THE POSITIVIST DREAM. (Spectator.)

Waikato Times, Volume III, Issue 127, 27 February 1873, Page 2

THE POSITIVIST DREAM . (Spectator.)

Profhssoji Huxley long ago defined Positivism as being Roman Catholicism w itiiout God. We do not know whether tliut ecclesiastical shell of the Itomnn Chnreh denuded of its worship provides as yet for au Order of Positivist Jesuits, hut wo- should not be surprised to bear that it did, and that Mr Frederic Hnrrison « tin* Superior of the Order. His paper in the Fortnightly Review of the present month is certainly conceived on the principle, which has been so often attributed to the Jesuits, of reducing to dcipair the minds of his readers, as far as a very able and skilful and very much exaggerated btatcment of difficultict in the way of their actual beliefs will do if rand r and then suddenly pointing out one door of retreat from the abomination of desolation he has tried to create, and declaring with an air of imperious authority, that by th it, and that alone, they can avoid their otherwise inevitable destiny of spiritual destitution. In other words, he harps upon the spiritual difficulties of men with a practised and remorseless hnnd, and at the very moment that, so far a3 they ha\e yielded to hi-- influence, they are reduced to hopelesjness, and disposed to be even thankful if a crumb of what has been taken from them bo restored, ho change* his tone, promises them all the .help and joy of spiritual unity, "a real bense of incorporation with a living and controlling force," and "an intelligible and sensible Head," if (hey will but join the Positivi»ts in serving an " immortal Humanity." The pre3ent writer may fairly admit that tins rather unexpected and propogandmt close to a paper so purely and , to all ap- [ peamnee, coldly and cynically negative, as Mr Frederic Harrisons against tho "supposed necessity ' of knowing something about God and immortality, was a very real beleif. Suddenly ho bcc.imo aware that Mr Harrisons object in ho carefully sapping- the beliefs, which he r.itker ostentatiously, and not, we think, quite in good literary faith, repudiates all wish to undermine, was after nil only tho old and comparatively very rospectnblo motivo of preparing tho way for his own spiritual substitute foi the faiths that (except to the mind of inveterato prejudice) he was endeavouring to provo irrational. Ho was — we suppose wo must not say destroying- — birt showing the very eccentric constitution of the minds which could still hold to the old faiths, not, a* it appeared for the snke of malting men live a more secular and indiflforont life, with loss of high purpose and spiritual affection in it than they do now, but for the sake of persua Img them to exchange thoir enthusiasm fjr God fjr an enthusiasm for humanity, and their allegiance to ecclesiastical authority for a still more devoted allegiance to tho successor of Augusto Comtc. After all, Mr Frederic Harrison was working so hard only to divert tho stream of faith from the channels in which it had previously been flowing to his ovn carefully prepared dykes. His scorn for the inconclusive process by which men have come to believe in God, Providence, ami n future life, is but enthusiasm for that worship of humanity ami that submissircness to a self-constituted priesthood of humanity, in disguise. Wliilo ho w»s professing with his lips tho absolute needlessness of any faith on tho great points with which the creeds of Christendom and the other great religions of the world chiefly deal, tho fire was kindling in his heart for a faith which might, he thought, supply the place of all these, and be their superior, not only in the certainty of its duties hut in spiritual nobility to. His leeining cynicism is but a now faith travelling incognito. Ho feels the need of a controlling purpose, of a higher guidance, and of an infinite aim, as much (is anyono j ouly he thinks ho can find one not liable to the same objections as those to which the existing religions are exposed, mid his hoarl swells within him as ho contemplates the immense economy of spiritual life which he will gain, if he can divert to humanity the spiritual affections luvisltcd on God, and can substitute a pope who will tell men authoritatively not to waste themselves on tho invisible, for the popo who tells men authoritatively that they are to (Jo so. "In spite of logic and in defiance of science," says Mr Harrison, " metaphysical mysteries will continue to live until this vague yearning is absorbod in a great and strenuous emotion. Tho only cure for irrational musings over ancient enigmas," he adds, throwing off for a moment that rather unworthy affectation of cordiality towards all sorts of faiths in which people manage to believo, be they, in his own opinion, false or true, which it suited him to assume throughout tho article, " is a solid faith in real religion. There will olwaye be minds debilitated by hopeless questionings, until a passionate devotion of the soul to a real and activo power bocomes the atmosphere of general life " ! and this religion, ho goes on to assure us, is the service- of "nn immortal humanity," as organized under a supremo intollectuul dictatorship, which shall keep mon from spiritual waste, and oi'gauizo them for spiritual helpfulness. Now we will not pursue towards Mr Harrison the not very fair policy which he has pursued towards what he deems tho falso religions of tho world, — the policy of ignoring their vast amount of common life, and representing them as all concerned with arbitrary and various problems, instead of grouping themselves round tho same great spiritual yearnings, though in point of fact, wo believe him to bo wrong not only with regard to the religion he despises, but also with regard to tho religion he adopts There is just as much of tho metaphysical yearning lie wants to In.' to sleep in his own faith as there there is m those he rejects, nor do we believo that it differs much more widely in its primary moral assumptions from Christianity on t lie one side than it does from Buddhism, of which ho gives a misleading picture, on the other. In asserting that in the Buddhist religion " future life was a horrible dread, the continuance of existence the principle of evil, and the soul the ever-present curse," and that, the pure ltiuldlnst " not only did not dread tho extinction of his personality, but ho thirsted after it, and prated for it with ecstasy." Mr Hnrrinon might, at least, ha>e let bin readers know that he is stating a very doubtful opinion, vehemently contested between two schools of interpretation, some of the highest authorities holding that " Nirvana" is much nearer the Christian idea of perfect peaco in God than what wo mean by annihilation ; and fnrther, that whatever the final goal may be intellect ually conceived to bo, (ho pnvdieal conception of Nirvana is admit led on all sides to bo that which you approach more and more closely tho more progress 3011 make in self-denial and forgolfiilness. If he had fairly admitted tln«, he would, on the the 0110 hand, have lost 0110 of hia most effect i>e controversial answers to the assertion that all religions spring out of tho name deep roots in human nature, and on the other have supplied his readers with a »oeond anilo^v for hi. own rlr^um of PoJitmum be3irtos Professor Hui.lo\ 's " Hainan Catholicism without God."