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400 T H E 1/ E ABll. ^ ^
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Comte's Positive Philosophy.* By Gr. H. ...
When men ptit up prayers for rain or fine weather , they are acting upon the theological conception that these phenomena are not resultants of invariable laws , but of some variable will . The clergyman refusing to pray for rain " while the wind is in this quarter , " naively rebukes the impropriety of the request . When men believe that if you wish for something on seeing a piebald horse , the wish will be realized- —when they believe that if thirteen sit down . to dinner ,, one will , die before the year is out—when they believe that if any one be bitten by a dog , and that dog should afterwards be attacked by hydrophobia , the person bitten will also
be attacked by that disease—when they believe that a peculiar conjunction of the stars will rule their destinies—they are in the theological stage , and conceive Nature as indefinitely variable . History is crowded with examples of this conception . In poetry , in literature , in daily life , we constantly find traces of this primitive spontaneous mode of conceiving things . To take an illustration I have used before : —In the camp of Agamemnon an epidemic breaks out . The men die by scores ; but as the dreadful arrows of death are invisible , the terrified army attributes the p estilence to the
anger of offended Apollo , who avenges an insult to his priest , by this " clanging of the silver bow . " This explanation , so absurd in our eyes , was acceptable to the facile acquiescence of that epoch ; and expiator y peace-offerings were made to the irritated deity , in a case where modern science , with its sanitary commission , would have seen bad drainage or imperfect ventilation ! But to prove that the theological stage is not thoroughly and universally passed , I need only refer to the monstrous illustration of our own days , when learned men , the Teachers of our people , gravely attributed the Cholera to God ' s anger at England ' endowment of
the Maynooth Colleges ! There was a church in Sienna which had often been injured by lightning . A conductor was setup , in defiance of the " religious world , " wherein it was regarded as " the heretical stake . " A storm arose , the lightning struck the tower ; crowds flocked to see if the church was spared , and lo the very spiders webs upon it were unbroken ! Here we see science correcting the mischievous prejudices of theology . Mythology is poetry to us-. ; to the ancients , it was religion and science . The explanations given in those days were all drawn from the fundamental conception of nature as subject to no-other laws than those of supernatural agencies . The lowest of the theological periods is that of Fetichism ; from that there is a transition to Polytheism ; and the highest is Monotheism , wherein the providential agency of One being is substituted for that of
many independent divinities . - The same tendency to look heyond the fact for an explanation of the fact—to imagine an agency superadcled to the phenomena—is visible in the metaphysical period . The notion of invariableness is admitted , and to explain it some" entity" " principle" is imagined . Thus Kepler imagined that the regularity of planetary movements was owing to the planets being endowed with minds capable of making observations on the sun ' s apparent diameter , in order to regulate their motions so as to describe areas proportioned to the times . Thus natural philosophers even now continue to repeat the old notions of a vis inertia , which they talk of " overcoming ;"
and in chemistry they imagine " affinities , " while they laugh at the old notion of a " phlogistic principle . " In biology we see the Metaphysical Method still running riot . Aristotle may , historically , be admired for his conception of " animating principles" (^ i > x » 0 > which caused the vital actions of animals and plants—principles which had a sort of hierarchy among themselves , under a supreme controlling agent (<(> v < rtc ); but while the historian of science will award the praise due to such a conception in the series of progressive conceptions , he must with wonder , not unmingled with contempt , record that a philosopher of considerable repute ( Dr . Prout )
has in this nineteenth century revived that conception in all the plenitude of its absurdity . Dr . Prout assumes the existence ^ of ^ onjame agents , whose office it is to produce and regulate vital phenomena , " distinct intelligent agents , " all under one hierarchy , " each possessing more or less control over all the agents below itself , and having the power of appropriating their services , till at length , in the combined operation of the whole series of agents at the top of the scale , we reach the perfection of organic existence . " That such a notion has not been met by shouts of laughter , shows how dimly the Positive Method is conceived even by men of positive
science I As a striking and useful example of this metaphysical method , let us consider the widely spread belief in a vis medicatrioc natura , or , as the vulgar express it , " Nature the best physician . " Not only the vulgar , but renowned men of science , beliqve that the process of reparation which is observed in the organism—the power which ejects noxious ingredients from the system—the " conservative powers , " in short—are owing tb some "tendency , " or " principle , " which they set to . the credit of " Mature ; " forgetting , as I have said on a former occasion , that if the torn tissue or broken limb be repaired , by a vis , medicatrioo , or ** curative
principle , " we must ask whether poisoning is owing to a " poisoning principle . " An exhalation from an uncovered tlrain or stagnant pool enters the blood through the active agency of the lungs . What does Nature ? Does she resist this disturbing influence—eject this noxious ingredient ? Not she ; but pumps away as if the poison were the most beneficent of visitors , and distributes it throughout the organism with the same impartiality as she distributes the health-giving oxygen . On the metaphysical method , we must eupppse some " principle" at work here . What shall
