ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND COSMISM 



be acknowledged as strictly accurate by M. 

 Littre, and indeed expresses neither more nor 

 less than that which Comte sought to express 

 when he defined the perfection of the positive 

 system to be the contemplation of all observable 

 phenomena as particular cases of a single gen- 

 eral fact, and omitted to add that this single 

 fact must be alleged of some Existence of which 

 all observable phenomena are manifestations. 

 The " positive " stage of philosophizing is, 

 therefore, something which never did exist and 

 which never will exist. The " positive " method 

 of philosophizing is simply an impossibility. 

 The fundamental principle upon which the 

 Positive Philosophy rests is the refusal to affirm 

 that of which the affirmation is the fundamental 

 principle of all knowledge, of all science, and 

 of that Cosmic Philosophy which is the sum- 

 ming up of science. 



Thus, since Comte's positive stage must be 

 set aside altogether, and since his metaphysical 

 stage and his theological stage alike end in 

 positing Absolute Existence as the source of 

 phenomenal existence, this being also the fun- 

 damental postulate made by science, the three 

 stages vanish altogethero As we saw, in our 

 second chapter, that from lowest to highest the. 

 process of knowing is essentially one and the 

 same, we now see that from beginning to end 

 the progress of that kind of knowledge which 

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