ch. ix.] PHILOSOPHY AS AN OEGANON 247 



admirable definition ; bnt it is not the definition of Philo- 

 sophy, it is the definition of Logic. If we were to accept it 

 as a definition of philosophy, we might admit that Comte con- 

 structed a philosophy ; as it is, we can only admit that he 

 constructed a logic, or general theory of methods. In the 

 present chapter we have seen how valuable were his contri- 

 butions to the logic of induction. We may admit, with Mr. 

 Mill, that he treats this subject " with a degree of perfection 

 hitherto unrivalled," — save (I should say) by Mr. Mill him- 

 self. But an Organon of Methods is one thing, and a Syn- 

 thesis of Doctrines is another thing ; and a system of 

 philosophy which is to be regarded as a comprehensive 

 theory of the universe must include both. Yet Comte never 

 attempted any other synthesis than that wretched travesty 

 which, with reference to the method employed in it, is aptly 

 entitled " Synthase Subjective." 



Not only does Comte thus practically ignore the conception 

 of philosophy as a Synthesis of the most general truths of 

 science into a body of universal truths relating to the 

 Cosmos as a whole, but there is reason to believe that had 

 such a conception been distinctly brought before his mind, 

 he would have explicitly condemned it as chimerical. In 

 illustration of this I shall, at the risk of apparent digression, 

 cite one of his conspicuous shortcomings which is peculiarly 

 interesting, not only as throwing light upon his intellectual 

 habits, but also as exemplifying the radical erroneousness of 

 his views concerning the limits of philosophic inquiry. Prof. 

 Huxley calls attention to Comte's scornful repudiation of 

 what is known as the " cell-doctrine " in anatomy and phy- 

 siology. Comte characterized this doctrine as a melancholy 

 instance of the abuse of microscopic investigation, a chimeri- 

 cal attempt to refer all tissues to a single primordial tissue, 

 " formed by the unintelligible assemblage of a sort of organic 

 monads, which are supposed to be the ultimate units of every 

 living body." Now this " chimerical doctrine " is at the 



