Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism / by H. Strickland Constable.

  • Constable, H. Strickland (Henry Strickland), 1821-1909
Date:
1873
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Doctors, vaccination, and utilitarianism / by H. Strickland Constable. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    (4.) That whatever M. Comte thought himself able to do, no one else in his senses can believe, try as he will, that all he sees around him has had no cause. Instead of Comte’s fancy that belief marches from belief in many gods, through belief in one God, up to belief in no God, the real march is from belief in no God, through belief in many gods, up to belief in one God. The lowest savages have no belief at all. Amongst those a little higher up we find belief in many gods. Indeed, to them, any bit of wood carved into the shape of a figure will do for a God, or Fetish, as it is called. We are told of a Malay sailor who always carried one about him, and who trusted to it implicitly to keep him from harm. But one day he was flogged for some misdemeanor. This was a fatal blow to the Malay’s faith in his Fetish, and he was overheard covering the wooden image with reproaches and and railings. He said, “Is it for dis I have guard- ed you dese many years ? Is it for dis I put parrots’ feder in your tail and gave you de best ob eberyting ? Is it for dis, &c., &c. ? and at last he finished by chucking his god overboard. About Comte’s “ nieta])hysical ” crotchet, what- ever may have been the case with some fanciful book writers who used to be called realists, (in opposition to nominalists), and who believed that general terms, such as “ nature ” and “ mankind,” were positive entities instead of being single words used for con- venience, to avoid having to employ long phrases ;