SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE METHODS 



Yet to show that I have by no means exag- 

 gerated the perversity of Comte's position, Jet 

 me cite a page from Mr. Mill. "Among all 

 the aberrations of scientific men, Comte thinks 

 none greater than the pedantic anxiety they 

 show for complete proof, and perfect rationali- 

 zation of scientific processes. It ought to be 

 enough that the doctrines afford an explanation 

 of phenomena, consistent with itself and with 

 known facts, and that the processes are justified 

 by their fruits. This over-anxiety for proof, 

 he complains, is breaking down by vain scru- 

 ples the knowledge which seemed to have been 

 obtained ; witness the present state of chemis- 

 try [in 1854]. The demand of proof for what 

 has been accepted by Humanity ... is a re- 

 volt against the traditions of the human race. 

 So early had the new High Priest adopted the 

 feelings and taken up the inheritance of the 

 old." Mr. Mill goes on to remark upon the 

 new sense in which he began to employ his 

 famous aphorism that " the empire of the dead 

 over the living continually increases." " As is 

 not uncommon with him, he introduces the dic- 

 tum in one sense and uses it in another. What 

 he at first means by it is, that as civilization 

 advances, the sum of our possessions, physical 

 and intellectual, is due in a decreasing propor- 

 tion to ourselves, and in an increasing one to 

 our progenitors. The use he makes of it is, 

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