154 jfejj Sjermons, (Sssags, attir ISWmtxrs, [viu 



a moment aspire ; and with, a severity, not unfrequently 

 amounting to contempt, which I have not* the wish, if I 

 had the power, to surpass. I, as a mere student in these 

 questions, am content to abide by Mr. Mill's judgment 

 until some one shows cause for its reversal, and I decline 

 to enter into a discussion which I have not provoked. 



The sole obligation which lies upon me is to justify so 

 much as still remains without justification of what I 

 have written respecting Positivism namely, the opinion 

 expressed in tne following paragraph : 



" In so far as my study of what specially characterises the Positive 

 Philosophy has led me, I find therein little or nothing of any scientific 

 value, and a great deal which is as thoroughly antagonistic to the very 

 essence of science as anything in ultramontane Catholicism/ 



Here are two propositions: the first, that the "Phi- 

 losophic Positive" contains little or nothing of any 

 scientific value; the second, that Comtism is, in spirit, 

 anti-scientific. I shall endeavour to bring forward ample 

 evidence in support of both. 



I. No one who possesses even a superficial acquaint- 

 ance with physical science can read Comte's "Legons" 

 without becoming aware that he was at once singularly 

 devoid of real knowledge on these subjects, and singu- 

 larly unlucky. What is to be thought of the contem- 

 porary of Young and of Fresnel, who never misses 

 an opportunity of casting scorn upon the hypothesis 

 of an ether the fundamental basis not only of the 

 undulatory theory of light, but of so much else in 

 modern physics and whose contempt for the intellects 

 of some of the strongest men of his generation was such, 

 that he puts forward the mere existence of night as a 

 refutation of the undulatory theory? 1 What a won- 

 derful gauge of his own value as a scientific critic does 

 he afford, by whom we are informed that phrenology is 



1 "Philosophic Positive," ii. p. 440. 



