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THE REFLECTION OF POSITIVISM 
 IN ENGLISH LITERATURE TO 1880 
 
 THE POSITIVISM OF FREDERIC HARRISON 
 
 BY 
 
 GARRETA HELEN BUSEY 
 
 A.B., Wellesley College, 191 5 
 
 A.M., University of Illinois, 1922 
 
 W IRY OF TKIF 
 
 FEB 2 3 1926 
 
 m ^ OF ILLSKOIS 
 
 AN ABSTRACT OF A THESIS 
 
 SUBMITTED IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS 
 
 FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY IN 
 
 ENGLISH IN THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS, 1924 
 
 URBANA, ILLINOIS 
 
THE REFLECTION OF POSTIVISM IN ENGLAND 
 THE UNIVERSITIES 
 
 The Positivist philosophy had its intellectual and its emo- 
 tional sides. The one, in rejecting speculation concerning the nature 
 of reality, turned to the natural sciences as containing all that 
 man could certainly know, while the other attempted to establish 
 a religion — the worship of Humanity — on a Positive basis. Con- 
 ditions in France induced a more ready assimilation of the former 
 phase into her literature, so that Comte's influence became a force 
 to strengthen naturalistic tendencies fostered by the general 
 growth of interest in scientific experiment. 
 
 The spirit of science was not the possession of France alone, 
 however. In the heart of the nineteenth century it became a cen- 
 tral current throughout the whole of the western world, imparting, 
 in its larger and finer aspects, openness of vision, the disposition 
 to face and to portray the things that are, and the power to dispel 
 baseless fears, as well as some less fortunate tendencies. In Eng- 
 land it found a place, an increasing place as the century went on, 
 so that the melancholy of doubt crept into her poetry, and natural- 
 ism was by no means absent. 
 
 But the spirit of science was met and modified by the religious 
 temper of the English race, which waxed especially strong in the 
 Victorian age, as if to offset the inroads of skepticism. 
 
 "The interests that controlled English thought between 1830 
 and 1870 were chiefly religious," according to Miss Scudder; 
 "to run over the tables of contents in the leading magazines during 
 these years, and compute a proportion of subjects, would convince 
 any one that religious speculation dominated all other questions 
 in the mind of the reading public. From the beginning of the 
 period, a yearning for the religious temper met a profound dis- 
 content with religious formulae. The most life communicating 
 men of the day, John Stuart Mill, Cardinal Newman, Spencer, 
 Harrison, Maurice, were all in one way or another of the religious 
 type. The iconoclastic instinct, in matters spiritual, had ceased 
 to give pleasure, and almost every leader of skeptical thought was 
 in his own way making efforts toward reconstruction." 1 
 
 1 Scudder, Vida. Social Ideals in English Letters. 1 80-1 81. 
 
 [3] 
 
 y^\ 
 
 
Auguste Comte, in France, had attempted this reconstruction 
 in his formulation of the Positivist Religion of Humanity. His 
 was the same spirit as that in England which, meeting and accept- 
 ing the discoveries of science, endeavored to save, in the face of 
 them, certain feelings and ideals hitherto fostered by religion; 
 and, for this reason, the group which accepted, as a whole or in 
 part, the system of Comte, was not a negligible one. 
 
 That the more emotional half of the Positivist system received 
 greater emphasis in England than it had in France, may be, to 
 some extent, due to a difference in the national characteristics of 
 the two countries. The cult of Humanity as a religion appealed 
 to the English with a much greater force than to the French. 
 Not that the Frenchman is lacking in regard for his fellowmen. 
 But he is much readier to accord them respect and justice than 
 love, and his social instinct, which is perhaps more highly developed 
 than is that of the Anglo-Saxon, is founded upon this attitude. 2 
 The Englishman, when he becomes imbued with social sentiment, 
 must find his sanction for it in an intimate personal emotion, in the 
 love and worship of a being greater than himself, of God or Hu- 
 manity. "The great distinction between us," writes Mr. Brownell, 
 "the chief characteristic which in this sphere sets off the Frenchman 
 from the Anglo-Saxon, and from the Spaniard also, and the Italian, 
 over whom he triumphs morally, perhaps is his irreligiousness." 3 
 
 The group of Englishmen who took over Comte's religion 
 of Humanity in its entirety was, however, small. Among men and 
 women of letters, none of importance, with the exception of Fred- 
 eric Harrison, actually belonged to the Church of Humanity and 
 supported it whole-heartedly. But there were many unofficial 
 followers among literary people. The idea of humanity was pretty 
 generally accompanied by a religious feeling, with the result that 
 English Positivists were led to treat of the higher posibilities of 
 mankind, even where a recognition of man's relation to the rest of 
 the physical universe and his dependence upon determined forces 
 was most evident. 
 
 The discussion of the works of Comte went on in a variety of 
 spheres. It was active in the universities, especially Oxford, in 
 such informal literary groups as that around G. H. Lewes and 
 George Eliot, and in the offices of periodicals as centers of asso- 
 ciation. 
 
