Further, he says: “M. Comte, in a grand work entitled the _System of the Positive Philosophy_, established the basis of a philosophy [?] which must finally supplant every theology and the whole of metaphysics. Such a work necessarily contains a direct application to the government of societies; as it _has nothing arbitrary in it_ [?] and as we find therein a _real science_ [?], my adhesion to the principles involves my adhesion to the essential consequences.” M. Littré has shown himself in the light of a true son of his prophet. Indeed the whole system of Comte appears to us to have been built on a play of words. When they say “_Positivism_” read _Nihilism_; when you hear the word _chastity_, know that it means _impudicity_; and so {79} on. Being a religion based on a theory of negation, its adherents can hardly carry it out practically without saying white when meaning black! “Positive Philosophy,” continues Littré, “does not accept atheism, for the atheist is not a really-emancipated mind, but is, in his own way, a theologian still; he gives his explanation about the essence of things; _he knows_ how they begun!... Atheism is Pantheism; this system is quite theological yet, and thus belongs to the ancient party.”[158] It really would be losing time to quote any more of these paradoxical dissertations. Comte attained to the apotheosis of absurdity and inconsistency when, after inventing his philosophy, he named it a “Religion.” And, as is usually the case, the disciples have surpassed the reformer—in absurdity. Supposititious philosophers, who shine in the American academies of Comte, like a _lampyris noctiluca_ beside a planet, leave us in no doubt as to their belief, and contrast “that system of thought and life” elaborated by the French apostle with the “idiocy” of Spiritualism; of course to the advantage of the former. “To destroy, you must replace;” exclaims the author of the _Cathechism of the Religion of Positivism_, quoting Cassaudiere, by the way, without crediting him with the thought; and his disciples proceed to show by what sort of a loathsome system they are anxious to replace Christianity, Spiritualism, and even Science.