EDITOR'S TABLE. 



701 



good to the world at large. "What is 

 wanted is a vast extension of this feel- 

 ing and the raising of unconscious serv- 

 ice to the human society to conscious 

 service. "Who, indeed, that is not a 

 criminal hy nature would say: "lam 

 wholly indifferent to the welfare of the 

 social organism ; if, by a slight effort, 

 I could improve the conditions of life 

 for numbers of my fellow-men, I would 

 not do it" ? If, then, we feel that selfish 

 indifference to the general weal makes 

 a man virtually a criminal and an out- 

 law, nothing should be required to spur 

 us to a more diligent performance of our 

 social duties than to be reminded from 

 time to time of our membership in that 

 vast society which comprises the human 

 race, and whose constitution and by- 

 laws are written in the civilization of our 

 time. There is an esprit de corps which 

 should animate every intelligent mem- 

 ber of civilized society and which should 

 make the performance of any service 

 toward society, or toward any member 

 of it, a pleasure. We certainly approve 

 of the ends which the Society of Chris- 

 tian Endeavor sets before itself; but, in 

 so far as it tends to obscure the antece- 

 dent obligation of every human being 

 who lives by society to live also for so- 

 ciety, it may, in spite of its admirable 

 aims, be found working against rather 

 than for the true progress of the race. 



POSITIVISM IN FRANCE. 



Most of our readers are probably 

 aware that the name "positivism " was 

 given by the French philosopher, An- 

 guste Comte, to a system of thought and 

 life which he professed to have founded 

 on the unmistakable teachings of sci- 

 ence. According to his view, the world 

 had passed through the stages of intel- 

 lectual childhood (theology) and adoles- 

 cence (metaphysics), and had entered 

 upon its maturity, the distinguishing 

 mark of which would be the acceptance 

 and systematic application of duly veri- 

 fied scientific truth. That Comte was a 



powerful thinker, with an altogether 

 singular faculty for generalization, no 

 one has ever been disposed to deny ; 

 and, although the scientific world in 

 general has stood aloof from his system 

 of thought as something too finished and 

 definitive, and therefore too restrictive, 

 for such an era of intellectual growth and 

 expansion as the present, it has watched, 

 not without sympathy, the efforts of his 

 avowed followers to uphold the claims 

 of science to a controlling voice in hu- 

 man affairs, and to promote the higher 

 intellectual and moral life of society by 

 means of popular lectures of a superior 

 character. On the other hand, positiv- 

 ism has earned the hatred of the eccle- 

 siastical foes of modern thought by the 

 absoluteness of its rejection of their 

 claims and pretensions. It is, therefore, 

 an event of no ordinary importance that 

 the leader of positivism in France, the 

 man whom Auguste Comte designated 

 as his successor, should have been se- 

 lected by the Minister of Public In- 

 struction to fill the newly created chair 

 of the General History of the Sciences 

 at the College de France, the most dis- 

 tinguished educational institution in the 

 country. The chair was created, it is 

 generally understood, with the express 

 intention of offering it to M. Lafitte ; and 

 when the appointment was made it was 

 greeted with almost unanimous approval 

 by the press. Ecclesiasticaljournals, like 

 the Univers, of course objected, and 

 the Minister of Public Instruction had 

 to answer some interpellations in the 

 legislature ; but, on the whole, the Gov- 

 ernment had every reason to congratu- 

 late itself on the effect produced on 

 the public mind. Some of the com- 

 ments of the Paris press are indeed very 

 striking, showing a freedom in the ex- 

 pression of opinion to which in this 

 country or in England the public is 

 scarcely accustomed. "In these days 

 of mystical reaction," says one paper 

 (La Justice), "it was a very suitable 

 thing to take strong ground for the posi- 

 tive and scientific spirit, and to proclaim 



