ABSTRACT
There are two Herbert Spencers. One is the public man, the didactic philosopher who laboured hard to make sense of the fi elds of metaphysics, biology, psychology and sociology. is Spencer wished to be seen as neutral, passionless and objective. His formal prose refl ected this wish. His language – studded with technical terms – crackled with a stiff phraseology that alternately inspired and horrifi ed his contemporaries. When he was in his didactic mode, he was careless of how he was perceived as well as hostile to the manners and habits of polite society.
