94 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART n 



One part of Mr. Spencer's teaching, held by him 

 like some others in common with Comte, has not yet 

 been referred to ; his doctrine of the analogy between 

 society and an animal organism. I have omitted this, 

 because I regard it as an ornamental excrescence on 

 Spencer's teaching, not as an essential or even a signifi- 

 cant part. Whatever function the appeal to biology 

 played in Comte, it seems to play very little part in 

 Spencer. " The social organism " is an outplayed 

 authority a god emeritus a depotentiated deity on 

 Mr. Spencer's pages. " The social organism " is a 

 metaphor with him and only a metaphor. The indi- 

 vidual cells are asserting themselves, and the unity of 

 the organism is coming off second best. If Comte tells 

 us, " Be parts ; be mere parts, living for the sake of the 

 whole," Spencer thinks such advice the very worst 

 possible. Each for himself ; fair-play all round ; justice 

 the supreme consideration, politically and socially ; the 

 occasional surrender of individual rights purely a 

 personal matter, with which public action and public 

 opinion dare not interfere such is Mr. Spencer's social 

 programme. It is the antithesis of Comte's. Where 

 Comte says "Yes," Spencer says "No," very nearly all 

 the way through. We take it, therefore, that, beyond 

 serving to explain his views lucidly and add a grace to 

 them, the doctrine of the social organism does nothing 

 for Mr. Spencer. 



