a4 ' HERBERT SPKNCKR

Spencer's next activity was an inquiry into his
father's system of short-hand, which he fount! to he
better than Pitman's. He passed to speculation* on
the methods to be followed in forming a universal
language, and to shrewd criticisms of the* decimal
system of enumeration, In the autumn of 1842 he
interested himself enthusiascktlly in ** The Complete
Suffrage Movement," For t youth of twenty-two he
took a big plunge into polities, ** It produced in me
a high tide of mental energy ** j the signature on a
draft democratic bill " has a sweep and vigour exceed-
ing that of any other signature I ever made, either
before or since«w

In the spring of 1843 Herbert Spencer went to
London and tried very unsuccessfully* to get «ditor§
to accept his wares, He mtdc a pamphlet of hit
Nonconformist letters, but perhaps a hundred copies
were sold ! "The printer's bill was £lo 2s, <W.» and
the publisher's payment to me on the ilm year's
was fourteen shillings and threepence ! **

Experimenting with Life*—-Spencer** half yeir in
London came to little. As he says, he was too much4 * in
the mood of Mr Micawber,—waiting for something it*
turn up, and waiting in vain,'* So he raised the
and retreated to Derby, There he read Mill** Sjtttrm
of Logic, Carlyle's Sartor /four/or and some of
Emerson's essays, He tried his hand at improving
watches, printing-presses, type-making, and what
not} he speculated on the role of carbon in the
earth's history, and on phrenology j and in 1844 he
migrated to Birmingham to be sub-editor of i short-
lived paper called The Pi/ot*

It was then that he made a superficial acquaintance