POSITIVISM AND NAPOLEON.
LTO THE EDITOR OF THE " SPECTATOR."]
SIR,—Yonr views as to the " grotesqueness " of Positivism are not of any great value, because you are fighting a losing battle, and we can afford to forgive your petulance ; but it seems a pity, when you venture to write on the subject, that you cannot even get your facts right. A glance at the " Positivist Calendar" would have shown you that Napoleon is not, as you imply, one of the Great Types honoured by the Positivist cult ; and you might have learnt, from the very slightest acquaintance with one of the introductory handbooks to Positivism, that, on the contrary, it was at one time proposed by Comte to hold him up to the periodical reprobation of mankind, as one of the two chief opponents of human progress, the other being Julian the Apostate. This proposal was, however, ultimately withdrawn, on the ground that it was undesirable to stimulate feelings of hatred, however justly provoked.—I am, Sir, &c.,
HENRY ELLIS. 25 Pollock Road, New Kent Road, S.E., February 8th.
[We regret our error, and quite admit that we ought to have referred to the Calendar, and not written from recollection merely. But our correspondent is wholly wrong, though we cannot expect to convince him of this, in attributing to us the smallest petulance of feeling.—En. Spectator.]
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