 2 Brownell, W. C. French Traits. 30-31. 
 z Ibid. 73. 
 
 [4] 
 
Not the least potent influence upon such discussion was, as 
 has been noted before, that of John Stuart Mill, and in the uni- 
 versities, where his philosophical works were studied, it was very 
 strong. John Morley wrote of him at the time of his death: "The 
 most eminent of those who are fast becoming the front line, as 
 death mows down the veterans, all bear traces of his influence, 
 whether they are avowed disciples or avowed opponents. If they 
 did not accept his method of thinking, at least he determined the 
 questions which they should think about. For twenty years no 
 one at all open to serious impressions has left Oxford without 
 having undergone the influence of Mr. Mill's teaching, though it 
 would be too much to say that in that gray temple where they are 
 ever burnishing new idols, his throne is still unshaken." 4 
 
 The members of the younger group of English Positivists 
 seem to have obtained their first contact with the works of Comte 
 at the universities. Between the years 1848 and 1859, J. Cotter 
 Morison, Frederic Harrison, and John Morley were students at 
 Oxford, while Leslie Stephen was at Cambridge. After leaving the 
 universities, these men went to London, where they came in con- 
 tact with those groups of Positivists centered about George Eliot 
 and John Stuart Mill. 
 
 A very interesting figure in connection with the Oxford of 
 that day was Richard Congreve, a pupil of Dr. Arnold, and tutor 
 at the University from 1848 to 1854. J ust as J onn Stuart Mill is 
 representative of the clear, critical type of mind which selected 
 the best of the philosophical elements in the system of Comte, 
 so Richard Congreve, although clear-thinking at first, became more 
 and more absorbed in the mystical side of the doctrine until he 
 reached a kind of fanaticism. Frederic Harrison tells us that he 
 was not a scholar, but that he had a wide systematic grasp of 
 history, and that "his knowledge of the world, of general culture, 
 of politics, was masculine and broad." His strong, ambitious, 
 but rather arrogant nature could not but impress younger men," 
 but he did not inspire hero-worship. At Oxford, Harrison tells 
 us, "he worked hard, and was genial and good-natured. What a 
 transformation have I witnessed in forty years to the arrogant 
 egotist, the fierce intriguer, and the pitiless misanthropist that 
 ambition, vanity, and fanaticism have made the Dr. Congreve 
 of 1892 — the would-be High Priest of Humanity — the restless 
 
 4 Morley, John. The Death of Mr. Mill. Critical Miscellanies. Ill, 39. 
 
 [5] 
 
dreamer after a sort of back-parlour Popedom. I could not believe 
 that human nature could undergo such a transformation in the 
 same man, if I had not been a close witness of the whole process." 5 
 In 1855 Congreve resigned his fellowship at Oxford in order to 
 devote himself to the spread of the teachings of Positivism, taking a 
 leading part in the work carried on in Chapel Street. Later he 
 refused to accept the authority of Pierre Lafitte, Comte's suc- 
 cessor, causing a split in the ranks of the Positivists. 6 That 
 Frederic Harrison was a leader of the opposite party may have 
 something to do with his estimate of the later Congreve. 
 
 The religion of Frederic Harrison's boyhood was orthodox 
 Anglicanism, from which he drew away gradually into Positivism. 
 "It happens to have been my lot," he says, "to have been born 
 and bred in such a church" (the Anglican communion), "to have 
 been saturated as a student with orthodox theology, to have had 
 till full manhood a heartwhole attachment to the sacerdotal 
 ritual and a reasoned faith in the Christian creeds; and then, 
 by very gradual and regular transitions, to have settled down 
 in middle age into that Positive Religion — wherein I find, as 
 my life closes round me in old age, such perfect peace, such joy- 
 ful anticipations of a life to come." 7 His was a family of High 
 Church leanings; and in his youth he had great faith in prayer — 
 even for the most trivial personal things. Later he came to look 
 back at this as relaxing to morality and degrading. "The essen- 
 tially human and special evil," he says, "caused by our bad acts, 
 is ignored when it becomes a personal matter between self and 
 God." Nor did he ever have a very lively interest in the future 
 life. 8 
 
 At Oxford began his transition from orthodoxy, although 
 his training there was in accordance with the traditional religion. 
 Nevertheless, "nearly all the men with whom I have worked as 
 colleagues in the Positive Propaganda," he tells us, "had an ortho- 
 dox training in the universities, and many were born and, bred in 
 clerical or in official homes. Along with these, most of them 
 now no more, I have passed through all the typical phases of 
 religious thought, from effusive Ritualism to Broad Church, to 
 Latitudinarianism, Unitarianism, Theism, and finally to the Faith 
 
 5 Harrison, Frederic. Autobiography. I, 82-85. 
 6 Encyclopedia Brit. Art. on Congreve. IV, 938. 
 7 Harrison. The Creed of a Layman. 3. 
 8 Harrison. Autobiography. I, 39. 
 
