As REGARDS PROTOPLASM, ETC. 



It is a pleasure to perceive Mr. Huxley open his clear 

 little essay with what we may hold, perhaps, to be the 

 manly and orthodox view of the character and products 

 of the French writer, Auguste Comte. " In applying 

 the name of ' the new philosophy' to that estimate of 

 the limits of philosophical inquiry which he" (Professor 

 Huxley), " in common with many other men of science, 

 holds to be just," the Archbishop of York confounds, it 

 seems, this new philosophy with the Positive philosophy 

 of M. Comte ; and thereat Mr. Huxley expresses him- 

 self as greatly astonished. Some of us, for our parts, 

 may be inclined at first to feel astonished at Mr. Hux- 

 ley's astonishment ; for the school to which, at least on 

 the philosophical side, Mr. Huxley seems to belong, is 

 even notorious for its postration before Auguste Comte, 

 whom, especially, so far as method and systematization 

 are concerned, it regards as the greatest intellect since 

 Bacon. For such, as it was the opinion of Mr. Buckle, 

 is understood to be the opinion also of Messrs. Grote, 

 Bain, and Mill. In fact, we may say that such is com- 

 monly and currently considered the characteristic and 

 distinctive opinion of that whole perverted or inverted 

 reaction which has been called the Revulsion. That is 

 to say, to give this word a moment's explanation, that 

 the Voltaires and Humes and Gibbons having long 

 enjoyed an immunity of sneer at man's blind pride and 



