TYPES OF ETHICAL THEORY. 97 



we see moral truth, with a " noble inconsistency," 

 refusing to conform to a speculative theory : 



"Plato, in his 'divine wrath' at the tyrant flung into Tar- 

 tarus ; Malebranche, self-extinguished in the Absolute Holi- 

 ness ; Spinoza, lifted from the thraldom of passion into the 

 freedom of Infinite Love ; Comte, on his knees before the 

 image of a Perfect Humanity, are touching witnesses to 

 the undying fires of moral faith and aspiration. 1 ' 



Our space will not permit a close examination 

 of the three studies on Descartes, Malebranche, and 

 Spinoza, or of the full and sympathetic account 

 given of Comte. But we cannot help noticing, in 

 passing, a most suggestive section on the rejection 

 of final causes, so long as mechanism dominated 

 science, and the reappearance of teleology under the 

 influence of evolution. We may also be allowed 

 to regret a very superficial passage, where Dr. 

 Martineau, after a rapid survey of Greek thought, 

 says of "the intermediate period of Catholic cul- 

 ture " that it is needless to prove that it was 

 "mainly concerned in investigating the relations 

 between God and man." If this means that natural 

 science was in abeyance, it is only partially true ; 

 and in any case the whole subject of Dr. Mar- 

 tineau's two volumes falls under the general title 

 of " the relations between God and man." He 

 might have got at least as much from a study 

 of Thomas of Aquin, as from the scepticism of 

 Descartes, or the pantheism of Spinoza, or the 

 positivism of Comte. 



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