1 882.] 
Analyses of Books . 683 
when already tottering to its fall, and closing his eyes in biology 
to the dawn of Evolutionism. We may well ask, Can this man, 
so devoid of philosophic insight, be the imagined law-giver and 
prophet of Science — the man who was to do for the nineteenth 
century more than Bacon had done for the seventeenth — but 
who, instead, has merely founded a new seCt ? 
On one point Mr. Constable is in error. He says : “ Most 
Comtists believe in Darwin's theories.” Not so ; like Comte 
himself, Robin, his successor in the pseudo-papacy, and their 
followers are adherents of the Old Natural History, G. H. Lewes 
being perhaps the only exception of moment. Positivism, con- 
trary to what a hasty reader of the “ Philosophic Positive ” might 
infer, is not merely unscientific but anti-scientific in its tendencies. 
It formally boasts of setting limits to the “ inroads of Science,” 
and should it ever possess the power, it has the will to take up 
the role of her enemy and persecutor. We can forgive Mr. Con- 
stable a multitude of sins for his hearty, honest loathing of 
Positivism and its cant. 
John Stuart Mill is also somewhat severely dealt with. He is 
described as a “ sort of a decorous Voltaire, but without the 
charming wit of the latter.” But we think that the author errs 
in taking either Comte or Mill as types of men of science. They 
were no such thing. They were essentially readers, men of 
books and paper, not observers and experimentalists — men of 
things. It is a great mistake to assume, as does Mr. Constable, 
that even the “ third rate man of science ” — an expression re- 
peated more frequently in these volumes than we have time to 
count — is rendered torpid by analysis. Whenever they meet 
with moderately fair play, that is, when they are neither burnt at 
the stake, imprisoned, nor caused to perish for want of the 
common necessaries of life, they rank among the happiest 
members of society. In some minds the hunger and thirst for 
knowledge, for truth, is a consuming passion, quite independently 
of any advantage which may accrue to themselves from their 
discoveries or inventions. Only those who have felt this passion 
can judge of the intense gratification which scientific discovery 
affords. 
What must we say to this passage ? — “ We often see that the 
man who works with unceasing brain-work, and does nothing 
else, though he may learn to perform marvellous gymnastic feats 
with his intellect, pays a fearfully heavy price. Gradually, as the 
years pass, he freezes and hardens. Natural affections vanish. 
His soul, if ever he had one, flies away, and he is left, a piece of 
wonderful machinery, warm as ice and soft as flint. Still he 
sometimes does work that the world wants.” Here, again, we 
have proof that Mr. Constable does not know the man of science. 
Let him look at Darwin, engaged in research and discovery from 
his youth up to within a few hours of his death. Yet everyone 
knows that he was kindly, gentle, beloved, and happy in his 
