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96 progress that had been made, and affirmed, with truth, that the estimation of transcendental geography had declined in at least equal proportion. This was freely acknowledged by their opponents, who had the cruelty to insinuate that this was all the better for the people.

Hence it came to pass that the community was divided into two great parties, called the positivists and the transcendentalists; the former contending that positive science was alone advantageous; while the latter affected to sneer at positive science, alleging that transcendental geography was the only knowledge really useful to mankind.

So bitter did the controversy become, that the transcendentalists took every opportunity of denouncing positive science, and the positivists were not slow in assuming an attitude of unmitigated hostility to transcendental geography, which they affirmed to be a false science, quite unfitted for the wants of the actual condition of society.