SUBJECTIVE AND OBJECTIVE METHODS 



the human mind and the limitations of thought ! 

 This is the wonderful philosophy which is 

 thought worthy to take the place of the vain 

 inquiries which scientific men still obstinately 

 persist in making, into the motions of the stars, 

 the undulations of atoms, and the development 

 of organic life upon the globe ! 



Thus we might go on citing page after page 

 of the most extravagant vagaries ever conceived 

 outside of Bedlam ; or, remembering the many- 

 valuable services for which mankind must ever 

 be grateful to Comte, we might less harshly, 

 and not less truly, call them the most mourn- 

 ful exhibition furnished by the annals of phi- 

 losophy, of a great mind utterly shattered and 

 ruined. Mr. Lewes rejects somewhat vehe- 

 mently the suggestion of M. Littre, that these 

 wild fancies are evidence of actual insanity.^' 

 For my own part, I do not see what there is 

 unsound or uncharitable in M. Littre's sugges- 

 tion. The only healthful activity of the mind 

 is an objective activity, in which there is as lit- 

 tle brooding over self as possible. The less we 

 think of ourselves, and the more we think of 

 our work, the better. Dwelling on subjective 

 fancies rarely fails to throw the mind out of 

 balance ; it is at the bottom of all religious 

 melancholia and suicidal monomania, as well as 

 of many other forms of cerebral disease. For a 

 ^ History of Philosophy y 3d edition, vol. ii. p. 583. 

 209 



