Chauncey Wright. 109 



first and only journey to Europe, I observed that 

 lie recalled sundry historic streets of London and 

 Paris only as spots where some happy generaliza 

 tion had occurred to him. 



But romantic sentiment, aesthetic sensitiveness, 

 and passionate emotion, these are among the 

 things which hinder most of us from resting con 

 tent witli a philosophy which applies the law of 

 parsimony so rigorously as to cut away every 

 thing except the actuality of observed phenomena. 

 In his freedom from all such kinds of extra-ra 

 tional solicitation Mr. Wright most completely 

 realized the ideal of the positive philosopher. His 

 positivism was an affair of temperament as much 

 as of conviction ; and he illustrates afresh the 

 profound truth of Goethe s remark that a man s 

 philosophy is but the expression of his person 

 ality. In his simplicity of life, serenity of mood, 

 and freedom from mental or material wants, he 

 well exemplified the principles and practice of 

 Epikuros ; and he died as peacefully as he had 

 lived, on a summer s night, sitting at his desk 

 with his papers before him. 



It is a bitter thing to lose a thinker of this 

 mould, just in the prime vigour of life, and at a 

 time when the growing habit of writing seemed 

 to be making authorship easier and pleasanter, so 



