io8 Chauncey Wright. [vi. 



from all such kinds of extra-rational solicitation Mr. 

 Wright most completely realised the ideal of the 

 positive philosopher. His positivism was an affair of 

 temperament as much as of conviction ; and he illus- 

 trates afresh the profound truth of Goethe's remark 

 that a man's philosophy is but the expression of his 

 personality. In his simplicity of life, serenity of 

 mood, and freedom from mental or material wants, 

 he well exemplified the principles and practice of 

 Epikuros ; and he died as peacefully as he had lived, 

 — on a summer's night, sitting at his desk with his 

 papers before him. 



It is a bitter thing to lose a thinker of this mould, 

 just in the prime vigour of life, and at a time when 

 the growing habit of writing seemed to be making 

 authorship easier and pleasanter, so that in years to 

 come we were likely to have had even richer and 

 brighter thoughts from the pen that must now for 

 ever lie idle. The general flavour of Mr. Wright's 

 philosophy — unsystematic, but fruitful in hints — may 

 be gathered well enough from the papers which 

 Mr. Norton has carefully collected in this memorial 

 volume. But the best that can now be done in 

 the way of editing will give but an inadequate im- 

 pression of Chauncey Wright to those who have not 



