The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-04-12


The dreariest and most ominous form Of
infdelity is that, perhaps, which wears the
sennblance of . religious creed That most
remarkable of French thinkers, Auguste
Comte. with his terrible power, and in his al
most demoniac frenzy, of generalization, hav-
ing compressed all history and all science
into few positive formulas, found that there
was one question which still eluded the grasp
Of his philosophy. The religious element
remained unsubdued to his imperious intel
lect, like the ancient and populous far east
which Alexander. although Boosting himself
the worlds conqueror, failed to penetrate
This chafed his philosophical pride beyond
measure. The mental agitation thus induced
resulted in one of his periodical paroxysms,
or cerebral crises, to use his own name for
an affection which some of his enlightened
contemporaries looked upon as downright
insanity. But, whatever their pathological
nature, in respect of their issues they were
like the throes Of parturition; and the final
crisis, as each previous one, was the prelude
to a sort of philosophical palingenesia The
new birth in this case was the positive re-
ligion, which is also called by some of his
disciples the scientific religion, and by
others among them the religion of hu-
manity. The completeness with which
Comte had wrought himself up to the
conviction that he was the founder
of new system of religion destined to sup
plant the Christian theology and worship,
may be judged from the fact that, shortly be-
fore his death, he appointed, from among the
most advanced and devout of his disciples, a
certain number of apostles to whom he COM
mitted the exoteric or popular teaching of his
creed and the establishment in visible form
of the "church of humanity" They were
enjoined, however, not to address themselves
10 this work until they should be assured that
the time was ripe for initiating it. The sign
of this ripeness would be the imminent ter
mination of the Christian era. The Comtean
era was then to take its date. Upon the ruins
of the Christian civilization the work of
building up the Comtean civilization was to
commence. But the hour and The sign have
been provokingly slow. Mr.. Henry Edger,
one of the designated apostles, has been
watching for them, poor man, these many
years, looking out. longing and expectant,
from his hermitage amidst the marshes and
mosquitoes of Long Island; and now, at
length, it appears, he has concluded to wait
no longer for the visible death of Christianity,
since the term of his own life, along with that
of his apostolic Office, could not continue
fr,rf He :.
nounces his mission, and opens +" church of
humanity at Music Hall in New York city;
specifying the usual hours for service and
inviting the attendance of all who desire to
listen to sermons expounding the new creed
This is no insignificant event, when it is
considered that Mr.. Edgar is presumed to act
in concert with French and English Comtists,
men who are ranked by numerous admirers
among the @ripest and most influential
scholars and publicists" of the day. Bat
what amount of religious faith or feeling
there may be at the bottom of this so-called
religion of humanity, it is quite beyond hus
man reason to make out. Humanity, accord
ing to the Comtean creed, is the proper OBJ
ject of the worship of humanity. Let any
man try either to analyze or exemplify this
proposition. If humanity is adorable in the
abstract and the aggregate, it must be so in
the concrete and the particular. Therefore,
the most DEPRIVED, brutal and abhorrent spe-
cimen of humanity is entitled to equal adora-
ton with the most virtuous and heroic for
all are alike constituents of the same ador-
able whole. and this whole can only be
adorable because its parts are so. For the
rest, the confusion of the worshipful with the
worshiper is fatal to the very essence of reli-
gion, which cannot exist without objectivity.