150 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [vm. 



Positive,&quot; we find its author contemplating the establishment of 

 a system of society, in which an organized spiritual power shall 

 over-ride and direct the temporal power, as completely as the 

 Innocents and Gregorys tried to govern Europe in the middle 

 ages; and repudiating the exercise of liberty of conscience 

 against the &quot; homines compttents&quot; of whom, by the assumption, 

 the new priesthood would be composed. Was Mr. Congreve as 

 forgetful of this, as he seems to have been of some other parts of 

 the &quot;Philosophic Positive,&quot; when he wrote, that &quot;in any limited^ 

 careful use of the term, no candid man could say that the 

 Positive Philosophy contained a great deal as thoroughly anta 

 gonistic to [the very essence of 1 ] science as Catholicism&quot; ? 



M. Comte, it will have been observed, desires to retain the 

 whole of Catholic organization ; and the logical practical result 

 of this part of his doctrine would be the establishment of some 

 thing corresponding with that eminently Catholic, but admit 

 tedly anti-scientific, institution the Holy Office. 



I hope I have said enough to show that I wrote the few lines 

 I devoted to M. Comte and his philosophy, neither unguardedly 

 nor ignorantly, still less maliciously. I shall be sorry if what I 

 have now added, in my own justification, should lead any to 

 suppose that I think M. Comte s works worthless ; or that I do 

 not heartily respect, and sympathise with, those who have been 

 impelled by him to think deeply upon social problems, and to 

 strive nobly for social regeneration. It is the virtue of that 

 impulse, I believe, which will save the name and fame of 

 Auguste Comte from oblivion. As for his philosophy, I part 

 with it by quoting his own words, reported to me by a quondam 

 Comtist, now an eminent member of the Institute of France, 

 M. Charles Robin : 



&quot;La Philosphie est une tentative incessante de Pesprit humain pour 

 arriver an repos : mais elle se trouve incessarnment aussi de&quot;rangee par ^les 

 progres continus de la science. De la vient pour le philosophe ^obligation 

 de refaire chaque soir la synthese de ses conceptions ; et un jour viendra oil 

 rhomme raisonnable ne fera plus d autre priere du soir.&quot;^ 



1 Mr. Congreve leaves out these important words, which show that I refer 

 to the spirit, and not to the details of science. 



