treatise on "Education" are very
clearly, as well as most gracefully, written. And after these have been
mastered, most readers will not be repelled by the less easy reading of
the "Principles of Psychology," and the "New System of Philosophy." All
these works are rich in materials for forming intelligent opinions, even
where we are unable to agree with those put forward by the author. Much
may be learnt from them in departments in which our common educational
system is very deficient. The active citizen may derive from them
accurate, systematized information concerning his highest duties to
society, and the principles on which they are based. He may gain clearer
notions of the value and bearing of evidence, and be better able to
distinguish between facts and inferences. He may find common things
suggestive of wiser thought--nay, we will venture to say, of truer
emotion--than before. For Mr. Spencer is not of that school of
"philosophy" which teaches the hopelessness of human effort, and, by
implication, the abandonment of moral dignity. From profound
generalizations upon society, he rises to make the duty of the
individual most solemn and imperative. Above all, he has this best
prerogative of really great thinkers,--he is able to change sentiments
to convictions.

If we have not particularized the claims of the single volume whose
title is at the head of our notice, it is because all that Mr. Spencer
has written moves towards one end and is equally worthy of attention.
The essays here given are selected from two series, the first published
in 1857, the second in 1863. The present arrangement has been chosen by
the author as more suitable to develop the general purpose which governs
his work. While the doctrine of Evolution is more or less illustrated in
each of these papers, the variety of subjects discussed must touch at
some point the taste and pursuit of any reader. From "Manners and
Fashion" to "The Nebular Hypothesis" is a sweep bold enough to include
most prominent topics with which we are concerned. Indeed, we can recall
no modern volume of the same size which so thoroughly credits its author
with that faculty of looking about him which Pope thought it was man's
business to exercise. There are the current phrases, "seeing life," and
"knowing the world," which generally used to signify groping in the
dirtiest corners of the one and fattening lazily upon the other; but if
it were possible to rescue such expression