64 FROM COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PARTI 



Paul " the real founder of Catholicism," i.e. of Chris- 

 tianity. 



He not only fixed all these matters, he fixed innu- 

 merable others. Every man of business was to retire 

 at the age of sixty-three, spending the remainder of 

 his days in advising his son how to carry on the 

 business. Every labourer was to own the house he 

 lived in. Every house was to contain seven rooms 

 no more, no less. The labourer's salary was to be 

 100 francs for a month of twenty-eight days, or an 

 equivalent calculated in piece wages. Every treatise 

 was to contain seven chapters, each divided into 

 three parts, each part subdivided into seven sections. 

 Every poem was to contain thirteen cantos, thirteen 

 being another of Comte's sacred numbers. 



But, Quousque tandem ? Have we not had enough 

 of this version of scientific sociology? In point of 

 fact, we find ourselves, under Comte's guidance, in a 

 world of caprice. Biology gives him a parable of 

 moral truth, not a law ; history offers suggestions to 

 the philosopher, but does not control his judgment ; 

 the ideal of altruism, of which he is the prophet, is 

 an unproved and unsafe assumption. A brilliant and 

 erratic man, he rode his hobbies hard, and threw the 

 reins upon the neck of his fancy as he approached 

 the details of conduct. If science is definite, meas- 

 ured, certain in its utterances, then Comte, in spite 

 of his aspirations, is no true scientific leader for the 

 human race. 