 [6] 
 
in Humanity in which I rest." 9 At the University he came in con- 
 tact with Richard Congreve, who must have been studying 
 Comte at the time, although Harrison says that in 1849 Comte 
 was little known in England and that he does not believe that 
 Congreve knew much about him until later. 10 
 
 Oxford gave him his basis for Positivism, the philosophy of 
 experience, obtained from Mill's Logic, 11 a book which, along 
 with G. H. Lewes, George Eliot, and Littre, introduced him to 
 Comte. 12 He also read Harriet Martineau's translation while at 
 College. "I carefully studied and was profoundly impressed by 
 Comte's view of general history and by his original scheme of a 
 new science of society. I entirely accepted both, but did not apply 
 them to religion or the organization of society. Of all that I knew 
 nothing; and in fact it was at that date neither completed nor 
 published." 13 
 
 In 1855 Harrison decided not to take Holy Orders, because 
 of a strong feeling which he had developed of antagonism to the 
 Established Church as a political and social scandal. He was closely 
 associated with Dr. Congreve, Dr. Bridges, Beesly, the Lushing- 
 tons, and other Oxford friends, and a frequent hearer of F. D. 
 Maurice, and the men connected with the Working Men's College. 
 He was also being influenced by the opinions of "Carlyle, Kingsley, 
 Goldwin Smith, Mill, Bright, and the disestablishment orators 
 and organs." He wrote to his mother at this time: 
 
 "Nor, lastly, do I find among our clergy that clear con- 
 viction, that true wisdom, which is needed in one who assumes 
 to settle and explain religious questions — to comfort our dis- 
 tresses — to clear up our perplexities. A church must teach — 
 
 9 Harrison. The Creed 0/ a Layman. 3. 
 
 10 Harrison tells {Autobiography I, 85-87) of the band of "Jumbo" (which 
 was composed of Beesly, Bridges, Thorley, and himself) reading an article 
 by Brewster on Comte {Edinburgh Review, July, 1838), and then announcing 
 to their colleagues that Congreve's system of ideas was derived from Comte. 
 However, they did not question him definitely on the matter, and Congreve 
 never once, during their whole time at Oxford, referred to Comte in conversa- 
 tion with them. Harrison expressly states that none of them became Con- 
 greve's disciples at that time. 
 
 "Harrison. The Creed oj a Layman. 21. 
 
 12 Ibid. 16. 
 Harrison. Autobiography. I, 87. 
 
 13 Harrison. The Creed oj a Layman. 19. 
 
 7] 
 
bind — regulate. / must find one that will (Her, regler, rallier 
 (Auguste Comte)." 14 
 
 It was a period in his life when he was open to many influences, 
 and was finding a synthesis for them in Positivism. He had read 
 "Dante, F. D. Maurice, John Henry Newman, Francis Newman, 
 C. Kingsley, J. S. Mill, Carlyle, Comte — Plato, Aristotle, and the 
 Bible — with almost equal interest and profit." And Comte 
 seemed to explain them all. 15 
 
 In this year (1855) Harrison had an interview with Comte 
 himself which he describes as follows: 
 
 "He asked me what I knew of his writings. I replied, Miss 
 Martineau's translation, of which I could follow only the second 
 (historical and sociological) volume, and that I still called myself 
 a Christian. He asked me what were my studies; and finding that 
 I had done almost nothing in science and little in mathematics, 
 he said 'that accounted for my mental condition!' .... He 
 spoke entirely as a philosopher — much as J. S. Mill would speak — 
 — not at all as a priest." 16 
 
 This interview did not make him a Positivist, but it did set 
 him to work upon the study of science, and it left him impressed 
 by the "extraordinary clearness and organic order" of Comte's 
 conception. 17 
 
 Upon Harrison's return to London after this interview he 
 attended lectures given by the most prominent scientists of the 
 time. 18 Here also he was sometimes a visitor at Mill's (where he 
 met Grote, also); 19 and he met Lewes and George Eliot at the 
 house of Richard Congreve. 20 
 
 By 1 861 he was so far a Positivist, in the religious sense, 
 that, on the death of Dr. Bridges' wife, he wrote to one of her 
 friends, offering the Positivist consolation of survival in memory: 
 "What her life was before death, an active life of work in that 
 quiet village, such her life will be after death. I mean her memory, 
 and all the nameless influence of her doings, feelings, and thoughts, 
 working still around her, amongst those who have known her, all 
 
 "Harrison. Autobiography. I, 1 46-1 47. 
 
 Vo Ibid. I, 97-106. 
 
 ™Ibid. I, 97-99 
 
 17 Harrison. Creed of a Layman. 20. 
 
 ™Ibid. 21. 
 
