therefore is only a simple prolongation of animal physiology, properly so called, when this is extended so as to include the fundamental and ultimate attributes."* From these words it is clear enough Auguste Comte makes the intellect of man an offspring of the brain, and all the great powers and faculties of our nature merely the exquisite finish and product of the laws of

matter.

NEMO V. It is true, as you have remarked, that this kind of philosophy appears in these days to be in everybody's mouth. It includes only what can be proved, and accepts that which alone can be scientifically established as a fact, and nothing more. Viewed as a whole this is a great system of materialism, silent about God, spirit, personal immortality, and diametrically opposed to Christianity. It affirms in effect that there is no God, but physical force; and natural philosophers are its prophets. It is obviously contradictory of the Christian religion, inasmuch as it destroys the possibility of its proof, makes man's social duty higher than his individual,-science the only revelation, demonstration the only authority,-nature's laws the only providence,—and obedience to them the only piety. Its materialism as you have shown is akin to that of the cerebral and associational scheme, admitting no agent of psychical phenomena except

matter.

Of Comte himself I have not much to say. His breadth of generalizations, his great and exact knowledge of some sciences, and the severity of his criticisms, entitle him to our consideration. His views are original and comprehensive, and have on the continent, as well as among ourselves, attracted attention, and won not a few ardent adherents. According to Littré his system is of immeasurable extent, embracing the whole universe. "The universe now appears to us a whole, having its causes within itself, causes which we name its laws. The long conflict between immanence and

* Phil. Pos." Lecture 45.

transcendence is touching its close. Transcendence is theology or metaphysic, explaining the universe by causes outside it; immanence is science, explaining the universe by causes within itself." Plainly then, positivism is but another name for naturalism, fatalism, or materialism. In later life Comte felt the yearnings of a religious sentiment, and added to his philosophy a system of religion in which collective humanity was his god, and the only object of worship and reverence. Two hours a day, divided into three private services, were to be spent in the adoration of humanity, under the form of a living or dead woman, and this alas! is to be the inspiration of a new and truer piety for man! His life was sombre, his social relationships unhappy, and his character it is feared immoral. The probability of mental derangement in his later life is the best apology for the absurdity of the religious portions of his system, for his vagaries, and for his conduct.

What to me is surprising is that his philosophy should have excited so much attention, and have secured so many disciples. I fear it largely influences the public mind, and can claim notable supporters. Under the name of secularism it is actively propagated among the masses. The assumed conclusions and results of physical science aid its pretensions. The secularist asserts that nature is the only subject of knowledge, the existence of a personal God being regarded as uncertain; that science is the only providence; and that the great business of man is to attend to the affairs of the present world. It is impossible to estimate the extent to which these views are diffused. It is saddening to think that this most negative system of all has taken such hold on men. The manifest tendency of positivism is toward atheism, if sternly argued out. Comte is silent about the existence of Deity; and his worship of the ideal of humanity in the form of practical ethics and social study, indicate this atheistic tendency. It discourages the belief of the supernatural, of a Divine government, of human freedom, of miraculous inter

ference, of mind additional to the body in man, and of immortality.

But notwithstanding the wide-spread influence of positivism, it may be shewn to have, as a doctrine or system, no foundation in sound philosophy. Its teaching proves beyond all possibility of demur, that the unceasing exercise of the agency of the Creator is the condition of the continued action of the constituted powers of the universe. There can be no event, and therefore no beginning of conscious existence, as we see it for example in man, without the exercise of power by an intelligent agent. This is likewise the direct and innate conviction of the human mind. Philosophy knows nothing of law except as a rule of action existing in some mind. As we have remarked before, we cannot predicate agency of law; that can be only affirmed of a conscious personal agent. Even when it is said that secondary powers act according to law, it is not meant that the powers themselves choose to obey a perceived rule, for we are compelled to think that the volitions of a prior agent supply the necessary conditions. of the action of all secondary powers. The mind cannot believe in a happening. The common sense of mankind rebels against it. The idea of intelligent causation is its fastest, spontaneous, and over-powering conviction. We cannot be shut up to our senses and mere phenomena. There are multitudes of truths believed in and acted upon, of which our senses give us no information, since they come to us from our innerselves, and the promptings of our nature. The denial of a Divine and Spiritual interference in the works of Creation and Providence would force us into a darker night than Paganism drew to earth, for man's earliest and most tremulous speculations ever carried with them a theological character, and hinted at some living and acting Divinity. No one can peruse the fine remains of the Pagan mind, as they come to us in poetry, mythology, in morals, and philosophy, without discovering, with an occasional exception, its belief in a pervading life and

