What is the story behind the Herbert Spencer quote in Appendix II of the Big Book?
A. The Herbert Spencer quote first appeared in the First Edition, First Printing of the Big Book (1939), on page 380, at the beginning of the story “An Artist’s Concept.” The quote was included with this story throughout all 16 printings of the First Edition, from 1939 through 1955. That story was dropped when the Second Edition of the Big Book was published in 1955 – and the Spencer quote was dropped with it. The Spencer quote does not appear in the Second Edition/First Printing (1955) or the Second Edition/Second Printing (1957). However, the quote was added to the Third Printing of the Second Edition in 1959, at the end of Appendix II, where it still appears today. We have been unable to locate the source for this quote in any work by Spencer, who published an enormous amount on a great variety of topics. The quote is attributed to Spencer on page 650 of The Great Quotations, compiledby George Seldes and published in 1961. More recently, one scholar conducted a considerable amount o
