.r.9. COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. in. 



irrational and mean, the conception of human nature as in- 

 capable of giving its love and devoting its existence to any 

 object which cannot afford in exchange an eternity of per- 

 sonal enjoyment." ^ With the general tenour of this passage 

 I heartily 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 senti- 

 ments of devotion and reverence. No doubt, as the Comtists 

 tell us, the majestic grandeur of which that idea is susceptible 

 can be realized only after long and profound contemplation. 

 And we may perhaps admit, with Mr. Mill, that "ascend- 

 ing into the unknown recesses of the past, embracing the 

 manifold present, and descending into the indefinite and 

 unforeseeable future, forming a collective 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. chap, xxii.), the funda- 

 mental principle of the ethical philosophy which is based 

 on the Doctrine of Evolution. And it is, moreover, easy 

 to sympathize with the feeling which led Comte formally to 

 consecrate the memories of the illustrious dead, whose 

 labours have made us what we are ; that " communion of 

 saints, unseen yet not unreal," as Carlyle nobly expresses 

 it, " whose heroic sufferings rise up melodiously together 

 unto Heaven, out of all times and out of all lands, as a 

 sacred Miserere ; their heroic actions also, as a boundless 

 everlasting Psalm of triumph." This intense feeling of 

 the community of the human race, this " enthusiasm of 

 Humanity," as the author of " Ecce Homo " calls it, forms 

 a very considerable part of Christianity when stripped of 

 its mythology, and is o ne of the characteristics which chiefly 

 * Mill, Augusts Comte and Positi\-ism, p. 122. 