power superior to nature. "Belief has a basis of cognition, the cognition has a super-structure of beliefs; in a sense we know space, for it is present to us; certainly body occupying space, is ever before our senses; but when we look on space as having no bounds, we are beyond the territory of cognition, we are in the region of faith. The one conviction equally with the other, carries within itself its authority and validity. No man is entitled to restrict himself to cognitions, and refuse to attend to or to yield to the beliefs which he is also led to entertain by the very constitution of his mind. No man can do so, in fact."* What a proof of the hollowness and insufficiency of positivism for man is furnished in the fact that Comte felt driven to provide a religion and a worship for his followers. He had no God, but he devised a "collective humanity" to receive adoration, being in fact a deification of his system of science and sociology. He tried to extinguish theology, but the desire to worship burned on, a desire which could not be quenched. What is this desire of worship but an inborn moral intuition, a broad reality, an inalienable truth of our nature? To this kind of religion and ceremonial, this passionate self-mesmerizing adoration, this praying without uttering words, Comte clung more and more fondly as he advanced in years.

And

strangely and painfully J. S. Mill says of it; "It has superabundantly shewn the possibility of giving to the service of humanity, even without the belief of a Providence, both the psychological power and the social efficacy of a religion making it take hold of human life, and colour all thought, feeling, and action, in a manner of which the greatest ascendency ever exercised by any religion may be but a type and foretaste." In a later work on Comte and Positivism, Mr. Mill actually states; "We venture to think that a religion may exist without belief in a God, and that a religion without a God may be, even to Christians, an instructive and profitable object of contemplation." What sort of instruction can

Dr. M'Cosh's "Intuitions of the Mind." Page 199.

youth receive from writers with such creeds and sentiments?

-The scheme of positive philosophy is distinctly metaphysical, metaphysical in its pretensions, and metaphysical in its details,-but Comte with a sort of disdain eschews metaphysical science. But he seeks to liberate abstract forces from matter! One would have supposed that mind known to us by consciousness, would have been accepted as one of the most positive of sciences. But the first thing Positivism does, is to dispense with the science of mind, as mind, altogether. He rejects both psychology and logic, and the foundations on which the science of nature and all our inquiries rest, even the ineradicable beliefs and convictions of the human spirit are ignored. Comte's repudiation of mental science is characterized even by Mr. Mill as a "" grave aberration."

-Of man and of mind this so called philosophy makes little account. The study of mind is reduced to a study of bodily functions, the study of law, and of physical associations. It is true the soul is invisible, but we know much and many things about it. Are not the following truths disclosed to us we still inquire in everyday consciousness? We feel our separation from things visible, we feel our independence of them,-we feel our distinct existence in ourselves,-our individuality,power of acting for ourselves this way or that way, and our accountability for what we do. Is it not so? Then does not the intuition "I ought," or "I ought not," follow immediately on our consciousness of our own powers of reflection and choice? On this conviction of the heart and conscience abides, as on an unassailable foundation, the doctrine of man's responsibility. The perception of this great truth may be clouded for a time by a plausible logic, but thought and reflection recover the vision, and we escape from a tyranny of force and blind fate into a realm of moral freedom, where pure affections, virtuous deeds, high imaginings of hope, and free actings of love, are attainable, if not attained.