256 J. W. SLATER, ESQ., ON 



expending one of the best years of my life without gleaumg 

 an idea or a hint of any service, I cannot but regard him as a 

 false prophet. Into his bogus religion, the worship of human 

 nature in the abstract, I do not enter. It is too ridiculous for 

 discussion. 



The Chairman (D. Howard, Esq., D.L.). — We have to thank the 

 author for his very interesting resume of Comtian plulosophy. 

 Many modern writers know very little about it ; but with those 

 who are old enough to remember the fascinating writings of 

 G. H. Lewes on philosophy, to whom it really did appear as if in 

 this Comtian philosophy there was abundant reality and great 

 promise, it is well to look back and find how entirely what was 

 accepted by many men of the most superior minds as being (even 

 apart from the substitution of his philosophy for religion, but 

 from a philosophical point of view) almost a revelation, has failed 

 to produce any result. I think there is a lesson of humility in 

 this with regard to the acceptance of new theoiics which have not 

 had time fully to test themselves. It is fair to claim for any new 

 theory of philosophy a sort — if I may use the word in its literal and 

 philological sense — of prophetic power. When we consider how 

 the ideas of Newton have worked into almost every department of 

 modern science without alteration, it demands our admiration. 

 The only great alteration that has been made is the uudulatory 

 theory instead of emission of light, which is, after all, a com- 

 paratively small matter. Again, if we take the more modern 

 developments of science and the great developments of human 

 thought, the Comtia,n theory has shown itself peculiarly barren, 

 and it is wonderful to look back and see how little has been done 

 and how little influence upon human thought it has had. 



There is this point, which the writer of the paper has left out, I 

 think, viz., that it was an attempt to substitute something else for 

 "a theological frame of mind," to use Comte's own expression. 

 Taking " a theological frame of mind " in his very wide sense, it 



