234 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



suggested by the historical spirit and interest in Hegel 

 and by the social spirit and interest that dominated 

 Comte's system. In other respects the two systems 

 which we are now accustomed to consider as respectively 

 and specially characteristic of German and of French 

 thought, acted differently upon the generation that 

 followed them, Hegelianism suffered under a reaction, 

 produced by the spirit of exact research, the scientific 

 spirit ; Comtism, itself a bastard child of this scientific 

 spirit, made its influence felt first of all in England and 

 only later in its own country, where, reimported under 

 the name of Positivism — rather than Comtism — it has 

 now become a generally accepted and stable trait of 

 French thought. 



In distinction from Hegel, Comte never professed to 

 arrive at a monistic view. He always moves closer to 

 facts, remains more in harmony with actual experience, 

 and retains many of the dualisms which abound in the 

 latter. Thus he emphasises the inherent difference of 

 the mathematical and the biological sciences, he bases 

 his sociological theory upon the existence of two distinct 

 tendencies in human character, the egoistic and altruistic. 

 Still more glaring are the contradictions which seem to 

 exist between the earlier and the later phases of his 

 philosophy, which prompted his followers and admirers, 

 in several instances, to accept the one and reject the 

 other, although the germs of the later developments in 

 the ' Politique Positive ' have been traced by attentive 

 students in the earlier ' Philosophie Positive.' The 

 existence of these dualisms in Comte's philosophy in- 

 duced his disciples to embark upon a search for a 



