never undertaken by any sane (or for that matter, insane) man.

those accessories which were of such infinite service to the old primeval fathers of human belief, so much as exist nowa- We have said that Mr. Congreve is days. Those stories which the wise call much more interesting to us than the myths, but which the unlearned always founder whom he worships. Of M. take for gospel, can no longer do the Comte we have nothing to say. He had philosophical framer of a new creed any at least all the élan and the satisfaction service. He cannot, alas ! call to his aid of an inventor launching forth a new those impersonations upon which all old thing into the world, and doubtless found beliefs are founded. those gods who in it enough of personal gratification and still hold a lingering poetical sway in the elevation to make up for any trouble in classic soul of here and there a dainty arranging the canons of his faith. His Grecian, in academic Oxford or else- disciple is infinitely more disinterested. where. Neither Apollo nor Brahma can To him, we presume, the Religion of aid him. Neither can he get the help of Humanity has brought much loss-it the strong hand as Mohammed did, and can have brought no gain. Neither honadd temporal ascendancy, power, and our nor applause, nor even respect, can greatness to celestial rewards as induce- have come to him from his devotion to a ments to believe. The last new religion set of principles which affect the general of all (except M. Comte's) has seized per- world with wonder or with ridicule only haps the only weapon remaining of a - not even with that vague admiration fleshly kind, and supports its ethical sys- for something beautiful, that moral approtem (if it has one) by such social overturn bation of something good, mixed up with as brings it within a vulgar level of popu- error, which every genuine Belief has lar effectiveness; but even if this instru- secured from its candid critics. The ment had not been appropriated, we tenets which good sense rejects are often doubt whether that vulgar instrumen- lovely to the imagination, and those tality which does well enough for the which are condemned by the heart, lay, Salt Lake City, would have answered in in some cases, a bond of logical truth Paris, where there are less means of upon the understanding from which it actual expansion, and where the houses cannot escape even if it would. But we are not adapted for patriarchal institu- find it impossible to conceive that either tions. That which M. Comte and his the general heart, mind, or imagination, followers call the Religion of Humanity, could find anything in the Gospel which is thus deprived of all extraneous aid. Mr. Congreve believes so fervently to M. Auguste Comte himself, and Madame justify the childlike devotion which he Clotilde de Vaux, are the sole objects of gives it, or to vindicate the wonderful its mythology; and sufficient time has faith and self-abnegation which are apscarcely elapsed since these great per-parent in these essays. We say to vinsonages left the world, to permit any dicate his self-abnegation; for every sacgentle illusion of the imagination, any rifice, to gain respect, must be capable of softening mist of antiquity to fall upon vindication on some reasonable ground; the sharp outlines of the real. And this and this vindication has scarcely ever creed, which has no personal foundation been wanting even to fanatics. Putting except the life of a Frenchman of the aside Christianity which we are not nineteenth century, no doctrines but ab- prepared to discuss on the same level stract ones, no rewards, no punishments, with any other belief prevalent among no hopes, no terrors-nothing tangible men, but which we believe to be as much enough, indeed, to come within the men- nobler and loftier in its earthly point of tal range of ordinary mortals is the view as it is diviner in every sanction religion which Mr. Congreve is person- and authority of heaven - there is no ally propagating at 19 Chapel Street, one of what are commonly called the Bedford Row, in rooms which the com- false religions of the world, for which a munity has at last procured, and adorned man's sacrifice of himself might not be with busts, &c., to make them fit for the justified by the judgment of his fellofty purpose of regenerating the world lows, on condition of his personal faith -and of which he sets up the ensign in it. We can understand and respect and symbol in this book, so that circles the Mohammedan, the Hindoo, even the out of the reach of Chapel Street may hear and know and seek that shrine, to be instructed in the religion of the later days. A bolder enterprise was surely

gentleman whom, under the name of a Fetishist, Mr. Congreve admits into his fullest fellowship, and whose adoration of his grim symbol of Godhead, refers, we

