this, for he absolutely proscribes every statement of
a metaphysical nature, and then, three pages farther on, in the very
treatise in which he makes this proscription, he speaks of the
"_eternal_ motive powers of a _boundless_ universe."[48] Boundless!
eternal! What thoughts are these? Behold the instincts of the reason
coming to light! behold all the divine attributes appearing! Adoration
is withdrawn from God, and it is given to the universe at large. What is
it which, in the universe regarded as a whole, will become the direct
object of worship? Another positivist, M. de Lombrail, will tell us, in
a work reviewed by Auguste Comte: "Man," he says, "has always adored
humanity." Here, we learn, is the true foundation of all religions, and
the brief summary of their history. This humanity-god has been long
adored under a veil which disguised it from the eyes of its worshippers;
but the time is come when the sage ought to recognize the object of his
worship and give it its true name.[49]

The positivist school, then, professes a complete scepticism with regard
to whatever is not included in the domain of experience. But its foot
slips, and it falls into the negation of God, from which it rises again
by means of a humanitarian atheism. All these marks are met with again
in the works of the critical school.

The critics group themselves about M. Renan. The praises which they
lavished a while ago on a bad book by that author seem at least to allow
us to point him out as their chief. They derive their name from studies
in history and archaeology, with which we here have nothing to do. They
are regarded as forming a philosophical and religious school, and it is
in that connection that they claim our attention. Their influence is
incontestable, and still, notwithstanding, their doctrinal value is
nothing. They form merely a literary branch of the positivist school
engrafted upon the eclecticism of M. Cousin. We find in their writings
the pretension to limit science to the experimental study of nature and
to humanity. We afterwards find there the pretension to understand and
to accept all doctrines alike. Beyond this, nothing. The critics bestow
particular attention on the phenomena of religion, of art, and of
philosophy; but this interest is purely historical. Nothing is more
curious than the successive forms of human beliefs; but the period of
beliefs is over. Religious faith no longer subsists except in minds
which are behi