VIII. 

 THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM. 



IT is now some sixteen or seventeen years since I became 

 acquainted with the &quot; Philosophic Positive,&quot; the &quot; Discours sur 

 1 Ensemble du Positivisme,&quot; and the &quot; Politique Positive &quot; of 

 Auguste Comte. I was led to study these works partly by the 

 allusions to them in Mr. Mill s &quot; Logic,&quot; partly by the recommen 

 dation of a distinguished theologian, and partly by the urgency 

 of a valued friend, the late Professor Henfrey, who looked upon 

 M. Comte s bulky volumes as a mine of wisdom, and lent them 

 to me that I might dig and be rich. After due perusal, I found 

 myself in a position to echo my friend s words, though I may have 

 laid more stress on the &quot; mine &quot; than on the &quot; wisdom.&quot; For I 

 found the veins of ore few and far between, and the rock so apt 

 to run to mud, that one incurred the risk of being intellectually 

 smothered in the working. Still, as I was glad to acknowledge, 

 I did come to a nugget here and there ; though not, so far as my 

 experience went, in the discussions on the philosophy of the 

 physical sciences, but in the chapters on speculative and prac 

 tical sociology. In these there was indeed much to arouse the 

 liveliest interest in one whose boat had broken away from the 

 old moorings, and who had been content &quot; to lay out an anchor 

 by the stern &quot; until daylight should break and the fog clear. 

 Nothing could be more interesting to a student of biology than 



