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FRASER'S MAGAZINE FOR JUNE 1869

CONTAINS

THE WORKING MAN AND HIS FRIENDS.

A VISIT TO MY DISCONTENTED COUSIN.-CHAPTERS VIII. TO X.

LIFE IN INDIA.-CHAPTER IV. DOMESTIC INTERIORS.

THE TWO COMETS OF THE YEAR 1868.-BY R. A. PROCTOR, B.A.,
F.R.A.S.-II. WINNECKE'S COMET.

SPEDDING'S LIFE AND LETTERS OF BACON.

SPANISH POETRY BEFORE A.D. 1500.-BY C. WELSH-MASON, B.A.

ON THE NAMES OF PLACES IN IRELAND.-BY WILLIAM ALLINGHAM.
JABEZ OLIPHANT; OR, THE MODERN PRINCE.-BOOK II., CHAPTERS
IV. TO VI.

SADDLING AND BITTING.

THE MILTON AND GALILEO LETTERS.-EDITOR'S NOTE.

ERRATUM.-In No. 475, June 1869, p. 784, col. i. line 4, for Latin English names, read Later English names.

NOTICE TO CORRESPONDENTS.

Correspondents are desired to observe, that all Communications must be addressed direct to the Editor.

Rejected Contributions cannot be returned.

FRASER'S MAGAZINE.

JULY 1869.

W

THE COMTIST UTOPIA.

THEN some future historian of opinion deals with the speculations current at the present day, he will find few more remarkable phenomena than the development of the Comtist school. It is indeed generally understood that the number of the true believers is as yet very limited; though we can hardly guess how many would return themselves as Positivists in case of a religious census, we may safely assume that they would be counted by tens rather than hundreds; and even in that little band there is more than one shade of orthodoxy. We know not whether the Comtist church can as yet be distributed into high, broad, and low; but it is not difficult to trace within its limits the germs of great differences of opinion, if not of absolute heresies. It would however be very rash to estimate the importance of a school by simply counting heads. Considering the startling nature of the new religion its progress has been as rapid as any but its founder, whose expectations were sanguine to the furthest bounds of sanity, could have anticipated: and the characteristic ideas of the school have sunk far

VOL. LXXX.-NO. CCCCLXXV.

more deeply into public opinion than would be inferred from a mere statement of the number of its avowed adherents. Within the last few years, Positivism has become one of the standard terms of theological denunciation; Comte has been refuted so often by so many ardent young clergymen that it is a wonder that his doctrines are not more generally believed; newspapers are full of allusions to his supposed vagaries, and even at dinner-tables he has become a fashionable subject of conversation. No one quite likes to call himself an infidel in so many words; but Positivist,' though the sound is equally shocking to the orthodox, is a name which many young men are rather pleased to bear, as indicating that they are up to the very last new thing in religious creeds. The survey which Mr. Mill has taken of the whole field of Comtist doctrines gives enough information for the appetite of ordinary readers as to the characteristic tenets of the new prophet; and we shall not venture far upon ground already occupied by so great an authority. But there is one division of the subject upon which

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humbler writers may speak without presumption. To criticise Comte's intellectual claims to any purpose requires a scientific knowledge comparable in some degree to his own; if the critic is not a walking encyclopædia he should at least be a weighty authority in some special branches of science. The influence, however, of a new religion depends only in a minor degree upon its intellectual element, even though it be planted, like the Positivist, upon an elaborate scientific groundwork. If religions were tested to a great degree by their reasonableness, heretics would have a much better time of it. The moral ideas which they embody are of more importance than the scientific; and it is especially interesting in the case of the Positivist religion to endeavour to analyse the charm by which its devotees are attracted.

Comtists represent a new theory as to the philosophies of history and science; but they also represent certain tendencies in moral and social questions, the importance of which it is difficult to overestimate. Whether those tendencies are for good or for bad, they are so widely spread-far beyond the limits of the religion in which they find their fullest expression-and are in such striking contrast with some very popular opinions, as to deserve most careful attention. We propose in the present paper to trace out the bearing of some of the leading ideas of the school upon two or three important questions of the day, and to consider the secret of their influence. In spite of recent discussions, we must infer from the ordinary style of assault that these ideas are still very generally misunderstood. The blows are aimed with excellent good will, but they are apt to fall somewhat at random. Thus, for example, we have constantly seen the new religion denounced because the object of worship which it would set up is a vague abstraction.'

How, it is said, can those who reject God fall down before such a metaphysical entity as Humanity? Now, whatever be the defects of Comte's Supreme Being, this, at least, is not one of them. Nothing can be more concrete and definite; though whether it is the better for that is another question. Comte, indeed, founds a special claim for his religion on this ground: 'Le nouveau Grand-Etre,' he says, ne suppose point, comme l'ancien, une abstraction purement subjective. Sa notion résulte, au contraire, d'une exacte appréciation objective; car l'homme, proprement dit, n'existe que dans le cerveau trop abstrait de nos métaphysiciens.' Humanity, in his eyes, consists of the aggregate of all human beings, with the exception of those whose lives have been an injury to mankind. To these, as 'accessory organs,' are added those animals (such as horses and dogs) which show an unselfish sympathy with their superiors. The crocodile and boa, as 'entièrement occupés d'eux-mêmes,' will have no chance of incorporation. Of all things, we have least right to complain of any vagueness or mystery in the Being whom we are invited to worship. An objection of a very different order is that which is summed up in Prof. Huxley's neat phrase that Positivism is equivalent to Catholicism without Christianity. Not only is the high priest of Humanity to succeed to the Pope, but he will adopt some of the suspicion with which the Pope is accustomed to regard scientific progress. The lamentations with which Comtists bewail the backslidings of men of science are an odd parallel to those of the most orthodox schools. They differ indeed in this, that Comtists fully accept the results of scientific inquiry, and profess to found their dogmas upon demonstration. They would not dispute any results of science, but would limit

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