do not doubt, dimly to some spiritual be- | hymns that rise before this darkling ing. The old gods of Greece are so shrine, what can there be on earth more vague and far off that it is hard to realize pathetic? last effort of humanity, the time when there was any general faith which must cry out in its trouble, and in Jupiter or Apollo. Yet even for Apollo babble in its joy, to something. to the and Jupiter it is possible to understand air, to the desert, to the waste sands that a man might have lived and died, and seas, if to nothing that can hear, feeling in those high-seated shadows of and feel, and respond. Olympus some glory above himself, some We will, however, permit Mr. Congreve greatness, soiled by fleshly symbol and himself to describe the object, or rather imperfect revelation, but still more glori-objects, of worship to which he has deous than anything of earth something voted himself. He explains to us, first, which could understand the worshipper, how M. Comte became enlightened as and comprehend his littleness in its great- to the central point in his creed; how he ness, and overshadow him with sublime" stood revealed to himself, and his work wings of spiritual reality, according to also stood in a new light before him.” the vision of the inspired Hebrew. With "The unity of the human race, over all these worshippers we have a certain whose progress he had pondered, had sympathy. Such as their gods were, they long been a conviction with him; with were still beyond, above themselves; dei- the conception, too, of humanity as a fications, if you choose, of their own ideal, higher organism, he had familiarized but yet proving that divine birthright himself, and by the light of that concepof human nature, the necessity for an tion had interpreted its past and meditatideal- the yearning of mankind for some ed on its future." But when, in the stay and refuge above itself. Wherever course of events, M. Comte met Madame a man believes that he has found this, de Vaux and felt himself stimulated and however erroneous his conclusions may enlightened by "the genuine human love be, or ill-founded his confidence, he has of a noble woman," his previous concluyet a right to the sympathy of his fellows, sions all at once took force and form. and to their respect, for whatever sacri- "The conviction became faith; the orfice he may make. ganism in which he believed claimed and received his veneration and his love — in other words, his worship." In such a delicate argument it is necessary to be perfectly clear and definite in expression: the conviction which became faith was that of the "unity of the human race; the organism which received his worship was Humanity. Mr. Congreve adds his own profession of faith.

But what shall we think of the man who sacrifices himself, his reason and learning, and all his advantages, at the shrine of an abstraction which it requires a very great effort to apprehend at all, and which, being apprehended, is nought, and never can be but nought; too unsubstantial even to be called a vision, too vague to be realized? The Positivist Philosophy is one thing, the Religion of Humanity another: and it is one of the most curious revenges of Nature, that the most materialistic of all philosophical systems that which binds earth and heaven within iron bands of immovable, irresistible, physical law, rejecting all mind, all thought, all soul in the government of the universe - should be thus linked to the most vague, abstract, and fantastic faith that ever entered into the imagination of man. Or perhaps, indeed, it would be better to say that this fanciful foolish faith is but a piteous effort of the mind to compensate itself somehow for a thraldom more than the spirit of man can bear; setting up a dim image of itself - poor soul ! not much knowing what it means, upon the ravaged altar, to get a little coid comfort out of that in the absence of any God or shadow of a God. The fruitless prayers, the faint

We who share that faith, that veneration, that love; we who would worship as he worshipped; we who would preach by our lives, and, when possible, by our spoken or written words, that great Being whose existence is now revealed-that Being of whom all the earlier divinities which man has created as the guardians of his childhood and early youth greatness of the change which his labour has are but anticipations, -we can appreciate the effected. We can see, and each in his several measure can proclaim to others, that what was but a dim instinct has become a truth, in the power of which we can meet all difficulties; that where there was inquiry there is now knowledge; where there was anxious searching there is now possession; that uncertainty has now given way to confidence, despondency to courage. We see families forming into tribes, and tribes into cities or states, and states' into yet larger unions. . . We feel that the ascending series is not complete; that as the family in the earliest state is at war with other families—the tribe at war with

other tribes, so the nations and races are at variance with each other; and that as the remedy in each previous case has been the fusion of the smaller into the larger organism, so it must be still the same if the process is to be completed, and that no more than the single family or the isolated tribe can the greatest nation or the most powerful race stand wholesomely alone. All must bend, all must acknowledge a common superior, a higher organism, detached from which they lose themselves and their true nature, become selfish and degraded. Still higher organisms there may be; we know not. If there be, we know that we cannot neglect the one we know, nor refuse to avail ourselves of the aid which it can give us when once acknowledged and accepted.

