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magnificent views of periods of history, language coloured by passion and penetrated with the soul's enthusiasm, touched and enraptured the audience as he expounded the positive theory in its appreciation of the past, its conceptions of the future, and its power to regulate the present. They are yet unpublished, though many résumés of them remain in the hands of his disciples, and are considered by them the most brilliant of the labours of the great master. But the relations between Positivism and Socialism appearing to become too close about 1850, the course of that year was interrupted by command. By the persevering efforts of Madame Comte the hall was regranted, and the course was renewed in 1851. The coup d'état of December, 1852, closed the course finally. For some time M. Comte believed that he would find in the Emperor a friend, if not a patron, who would restore to him the right of teaching, but in this he was disappointed. The great high priest of humanity was not again permitted to speak from a chair and to an audience.

Meanwhile he had issued the "Positive Calendar," which substi tutes for the saints of the Church the men who are marked in history by any great title for having aided in the development of humanity; the "Positivist's Library," a pamphlet, his " Positive Politics; or, a Treatise on Sociology," instituting the religion of humanity, a work in four volumes, the last of which appeared in 1854; and the "Positivist Catechism," a brief epitome of the universal religion he sought to inaugurate. He had also delivered and published in 1850 a Discourse, delivered at the tomb of his friend M. de Blainville, and sent, in 1852, a letter to the Russian Emperor, Nicholas, which he has reproduced in his "Positive Philosophy." In 1855 he issued an appeal to Conservatives, and in November, 1856, his latest work issued from the press under the title of the Subjective Synthesis; or, Universal System of Concep tions Suitable to the Normal State of Humanity; a volume containing the "System of Positive Logic; or, a Treatise on Mathematical Philosophy."

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We have little else to relate; his material wants were few, and these were supplied by the liberality of his disciples and the friends of free thought. He may be said in his latest years to have dwelt in a living tomb, consecrated to the worship of Madame de Vaux, where each day he invoked her memory and prayed. But he also performed the duties of the high priest of humanity; he married those who followed him and administered the sacraments of the new worship to them. He suffered for some time from disease of the heart and cancer in the stomach. He bore his illness with calmness, and, though extremely weak, maintained his collectedness of mind to the last. He died in the presence of some of those disciples who loved him best, on the 5th of September, 1857, leaving behind him a strange and voluminous will, against which Madame Comte appealed, and her suit was successful.

She paid his debts and left his testamentary executors to do as

they chose with his furniture, library, and house. She was willing that her husband should be honoured, but not at the cost of her honour. He was followed to his last resting-place by a select few of his disciples and friends, 9th September. Among others who stood round his grave in the Père La Chaise were M. Proudhon, author of "The Demonstration of Socialism;" M. Fauvety, editor of the Philosophic Review; M. Lecouturier, editor of the Pays; and some of M. Comte's quondam friends among the Saint-Simonians; M. Littré, &c. Two discourses were delivered over his grave by the leaders of the two factions into which his disciples had been divided. Thus it ended; and the great thinker who had survived revolution and counter-revolution; moderatism, anarchy, and absolutism; in whose day the Papacy fell and rose, Napoleon I. reigned and died, and Napoleon III. seized the throne in his stead; in whose lifetime Puseyism, pietism, and eclecticism flourished; while St. Simon, Fourier, Owen, &c., passed away-died and was buried, leaving behind him the memory of a chequered career, of laborious work, of sad endurances, and prophecy of the future-which has been as yet insignificantly fulfilled in the sociology of our time.

I. BIOGRAPHICAL." Auguste Comte et la Philosophie Positive," par E. Littré; "Notice sur l'Euvre et sur la Vie d'Auguste Comte," par le Docteur Robinet.

