Herbert Spencer

Herbert Spencer did not marry. Although there was a rumor that he was romantically inclined to Mary Ann Evans (George Elliot), he had denied that in his autobiography, which was published posthumously in 1904.

From his childhood, he was never very healthy. From 1855, he developed hypochondria, a mental ailment that remained with him throughout his life. He perpetually complained of pain and illness.

The last decade of his life had been very lonely. Many of his friends had died and his readership began to decline. Always an opponent of imperialism, his scathing attack of the Second Boer War also contributed to his unpopularity.

Herbert Spencer was born on 27 April 1820 in Derby, a country town located in English Midlands. His father, William George Spencer, was an educator, teaching astronomy, physics, and other mathematical subjects first as a schoolmaster and then as private tutor. Born Methodist, he later drifted to Quakerism.

George Spencer and his wife Harriet had nine children, of which Herbert was the eldest. He was also the only child to survive infancy. Because of his ill health, he was never sent to school, but studied at home with his father, who mainly taught him the empirical sciences.

As a child, Herbert was very intelligent. Influenced by his father’s individualistic, anti-establishment and anti-clerical views, he also developed resistance to authority and an argumentative attitude. At the same time, he was open to new ideas and imbibed a lot through conversations.

As he turned thirteen, he was sent to live with his paternal uncle Reverend Thomas Spencer, with whom he studied physics and mathematics. Traditional subjects like history and classics were largely neglected though his uncle taught him the basics of Latin, enabling him to translate easy texts.

During this period, he was strongly influenced by the Benthamite ideas, held by his uncle. He found merit in the view that the greatest happiness for the greatest number of people should be the goal.

In 1837, seventeen-year-old Herbert Spencer started working in the London and Birmingham Railway Company. Sometime during this period, he taught himself civil engineering and began working as an engineer. Concurrently, he started writing letters to different nonconformist journals such as ‘The Nonconformist’, ‘The Zoist’ and ‘The Pilot.’

One day, while working on the railway track, Spencer found a few pieces of fossils. It intrigued his interest in geology and paleontology. To learn more about the subject, he now obtained a copy of ‘Principles of Geology’, written by Charles Lyell and began to read it.

Long ago, while he was living in Derby, he had been introduced to the concept of biological evolution held by Erasmus Darwin and Jean-Baptiste Lamarck, which stated that the human race has evolved from lower species. But Lyell had devoted a complete chapter refuting Lamarck’s theory. It left Spencer wondering.

In 1848, Herbert Spencer left the railroad job to become a subeditor at ‘The Economist’, a position he held until 1853. Meanwhile in 1851, he had his first book, ‘Social Statics, or The Conditions Essential to Happiness Specified, and the First of them Developed’, published by John Chapman.

Impressed by the young man’s intellect, Chapman invited Spencer to his salon. Here he met an array of intellectuals like Mary Ann Evans (George Elliot), George Henry Lewes, Thomas Henry Huxley, Harriet Martineau and John Stuart Mill.

Also in 1851, he was asked to review ‘Principles of Physiology’ by B. Carpenter. Going through the book, he came across von Baer’s formula, which showed how every plant and animal evolved from a homogeneous existence into a more heterogeneous one. It left a deep imprint on his mind.

In 1852, Spencer published his famous essay ‘The Developmental Hypothesis’ in ‘Leader.’ In it, he clearly elaborated his concept of organic evolution, continuing to work in that direction for a few more years.