Planned Social Statics, 1846
Social Statics published, 1850
Theory of Population, 1852
The Development Hypothesis,
Philosophy of Style,
Over-Legislation, 1853
The Universal Postulate,
Manners and Fashion, 1854
The Genesis of Science,
The Art of Education,
Evolution first conceived as Universal,
Principles of Psychology,
(Breakdown of eighteen months.)
1855
Progress, its Law and Cause, 1857
Origin and Function of Music,
Transcendental Physiology,
Representative Government,
State Tamperings with Money and Banks, 1858
Moral Education,
The Nebular Hypothesis,
Archetype and Homologies of the Vertebrate Skeleton,
Evolution first conceived as the Basis of a System of Philosophy,
The Laws of Organic Form, 1859
Physical Education,
What Knowledge is of most Worth,
Illogical Geology,
Prospectus of the System of Philosophy drawn up,
The Emotions and the Will, 1860
The Social Organism,
The Physiology of Laughter,
Parliamentary Reforms,
Prison Ethics,
Prospectus of the Philosophical System published,
First Principles, 1862
Classification of the Sciences, 1864
Principles of Biology, 1867
Principles of Psychology,
The Study of Sociology, 1873
Descriptive Sociology,
Principles of Sociology, Part I. 1874


The facts now presented, I submit, entirely sustain the view with which we set out, in regard to the character of Mr. Spencer's work, and his position in the world of thought. It has been shown that he took up the idea of Progress while it was only a vague speculation, and had not yet become a subject of serious scientific study. We have seen that he verified its reality by gradually tracing its operation