CHAP, in THE APPEAL TO BIOLOGY 35 



and its no less characteristic unselfishness ; but his 

 doctrine, as we shall see, is profoundly unsatisfac- 

 tory, and his appeal to biology is a counsel of despair. 

 Instead of saying, " On to the fuller development of 

 reason and goodness, for the cure of the ills under 

 which we groan," Comte says rather, " Back to the 

 life of sense, in which these ills had not yet emerged." 

 Comtism ignores the idiosyncrasy of man as a ra- 

 tional being ; hedonism at any rate recognises it in 

 however perverted a form. We must seek to attain 

 some worthier recognition of the great fact. Biology 

 is indeed a parable of the moral life, but still it is only 

 a parable. The resemblances are counterpoised by 

 immense differences. When these differences are 

 neglected an appeal to biology in the interest of 

 morals becomes a piece of mere improved assumption. 

 And Comte is more dependent on this appeal than 

 he ever clearly admits. He is more dependent on it 

 than his principles quite warrant. The only fashion 

 in which Comte is able to say " You ought " is in 

 the formula, " Society is an organism." Other 

 sociologists have other reasons for making the appeal 

 to biology ; it stands for this in Comte. And there- 

 fore this appeal in Comte is not a scientific state- 

 ment of fact, but rather, a rudimentary and defective 

 form of the moral judgment, valuable, no doubt, 

 but valuable upon the principle which makes the 

 one-eyed man king of the blind. 



NOTE A. On "Natural Law in the Spiritual World" 



[The appeal to biology has been traced in a dif- 

 ferent quarter, in the lamented Henry Drummond's 