We accept it then, and believe in it. We see the benefits Humanity has reaped for us by her toilsome and suffering past; we feel that we are her children, that we owe her all; and seeing and feeling this, we love, adore, and serve. For we see in her no mere idea of the intellect, but a living organism within the range of our knowledge. The family has ever been allowed to be real; the state has ever been allowed to be real; St. Paul felt, and since him, in all ages, Christians have felt, that the Church was real. We claim no less for Humanity; we feel no less that Humanity is real, requiring the same love, the same service, the same devotion. . . . In the exercise of her power she proceeds to complete herself by two great creations.

...

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them an ideal being and a definite home in Space. the second great creation which completes the central one of Humanity. In the bosom of Space we place the World-and we conceive of the World, and this our mother earth, as gladly welcomed to that bosom with the simplest and purest love, and we give our love in return.

Thou art folded, thou art lying,

In the light that is undying. Thus we complete the Trinity of our Religion - Humanity, the World, and Space. So completed, we recognize its power to give unity and definiteness to our thoughts, purity and warmth to our affections, scope and vigour to our activity. We recognize its power to regulate our whole being; to give us that which it has so long been the aim of all religion to give-internal union. . . . It harmonizes us within ourselves by the strong power of love, and it binds us to our fellowmen by the same power. It awakens and quickens our sympathy with the past, uniting us with the generations that are gone by firmer ties than have ever been imagined hitherto. It teaches us to live in the interest and for the good of the generations that are to follow in the long succession of years. It teaches us that for our action in our own generation, we must live in dutiful submission to the lessons of the past, to the voice of the dead, and at the same time we must evoke the future by the power of imagination, and endeavour so to shape our action that it may conduce to the advantage of that future.

As we contemplate man's action and existence, we are led to think of the sphere in This full exposition of the Religion of which they take place, and of the invariable Humanity will, we fear, make many a laws under which they are developed. We reader lose himself in sheer confusion rest not then in any narrow or exclusive spirit and bewilderment; for if his attention in Humanity, but we pass to the Earth, our has faltered for a moment, it is not so common mother, as the general language of man, the correct index to the universal feel- easy to take up the thread or identify the ing, has ever delighted to call her, and from "being" whose existence Mr. Congreve the earth we rise to the system of which she is tells us "is now revealed," or those still a part. We look back on the distant ages, more shadowy abstractions which comwhen the earth was preparing herself for the plete, as he says, "the Trinity of our habitation of man, and with gratitude and religion." For ourselves we are bound love we acknowledge her past and present to say, though not willing altogether to services. The invariable laws under which own ourselves deficient in that attribute, Humanity is placed have received various names at different periods. Destiny, Fate, the tremendous strain thus made upon our imagination sinks back appalled at Necessity, Heaven, Providence, all are many it. The divine Trinity of the Christian names of one and the same conception-the laws that man feels himself under, and that Faith has tried many a devout soul into without the power of escaping from them. which doubt or unbelief never entered; We claim no exception from the common lot. but the Trinity of the Humanitarian goes We only wish to draw out into consciousness a long way beyond the Athanasian Creed. the instinctive acceptance of the race, and to How are we to lift our minds to the sumodify the spirit in which we regard them. preme regions in which Humanity means We accept, so have all men: we obey, so have not a vast multitude of faulty men and all men. We venerate, so have some in past women, "but a great Being" - where ages or in other countries. We add but one the Earth prepares herself for the habita other term, we love. We would perfect our submission, and so reap the full benefits of tion of man, and Space welcomes the submission in the improvement of our hearts Earth into her bosom "with the simplest and tempers. We take in conception the sum and purest love"? The words alone of the conditions of existence, and we give make the brain reel. We can but gasp

and gaze at the speaker who deals familiarly with such unknown quantities, and professes even to "love" the Space which is one of his divinities. How does a man feel, we wonder, when he loves Space? Is the emotion stupendous as its object? In the nature of things it must be, we should suppose, a chilly sort of passion, not making a very great demand upon the feelings.

