Page:Popular Science Monthly Volume 27.djvu/463

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CONCERNING THE SUPPRESSED BOOK.
445

But, in the matter of "piracy," it is Mr. Spencer who comes in for Harrison's hottest indignation. He accuses him of having invented a new form of it, and aggravated the offense by its clandestine perpetration. Now, let us see what it was that Spencer did. After finishing the controversy in the "Nineteenth Century," Mr. Harrison transferred it to the "Pall Mall Gazette," in which he printed an additional article, addressed to a new audience, and filled with very objectionable misstatements. It would not do, in editing the volume which was intended to be a full presentation of the discussion, to leave this article out. But to print it without corrections would be unjust to Spencer, and to the readers of the book, who wanted and were entitled to the completest statement of the case. There was no call for anything more from Mr. Harrison, who had had his last word, and declared that he should pursue the controversy no further; but there was a need that corrections by Spencer should be supplied. He accordingly sent me the substance of some additions to be appended as notes, and which I inserted in their appropriate places. I deny the wrongfulness of this act, and the ado that has been made over it seems to me perfectly absurd. Mr. Spencer did what it was desirable and entirely proper that he should do. He had not only the right but it was his duty to defend himself against the erroneous representations of Mr. Harrison; and I insist that, if any apology was due either way, it was from Mr. Harrison to Spencer for making the misstatements, rather than from Spencer to Harrison for correcting them.

Mr. Spencer, as will be seen, prints two paragraphs from a private letter of mine giving reasons which induced him to favor the American reprint, and Mr. Harrison characterizes them as chiefly "inventions." I had said, "Harrison is coming over to lecture in this country," and Mr. Harrison says he never thought of it. I wrote carelessly; but my meaning was, that he is expected to come, and in this there was no "invention." It had been talked about, and there was nothing unlikely in it. The coming of eminent Englishmen to this country to lecture is certainly no unusual thing. Mr. Harrison is a lecturer, a man of ideas which he is interested in propagating, and is reputed to have means and leisure. He has many admirers in the United States, and a reputation which would be certain to secure him good audiences. As it turns out, "the wish was father to the thought," but the rumor was not improbable. I should have referred to it as a contingency, and I simply meant that it might be worth taking into account, with reference to the publication of the controversy.

Mr. Harrison says the idea that there was any danger of republication in this country by his friends rested also upon pure "invention." But I did not say this. I wrote to Spencer, "There is danger that it will be done by others, and if that should occur it would be construed as a triumph of the Harrison party." Mr. Spencer's interpretation of it was, "I had to choose between republication by my American