ABSTRACT
Before the publication of First Principles in Spencer was an obscure fi gure, uncertain of his abilities and his future. He was what nineteenth-century biographical dictionaries called a miscellaneous writer. During the s his books sold slowly. e fi rst edition of Spencer’s Th e Principles of Psychology was small; only copies were published on October . By June , a mere copies had been purchased, while sixteen complimentary copies went to Stationers’ Hall. It took until June for the remaining copies to be sold. A similar fate greeted Spencer’s Essays; were published on December . By June , copies had been sold, two had been given as presentation copies, and fi ve went to Stationers’ Hall. It took from August until June for the last copies to sell. e subscription to Spencer’s “A System of Synthetic Philosophy” did not do much better. Spencer wrote to Holyoake, who was printing the prospectus:
I shall be glad, when you can aff ord the time, to hear what is doing as to the “System of Philosophy” – and how the names are coming in? I have reached a little more than half the requisite numbers, and there is still a slow increase going on; but I do not think that I shall myself exceed two-thirds.
Ultimately, the number of subscribers was under four hundred, and this meant the scheme was a fi nancial failure. Spencer, however, concealed this in An Autobiography, euphemistically suggesting that the plan had “succeeded fairly well”.
