HERBERT SPENCER.

Evening Post, Volume LXVII, Issue 150, 25 June 1904, Page 15

HERBERT SPENCER.

A posthumous sketch tM Herbert Spencer by Grant Allen appears in the Foruni. In 1876 Grant Allen, \iao had had curiubpoudence with Speucor, but hud nuver been him, resolved to call upon tho philosopher, lie know the homo woa in tjueen'ti Gardens, B.^tfwater, but foryot the itumber. "Atrived at (.Jueeu'o Gardens, 1 a&kcd from houso to iiouhe, did Mi. Herbert Spencer h\v theicV lmagmo iho result, oh cultivated Bubton, oh Ctiger Chicago ! Tho supercilious British footmen eyed me with, suspicion. 'Spencer? SponeorV Never heerd such a name; Inight, perhaps bo at the boardinghouso.' J tiiud tho policeman. 'Spencer? ho, nobody. Must havo como to tho wrong nddio&s.' Cheat Heavens, 1 thought, coxild tltis happen anywhere, else in Iho woild but in England? Tho greatest philosopher that ever drow breath, tlio maximum, brain on earth, is living in this bquaiH5 — nod not a. soul in tho p.uco has over heard of him." But when you come to think of it, why should everybody in a street bo expected to know tho address of a secluded philosopher, who cliomj to live in lodgings, instond of a house of his own? Spencer would probably have changed hia nddre&s if he had found hnnK^lf Blared at or pointed out each time he went out for a. walk. "ARTISTIC EXAGGERATION." Mark Twain, who confesses to a great admiration for a good lie, came across a certain Pietro, a Florentine, who excited his warmest admiration. To incite him to a lofty effort Mark Twain asked him if ho had ever heard of an American fish, which lives on fro.st, und to obtain it comes on shore every morning boforo the sun has melted tho frost, which, with its blunt teeth, it scrapes from tlio rocks and treo trunks. Pit'tro had heard of something much move marvellous, in an incident which occuriv/l to his uncle's mule. "My uncle," he said, ''kept this mule in a wooden stable, and fed it on popcorn. Ono day tho stable 'took fire, and tho nopcoin in fho mule's stall, shooting up into the air, descended all about tho unfortunate animal in soft, white Hakes. These flakes the mulo mistook for snow. He imagined that ho was in a snowstorm, and froze to death."