we call it ? The vis deletfix- ^ -the " destructive principle ?' Physiologists —• especially those who indulge in natural theology- ~ -eiplain to you the " beneficent intention" of the digestive apparatus ; but they omit to add that if , instead of mutton , you introduce arsenic , watchful Nature does not commence an antiperistaltic action * and eject the poison , but absorbs it as actively as if it were pregnant with ( nutriment . The vis ? deletrix is at work ! An insect settles in . some part of your body ; takes upitsabode there , and begins to make .-itself comfortable by feeding on the tfody . Does Nature , by her vis medicatrix , expel the intruder ? Yes , as a cheese expels the maggot . Nature cherishes the parasitic fungus , feeds and . fosters it with tender care , makes much of it , nourishes its vitality with the vitality of your body ; and so tendered , the fungus grows and grows till you are destroyed ; and you—who perhaps may be a Shakspeare , a Goethe , a Bacon , a man of quite infinite value to humanity- —are sacrificed to a ¦
fungus ! t In truth , Nature is neither Physician nor Assassin ; and it is only our vain efforts to discover her " intentions" that make her appear such . Our province is to study her laws , to trace her processes , and > thankful if we can so far penetrate the divine significance of the universe , be content- —as Locke wisely and modestly says—to sit down in quiet i gn orance of all transcendantsubjects . In the final and Positive stage , men accept Nature as she presents herself , without seeking beyond the facts for fantastic ^ entities . « It was formerly believed , " says Oersted , " that basilisks existed in cellars
which had been long closed ; they were invisible , but their look killed whoever it fell upon . Since it is become more generally known that fermentation is produced by a noxious air ; whose weight causes it to accumulate in low places , we recognise the destructive agent , and drive it away by means of fresh air . " There you have an example of the two conception metaphysical and positive : the one seeking its explanation in ah unknown entity ( basilisk ) , the other in know » laws of I ^ ureV processes . History shows us the gradual dispersion of Superstitions and fantastic creeds before the light of certainty which Science carries everywhere ^
Having * by various examples , endeavoured to popularize the conception of the fundamental law of the three phases through which humanity passes , I will conclude with some passages of my former exposition of Comte ' s system , and risk the tediousness of repetition , for the sake of the effect of iteration :- — ¦ ' . - ¦ .-.,,, - .. . ' .. . , - .. . . .. ' ¦ "¦ / . . . . - :. .. " All are agreed , in these days , that real Knowledge-must be Jfoundedon the observation of facts . Hence contempt of mere theories . But no science could t all theories
Lave i ts origin in Simple observation ; for if , on he one hand , positive must be founded on observation , so , on the other , i t is equally necessary to have some sort of theory before we address ourselves to the task of steady observation . If , in contemplating phenomena , we do not connect them with Some principle , it would not only be impossible for us to combine our isolated observations , and consequentl y to draw any benefit from them ; but we should also be tumble even to retain them , and most frequently the important facts would remain unperceived We are consequently forced to theorize . A theory i s necessary to observation , and
a correct theory to correct observation . " This double necessity imposed upon tbe mind— -of observation for the formation of a theory , and of a theory for the practice of observation—would have caused i t to move in a circle , if nature had not fortunately provided an outlet in the spontaneous activity of the mind . This activity causes it to begin by assuming a cause , which it seeks out of nature , i . e ., supernatural . As man is conscious that he acts according as he wills , so he naturally concludes that everything acts in accordance with some superior will . Hence Fetichism , which is nothing put the endowment of inanimate things with life and volition . This is the logical necessity for the supernatural stage : the mind commences with the unknowable ; it lias first to learn its impotence , to learn the limits of its range , before it can content itself with the knowable . '
" The metaphysical stage is equally important as the transitive stage . The supernatural and positive stages are so widely opposed that they require intermediate notions to bridge over the chasm . In substituting an entity inseparable jrom phenomena for a supernatural agent , through whose will these phenomena were produced , the mind became habituated to consider only the phenomena themselves This was n most important condition . The result was , that the ideas of these metaphysical entities gradually faded , and were lost in the mere abstract names oi the phenomena . ' _ " The positive stage was now possible . The mind having ceased to mterpoBu either supernatural agents or metaphysical entities between the phenomena an their production , attended solely to the phenomena themselves . These it ^^ to laws ; in other words , it arranged them according to their invariable relation of similitude and succession . The search after essences and causes was renounce .
The pretension to absolute knowledge was set aside . The discovery of laws Decani the great object of mankind . ' .. " Remember that although evory branch of knowledge must pass tnrougn iu three Btagea , in obedience to the law of evolution , nevertheless the progress w strictly chronological . Some sciences are more rapid in their evolution ^ others ; some individuals pass through these evolutions more quickly than otn » so also of nations . The present intellectual anarchy results from that dinerei , HO UIHU VL JlUldUUB . J . IIU prUBUIlli UlbUUWVUtM 'UtMUlwlJT junuitu «»« ^ 0 atid 1
flomo sciences being in tho positive , some in the supernatural , some . metaphysical stage : and this is furttier to be subdivided into individual aifl ^ " jye ' for in a scienco which , on the whold , may fairly bo admitted as being poe there will be found Homo cultivators still in tho metaphysical stage . ' ¦ Afltron ° * na now in bo positivo a condition , that we need nothing *> "fc tho laWS T y " w > w to gravitation to explain a ll celestial phenomena ; and this explanation wo w ^ he correct , an far aa anything can be known , because wo can predict the re ^ « comet with tho nicest accuracy , or can enable tho mariner to discover ' tmlo and find bin way amidst the ' waste of waters . ' This is a If l * or rainy But so far is meteorology from such a condition , that prayers for ciry o ^^^ weather are still offered up in churches ; whereas if once the laws of tneso v ^ mena were traced , there would no- more bo prayers for rftfn than for we
400 T H E 1/ E Abll. ^ ^
400 T H E 1 / E ABll . ^ ^
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Citation
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Leader (1850-1860), April 24, 1852, page 20, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/l/issues/cld_24041852/page/20/
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