This very influential, oft-reprinted slender volume of four essays on education, remains controversial. Spencer's own style, of course, remains imperturbable and even-handed, a vexation for disagreeable readers, I'm sure, but an aid for the book's popularity.

Spencer himself had an odd education. He came from a family of teachers, but had almost no schooling himself. He was by nature an auto-didact. His father's theories of education here get translated through the son's capacious mind, and Spencer's call for schooling in the maths and sciences had great impact (some say dangerous effect) on schooling in England, America, and elsewhere.

Of course, nowadays, education has virtually nothing to do with what Spencer talked about. Nowadays education is in shambles. Perhaps reading this book might help. A bit. ( )