ch. ix.] PHILOSOPHY AS AN OEGANON. 249 



eulated the proper motion, of at least one or two fixed stars, 

 we cannot be certain even that the law of gravitation holds 

 in these distant regions. And the distance of a star we shall 

 probably never be able even approximately to estimate. Thus 

 wrote Comte in 1835. But events, with almost malicious 

 rapidity, falsified his words. In less than four years, Bessel 

 had measured the parallax of the star 61 Cygni, — the 

 first of a brilliant series of discoveries which by this time 

 have made the starry heavens comparatively familiar ground 

 to us. What would Comte's scorn have been, had it been 

 suggested to him that within a third of a century we should 

 possess many of the data for a science of stellar chemistry ; 

 that we should be able to say, for instance, that Aldebaran 

 contains sodium, magnesium, calcium, iron, bismuth, and 

 antimony, or that all the stars hitherto observed with the 

 spectroscope contain hydrogen, save /3 Pegasi and a Orionis, 

 which apparently do not ! Or what would he have said, had 

 it been told him that, by the aid of the same instrument 

 which now enables us to make with perfect confidence 

 these audacious assertions, we should be able to determine 

 the proper motions of stars which present no parallax ! No 

 example could more forcibly illustrate the rashness of pro- 

 phetically setting limits to the possible future advance of 

 science. Here are truths which, within the memory of young 

 men, seemed wholly out of the reach of observation, but 

 which are already familiar, and will soon become an old 

 story. 



I believe it was Comte's neglect of psychological analysis 

 which caused him to be thus over-conservative in accepting 

 new discoveries, and over-confident in setting limits to 

 scientific achievement. He did not clearly distinguish be- 

 tween the rashness of metaphysics and the well-founded 

 boldness of science. He was deeply impressed with the 

 futility of wasting time and mental energy in constructing 

 unverifiable hypotheses; but he did not sufficiently distin- 