 19 Harrison. Autobiography. I, 251-255. 
 
 20 Harrison. The Creed of a Layman. 22. 
 
kept alive tenfold, a hundredfold more distinctly and beautifully, 
 and really, when her grave is under the shadow of the church tower 
 beside her sisters." 21 
 
 In 1867 the Positivist Society was founded with Congreve 
 as president. In 1 878-1 879 Congreve seceded from Lafitte, 
 Comte's successor, while Harrison remained, and in 1881 the New- 
 ton Hall group of Positivists was formed, with Harrison as a leader. 
 This and the Positivist Review, which was founded in 1893, were 
 still in action as late as 191 1. 
 
 Positivism became the guiding force of Harrison's life, and 
 most of his works touch upon it. Together with Bridges and 
 Beesly, he translated the Politique Positive. 22 He also wrote a 
 large number of articles explaining his views and treating literary 
 subjects from a Positivist point of view. These were published 
 chiefly in The Fortnightly Review, The Contemporary Review, The 
 Westminister Review, and The Nineteenth Century 21 In 1866 was 
 published by Chapman and Hall Essays and Reviews, articles by 
 Harrison dealing with the leading international questions from a 
 Positivist basis. 24 His lectures on these subjects were also numer- 
 ous. "If the list of subjects treated seems to be extremely various, " 
 he says, "it must be remembered that it was invariably based on 
 the collective synthesis of the Positive philosophy, on the Calen- 
 dar of Great Men, and on the general doctrines of Comte as con- 
 tained in his Polity and other books For the twenty-five 
 
 years, 18 80-1 904 inclusive, I generally lectured on Sundays for 
 about two months in each year, as well as on the special meetings 
 of the Positivist Society." 25 
 
 The Religion of Humanity was the expression of Harrison's 
 deepest and sincerest convictions. "The central idea of Positiv- 
 ism," he writes in The Philosophy of Common Sense, "is simply 
 this: that, until our dominant convictions can be got into one 
 plane with our deepest affections and also our practical energies — 
 until our most sacred emotions have been correlated with our 
 root beliefs and also our noblest ambition — that is, until one great 
 object is ever present to intellect, and to heart, and to energy — 
 
 21 Harrison. Autobiography. I, 212-213. 
 22 Ibid. 251 ffand28off. 
 23 1 bid. 326 and 281. 
 "Ibid. 1,358. 
 ™Ibid. II, 282-283. 
 
 9l 
 
all at once — human life can never be healthy or sound." 26 Posi- 
 tivism is a relative synthesis. "A relative synthesis admits that 
 absolutely, in rerum natura, the Earth is an infinitesimal bubble, 
 
 and Man a very feeble, casual, and faulty, organism But 
 
 relatively — this Earth is to us mites the true centre of the World, 
 and Humanity is far the noblest, strongest, most humane, most 
 permanent organism that we can prove to inhabit it." 27 
 
 In his acceptance of the idea of the Religion of Humanity, 
 Harrison was like Mill, but he went far beyond the latter in his 
 acceptance of the cultus which went with it, as is shown by his 
 activity at Newton Hall. 
 
 That society was established to serve the purpose of "school, 
 club, and chapel — a place for education, for political activity, 
 and for religious communion." Scientific training was emphasized, 
 for it was recognized that this was the basis of the very existence 
 of Positivism. 28 Harrison insists that there was no ritualism nor 
 sacerdotalism connected with this establishment, but goes on to 
 describe the sacraments which were celebrated there. They were 
 nine, as was proposed by Comte, some of them being: "Presenta- 
 tion of infants, Confirmation of adolescents (initiation into sys- 
 tematic education), Destination to a profession, Maturity," Mar- 
 riage, and Funeral. 29 Another of the rites was that of Commemo- 
 ration, which consisted of a pilgrimage to the home, or tomb, of one 
 of the great men on the Positivist Calendar. The most impor- 
 tant of these was that to Westminister Abbey, which took place 
 on September 5th, the anniversary of the death of Comte. The 
 tombs of all the great men of the Calendar buried there were 
 visited, and later an historic estimate was delivered in the Chapter 
 House, the Dining Hall, or the Jerusalem Chamber. 30 
 
 Thus Positivism was to Frederic Harrison less of a philosophy 
 than a religion — a means for inspiring the individual with an 
 emotional consciousness of social duty. 31 And in connection with 
 
 26 Harrison. The Philosophy of Common Sense. 44. 
 
 "Ibid. 60. 
 
 28 Harrison. Autobiography. II, 270-271. 
 
 ™Ibid, II, 286. 
 
 ™Ibid. II, 288-289. 
 
