Sociology of Comte. 469 



perhaps why the elements of feeling which he displayed in his later 

 works are sometimes regarded as an aftergrowth or altogether over- 

 looked. But this is a mistake. He was passionately fond of music, 

 and went to the Italian Opera whenever he could afford it ; he had a 

 fine voice and generous sympathies, and was noted for his rendering 

 of the " Marseillaise " ; he laid the greatest stress on the education 

 of the feelings both in the individual and in the race. He con- 

 sidered dialogue an improvement on monologue as an instrument of 

 exposition, and conceived the substitution of poetr\- for prose. 

 (Cat. 19.) At the end of his life he read little but Dante and Thomas 

 a Kempis. An account of him by an old pupil quoted by Lewes 

 (H., ^82) shows how much sensibility and emotionalism was con- 

 cealed beneath the austere surface, and he admitted that he had 

 written some passages of his philosophy "tout en lamies." No 

 doubt the mellowing process of age was much expedited by his con- 

 nection with Madame de Vaux, but the admiration for women which 

 is so prominent in his later works is present from the first, and the 

 influence of his mother is unmistakable, as, for instance, in his 

 view of Catholicism. 



Comte's sensibility enhances the merit of the extraordinaiy sim- 

 plicity of his life and devotion to his calling. He lived as an ascetic 

 and a hermit, and the nobility of his life is certainly maiiifested in 

 his works. " If men could approach the work with minds sufficiently 

 " open to receive instruction from teachers whom, on the whole, they 

 " refuse to follow, capable of setting aside differences, to seize upon 

 " and profit by arguments, they would earn- away from the ' Poli- 

 " ' tique ■ many luminous suggestions, and that ennobling influence 

 " which always rays out from a moral condition.'" (Lewes, II., 585.) 

 Finally, his mental power was so great and so commanding that we 

 cannot say less of his work as a whole than what Mr. Spencer has 

 said of his system of Positive Philosophy : " Considered apart from 

 the question of its truth, it is a vast achievement." (Essays. III. 62.) 

 Comte can see nothing in the opposition to Positivism but pre- 

 judices and passions, which under different forms reject all tme 

 discipline. (Cat., IX., 380.) But when we examine his preconcep- 

 tions we can see that from the start he was anything but unerring. 

 To begin with, though he was no doubt right in maintaining the 

 neces.sity of sociology, his claim to be the founder of the science 

 cannot be substantiated. If Plato was not the founder of Sociologv, 

 Aristotle was, and Comte is behind them both in his analysis of 

 sociological forces. If they are to be denied the honour of being 

 the founders of sociology because they had no philosophy of hi.s- 

 tor)', the honour belongs not tO' Comte. but to the Germans. Comte 

 Avas no doubt of great ser\-ice in reminding modem times of the 

 necessity of establishing the science of society, but he achieved 

 nothing which could tempt us to forget the services of either the 

 Germans or the Greeks. Now. it is a cardinal point with Comte that 

 he was the discoverer of sociology, for he believes that Positivism 

 was impossible to his predecessors because of the incompleteness of 

 the circle of the es.sential sciences, on the completeness of which 



