Comte's Positive Philosophy. 133 



est is felt in the philosophy of M. Comte, and 

 such a wide-spread curiosity is manifested to know 

 in what that philosophy really consists, a work 

 like the one now before us is most welcome. Mr. 

 Mill is admirably qualified to furnish us with a 

 clear and trustworthy exposition of the Positive 

 Philosophy. His own researches have led him 

 over the same paths which were traversed by M. 

 Comte, and the results of his meditations on the 

 proper methods to be pursued in scientific explora- 

 tion were laid before the world nearly a genera- 

 tion ago, in his " System of Logic, " a work 

 which in our opinion is as important a contribu- 

 tion to human knowledge as the "Philosophic 

 Positive " itself. And while, on the one hand, 

 the number of opinions held in common by the 

 two, to say nothing of Mr. Mill's well-known can- 

 dour, is a sufficient guaranty for the fair treatment 

 of the subject, on the other hand, Mr. Mill's emi- 

 nence as an original thinker prevents him from 

 ever abdicating the position of a critic for that of 

 a disciple. 



In common with the majority of scientific think- 

 ers, M. Comte asserts the universality and inva- 

 riability of natural laws , and he coincides in the 

 opinion, held by one great school of psychologists 

 since Locke, that all knowledge is derived from 



