118 EEASONS FOE DISSENTING FROM COMTE. 



and saw the nature of the required combination ; he, too, 

 held that moral and civil philosophy could not flourish when 

 separated from their roots in natural philosophy ; and thus 

 he, too, had some idea of a social science growing out of 

 physical science. But the state of knowledge in his day pre 

 vented any advance beyond the general conception : indeed, 

 it was marvellous that he should have advanced so far. In 

 stead of a vague, undefined conception, M. Comte has pre 

 sented the world with a defined and highly-elaborated 

 conception. In working out thia conception he has shown 

 remarkable breadth of view, great originality, immense fer 

 tility of thought, unusual powers of generalization. Con 

 sidered apart from the question of its truth, his system of 

 Positive Philosophy is a vast achievement. But after ac 

 cording to M. Comte high admiration for his conception, for 

 his effort to realize it, and for the faculty he has shown in 

 the effort to realize it, there remains the inquiry Has ho 

 succeeded ? A thinker who re-organizes the scientific method 

 and knowledge of his age, and whose re-organization is 

 accepted by his successors, may rightly be said to have such 

 successors for his disciples. But successors who accept this 

 method and knowledge of his age, minus his re-organization, 

 are certainly not his disciples. How then stands the case 

 with M. Comte ? There are some few who receive his 

 doctrines with but little reservation ; and these are his dis 

 ciples truly so called. There are others who regard with 

 approval certain of his leading doctrines, but not the rest : 

 these we may distinguish as partial adherents. There 

 are others who reject all his distinctive doctrines ; and these 

 must be classed as his antagonists. The members of this 

 class stand substantially in the same position as they would 

 have done had he not written. Declining his re-organ 

 ization of scientific doctrine, they possess this scientific 

 doctrine in its pre-existing state, as the common heritage 

 bequeathed by the past to the present ; and their adhesion to 



