OF THE GOOD. 289 



ism by showing that the systems both of evolution and 

 of positivism are in need of a psychological complement. 

 The earlier positivist view he identifies with the names 

 of Littre and Taine, and characterises it in the following 

 graphic manner : " Not to be surprised at anything, not to 

 be indignant at anything, to understand everything ; then 

 when we have understood it to put the knowledge of 

 laws to good use in order to control the phenomena ; to 

 guard ourselves against the return of harmful acts, as we 

 guard ourselves against fire and water; to secure on the 

 other side the return of useful acts as we prepare that of 

 harvests which are to feed mankind ; to realise, first of 

 all, principles, in order to secure results, and, if these do 

 not answer our expectation, not to blame the results, 

 themselves — things or men, — but to attack the causes 

 and modify them ; thus to reject the unchangeable Good 

 of the philosophers, to be content with the true as wise 

 men, and to be persuaded that the great Evil is error or 

 ignorance ; to reach the useful with the help of the true 

 and to profit thereby ; to enjoy at the same time the 

 beautiful in the order of habit and custom as well as in 

 the order of visible forms ; to turn away from the ugly, 

 to shelter ourselves from brutality and ferocity without 

 hate or anger ; to say to oneself that every being is that 

 which it can be, that the tiger is according to the saying 

 of a French positivist, ' a stomach which has much de- 

 mand for flesh,' the drunkard a ' stomach which has 

 much want of alcohol,' the criminal a ' brain which is 

 inflused with blood ' ; in the face of everything to preserve 

 the calm of positive science, which accepts phenomena 

 without abusing them, which classifies without con- 



