Book excerpt: Excerpt from Mr. Spencer's Unification of Knowledge Thus, although the writer is fundamentally in sympathy with the goal of Mr. Spencer's attempt, and although he accepts the same at posteriori truths, he is nevertheless compelled to criticise adversely the ambitious claims of the system, with the faultiness of reasoning and general bad workmanship entailed by the supposed accomplish ment of the endeavour. Although it is important that established truths should be frankly accepted, however inharmonious with previous beliefs, it is equally important that imperfections of theory should be freely acknow ledged. The attempt to outrun the gradual growth of knowledge by filling in every hiatus with theoretical ex planations is a positive obstruction to the progress of science. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.