MODERN PHILOSOPHICAL BIOLOGY. 603 



serve as its guide ; yet, owing to the largeness of the views there 

 expressed, Auguste Comte gave to this work a comprehensiveness 

 which enabled it to take in some of the great biological systems elab- 

 orated in recent times, and one of his followers has recently declared 

 that the success of these doctrines does not impair the luiity of the 

 positive philosophy. It can also be truly said that, if those doctrines 

 Avere to succumb, the positive philosophy would suffer no loss ; and this 

 proves that they have no connection wuth this philosophy, and that 

 they can receive no support from it. Still, in spite of this serious 

 shortcoming of his philosophy, the services rendered by Augxiste 

 Comte are very great. He has given a better definition of life than 

 the one then in vogue; he has perceived that life is a continuous 

 chain of chemical facts, and to this doctrine he has given forcible ex- 

 pression; lie has illustrated, by judicious contrast, the relations of 

 the organism to the medium in w^hich it lives ; he has stated with 

 great precision the problem of the science of life, which consists in 

 expressing in the least number of laws of the utmost generality the 

 harmony which unites the organism to its medium by vital acts ; he 

 has forcibly shown the close correlation which enables us to infer the 

 function from the organ, and vice versa ; not to speak of a multitude 

 of useful and profound considerations upon the structure of living 

 bodies, on comparative anatomy, and on the physiology of the func- 

 tions of relation. But it was characteristic of Auguste Comte's phi- 

 losophy to bind together the parts of its system only by a purely logi- 

 cal tie, and not at all by establishing relations between the phenomena, 

 or by showing interdependency of laws. For him it was enough, in 

 order to assure to biology its place between physico-chemistry and 

 sociology, if on the one hand a knowledge of physical and chemical 

 laws is necessary for the study of biological phenomena, and if the 

 various classes of phenomena pertaining to these sciences really act a 

 part in the production of vital phenomena; and if, on the other hand, 

 a knowledge of the life of relation in its highest aspects, i. e., in the 

 cerebral apparatus, and the elementary intellectual and passional fac- 

 ulties corresponding thereto, is an essential preliminary of the study 

 of sociology. Hence, the biological work of Auguste Comte has 

 not per se had any great influence on researches of this kind. The 

 general current of his philosophy has exerted a good influence in so 

 far as it has disinclined men toward theological and metaphysical 

 explications. But we cannot admit that Comte has founded a philos- 

 ophy of biology fitted to inspire or to guide research. Biological re- 

 search is still what it was before the positive philosophy became 

 popular; it is still restricted to special points ; and, though its spirit 

 is becoming more and more positive, the reason is because in such re- 

 search the imagination is brought more and more under subjection to 

 the laws of scientific investigation. But, meanwhile, we see no indica- 

 tions of philosophic purpose, no aiming to bring the results obtained 

 under the dominion of a more comprehensive law. 