gation in Paris and that in Americawhen the tension of our wondering gaze relaxes, what utterance is possible to the beholder but that tremulous laugh which is the only alternative of weeping, over the prelections of this gentle enthusiast, this amiable fanatic? A laugh is a sorry performance as commentary in such a matter; but there is only one other alternative which could express the puzzled bewilderment and painful wonder which rise in our minds; and indeed even tears do not render so well the pity and amusement, the sympathy and impatience, the admiration we feel for the loyal disciple, the sense of provoked vexation and annoyance with which we look upon the wasted man.

We cannot venture in our limited space to quote much more largely from the curious book, which, however is but little The mixture of home likely, we should suppose, to meet with many readers. mission details with the grandeur of this philosophical religion, is still more odd here than it generally is when mixed up with genuine feeling and serious thought. Some of these contrasts, indeed, are too comical to be passed without notice. In one of these discourses, for instance, we are taught what is the office of the Priesthood (when formed) in the Religion of Humanity, how wide are their claims, and how lofty is the position they aspire to. Such claims Mr. Congreve tells us - and with truth-no Christian priest would venture to put forth; and wisely - for if he did, no community would ever allow them. But the Priesthood of Humanity Here is the will take higher ground than is possible to that of Christendom. statement of their claims:

We are half inclined to laugh, but rather more than half inclined to a very different exercise when we turn from the belief thus propounded to the person who sets it forth, with all that gentle reiteration which belongs to the preacher, and an apparent warmth of pious sentiment such as must be peculiar to the man. Many wonderful phenomena has the conjunction of atheism and faith produced in the world; for indeed an unbelieving head and a credulous heart are often enough conjoined, and the marriage has produced abortions of strange delusion enough to astonish the most experienced observer: but very seldom, we think, has any one ventured to stand up before a world, still in its senses, and propound so extraordinary a faith, so piously, so fervently, so simply, as Mr. Congreve has done. He has the first qualification of a preacher the art of believing what he himself says, and believing it with earnest force and These words sound much conviction. too real when we think what are the objects of his faith; and yet, so far as he is concerned, they are evidently true. No lukewarm zeal shines through the discourse, but a real warmth, which increases still more the amazement with which we gaze at the man. However woful and wonderful his creed may be, he believes it by some extraordinary witchcraft. He talks to us of Humanity and Space as a man might talk of God and Christ, with moisture in his eyes and a certain expan-meeting of the difficulties, for the satisfactory all its complexity, there is no other power but sion and glow of being, as if the words accomplishment of the work of education in religion to which we can profitably appeal; inspired him. Strange fact! - but true. Almost we wish, for Mr. Congreve's sake, that for the instruction of this and other that we could respect his belief more, and nations, we must rely on a religious or-on the organization, that is, of feel his abnegation of all reasonableness ganization, more justifiable. If he were a Moham-a body of men animated by the same remedan, or a Buddhist, or a born Brah-ligious convictions, undertaking the task min, it is with a kind of reverence that in the same spirit as a religious duty, and the justificawhole existence and actionwe should contemplate the believer so making its performance the ground of their tion of their being an organization. profoundly certain of his faith and eager to extend its sway. But after we have other words, none but a Priesthood can be heard him hold forth for pages together qualified to instruct about Humanity and Space, about the can duly guide society to the right conception Founder and his memory, about the of education, to the right conception of its duties of the new-born tiny sect, and their more peculiar organ-the family, and of its fellowship of the saints with the congre-own action in subordination to that organ.

