COSMIC THEISM 



ings sufficiently strong : but this is exactly the 

 point on which a doubt can hardly remain in 

 an intelligent reader of Comte ; and we join 

 with him in contemning, as equally irrational 

 and mean, the conception of human nature as 

 incapable of giving its love and devoting its ex- 

 istence to any object which cannot afford in 

 exchange an eternity of personal enjoyment." ^ 

 With the general tenour of this passage I heart- 

 ily agree. I have no sympathy with those critics 

 who maintain that the idea of Humanity is an 

 unworthy idea, incapable of calling forth to a 

 high degree our sentiments of devotion and rev- 

 erence. No doubt, as the Comtists tell us, the 

 majestic grandeur of which that idea is suscep- 

 tible can be realized only after long and pro- 

 found contemplation. And we may perhaps 

 admit, with Mr. Mill, that "ascending into the 

 unknown recesses of the past, embracing the 

 manifold present, and descending into the in- 

 definite and unforeseeable future, forming a col- 

 lective Existence without assignable beginning 

 or end, it appeals to that feeling of the Infinite 

 which is deeply rooted in human nature." We 

 may still further admit that all morality may be 

 summed up in the disinterested service of the 

 human race, — such being, as already shown 

 (Part II. chapter xxii.), the fundamental princi- 

 ple of the ethical philosophy which is based on 

 ^ Mill, Auguste Comte and Pcs{twismt p. 122. 



VOL. IV 2,41 



