positive philosophy does not accept atheism."[47] Why? Because atheism
pretends to give an explanation of the universe, and that after a
fashion is still theology. Minds "veritably emancipated" profess to know
nothing whatever on questions which go beyond actual experience. They do
not deny God, they eliminate Him from the thoughts. The attempt is a
bold one, but it fails; men do not succeed in emancipating themselves
from the laws of reason. The very writer whom I have just quoted is
himself a proof of this, for he absolutely proscribes every statement of
a metaphysical nature, and then, three pages farther on, in the very
treatise in which he makes this proscription, he speaks of the
"_eternal_ motive powers of a _boundless_ universe."[48] Boundless!
eternal! What thoughts are these? Behold the instincts of the reason
coming to light! behold all the divine attributes appearing! Adoration
is withdrawn from God, and it is given to the universe at large. What is
it which, in the universe regarded as a whole, will become the direct
object of worship? Another positivist, M. de Lombrail, will tell us, in
a work reviewed by Auguste Comte: "Man," he says, "has always adored
humanity." Here, we learn, is the true foundation of all religions, and
the brief summary of their history. This humanity-god has been long
adored under a veil which disguised it from the eyes of its worshippers;
but the time is come when the sage ought to recognize the object of his
worship and give it its true name.[49]

The positivist school, then, professes a complete scepticism with regard
to whatever is not included in the domain of experience. But its foot
slips, and it falls into the negation of God, from which it rises again
by means of a humanitarian atheism. All these marks are met with again
in the works of the critical school.

The critics group themselves about M. Renan. The praises which they