Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1882-10-01
POsiIiyism and the Anniversary oil
AUguste Connie.

Ga last Monday says the Paris CORE
spondent of the New York Times the disciples OF
| Auguste Comte made pilgrimage to ihis tomb in
| Pere la Chaise. About 500 members OF the Posi-
twist Church marched in procession. with gar
| Comte aud his faithful coadjutrix, Clotilde de
Vaux, to deliver or to near speeches and pan
| year by the adopts of the Religion OF Humanity,
whose present pontiff is NJ. Pierre LaftiIte, and
whose temple is in Auguste Gomte's old apart
ment, No. 10 Rue Monsieur lie Prince. Still, al
though the event is not novelty in itselfs1 have
never written about 1t before and therefore vent
ure on notice of Saint sinons pupil and his
theories ana practices. BON 10 1898 and distin-
guisnea gfaa9a'e o. uie roy .eSl0 ect09iii
1874, when he was dismissed, believe,
because of the exasgerat1on OF the doctrines de-
| yeloped in his Course Of PosiiUiSt Philosophy,
which even good, sy-going Louis Philippe was
Obliged to admit to be sunyerslxe: he pad al al
after the publication of mis- System Of PoSitiutst
Politics. Combining; to use his own expressions,
revels lions of the collective history of the human
race ;, he contends that man, after being success
hypothesis win never possess any genuine knowl-
edge until. having denounced all supernatural
interventions, all research after a final cause.
his philosophy affected to present the ensemble
lhus eliminating all idea OF God, Comte In
the latter years of his iiie pretended to found
mis- mo most Celebrated treatse on The Rel.
gton Of Humanity His proselytes have
never been numerous-not more than about 800 in
over England, America and Oceanica, where
however they are strict observers of his precepts
aud stick to his calendar and his ceremonies.
Morally Comics religion IS perfect as 1t is based
upon the mutual duties and Obligations OF men
and his neighbor. He took no heed OF God and
future, because 1.-The ObjectiYity of these cOncep-
tions have never been suffcienty demonstrated
to me- and when asked in the name OF whom he
preached domestic and social virtues he would re-
ply, In the name of that humanity which needs
order and is interested in the suppression and pre-
During his lifetime A. Comte was the pom
and hiS npQtn 10
La 1itte alone exercised the priesthood in France
and administered the nine sacraments of his
ton, the admission, the defamation, the arriage
the maturity, the retreat, the transformation and
a few days after the birth of child who is
brought by its parents 10 the temple. where the
mother and the sponsors of their duties and of the
moral and physical hygienie regulations which
out OF the infant. This ceremony is species of
positivist baptism. At the age OF fourteen the
pontif7s explanation concerning the advantages
attendant upon education in general and of the
particular kind of education viii h he is to fol-
low; this initiation is a parody in some sort OF
the first communion of Catholics. At the age Of
discourse; he has received from his parents and
from the society all the weapons necessary for his
defense in the battle of life; it depends upon him
self now to make the best use of them possible
for the welfare of society. He is admitted amsng
ming of the toga ririiis by the youth of ancient
Rome. The next step is the choice Of the young |
MANI career. After deciding on TINS ne again |
visits the pontiff, from whom he receives sermon
No T. on the duties of the profession to which he
has destined himself Taxing TO himself wife, |
the positivist hearkens to fifth harangue, con-
jugal virtues and responsibilities. For the ma |
turty, which Augusta fixes at the age of forty
two, another haIangue on the duties to ones self |
and ones neighbor, is prescribed. Twenty-one |
years afierward, if still alive, the posi- |
Twist has right to retire from active |
life, after another Grafton in which are told the /
charms of respectable old age, and the ways and
means by which he can continue to be social /
0enefactor; this Is termed the retreat. The trans
formation happens when the disciple is on his
,ates from custom by going to the mortuary man
S not an evil and should be supported with cour-
horizontal position" but his memory will ever
i've in the MINDS of his coreligionists. There is
n intended analogy between this sacrament"
md extreme JUNCTION. Some years later the de-
eased positivlst is Incorporated by final dis
curse, in the category of those respectable in
ividuals whose memory ought to be honored; |
his ceremony is species of canonization, and
Ike all the others is performed without
ny symbol, without any of that pomp which
1ak IS more impression upon the masses than the
leverest explanation of doctrine. But these
sacraments'' not the only innovations and
articularitie of the religion of humanity, for
zhich its fousder composed a special uiInauac. |
he pOsitivist era began in 1859. wherefore we are
ow in the year ninety-four; each year is composed
thirteen months, each of twenty-eight days and
caring two names, the one abstract, the other
oncrete, follows: