Page:The New Monthly Magazine - Volume 099.djvu/297

Rh friend," the ex-professor of the Ecole Polytechnique, or of the lucubrations in general of his company of disciples.

Whatever be the tendencies of Positivism, however fatal to all our fondest and firmest opinions and sentiments, by all means give it a frank and full hearing—although it cannot surely reproach those who would cry it down, with the warning,. To call attention to a little volume which ably and succinctly portrays its scope and character, is the simple object of this paper, which wholly repudiating pretence to criticism (perhaps an absurdly uncalled-for repudiation), "hath this extent, no more." To Positivism as a great fact, and to Mr. Lewes's exposition of it as a small one, we may all do well to give heed, among the signs of the times. Be Positivism studied, then, as a protest againstas qualifies it to understand all mysteries, and to hypothesize safely to the top of its bent. Be it studied, at any rate, before it is answered; for this, in the end, may save trouble; although, with that view, the converse process may, primâ facie, appear more promising.