 31 "And as to 'religion,' we extend that most ancient and most grand of 
 all names to all belief in solid truths, whether physical or spiritual, cosmical 
 or human, which inspire right action and sincere enthusiasm for the fulfillment 
 of personal and social duty. As a form of worship, Positivism is simply right 
 
 IO 
 
this duty, Newton Hall dispensed education freely and became a 
 center for working men, endeavoring to teach them spiritual 
 truths as well. 32 This brought Harrison into touch with the labor- 
 ing classes and gave him sympathy with the trade unions and the 
 leading French radicals. 33 
 
 The labor problem was an insistent one in England at that 
 time, so that it was necessary for the members of the Positivist 
 Society to give it a great deal of attention. On the whole the 
 solution arrived at is in many respects strikingly like that of Car- 
 lyle, especially in his earlier stages of development. The difference 
 is, however, a fundamental one, although the likenesses are many. 
 For Carlyle approaches the problem from a transcendental and a 
 moral standpoint; Comte from an empirical and a social one. 34 
 They both believed in the necessity and dignity of work, in the 
 impossibility of adequately rewarding it by means of money, 
 and in the idea of "Industrial Chivalry," (an expression taken out 
 of the Middle Ages, of which they were both admirers). 35 
 
 This is an industrial age, according to the Positivists, just as 
 the Graeco-Roman age was Military and the Middle Ages were 
 the epoch of Defensive War. 36 "The healthy recasting of indus- 
 trial life is the work; religion, morality, society, science, philosophy 
 
 living inspired by humane feeling. As a mode of religion, it means nothing 
 but the religion of duty — duty as revealed by science and as idealized by the 
 reverent soul." Harrison. Autobiography. II, 269. 
 
 32 0'Connor, T. P. Fred. Harrison. Liv. Age. Mch. 3, 1923. 524. 
 
 M 0'Connor, T. P. Fred. Harrison. Liv. Age. Mch. 3, 1923. 522-523. 
 See Taine. Letter to Mme. H. Taine. Life and Letters. Ill, 56. In speaking 
 of the French Communists, he says: "The most notable Communist here — 
 Mr. Frederic Harrison — sums up their principles by the sentence, 'Let capital 
 be employed for the noblest objects,' and says that it was such phrase that 
 armed the hundred thousand Communists of Paris." 
 
 ^See Bridges. Illustrations of Positivism. 466. "You cannot account 
 for the fact of love or reverence by physics and biology; they are the products 
 of Humanity, of the social life of Man. 
 
 "And here we have at once the chief point of agreement between Comte 
 and Carlyle, and also the chief difference. Carlyle's point of view was moral, 
 but not social. It was individual. . . . Comte's point of view is moral, 
 like Carlyle's; but by virtue of being moral it is social, for it is governed by his 
 conception of Humanity." It is the difference between the French and the 
 Anglo-Saxon spirit. 
 
 ^Carlyle develops the idea of "industrial chivalry" in Past and Present, 
 written in the first seven weeks of 1843; Comte develops it in the Positive 
 Polity, published some years later. 
 
 36 Harrison. On Society. 184. 
 
 In] 
 
government exist as institutions, not for their own sake but simply 
 to bring about a healthy, wise, right condition of active industry. 
 We learn in order to foresee, and both in order to provide." 3 
 "Thus everywhere in Positivism action, work, product of some 
 kind, is the end of the whole synthesis or scheme of Humanity." 3 
 
 Both Carlyle and Harrison (explaining Comte) agree that 
 the worker can not be adequately rewarded for his services. 
 -No'" exclaims Harrison. "All true labour is or ought to be 
 gratuitous. It is done only with the help of the past and for the 
 sake of the future. It is the service of society which society should 
 honour, and wages paid are but the bare means of enabling the 
 worker to do his service— often the very scanty and inadequate 
 means of doing it." This is a thought which Harrison labels as 
 coming from Comte. 39 . 
 
 Harrison's program for labor reform included the following 
 
 T Higher education for all. "Remember that in Positivism, 
 Education practically takes the place of Religion in theology- 
 is religion in fact." 40 
 
 2. Shorter hours— eight hours, ultimately seven. 
 
 3. Women set free from industrial duties for those of the 
 home and for the education of the young. 42 
 
 4. Wages: part fixed, part variable with the profits of the 
 
 industry. 43 
 
 5 The workmen to own their own homes. 
 
 6. Free education, air, water, recreation, art, public amuse- 
 ments. 42 
 
 "Harrison. On Society. 188-189. See Carlyle Sartor Resartus. Chap- 
 ter on Helotage, i 7 o-i73, and Past and Present, Chapter on Labor, 2 33 r^ 
 and Chapter on Reward, 239-248. 
 
 **Ibid, 188. , c 
 
 "Ibid. 265-266. See Carlyle, Past and Present: "The wages of every 
 noble Work do yet lie in Heaven or else Nowhere." (P. 242 . Money for 
 my little piece of work 'to the extent that will allow me to keep working; 
 yes, this-unless yon mean that I shall go my ways before the work is all taken 
 out' of me: but as to 'wages' " ( p - *43)- 
 
 "Harrison. On Soeiety. .70. Cf. Carlyle, Sartor Resartus .72. Tha 
 there should one Man die ignorant who had capacity for Knowledge, th.s I 
 call a tragedy." 
 
