COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



and that, in particular, the metaphysical method 

 is merely a modification of the theological 

 method. 



The truth is, however, that the so-called 

 " Law of the Three Stages " was an empirical 

 generalization from the facts of history, and that, 

 with his customary indifference to psychological 

 interpretations, Comte did not concern himself 

 with the character of the mental processes in- 

 volved in the speculative progression which he 

 sought to formulate. What Comte really saw 

 was, that men, when they first began to specu- 

 late upon the phenomena of nature, imagined 

 behind every phenomenon, save possibly a few 

 of the most familiar ones, an impelling will, like 

 the human will ; that, as the anthropomorphic 

 character of this conception slowly faded away, 

 it left the conception of a hidden Power or pow- 

 ers, to ascertain the nature of which was long 

 supposed to be the legitimate business of phi- 

 losophy ; and that, lastly, with the further pro- 

 gress of thought, philosophy must give up the 

 attempt to ascertain the nature of this hidden 

 Power or powers, and concern itself solely with 

 coexistences and sequences among phenomena. 

 All this is true so far as it goes, its confirmation 

 being written on every page of history. Never- 

 theless all this is but one side of the truth. The 

 truth has another side, which Comte never saw, 

 and which no writer of the Positivist school has 

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