I begin by restating what I have often e-my conviction that for the full stated before

In

-none but a Priesthood

Those who recognize the insufficiency of other educational schemes, the incompetence of other clergies, to all such I appeal for aid in forwarding the formation of the new Priesthood. I cannot say how urgent I think this question, how important is a steady unintermittent effort to base on a solid foundation the fund for the Priesthood of the human faith. . . . Immediately this only concerns one, but that one is of the highest importance. To form a fund sufficient, both in amount and certainty, to dispense with the great pressure upon our director's energies, that is the most immediate object we can set before us. I may do what he would not do, urge this on all Positivists, and, indeed, on all who sympathize with us from outside.

Then arises the question, Is there such a body? | dition of all benevolent enterprises? We There exist Priesthoods around us of more or turn the page, and we find stated in all less power and cohesion. But there is not simplicity the modest boundary of the which would claim to answer to the descrip- new Religion's hopes. tion given. The new Priesthood of Humanity now in the slow process of formation enters then on ground not previously occupied, when it claims for itself the province of higher instruction as its peculiar work, its raison d'être the great primary object of its existence and action, that on which all its other functions are seen to rest. It is as yet, as I said, but in the process of formation; it needs long and vigorous efforts from all the servants of Humanity to aid it in its constitution; but whilst recognizing these facts, we who, by the force of circumstances and the exigencies of our position, are, however imperfectly, members of this nascent organization, must not shrink from claiming for it that which is to be its appropriate province. It, and it alone, if worthy of its place, can instruct the children of Humanity with the complete instruction which they need for the purposes of their being. It is enough that others serve another power, and cannot therefore be consequent servants of Humanity. They might, and they will, to a great extent, and most usefully, give the same knowledge, but they cannot give it with the same logical consistency as we do. They may help us, but we finally supersede

them.

sym

Alas for the world and its chance of renovation! alas for the children of Humanity whom only the Priesthood of Humanity can fully instruct! There is but one priest in question, one man whom all Positivists are entreated to unite in making a provision for, so that he may devote all his energies to the new-born Church. From the sublime to the ridicuof the young community, were they half lous is but a step. Surely the members would soon find means of liberating M. as much in earnest as Mr. Congreve, Lafitte, the spiritual director of their sect, the head of their religion, so to speak, from the temporal work which divides his thoughts with the care of his flock. If it is true, according to the vulgar idea, that liberality in offerings is the best sign of warm partisanship and strong conviction, then we fear Positivism, after all, must have a weaker claim upon its votaries than is to be desired. In the same discourse, a page further on, the preacher makes another most modest suggestion, too gentle to be called an appeal, which still further exposes the unfortunate contrast between the splendid pretensions of the new sect, and the means it possesses of carrying them out.

The reader will perceive that no pope, no mediæval priest, ever made a vaster claim, or set up a more infallible right. When what is technically called an 66 Appeal" is made for the Home Mission, for the favourite parochial scheme of evangelization, or for the missionary to the heathen, conventionally so called, it is of ordinary usage to give a wide and vague description of the blessings to be secured by the special" work" for which the pathies of a Christian people are appealed to; but few, even of the most fervent, venture to say "this agency, and this alone, can instruct" the ignorant. We, and we alone, are the men who can save our race. This, however, Mr. Congreve says without hesitation; to him it is tout simple. Of all the complicated subjects in the world, this one of education is the most difficult; but he is provided with the machinery which can solve all difficulties, Secondly, I think we should keep before us the organization which has the final the question of acquiring some power in its hands. What is the appeal rooms where lectures might be given, where he makes after this grand introduction ? even more elementary teaching might be given Has he a Priesthood ready to enter upon it might be called. This is a point which if wanted -a Positive school or institute, as its work; has he a band of eager disciples ready, if only the means are fur- already has struck some of our body. I can nished, to set the new world in the right only beg of them not to lose sight of it, but to see how far and where it is realizable. . . . It way at once; has he an Apostolate at remains essential for us in any case to see least, wanting only that "penny siller" whether we can provide ourselves with a local which is nowadays the indispensable con- | habitation -a seat of Positivism.

room or