II. EXPOSITORY." Auguste Comte and Positivism," by J. S. Mill; "Comte's Philosophy of the Sciences," by G. H. Lewes ; "The Positive Philosophy of Auguste Comte" freely translated and condensed, by Harriet Martineau; "De la Philosophie Positive," par E. Littré; "Exposition abrégée et populaire de la Philosophie Positive et de la Religion Positive," par Celestin de Blignières; "Aperçus Généreux sur la Doctrine Positive," par M. de Lombrail; "Réflexions Synthétiques au Point de Vue Positiviste sur la Philosophie, la Morale, et la Religion," par M. de Constant Rebecque; "Cours Philosophique sur l'Histoire Générale de l'Humanité," par M. Pierre Lafitte; "History of Philosophy," by G. H. Lewes; "A General View of Positivism," by Dr. J. H. Bridges; "The Catechism of Positive Religion," translated by R. Congreve, M.A. ; "Comte's Positivist Calendar," by Henry Edger; "Conservation, Révolution, et Positivisme," par E. Littré; various reviews and magazines; and "Les Ouvrages d'Auguste Comte," as detailed.

III. CRITICAL.-J. D. Morell's "History of Philosophy in Nineteenth Century;" and his "Lectures on Philosophical Tendencies;" G. H. Lewes's "Aristotle;" J. H. Stirling's Translation of Dr. Schwegler's "Handbook of Philosophy;" Herbert Spencer's "The Genesis of Science," in his Essays, Series First, and his "The Classification of the Sciences;" J. S. Mill's "Auguste Comte;" "La Crise Philosophique," par Paul Janet; "La Philosophie de l'Histoire," par Odysse-Barot; Critique et Histoire de la Philosophie," par E. Saisset; "Histoire et Systematization de la Biologie," par L. A. Segond; Duke of Argyle's "Reign of Law;" various papers in reviews and magazines, English, French, and American.

Religion.

IS RITUALISM CONSISTENT WITH AND NECESSARY TO TRUE CHRISTIANITY?

AFFIRMATIVE ARTICLE.-II.

RITUALISM: what is it? Semi-Romanism, papal error, and papal superstition disguised,-the wolf in sheep's clothing beneath, -with which clever, designing, and unscrupulous men seek to bring again the pure reformed Church of England beneath the hard yoke and cruel bondage of the Roman see. Away with it— away with it! Down with it-down with it even to the ground! Touch not the unclean thing, lest ye also be defiled. Such are the replies and ejaculations given at this present time by three-fourths of those who are questioned on the subject, or who hear of it for the first time. And yet it will be seen that the reply is given without any study of the subject, and often without the least knowledge of it at all; the word has been taken by certain parties, made a bugbear of; invested with the scarlet robe, grizzly beard, glaring eyes, bloody face, and ferocious expression of an ogre whose chief delight is to prey upon the bodies and souls of those he can ensnare into his cave, and then held up as a thing which Christians would do well to shun. And so, indeed, they would, if the reality corresponded with the image. But this is not Ritualism-only a grotesque and hideous caricature. What, then, is Ritualism? It is the solemn, beautiful, and reverent performance of religious rites.

Is this consistent with and necessary to true Christianity ? Can it be otherwise? The question seems at once decided affirmatively, and among Christians-especially among catholic Churchmenought never to have found a place. Two causes have unhappily contributed to bring this question thus prominently forward. The first is the state of apathy and torpor into which, in the course of the last three centuries, the Church of England especially, and Protestant churches generally, became sunk; and secondly, the excesses of a few honest, zealous, and enthusiastic men who were and are the leaders of a noble band whose mission it is to awaken the Church from her nearly fatal lethargy, to arouse her to a sense of her privileges and destiny, and to stimulate her to a more thorough and efficient discharge of her duties.

When men are comfortably asleep, the least noise which arouses them seems a thunderclap; and when they have been settled for a long course of time in any groove of action, he who oversteps it seems to them rushing headlong to destruction.

I shall not in this place enter into any defence of what is called now-a-days the Ritualistic party in the Church, but only observe that, had the Church of England remained as she was left by the reformers in the time of king Edward, we should never have heard anything_about Tractarian, Evangelical, High Churchman, or Ritualist. It was the gradual departure from primitive, apostolic, and reformed' ritual which has caused the men of this age, who so zealously strive for a revival of the catholic ritual, to be branded with the name of Romanizers and innovators; whereas it is those who have allowed this ritual to become almost obsolete from disuse, or have glozed it with their own interpretations, that truly deserve the name.

