than that there
was such a thing.

"I shall not bore you with an account of it," resumed Hammond, "further
than to say that it is a scheme for the perfection of the human race. It
rejects as idle all theories of superhuman intelligences, and declares
the supreme object of the individual love and devotion should be
humanity. The rational demonstration of the truth of this system is
sought in the course of history, which is claimed to prove Positivism
the finality of social evolution. You will find anything else you want
to know about it in the books. I dare say you will not be converted; but
if you were nineteen instead of twice that, with Hippolyte Regnier to
indoctrinate you, I fancy the result would be about what it was in my
case.

"His personal influence over us, and the intoxicating flattery implied
in being seriously reasoned with on themes so lofty by a man whom we
so greatly admired, would have gone far, no doubt, to commend to us any
form of opinions he might have taught; but there were not lacking other
reasons to account for his success in converting us. As for Comte's
dogmatic denial of superhuman existence, and his fanciful schemes of new
society, we were too young and crude to realize how unphilosophic
was the former, how impossible and undesirable was the latter. While
accepting them as facts of a new creed, they meant little to us, nor
did Regnier much insist upon them. What most he did insist on was the
ethical side of Positivism,--the idea of the essential unity of the
individual with the immortal race of man, and his obvious duty to forget
self in its service. What could be better adapted to affect generous and
impassioned boys than an appeal like this? The magnificent audacity
of it, the assumption of man's essential nobleness, the contemptuous
refusal to make any terms with selfishness, captivated our imaginations.
I know now, indeed, that this enthusiasm of humanity, this passion of
self-abnegation, which I thought a new religion, was the heart of the
old religions. In its new-fangled disguise the truth and virtue of the
doctrine were still operative, and the emotional crisis through which
I passed I found was as essentially religious as it was in form
unorthodox.

"At the end of sophomore year there were a half-dozen very positive
young Positivists in our class. The pride of intellect which we felt in
our new enlightenment was intoxicating. To be able to look down from a
serene height, with c