OF THE GOOD. 239 



ism by showing that the systems both of evolution and 

 of positivism are in need of a psychological complement. 

 The earlier positivist view he identifies with the names 

 of Littre and Taine, and characterises it in the following 

 graphic manner : " Not to be surprised at anything, not to 

 be indignant at anything, to understand everything ; then 

 when we have understood it to put the knowledge of 

 laws to good use in order to control the phenomena ; to 

 guard ourselves against the return of harmful acts, as we 

 guard ourselves against fire and water; to secure on the 

 other side the return of useful acts as we prepare that of 

 harvests which are to feed mankind ; to realise, first of 

 all, principles, in order to secure results, and, if these do 

 not answer our expectation, not to blame the results, 

 themselves things or men, but to attack the causes 

 and modify them ; thus to reject the unchangeable Good 

 of the philosophers, to be content with the true as wise- 

 men, and to be persuaded that the great Evil is error or 

 ignorance ; to reach the useful with the help of the true 

 and to profit thereby ; to enjoy at the same time the 

 beautiful in the order of habit and custom as well as in 

 the order of visible forms ; to turn away from the ugly, 

 to shelter ourselves from brutality and ferocity without 

 hate or anger ; to say to oneself that every being is that 

 which it can be, that the tiger is according to the saying 

 of a French positivist, ' a stomach which has much de- 

 mand for flesh,' the drunkard a 'stomach which has 

 much want of alcohol,' the criminal a ' brain which is 

 inflused with blood'; in the face of everything to preserve 

 the calm of positive science, which accepts phenomena 

 without abusing them, which classifies without con- 



