PHILOSOPHY AS AN ORGANON 



that the tale, if we could only read it, would 

 far excel in strangeness anything in the " Ara- 

 bian Nights " or in the mystic pages of the 

 Bollandists. 



But Comte did not understand all this. 

 He, the great overthrower and superseder of 

 metaphysics, did not really apprehend the 

 distinction between metaphysics and science. 

 Hence every hypothesis which went a little 

 way beyond the limited science of his day he 

 wrongly stigmatized as " metaphysical." Hence 

 he heaped contumely upon the cell-doctrine, 

 only three years before Schwann and Schleiden 

 finally established it. And hence, when he had 

 occasion to observe that certain facts were not 

 yet known, he generally added, " and probably 

 they never will be," — though his prophecy was 

 not seldom confuted, while yet warm from the 

 press. 



Toward the close of his life, after he had be- 

 come sacerdotally inclined, this tendency as- 

 sumed a moral aspect. These remote and au- 

 dacious inquiries into the movements of stars, 

 and the development of cellular tissue, and the 

 origin of species should not only be pronounced 

 fruitless, but should be frowned upon and dis- 

 countenanced by public opinion, as a pernicious 

 waste of time and energy, which might better 

 be devoted to nearer and more practical objects. 

 It is a curious illustration of the effects of dis- 

 vol. ii 97 



