18 ]fiMILE BOUTROUX 



nothing else, would be to break all the moral 

 and social bonds which exist at the present 

 moment among men and to divide humanity 



>yinto groups of specialists, strangers or even 

 enemies to one another. Science knows no 

 other social relations except those which re- 



^ suit from the division of labor. An entirely 

 external coordination would, then, replace 

 that community of feeling, thought and exis- 

 tence which characterizes our existing society, 

 born of the family and dominated by the idea 

 and the feeling of humanity. And, warming 

 to the discussion, the founder of positivism 

 plunged with growing passion into invective 



^ against the professional vanity, the onesided 



\ spirit, the absence of mutual understanding, 



\ the lack of practical sense which he attributed 

 to men of learning who are nothing else. He 

 particularly disliked mathematicians or mathe- 

 matically-minded men, and held them respon- 

 sible for all the evils which afflict society — 



"^^ especially for the French revolution, that 

 abomination of desolation. 



— Auguste Comte was a little reckless in his 

 use of anathemas, and the men of learning 



