COSMIC PHILOSOPHY 



son of the wide range of its practical applica- 

 tions, that we shall be greatly helped — as we 

 have already on many occasions been helped — 

 by contrasting our own view with that Comtean 

 view which superficially resembles it. When 

 we have noticed th-e two great errors — both of 

 them due to imperfect apprehension of the na- 

 ture of evolution, which left Comte, in spite of 

 himself, in an attitude of hostility both to the 

 current Christian theology and to the existing 

 framework of society, we shall have virtually 

 illustrated, with satisfactory clearness, our own 

 conservative point of view. 



In the chapter on Anthropomorphism and 

 Cosmism the first of the two fatal errors of Pos- 

 itivism was elaborately described and criticised. 

 It was shown that, although by his theory of 

 the three stages Comte announced his philoso- 

 phy as a continuous development from older 

 theological philosophies, and although he de- 

 clared himself determined not to break with the 

 past, yet nevertheless his expHcit ignoring of 

 Deity constituted in itself a breach with the past 

 which no amount of continuity in other respects 

 could remedy or atone for. We saw that, in 

 spite of their numberless superficial differences, 

 all historic religions have been at one in the af- 

 firmation of a Supreme Power upon which man 

 is dependent ; and we saw that with respect to 

 this affirmation our Cosmic Philosophy is as 

 342 



I 



