and included under a
Universal Law, there could be no 'clearness, precision, and consistency'
throughout all our domains of Thought, and hence no _true_ Sociology.
Had he rightly apprehended the nature of 'The Grand Man,' as he aptly
denominates Humanity, he would not have failed to perceive that the
attempt to measure the capacities and requirements of Society by the
capacities and requirements of any individual or individuals, how
catholic soever they may be, is but the repetition of the Procrustean
principle on a broader basis, and that a reconstructive movement
established on such a foundation could not meet the wants of this
individualized epoch. That he should not have perceived that the capital
and necessary precursor of any true Science of Society must be a
Universal Science, a Science of Universal Laws underlying and unifying
Physics and Metaphysics, is not strange, when we consider his peculiar
mental characteristics. That he should ever have anticipated any
permanent acceptance of his Sociological Theories, or regarded his
Social Institutions as anything more than transitional forms, could only
have been due to a lack of the highest Scientific powers, and to an
earnest impatience at beholding Humanity crawling along the path of
Progress by the aid of obsolete instrumentalities.

The work which Auguste Comte accomplished was immense. Its value can
hardly be overestimated. Every modern Scientist and Thinker is largely
indebted to him for that which is indispensable to high intellectual
development and progress in thought. For the immense steps in Scientific
advancement which he took; for his love of his Race; for his really
religious spirit, exhibited in his utter devotion to that which he
deemed the highest right; the love and sympathy of every student of
Science and every devotee of truth is, and will be, forever his. That he
failed in achieving a permanent Scientific basis of a sufficiently
universal and unquestionable character--a real Universology, which
should exhibit the essential verity of the _religious intuitions_ of the
past, and should establish their inherent and harmonious connection with
the unfolding _intellectual discoveries_ of the present--is true. But it
should not be forgotten that every attempt, made in the right direction,
which comes short of the final result, is but a stepping stone for the
next effort, and, viewed as a single round in the great ladder of human
ascension, a success--an