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HUMAN RELATIONS 85

¹ ^c He is a good, delightful creature, and I always
feel better for being with him." Prof. Hudson
writes: "The better one knew him the more one
grew to understand and admire his quiet strength,
steadiness of ethical purpose, and unflinching courage,
the purity of his motives, his rigid adherence to
righteousness and truth, and his exquisite sense of
justice in all things." He was often terribly provoked
by unjust criticisms and stupid or wilful misunder-
standings of his positions, but " in controversy he
was scrupulously fair, aiming at truth, and not at
the barren victories of dialectics."¹

Besides his love of truth and justice, besides his
courage and self-sacrificing altruism, Spencer reveals
a strength of purpose which has rarely been sur-
passed. In fact it is difficult to over-estimate the
resolution with which he effected his life-work.
Apart from the inherent difficulty of his task,
apart from the long delay of public appreciation,
and apart from ill-health, the pecuniary obstacles
were very serious. Had it not been for the ^80
which came to him in 1850 under the Railway
Winding-up Act, he would have been unable to
publish Social Statics \ a bequest from his uncle
Thomas made the publication of the Principles of
Psychology possible; he would have been forced to
desist before the completion of First Principles had
it not been for a bequest from his uncle William;
at a later stage an American testimonial and his
father's death just saved the situation. Well might
he say:—

"It was almost a miracle that I did not sink before
* Gribble, of. cit.



	HUMAN RELATIONS 85 ¹ ^c He is a good, delightful creature, and I always feel better for being with him." Prof. Hudson writes: "The better one knew him the more one grew to understand and admire his quiet strength, steadiness of ethical purpose, and unflinching courage, the purity of his motives, his rigid adherence to righteousness and truth, and his exquisite sense of justice in all things." He was often terribly provoked by unjust criticisms and stupid or wilful misunder- standings of his positions, but " in controversy he was scrupulously fair, aiming at truth, and not at the barren victories of dialectics."¹ Besides his love of truth and justice, besides his courage and self-sacrificing altruism, Spencer reveals a strength of purpose which has rarely been sur- passed. In fact it is difficult to over-estimate the resolution with which he effected his life-work. Apart from the inherent difficulty of his task, apart from the long delay of public appreciation, and apart from ill-health, the pecuniary obstacles were very serious. Had it not been for the ^80 which came to him in 1850 under the Railway Winding-up Act, he would have been unable to publish Social Statics \ a bequest from his uncle Thomas made the publication of the Principles of Psychology possible; he would have been forced to desist before the completion of First Principles had it not been for a bequest from his uncle William; at a later stage an American testimonial and his father's death just saved the situation. Well might he say:— "It was almost a miracle that I did not sink before * Gribble, of. cit.