240 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. l 



Positive." It has since been surpassed and superseded in 

 many respects by Mr. Mill's "System of Logic;" but Mr. Mill 

 would be the first to admit that, but for the work of Comte, 

 his own work would have been by no means what it is. l 



Comte's most important innovation consisted in com- 

 prehensively assigning to each class of phenomena its 

 appropriate method of investigation, and in clearly marking 

 out the limits within which each method is applicable. It is 

 this which gives to the first three volumes of the" Philosophie 

 Positive " the character of a general treatise on scientific 

 method, and which makes them still interesting and profitable 

 reading, even in those chapters on physics, chemistry and 

 biology, which in nearly all other respects the recent revolu- 

 tions in science have rendered thoroughly antiquated. Comte 

 intended this portion of his work especially for a new 

 Organon of scientific research, which should influence 

 educational methods in the future, as well as assist in 

 determining the general conception of the universe. Pie 

 calls attention to the futility of approaching the most com- 

 plicated phenomena, such as those of life, individual or 

 social, without having previously, by the study of the simpler 

 sciences, learned what a law of nature is, what a scientific 

 conception is, what is involved in making an accurate observa- 

 tion, what is requisite to a sound generalization, what are 

 the various means of verifying conclusions obtained by 

 deduction. Continually we witness the spectacle of scientific 

 specialists, justly eminent in their own department of research, 

 who do not scruple to utter the most childish nonsense upon 

 topics with which they are but slightly acquainted. The 

 reason is that they have learned to think correctly after some 

 particular fashion, but know too little of the general principles 

 on which thinking should be conducted. In such a con- 

 dition — owing to the discredit which the manifest failure of 

 metaphysics has for the time being cast upon philosophy in 



1 This is perhaps too strongly stated. See Mill's Autobiography, pp. 

 207-213, 245. 



