IV.
EDWARD SPENCER BEESLY.
"Thou, Humanity, art my goddess: to thy law
My services are bound; wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom?"
LAST issue, in writing of Mr. Joseph Arch, I ran no inconsiderable risk of losing sight of the man in the magnitude of the cause with which his name is identified. This week I am in similar and greater peril; for, if it be one thing to face National Agricultural Unionism as the subject-matter of Radical effort, it is quite another to tackle the whole duty of man — the religion of humanity—as revealed in the fulness of these later times by Auguste Comte.
To those who know any thing of the writings of that extraordinary man, I need scarcely say, that, whatever may be thought of his ulterior conclusions, his was one of the most powerful, laborious, and all-embracing intellects of any time or clime. If one cannot accept his ideas, it is still necessary to revise one's own in the light of them; for, as Moses was fitted for his mission by being learned in all the learning of the Egyptians, so assuredly Auguste Comte was superlatively conversant with all modern sciences,—with astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology; and, being so conversant, he made, some sixty years ago now, a notable discovery. 204
