rly unjustifiable to ascribe to
me base motives for stating a man's doctrines, as nearly as may be, in
his own words!

My readers would hardly be interested were I to follow Mr. Congreve any
further, or I might point out that the fact of his not having heard me
lecture is hardly a safe ground for his speculations as to what I do not
teach. Nor do I feel called upon to give any opinion as to M. Comte's
merits or demerits as regards sociology. Mr. Mill (whose competence to
speak on these matters I suppose will not be questioned, even by Mr.
Congreve) has dealt with M. Comte's philosophy from this point of view,
with a vigour and authority to which I cannot for a moment aspire; and
with a severity, not unfrequently amounting to contempt, which I have
not the wish, if I had the power, to surpass. I, as a mere student in
these questions, am content to abide by Mr. Mill's judgment until some
one shows cause for its reversal, and I decline to enter into a
discussion which I have not provoked.

The sole obligation which lies upon me is to justify so much as still
remains without justification of what I have written respecting
Positivism--namely, the opinion expressed in the following paragraph:--

"In so far as my study of what specially characterises the Positive
Philosophy has led me, I find therein little or nothing of any
scientific value, and a great deal which is as thoroughly
antagonistic to the very essence of science as any thing in
ultramontane Catholicism."

Here are two propositions: the first, that the "Philosophie Positive"
contains little or nothing of any scientific value; the second, that
Comtism is, in spirit, anti-scientific. I shall endeavour to bring
forward ample evidence in support of both.

I. No one who possesses even a superficial acquaintance with physical
science can read Comte's "Lecons" without becoming aware that he was at
once singularly devoid of real knowledge on these subjects, and
singularly unlucky. What is to be thought of the contemporary of Young
and of Fresnel, who never misses an opportunity of casting scorn upon
the hypothesis of an ether--the fundamental basis not only of the
undulatory theory of light, but of so much else in modern physics--and
whose contempt for the intellects of some of the strongest men of his
generation was such, that he puts forward the mere existence of night as
a refutation of the undulatory theory?[15] What a wonderful gauge of h