COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



have been legitimately evolved from the con- 

 ception of the aims and scope of philosophy 

 which he had framed in early life, at the very 

 outset of his speculations. The thinker who 

 from the beginning consistently occupied the 

 anthropocentric point of view, who regarded 

 philosophy, not as a unified theory of the Cos- 

 mos, but as a unified theory of Man, who de- 

 preciated the development theory and the study 

 of sidereal astronomy as interfering with his an- 

 thropocentric notions, and to whom the starry 

 heavens declared no glory save that of finite 

 men, arrived ultimately at the deification of 

 Humanity. Comte " refers the obligations of 

 duty, as well as all sentiments of devotion, to 

 a concrete object, at once ideal and real — the 

 Human Race, conceived as a continuous whole, 

 including the past, the present, and the future." 

 " It may not be consonant to usage," observes 

 Mr. Mill, " to call this a religion ; but the term, 

 so applied, has a meaning, and one which is not 

 adequately expressed by any other word. Can- 

 did persons of all creeds may be willing to ad- 

 mit that if a person has an ideal object, his 

 attachment and sense of duty towards which are 

 able to control and discipline all his other sen- 

 timents and propensities, and prescribe to him 

 a rule of life, that person has a religion. . . . 

 Many indeed may be unable to believe that 

 this object is capable of gathering around it feel- 

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