The Westminster Review for April

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THE WESTMINSTER REVIEW FOR APRIL.—

Freighted as usual with an abundance of good things comes our old favorite, the Westminster.¹ The opening article of the present number will be found full of interest for thinkers and inquirers. The subject is “The Religion of Positivism,” and the article gives the fullest and fairest exposition which we have yet seen of the new Gospel according to Auguste Comte.² In order that the reader may get the fullest insight into the system of the illustrious Frenchman, the Westminster, with a rare liberality which might be looked for in vain among the more orthodox Quarterlies, places before him at once, all that can be said for the system and all that can be sincerely said against it—the bane and antidote are both before him. In other words the article is the joint production of two writers,—the first an enthusiastic Positivist; the other one who while granting the respectful attention due to any proposals or opinions emanating from a philosopher of M. Comte’s great and justly earned reputation, exposes at the same time with an unsparing hand what he deems to be the fatal weaknesses of the new creed. The two articles thus combined are an intellectual study of no common interest. The first, if it shows nothing else, demonstrates the total powerlessness of ingenious argument, of varied learning and of splendid diction to give life, hue and proportion to an ideal organization, however beautifully constructed in other respects, which is lacking in those two grand essentials—God and Immortality. The second—the production of a Theist, who while he does not affirm, yet does not all deny an individual existence beyond the grave to man—shows clearly the chaotic, restless, unhappy state in which so many sincere inquirers are lying in these latter days; not content with the things that are, rejecting, one after another, all new attempts to formularize nature and to prescribe the future of human existence, despairing of the efforts of the limited individual to comprehend the boundless diversities and resources, and to foretell the unprecedented developments of collective humanity—finding an assured rest in no place. However, in the present instance the no-system man has the best of the Positivist—the synthesis of the latter soon falls to pieces before his keen analytical scalpel. Those who would clearly understand what Comte and his disciples amount to—what is in them, any how—should consult this double article, to which we would willingly devote more space, if possible.

The remainder of the present number is varied and interesting, but does not call for particular comment. Leonard Scott & Co., publishers, No. 79 Fulton street.

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