 "Ibid. 171- 
 
 **Ibid. I73- J 74- 
 
j. This reform to be brought about by enlightened capital- 
 ists, 43 under a system of "industrial chivalry." "Just as in old 
 time, the great swords and heroes of the mediaeval world inter- 
 vened to protect the weak and to see justice done, so in the new 
 industrial world it will be the part of men, without public func- 
 tions, possessed of great capital, to intervene to assist worker at 
 critical times, to maintain them in a just strike to meet excep- 
 tional distress, to prevent local acts of oppression and to supply 
 public services in a crisis." These knights of industry are to 
 supply amusements, libraries, and other public improvements as 
 well. 44 
 
 But work is regarded by the Positivists in its relation to 
 society, while Carlyle's main concern seems to be the moral wel- 
 fare of the individual worker. Comte says, just before beginning 
 a discussion of Labour: "The chief problem of human life was thus 
 
 shown to be the subordination of Egoism to Altruism 
 
 The whole of Social Science consists therefore in duly working 
 out this problem; the essential principle being, the reaction of 
 collective over individual life." 45 Accordingly, any one who 
 serves Humanity, even in the meanest capacity, is blessed, and a 
 part of this service is any form of labor. "The men who are 
 making a railway," says Harrison, "a ship, a house, are just as 
 truly labouring for country, for the public, building on the past — 
 laying up a store for the future. Nay, this is true of the man who 
 is digging coal, or sowing corn, or driving an engine. Civilized 
 life could not go on without their labour. Their labour would be 
 impossible without all that had been done in the past — machines, 
 inventions, organization, prepared ground, appliances, etc. And 
 their labour will be shamefully wasted unless it leaves much 
 prepared for the future. All that we have to do is to make this fami- 
 liar, to teach it as the foundation of common knowledge, to make 
 it a part of our religion — in order to rise to the social recognition 
 of the dignity of labour." 46 
 
 Carlyle, on the other hand, was more concerned with a cer- 
 tain almost mystical effect which labor has on the individual. 
 It clarifies the soul of poisonous chaos and prepares it for the 
 
 "Harrison. On Society. 172-173. 
 "Ibid. 176-177. 
 
 "Comte. Positive Polity. II, 122. 
 "Harrison. On Society. 262-264. 
 
 13 
 
divine light of God. 47 This is an individualism and a mysticism 
 which the French, as a race, dislike, 48 and to which they oppose 
 the reasoned order and clearness of a Voltaire. 49 
 
 47 "Blessed is he who has found his work; let him ask no other blessedness. 
 He has a work, a life-purpose; he has found it, and will follow it! How, as a 
 free-flowing channel, dug and torn by noble force through the sour mud- 
 swamp of one's existence, like an ever-deepening river there, it runs and 
 flows; . . . draining off the sour festering water, gradually from the root 
 of the remotest grass-blade; making, instead of pestilential swamp, a green 
 fruitful meadow with its clear-flowing stream. How blessed for the meadow 
 itself, let the stream and its value be great or small! Labor is Life: from the 
 inmost heart of the Worker rises his god-given Force, the sacred celestial 
 Life-essence breathed into him by Almighty God; from his inmost heart 
 awakens him to all nobleness." {Past and Present. 234-235). 
 
 48 See Brownell, W. C. French Traits. 120. 
 
 "The criticism of Taine, the French Positivist, on Carlyle, the English 
 mystic, is instructive. His scale of degrees between the positivist and the 
 mystic give a clear idea of the distance between them and the way in which 
 they are related to each other. "There is a fixed rule for transposing — that is, 
 for converting into one another the ideas of a positivist, a pantheist, a spiritual- 
 ist, a mystic, a poet, a head given to images, and a head given to formulas. 
 We may mark all the steps which lead simple philosophical conception to its 
 extreme and violent state. Take the world as science shows it; it is a regular 
 group or series which has a law; according to science, it is nothing more. 
 As from the law we deduce the series, we may say that the law engenders it, 
 and consider this law as a force. If we are an artist, we will seize in the aggre- 
 gate the force, the series of effects, and the fine regular manner in which force 
 produces the series. To my mind, this sympathetic representation is of all the 
 most exact and complete: knowledge is limited, as long as it does not arrive 
 at this, and it is complete when it has arrived there. But beyond, there com- 
 mence the phantoms which the mind creates, and by which it dupes itself. 
 If we have a little imagination, we will make of this force a distinct existence, 
 situated beyond the reach of experience, spiritual, the principle and the sub- 
 stance of concrete things. That is a metaphysical existence. Let us add one 
 degree to our imagination and enthusiasm, and we will say that this spirit, 
 situated beyond time and space, is manifested through these, that it sub- 
 sists and animates these, that we have in it motion, existence, and life. When 
 carried to the limits of vision and ecstacy, we will declare that this principle 
 is the only reality, that the rest is but appearance: thenceforth we are de- 
 prived of all the means of defining it; we can affirm nothing of it, but that it 
 is the source of things, and that nothing can be affirmed of it; we consider it 
 as a grand 'unfathomable abyss;' we seek, in order to come at it, a path other 
 than that of clear ideas; we extol sentiment, exaltation. If we have a gloomy 
 temperament, we seek it, like the sectarians, painfully, amongst prostrations 
 and agonies. By this scale of transformations, the general idea becomes poeti- 
 cal, then a philosophical, then a mystical existence; and German metaphysics, 
 concentrated and heated, is changed into English Puritanism." (Taine. Hist, 
 of Eng. Lit. 664-665.) 
 
