VI.] Chauncey Wright. 103 



himself as a positivist, but more often called himself 

 a Lucretian, — the difference between the two desig- 

 nations being, perhaps, not great. As a champion 

 of Lucretius, I remember his once making a sharp 

 attack upon Anaxagoras for introducing creative 

 design into the universe in order to bring coherence 

 out of chaos. What need, he argued, to imagine a 

 supernatural agency in order to get rid of primeval 

 chaos, when we have no reason to believe that the 

 primeval chaos ever had an existence save as a fig- 

 ment of the metaphysician ! To assume that the 

 present orderly system of relations among things 

 ever emerged from an antecedent state of disorder is, 

 as he justly maintained, a wholly arbitrary and un- 

 warrantable proceeding. No one could ask for a 

 simpler or more incisive criticism upon that crude 

 species of theism which represents the Deity as a 

 power outside the universe which coerces it into 

 orderly behaviour. 



Although, like all consistent positivists, Mr. Wright 

 waged unceasing war against Mr. Spencer's system of 

 philosophy, there was yet one portion of the doctrine 

 of evolution which found in him a most eminent and 

 efficient defender. In spite of his objections to 

 evolution in general, Mr. Wright thoroughly appre- 

 ciated and warmly espoused the Darwinian theory of 



