viii.] THE SCIENTIFIC ASPECTS OF POSITIVISM. 133 



What if I were to suggest that Mr. Congreve had not read 

 Comte s works ; and that the phrase &quot; the context shows that the 

 view of the writer ranges however superficially over the 

 whole works. This is obvious from the mention of Catholicism,&quot; 

 demonstrates that Mr. Congreve has no acquaintance with the 

 &quot; Philosophic Positive &quot; ? I think the suggestion would be very 

 unjust and unmannerly, and I shall not make it. But the fact 

 remains, that this little epigram of mine, which has so greatly 

 provoked Mr. Congreve, is neither more nor less than a con 

 densed paraphrase of the following passage which is to be found 

 at page 344 of the fifth volume of the &quot; Philosophic Positive :&quot;*- 



&quot;La seule solution possible de ce grand probleme historique, qui n a 

 jamais pn etre philosophiquement pose jusqu ici, consiste & concevoir, en 

 sens radicalement inverse des notions habituelles, que ce qui devait neces- 

 sairement perir ainsi, dans le catholicisme, c ttait la doctrine, et non V organi 

 sation, qui n a ete passagerement ruin^e que par suite de son inevitable 

 adherence elementaire a la philosophic theologique, destinee a succornber 

 graduellement sous 1 irresistible emancipation de la raison humaine ; tandls 

 qu une telle constitution, convenablement reconstruite sur des bases intellec- 

 tuelles a la fois plus etendues et plus stables, devra finalement presider a 

 I indispensable reorganisation spirituelle des societes modernes, sauf les 

 differences essentielles spontanement correspond antes a Vextreme diversite des 

 doctrines fondamentahs ; a moins de supposer, ce qui serait certainement 

 contradictoire a 1 ensenible des lois de notre nature, que les immenses efforts 

 de tant de grands hommes, secondes par la perseverante sollicitude des 

 nations civilises, dans la fondation seculaire de ce chef-d oeuvre politique 

 de la sagesse humaine, doivent etre enfin irrevocablement perdus pour 1 elite 

 de I humanit^ sauf les r^sultats, capitaux mais provisoires, qui s y rappor- 

 taient immediatement. Cette explication generale, deja evidemment mo- 

 tivee par la suite des considerations propres a ce chapitre, sera de plus en 

 plus confirmee par tout le reste de notre operation historique, dont elle 

 constituera spontanement la principale conclusion politique&quot; 



Nothing can be clearer. Comte s ideal, as stated by himself, 

 is Catholic organization without Catholic doctrine, or, in other 

 words, Catholicism minus Christianity. Surely it is utterly 

 unjustifiable to ascribe to me base motives for stating a man s 

 doctrines, as nearly as may be, in his own words ! 



My readers would hardly be interested were I to follow Mr. 

 Congreve any further, or I might point out that the fact of his 

 not having heard me lecture is hardly a safe ground for his 



1 Now and always I quote the second edition, by Littre. 



