Excerpt from The Life and Letters of Herbert Spencer A word or two seems necessary by way of explanation of the publication of a biography of Mr. Herbert Spencer, within a few years of the publication of his voluminous Autobiography. Twenty-eight years ago, while I was at home on furlough, Mr. Spencer obtained from me a promise to write his Life. In subsequent years, partly owing to his fears that his own life might not be prolonged, and partly because he thought that my absence in India would render it difficult, if not impossible, for me to fulfil my promise, he made other arrangements. These other arrangements, however, fell through. Hence the question, in a letter to me, dated 10 May, 1893: "Does the assent which you gave years ago still hold, and is it likely to hold?" On receiving an affirmative answer, Mr. Spencer had the following paragraph inserted in his Will: - "I request that the said David Duncan will write a Biography in one volume of moderate size, in which shall be incorporated such biographical materials as I have thought it best not to use myself, together with such selected correspondence and such unpublished papers as may seem of value, and shall include the frontispiece portrait and the profile portraits, and shall add to it a brief account of the part of my life which has passed since the date at which the Autobiography concludes.

" Mr. Spencer was impressed with the truth that one's estimate of one's self is sure to err on the side of excess or defect. To say nothing of the limitations of memory, the mere assumption of the attitude of narrator of one's own life is unfavourable to correct representation. Peculiarities of intellectual and moral character also interfere with the adjustments of lights and shades and colours. Vanity, in one case, self-depreciation, in another, will prevent a well-balanced estimate of one's self being arrived at. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.

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