PHILOSOPHY AS AN ORGANON 



the scope of philosophy owes its origin ; and 

 we need find no difficulty in believing Dr. 

 Bridges when he says that the Doctrine of Evo- 

 lution would have appeared to his master quite 

 as chimerical as the theories by which Thales 

 and other Greek cosmogonists " sought to de- 

 duce all things from the principle of Water or 

 of Fire." 



Thus in a way that one would hardly have 

 anticipated, we have disclosed a fundamental 

 and pervading difference between the Positive 

 and the Cosmic conceptions of philosophy. The 

 apparently subordinate inquiry into Comte's 

 reasons for excluding Logic from his scheme 

 of sciences, has elicited an answer which gravely 

 affects our estimate of his whole system of 

 thought. That his conception of Philosophy as 

 an Organon was a noble conception, there is no 

 doubt ; but that it was radically different from 

 our conception of Philosophy as a Synthesis, 

 is equally undeniable. But the full depth and 

 significance of this distinction will only be ap- 

 preciated when, in the following chapter, we 

 shall have pointed out the end or purpose for 

 which this scientific Organon was devised. 



IOI 



