New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1855-10-09
,y 1xrRJcAN IN EURoPE"~"'lV'
...,,. At ne N. Y. Tnsune'

-....a cham bermaid, comes in to announce 'ne
..ddsu death of the occupant Of the next cham-
hsr. Gen. Sir George Napier, kindly OLD man
.hom have seen about the house for couple OIL
weeks past We had heard great commotion IN
his rooms ell the evening, and on inquiring ascer-
tanned that the General had eaten something
which disagreed with him, and was suffering
greatly from intestinal cole. saw him day or
two before on the stairs touching bis hat politely
10 tho old white. haired commissonairs who site at
their foot and touches his to everybody, and can
hardly believe that he is SO soon among the angels
What superb thing death lie, AID how iss friend
ship dgniies this sbject life Here is battered
and crippled soldier, suffering from chronic indi
reston, compelled to go softly all bis days out Of
tenderness to lis poor old bones, wrinkled' ind
bent and tremulous, suddenly summoned to sfdf-
fe of this varied coil Of nfrmity, and put on the
lineaments Of undecsyiug youth ] have, TO be
sure, no knowledge of Gen. Napier's private char-
acter, and have, indeed, the utmost indsposition
to learn the secrets Of any mans destiny BUT !
will assume the best as true Of every one tn 1
know 10 the contrary, and at all event. will not De
hindered shouting on nay IN behalf and that OF ai
my friends, Blessed be Death, dear, warm delicious
DEATH, which let's us out Of this penurious Ne
ture, AID ADMITS US LOT tne uIst tihc INV tuc oe
gust ond kngly presence OF Liie.
But let me get back to the subject Of my last
letter COMTE takes no deeper view OF the origin
of society than the ordinary Socialist. They are,
indeed, both alike destitute Of the slightest insight
into the constitution Of society. IL the Socialist
give you an ingenious and striking opereu OF future
social harmonies, this after all is oply dealing with
the visible form of society, and affords no glimpse
of it's interior constitution The question for this
time 10, What constitutes society or holds it to-
cetherl What guarantee have we that II shall
mot perisb When we ask a similar question 10
reference to the human body-when we say what
constitutes the body or gives it permanence-no
one would suppose that be answered the question
by enumerating ever solearDedly the various MEM
bcrs and organs Of the body These thiDgsere all
taken for granted in the body, and when you say
human body you implicitly say them. The soul
alone constitutes the body or holds II together 80
that the moment the soul is withdrawn the body
falls into dissolution. so when you say human So
ciety, you implicitly say ali the harmonies which
are possibly involved in the relations of man TO
man. And what you want to know is what gives
being to these harmones- what gives them perma-
pence-wbat prevents their turning into mere
illusion Of the heart, and thus leaving us more
wretched in the end than we had been in the be-
shining. These are the questions which COmte
cannot answer-which he does ct even hear the
echo Of-and which yet mast be answered before
the mass Oh lduhluu Will DcBiu W Iuluh vi NOClut-
ism save as a pleasant dream between sleep and
waking. Comte supposes human society to be
purely ply steal phenomenon, or to be subject eX-
clusively to natural laws Find out the laws of
human nature, he says and you have all the
knowledge neces sary to constitute human society.
In every sphere, organization with Comte is equiv
alent 10 life. 1t is only another fora of the13nev
liable French conception, which places the opus
above the materies on which it is displayed, which
postpones the substance to the form, or makes the
cookery more than the meat The groveling as
pect which the problem wears 10 Comics mind is
very well illustrated by the hope he has lately
evinced that the Russian despOt might be fattered
into practical Inauguration of his schemes.
Comics great merits consists in his having been
the first scientific intellect adequately to invoke
attention to the strictly progressive nature OF
science. And his permanent demerit consists in
bis having supposed himself capable Of properly
estimating this fact and assigning the laws of its
evolution. His attention as student had been
arrested by the discovery that the sciences appear
to be intimately cOncatenated, or to be developed
one from another, 10 a regular and necessary
sequence and he very sensibly set himself to
inauiring-tchereto shall these things grOr' The
Church supplied him no prognOstic. Philosophy
was even less suggestive. Let us, therefore, he
said, push them both out of our way, and see
"what horizon will then expand before us. If
science is continually travelling from outer to
inner conquests; if the law of its advance is
continually from simpler to more complex fields
"Of ext tence; the day must assuredly come,
"when, ifTheology and PhisolODphy do not block
the way, il will lay its hand upon man, and upon
"all the phenomena Of his associated life aud
action. Theology and Philosophy now operate
"as an impediment to this final evolution of
science. They have previous occupancy OF the
human territory, and must, therefore, be dis
{" possessed before science can come to her own.
They willingly allow science carte blanche as to
"the lower fields of existence, but they vehemently
forbid her intrusion into the domain of human
life, and scoff at the idea of human action becom
" ing matter of rigid prediction. My first labor,
" therefore, must be to dethrOne Theology and
" Philosophy, in order to win science fair field,
and the formula Of the threefold evolution Of the
human understanding must be my weapon for
"doiDg this" cannot but believe that if COmte
had exhibited less intellectual narowness here, his
claims upon our gratitude would have been much
more real than they actually are. This incapacity
on his part to comprehend the role of the existing
Theology and Philosophy, did nothing but confirm
his Materialist tendencies, and render him hope
lessly atheistic Identifying religion with the theol
ogy of the day. or rather of past day, he felt him
self bound by the unscienthc cast of that theology
to proclaim essential and permanent hostility
between science and religion. and bid every vulgar
sciolist insult upon his authority the sacreds st
hope Of the soul. A larger or spiritual apprehen !
sion Of bis theme would have qualified this antag-
onism, and would have saved him, moreover, from
the melancholy antics he is now practicing both as
a heotegian and philosopher.
For, alas for human frailty. Colnte had no sooner
demonstrated the utter evanishment of the theo- |
logic and metaphysic eras to make room for that
Of Positivism, thsn-erc the plaudts of his ad. |
mireTs had ceased 70 vibrate upon the air, or the
caps they flung up had retained to earth-he set !
about constructing not merely brand.new the |