 [14] 
 
Frederic Harrison, a closer follower of Comte, on the whole, 
 than Mill, differed from the latter on the questions of individual- 
 ism and feminism. The importance of the individual he thought 
 Mill exaggerated, 50 and his view of the position of women was much 
 more in accordance with that of Comte. He agrees with the 
 Frenchman that women should be educated and relieved from ex- 
 cessive burdens, but should abstain from politics and trade in 
 order to become the idealizing force in the home. 51 "The true 
 ideal of women's work and life rests on three leading axioms: 
 
 "i. That civilization tends to differentiate not to identify 
 the lives of men and women. 
 
 "2. That the power of women is moral not material force. 
 
 "3. That the material work of the world must fall on men." 52 
 
 Thus his opposition to the participation of women in poli- 
 tics "turns upon the fundamental and indelible distinction between 
 Material and Moral power — between practical Control and 
 spiritual Influence — between Force and Persuasion." 53 This is 
 entirely consistent with the Positivist insistence on the separation 
 of the temporal from the spiritual powers in the state. 
 
 The marriage bond was considered as indissoluble by the mem- 
 bers of the Newton Hall group as it had been by Comte himself. 
 "The task of Positivism is to restore the institution of Marriage," 
 writes Harrison, "which even Catholic Christianity does not 
 
 Among English writers, the Frenchman prefers Macaulay to Carlyle: 
 "There is perhaps less genius in Macaulay than in Carlyle; but when we have 
 fed for some time on this exaggerated and demoniacal style, this marvellous 
 and sickly philosophy, this contorted and prophetic history, these sinister and 
 furious politics, we gladly return to the continuous eloquence, to the vigorous 
 reasoning, to the moderate prognostications, to the demonstrated theories, 
 of the generous and solid mind which Europe has just lost, who brought 
 honor to England, and whose place none can fill." (Taine, History of Eng. 
 Lit. 674.) 
 
 49 Carlyle, according to Taine, had no taste for French literature. "The 
 exact order, the fine proportions, the perpetual regard for the agreeable and 
 proper, the harmonious structure of clear and consecutive ideas, the delicate 
 picture of society, the perfection of style — nothing which moves us, has at- 
 traction for him. His mode of comprehending life is too far removed from ours. 
 In vain he tries to understand Voltaire, all he can do is to slander him." 
 (Taine. Hist, of Eng. Lit. 668.) 
 
 50 Harrison. Tennyson, Ruskin, and Mill. 278. 
 
 "Harrison. Essay on The Future of Woman, in Realities and Ideals. 
 
 62 Harrison. Realities and Ideals. 82. 
 
 ™Ibid. 126. 
 
 15 
 
adequately defend. Its essential conditions are — the exclusive 
 and indissoluble form of Marriage, and the setting free the wife 
 to be the moral Head of the Home." 54 
 
 It will be remembered that an important part of the ritual of 
 the Positivist church was the commemoration of the great dead, 
 and that Harrison himself issued a New Calendar of Great Men. 
 Instantly we are reminded of Carlyle's hero-worship. But the 
 distinction is evident, and again it turns upon the opposition of the 
 mystical and individualistic to the empirical and social. Carlyle 
 is thinking of the heroes, Comte of the Humanity which they 
 serve; 55 to Carlyle they are the recipients of Divine Grace, to Comte 
 observers of the laws of science, physical and human, for the pur- 
 pose of using them for human profit. Harrison, himself, makes the 
 distinction: 
 
 "Both seem to aim at the same thing — but in very different 
 modes. Hero-worship, as expounded by Carlyle, is constantly 
 tending to the individual glorification of a few — for the sake of 
 the few, to the material profit perhaps of the many, but to their 
 moral degradation, it may be, unless in so far as they humbly ac- 
 cept and honour their Saviour. Nay, at last the latter-day preacher 
 seems to regard men almost as Napoleon regarded them, as the 
 food of his cannon, as the pedestal whereon the royal one could 
 be set up to eternal glory. Panels nascitur humanum genus — seems 
 to be the motto of such hero-worship and the justification of their 
 careers. 
 
