COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



investigation which has finally established it.* 

 Both these theories were scientific in concep- 

 tion, and previous to the researches of Young 

 and Fresnel a scientific philosopher might have 

 consistently espoused either. Such are the con- 

 troversies of science, which sooner or later have 

 always led, and will always lead, to agreement 

 and to knowledge. Far different is it with the 

 disputes of metaphysics, which — conducted 

 upon the subjective method, and dealing with 

 unverifiable hypotheses — have never led, and 

 can never lead, to anything but an endless re- 

 newal of dispute, in specula s^culorum. 



In this condemnation of the subjective 

 method, the Cosmic Philosophy here ex- 

 pounded is entirely in harmony with the Posi- 

 tive Philosophy, as set forth in Comte's first 

 great work, and as held by M. Littre and Mr. 

 Mill. Indeed there is probably nothing in the 

 present chapter which might not be cited by 

 the Positivist in confirmation of his opinions as 

 to the limits of philosophical inquiry. The Pos- 

 itive Philosophy is based upon the assertion of 

 the relativity of all knowledge ; and however 

 fatally inadequate may have been its psycholo- 

 gical interpretation of that doctrine, there is no 



* [Fiske would now no longer say of the undulatory theory, 

 in its ancient form, that it is ** finally established," in view of 

 the modifications in the doctrine of the nature of light due to 

 the modern electro-magnetic theory.] 

 192 