No service can be conducted without some order. Let all "things be done decently and in order," is the apostolic injunction; that order is the ritual of the service. Every religious service, whether it be in a conventicle or in a cathedral, has, and must of necessity have, some ritual; there must be in every case some accustomed mode of performing divine service. We all know by experience that this is so. What, then, shall be the nature of Christian ritual? Shall it be plain or florid, meagre or elaborate, poor or costly, repulsive or attractive, meaningless or symbolic?

Which is most scriptural? The plain, the poor, the meagre, the meaningless, reply at once a score or so opponents. The simpler the better. Throw away symbolism; it is only fit for the infancy, not for the manhood of the Church's history. We are not babes, but men. Besides, the law and its ceremonial are done away in the gospel. Is it so? The mind of the Supreme Being, upon the nature of the worship most acceptable to Him, can be learned in three distinct ways-from Nature, from Man, and from Revelation.

From Nature.-"The earth is the Lord's, and the fulness thereof." "The heavens declare the glory of the Lord, and the firmament showeth His handywork." Snow and ice, wind and rain, fulfil His word. The Psalmist exhorts everything that hath breath to praise the Lord. And what are the products of nature? Are they meagre and barely sufficient, repulsive and purposeless? Are they not, on the contrary, scattered over the earth in the most luxuriant abundance, full of beauty and order, alluring and pleasing the eye by their rich and glowing harmonies of light and colour, shedding around perfumes more fragrant, more precious than incense, delighting the ear by their sweet linked cadences of song? Nature speaks with an unmistakable voice,-The Lord has made all these rich and varied things for our enjoyment. Shall we then offer unto Him of that which costs us nothing? It was not so in olden times; shall it be so now? No; let us, at least, the creatures of His hand, and the dependants on His bounty, endeavour to express some small portion of our thankfulness to Him for all His benefits by the care we take, and the sacrifice and self-denial we make in offering Him our tribute of praise.

From Man.-That is, from the natural disposition, the mental religion of man, as one may call it. What could a heart full of love and gratitude prompt its possessor to offer to its Benefactor but that which is most rare and costly, and which measures most plainly the extent of the offerer's gratitude, and the self-denial practised in expressing it? The very idea of a beneficent Creator awakens in a man a corresponding sentiment to thankfully offer unto Him the best he has. It was so with the heathen of old; it is so with the heathen in every land now. No need to detail the offerings of Hindoo or Parsee. Each and all proclaim that they at least would not offer unto their gods of that which cost them nothing. Knowing, or fancying they know, the things in which their protecting deity delights, they think no exertion too great, no sacrifice too large, to make in order to obtain them and present them in his temple. And shall we, who live not in heathen darkness, but in gospel light, whose God is not a God of vengeance, but of longsuffering mercy and goodness, insult Him and slight all His benefits by offering unto Him the refuse? We would not do so with an earthly sovereign; let us not do it with our heavenly King.

From Revelation.-No one will deny that the ritual service of the Old Testament was solemn, grand, instructive, and impressive. Every particular of the ceremonial was laid down by Jehovah himself; and every particular shows splendour, costliness, elaborateness, and significance. Some would call it gorgeous, pantomimic, unnecessary. From the building and adorning of the tabernacle to the bells and pomegranates on the high priest's robe, the same magnificence and almost reckless profusion and expenditure of wealth is manifested. And all was found by a willing and obedient people, ordained and accepted by a loving God.

One point in the Mosaic ceremonial deserves notice: the necessary offerings were graduated according to the means of the offerer. If he be rich he shall offer a lamb; if poor, a pair of turtle-doves or two young pigeons: showing that though the offerings of all were accepted and required, yet none were to appear before the Lord empty:

Again, when David proposed and Solomon accomplished the building of a house to the Lord, what do we find the characteristic feature of that temple? Magnificence and lavish display, wholly regardless of expense. No previous building was equal to it, nor has any appeared since. At the dedication festival the number of animals sacrificed was enormous, and to many may appear wasteful and unnecessary. Yet Jehovah commended Solomon, and showed His acceptance of the offering by deigning indeed to dwell upon earth, and so filling the house with His glory, as displayed in the cloud, that the priest could not stand to minister by reason of the glory; and further, saying to Solomon, "I have heard thy prayer and thy supplication that thou hast made before Me; I have hallowed this house which thou hast built to put My name there for

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