COSMISM AND POSITIVISM 



substitute for intelligent criticism in the insinu- 

 ation that this doctrine of relativity is a device 

 of the Positivists, who refuse to admit the ex- 

 istence of God, and worship Humanity " sym- 

 bolized as a woman of thirty, with a child in her 

 arms." In similar wise the ardent disciple of 

 Comte — who, so far as my experience goes, is 

 not unlikely to be quite as narrow-minded as 

 any theologian — is wont to claim all contem- 

 porary scientific thinkers as the intellectual off- 

 spring of his master, until their openly expressed 

 dissent has reduced him to the alternative of 

 stigmatizing them as " metaphysical ; " very 

 much as the Pope lays claim to the possession 

 of all duly baptized Christians, 1 save those whom 

 it has become necessary to excommunicate and 

 give over to the Devil. 



But aside from these circumstances, which 

 partly explain the popular tendency to classify 

 all scientific thinkers as Positivists, it is not to 

 be denied that there are really plausible reasons 

 why the Positive Philosophy should currently 

 be regarded as representative of that whole genus 

 of contemporary thinking which repudiates the 

 subjective method, and, as Mr. Spencer says, 

 " prefers proved facts to superstitions." As I 

 have already shown, it was Comte who first 

 inaugurated a scheme of philosophy explicitly 



1 See the amusing letter of Pius IX. to the Emperor of Ger- 

 many, dated August 7, 1873. 



103 



