The concrete portions of Mr. Frederic Harrison's address were equally
pretentious. Positivism alone understood how to solve the Socialist problems, he said. Their solution was the only true one, " a Socialism which was founded in the Family," a solution remarkably destitute of guidance. Positivism, it seems, has achieved great conquests in Ireland, by converting the Irish people to the conviction that they must sacrifice the landlords on account of their anti-social policy. And further, Positivism rejoices in the Mandist victories in East Africa over Western Companies, which, it seems, are more fatal to freedom than the Arab slave-hunters themselves. Why Positivism takes the side of the boycotter and the slave-hunter, Mr. Frederic Harrison did not explain. But the air of authority with which Positivism speaks is always imposing. It is the next thing to a Papal Allocution, if only there were a Church to show the smallest sign of ecclesiastical submissiveness. Among the Positivists, however, all the members seem to be Popes without a Church, without a clergy, and without a God.
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