ness of temperament, have proved too powerful for the sentimentalities of the system; he is barely kept from laughing, we are afraid, at the absurdities of the 'Catéchisme Positiviste,' which Mr Congreve has not thought unworthy of an English dress; but he has probably done more than any other Englishman to make known the general principles of Positivism, and to commend them, on repeated occasions, by a facile, copious, and attractive style of exposition. We shall do no injustice to the system, therefore, if we associate it with Mr Lewes's name, and found our strictures, in some degree, on his statements. The literature of Positivism is now considerable both in France and England, and the reader may study it in many forms. We do not advise him to have recourse to any secondary sources of information ; though even the earnest student may be in some degree excused if he turn away from the more elaborate works of M. Comte himself. There are few authors, upon the whole, harder to read, and whose ideas suffer less from sifting and explanation at the hands of others. Possessed of great force of intellect, with a marvellous genius for scientific method, and a powerful faculty of co-ordinating knowledge from his own point of view; endowed, moreover, with a luminous insight into the true meaning of scientific ideas, and their fruitful relations to one another, M. Comte is withal singularly monotonous both as a thinker and writer. There is an inexpressible tedium in many of his lengthened elaborations; and while his general meaning is seldom obscure or doubtful, there is often a painful perplexity in catching his special trains of thought, and seeing how they link themselves to one another. The difficulty is not to apprehend his characteristic ideas, which are easily mastered, and reappear incessantly in all his works; but to follow the frequently dim outline with which he advances step by step to many of his special conclusions, and to trace throughout any clear movement of argument. While claiming to be a rigorous logician, and to keep closely in his first great work, the Cours de Philosophie Positive,' to the province of objective fact, he is yet arbitrary and deductive in the highest degree. He peremptorily puts aside whatever does not suit his purpose, and leaves the reader at once excited by his generalisations, and suspicious of their accuracy and worth. There is no lack of rich suggestions in all his works, even the latest; but there is a constant lack of that sense, moderation, width of outline, and capacity of appreciating the opinions of others, which alone inspire confidence and yield rational conviction. If we try to penetrate beneath his dogmatism, and trace its logical affinities, and the relations of his thought to other systems, we make but a little way when we are left groping amidst the old generalities, which are to him an everlasting gospel, the converse of all that has hitherto made a gospel for man. Never certainly was there a writer more inflated by a few ideas-of transcending importance, no doubt, if true, but which he everywhere assumes, and never stops to prove or vindicate. This prophetic manner, with a certain vague pomposity of statement which is its natural expression, is noticeable even in his early volumes in dealing with the subject which was his special forte, and for which he had really an eminent faculty-the rational and historic sequence of scientific ideas. of scientific ideas. In all his later writings it is painfully conspicuous. Only some familiarity with them, and the rich though broken lights of truth which they reveal amidst masses of astounding self-assertion and even downright nonsense, as well as some genuine respect for the moral earnestness of the writer, render them tolerable. To the majority of readers they must be unintelligible, and even where understood, unattractive. In order to understand Positivism, and appreciate the course of its development, it will be useful so far to follow Mr Lewes's plan, and devote a portion of our space to a review of the life of M. Comte. In this, as in other cases, great light is thrown upon the system by some knowledge of its author. The facts of his life are now fully disclosed in M. Littré's well-known work,1 upon which Mr Lewes's summary professes partly to be based. The "Préface Personelle," prefixed to the sixth volume of the 'Cours de Philosophie Positive,' is also of special significance. There can be no better insight into the character of the author than the portrait which he has there drawn of himself, and of his difficulties in the preparation of his great work. Auguste Comte was the child of an extremely Royalist and Catholic family in the south of France. He was born at Montpellier on the 19th January 1798. His father was a treasurer of taxes in the department of Hérault. We learn little of his father's character, or indeed of his mother's, beyond her enthusiastic zeal for Catholicism, to which he himself alludes,2 and which showed itself obtrusively at a painful crisis of his life. She was "noble and tender," 1 Auguste Comte et la Philosophie Positive. Paris: 1863. as he thought of her in after-years, but neither parent appears to have greatly attracted or influenced his youth. At the age of nine, Auguste was entered as a pupil in the Lycée of his native town. He was a slight and delicate child, without being sickly. He very soon showed remarkable powers, distinguishing himself both by his intelligence and industry. He was always in advance with his studies. He cared little for the amusements of his companions, but freely mingled with them, and was greatly beloved by them. He was docile and full of veneration for his professors, but in other respects questioning and insubordinate. His professors in turn were proud of him, while the authorities of the school and his tutors tried in vain to restrain and hold him in obedience. The same character distinguished him through his whole scholastic career. He readily submitted to moral or intellectual superiority, but he carried to a daring pitch his defiance of mere rule. He was ready for the École Polytechnique a year before the regulations permitted his entry. He spent the time in adding to his mathematical knowledge, not only by further study, but by lecturing on the subject under the wing of one of the professors to whom he was attached, and to whom he afterwards dedicated one of his books. Seated," says M. Littré, "on a high chair by the side of the professor, M. Encontre, a mathematician of great distinction, he gave to the pupils, himself still a pupil, a course of mathematics." Even before this time, he says 1 that his mind had been awakened to the political and social problems of his time, and the necessity of meeting 1 Préface Personelle, p. vi. them by some new philosophical method. Obviously the strength and independence of his intelligence were of a rare order. In the end of 1814, he began his studies at the École Polytechnique; and there he maintained his reputation for capacity, although he did not stand so high at the end of his first year as might have been expected from the promise of his initial examination. This was in some degree owing to the growth of his habits of insubordination, which were destined ere long to bring him into serious difficulty. In the course of his second session, one of the masters had offended the junior students by his manner; the older pupils sympathised with their companions, and together they decided that the master was unworthy to continue in his office. They drew out a document to this effect, and sent it to the offender. Comte was its author, and his name stood first in the list of signatures attached to it. The result was, that the school was disbanded, and our young philosopher's career suddenly arrested. He returned to Montpellier for a brief period; but the restraints of a home life had no charm for him. Before the end of 1816 he was again in Paris, where he began the life to which, with a brief intermission, he ultimately devoted himself. He was left without resources; his parents, displeased with his independent course of action, refused to assist him; and he chose, as he says, spontaneously the function of teaching mathematics as that for which his special abilities fitted him. He was befriended by two distinguished men of science,-Poinsot, who had been one of his professors at the École Polytechnique, 1 Préface Personelle, p. xi. |