 "There is no saying of antiquity for which Comte has ex- 
 pressed a greater loathing. It sums up the worst form of slavery, 
 oligarchy, and despotism, political and social. To Comte, Human- 
 ity means the great mass of men. The greater men are but ser- 
 vants of their fellow-men, organs of Humanity, morally and in- 
 tellectually its creatures, organically and historically, its teachers 
 and guides." 56 
 
 John Morley criticizes Carlyle for the heroes he worships 
 because of their greatness built on "violence, force, and mere iron 
 will," and he cites, as examples, Cromwell, Mirabeau, Frederick, 
 and Napoleon. 57 As opposed to this, we find Harrison saying of 
 Comte: "Throughout his entire works there is no glorification of 
 
 ^Harrison. Realities and Ideals. 149. 
 
 85 See Mehlis. Die Geschichtsphilosophie Auguste Comtes. III. 
 B6 Harrison. The Positive Evolution of Religion. 59-60. 
 67 Morley. Stud, in Lit. 179-180. 
 
 [16] 
 
power, none of force, of success, of superiority to common men, 
 simply as such. The honour is given to services conferred on fellow- 
 men, not to genius however transcendent, or exploits however 
 marvelous The patient men of exact science, the inven- 
 tors, the toilers at the lowest states of the human work-shop are 
 all duly recognized." 58 And yet, in The New Calendar of Great 
 Men, Frederick the Great is given place: "Comte extols Frederick 
 as a practical genius, who, in political capacity came nearest to 
 Caesar and Charlemagne; a dictator who furnishes the best model 
 of modern statesmanship; who, in accordance with the ideal of 
 Hobbes, reconciled power and liberty {Pos. Pol. Ill, 498). Fred- 
 erick recognized the difference between the spiritual and temporal 
 powers as few politicians, radical or reactionary, do now. He 
 kept to his own sphere. With no belief in God or a future life, he is 
 a precious and shining example of what purely human motives can 
 effect, when they are not weighted and warped by the rival claims 
 of an imaginary object of love and adoration." 59 
 
 Naturally there was a difference in the attitude toward the 
 capacities of the general mass of humanity taken by Carlyle 
 and by the Positivists. "To the religion of Humanity, individual 
 men and women, however great and good, are those who serve, 
 whom Humanity has formed, and whom it enables to do great or 
 good work. To Carlyle, Humanity is but the obscure host whom 
 favoured individuals deign to govern and to instruct," says 
 Harrison, 60 who sums up the distinctions between the English and 
 the French thinker so concisely that they may easily be put in 
 tabular form: 61 
 
 Comte Carlyle 
 
 1. System based on science. Regards science as dry and 
 
 barren. 
 
 2. Humanity an object of Humanity an obscure host 
 
 worship. governed by individuals. 
 
 68 Harrison. Op. cit. 60. 
 
 59 Beesly, E. S. Frederick II. In the New Calendar of Great Men, edited 
 by Frederic Harrison. 544. Quotation from the Positive Polity verified. 
 
 60 Harrison. The Pos. Evol. of Religion. 55. See also Brownell, Victorian 
 Prose Masters. P. 71. "Man as man meant nothing to him" (Carlyle). "The 
 dignity of human nature he regarded with truly Calvinistic derision. The 
 'divine' element monopolized him. He even manufactured at need incarna- 
 tions of it. Hence his doctrine of heroes, his view of history as the biography 
 of great men, his exaltation of the exceptional personality." 
 
 "Harrison. The Pos. Evol. of Religion. 55-56. 
 
 [17] 
 
3. "Rich in heart" to govern. 
 
 "Big in brain and brawn" 
 
 to govern. 
 Religious basis: 
 
 tive ideal of 
 
 Ruler." 
 
 "the subjec- 
 an Almighty 
 
 4. Religious basis: demon- 
 strable knowledge of a pro- 
 gressive Humanity, and the 
 practical service of Human- 
 ity, in ways expounded by a 
 trained body of teachers." 
 
 These are distinctions which it is well to keep in mind when 
 studying the Positivist elements in the poetry and fiction of the 
 nineteenth century, for the two types of thought, so different in 
 fundamentals, coincide at some points, or appear to coincide, 
 causing some difficulty in distinguishing the influence of one from 
 that of the other. 
 
 [18 
 
VITA 
 
 The author, Garreta Helen Busey, was born in Urbana, 
 Illinois, March I, 1893. She attended the public schools there 
 until her graduation from High School in 191 1, having spent, in 
 1908, seven months travelling and studying in Europe. She re- 
 ceived the degree of Bachelor of Arts from Wellesley College in 
 1915. 
 
 In 1920 she returned from two years' war service in France 
 and Switzerland under the American Red Cross and the League of 
 Red Cross Societies, and, the following February, entered the 
 Graduate School of the University of Illinois, where she has con- 
 tinued studying until the present time, 1924, and where she re- 
 ceived, in June, 1922, the degree of Master of Arts. 
 
 [19 
 

 UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS-URBANA 
 
 146B96R C001 
 
 THE REFLECTION OF POSITIVISM IN ENGLISH