ANTHROPOMORPHISM AND COSMISM 



its minor statements, we can have no hesitation 

 in admitting Comte's generalization to be thor- 

 oughly valid. It isj for example, a historical 

 fact that monotheism was preceded by poly- 

 theism, and that polytheism was preceded by 

 fetishism ; as indeed it was a psychological ne- 

 cessity that it should be so. Nor need we have 

 any scruples about grouping these various forms 

 of anthropomorphism under the general title of 

 theology ; or about employing the term " met- 

 aphysics " to designate that imperfect phase 

 of science in which the necessity for verifica- 

 tion is not yet recognized, and in which the 

 limits to philosophic inquiry are as yet undeter- 

 mined. It was in this sense that the term was 

 defined in our fifth chapter, and it was in this 

 sense that Newton used it in his famous objur- 

 gation, " O Physics, beware of Metaphysics ! " 

 The term, as thus defined, as well as the term 

 " theology,** belongs to the general vocabulary 

 of modern philosophy ; and in using the two, 

 we in no wise tacitly commit ourselves to the 

 untenable hypothesis of the "Three Stages," 

 while at the same time we are thereby enabled 

 the better to sum up the facts which seemed to 

 Comte to justify his generalization. 



Premising this, we may proceed to gather 



our illustrations of the deanthropomorphizing 



process. And first let us note that theology, 



metaphysics, and science all have their common 



261 



