THE PHILOSOPHY OF AUGUSTE COMTE EECONSIDEEED. 257 



is interesting to watch the absolute failure of an attempt to 

 substitute his positiveness of assertion for theology. 



As the writer has said, his religion of nature has proved almost 

 too absurd for discussion ; but it is interesting to remember that 

 it is almost, if not the only, attempt seriously to substitute any- 

 thing- for the theological instinct which is of such tremendous 

 force in human nature. (Applause.) 



Mr. J. Kennedy, B.C.S., &c. — I think that the author of this 

 valuable paper has performed a useful service in pointing out the 

 unfruitfulness of Comte's scientific speculations. Comte classified 

 the sciences according to their complexity and their method : he 

 tried to establish an impassable barrier between each ; and the 

 only unity he admitted was formal rather than real — a uniform 

 process of development according to the " law of the ihree stages " 

 and the employment to a limited, extent of methods appropriate to 

 the simpler sciences in the study of the more complex. Both these 

 grounds are untenable. The author has w^ell shown that Comte's 

 account of the development of the sciences is historically inac- 

 curate : the isolation of the sciences can no longer be maintained ; 

 and Comte's forecast of their future has been signally falsified 

 by tbe result. The sciences have a unity of their own in 

 a much more real sense than Comte realised. I do not think, 

 however, that the value of Comte's work consists in its science, 

 although he sought a scientific basis for it. Comte belonged to 

 the second generation of the French Revolution, and he devoted 

 himself to reconcile the doctrines of the Revolution with what he 

 thought most worthy of preservation in the Ancient Regime. His 

 work was in reality an Eirenicon — a reconciliation of science with 

 religion and with politics ; and in order to do this he constructed 

 the most thoroughgoing and systematic philosophy of agnosticism 

 which the world has seen. I ought perhaps to except Buddhism, 

 with which the Positive Philosophy has many points of contact. 

 Both are agnostic — both lay the greatest stress on morals, (I speak 

 of Buddhism in its purer forms,) and both are hierarchical — though 

 not theocratic. But Buddhism is the wider since it embraces all 

 the animate creation ; and it has in its doctrine of Karma an 

 explanation of the present and a hope for the future which is 

 wanting to the Positive Philosophy. Comte's agnostic philosophy 

 is based on the " law of the three stages." Mankind develops from 

 the theological to the metaphysical, and lastly to the scientific 



