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“The Church of Humanity”: New York's Worshipping Positivists

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 July 2009

Gillis J. Harp
Gillis J. Harp
Affiliation:
Mr. Harp is assistant professor of history at theUniversity of Prince Edward Island in Charlottetown, Canada.
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Extract

The philosophy of Auguste Comte changed irrevocably the intellectual contours of nineteenth-century Europe. In the Anglo-American world, John Stuart Mill was profoundly influenced by Comte's magisterial Cours de philosophie positive (1830–1842) and Mill's work became an important conduit through which Americans such as John Fiske, Lester F. Ward and Henry Adams encountered positivism. Comte's controversial later work (especially the Systéme de politique positive [1851–1854]) was also significant, although Mill and others became harsh critics of the so-called ‘second system.’ English admirers of Comte's bizarre social and religious blueprint did include notables, however, such as Frederic Harrison, Harriet Martineau and novelist George Eliot1.

Type
Research Article
Information
Church History , Volume 60 , Issue 4 , December 1991 , pp. 508 - 523
Copyright
Copyright © American Society of Church History 1991

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References

1. For a treatment of these themes, see Cashdollar, Charles D., The Transformation of Theology, 1830–1890: Positivism and Protestant Thought in Britain and America (Princeton, 1989);CrossRefGoogle ScholarChadwick, Owen, The Secularization of the European Mind in the Nineteenth Century (Cambridge, 1975),Google Scholar esp. ch. 9. Note also: Kent, Christopher, Brains and Numbers: Elitism, Comtism and Democracy in Mid-Victorian England (Toronto, 1978);Google ScholarMcGee, John E., A Crusade for Humanity: The History of Organized Positivism in England (London, 1931);Google ScholarSimon, W. M., European Positivism in the Nineteenth Century: An Essay in Intellectual History (Ithaca, N.Y., 1963).Google Scholar

2. Orthodox positivists in the United States do figure in the following works: L, L.. and Bernard, Jessie, Origins of American Sociology: The Social Science Movement in the United States (New York, 1943),Google Scholar esp. ch. 12; Hawkins, Richmond L., Positivism in the United States 1853–1861 (Cambridge, Mass., 1938);CrossRefGoogle ScholarLeach, William, True Love and Perfect Union: The Feminist Reform of Sex and Society (New York, 1980),Google Scholar ch. 6; Schneider, Robert E., Positivism in the United States: The Apostleship of Henry Edger (Argentina, 1946).Google Scholar

3. The best modern introduction to Comte is Gertrud Lenzer's. See the introduction to Auguste Comte and Positivism: The Essential Writings (New York, 1975).Google Scholar

4. See Gillespie, Neal C., The Collapse of Orthodoxy: The Intellectual Ordeal of George Frederick Holmes (Charlottesville, Va., 1972);Google ScholarHatvary, George E., Horace Binney Wallace (Boston, 1977).Google Scholar

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8. Hawkins pays little attention w Edger's published works, Schneider briefly surveys only the Positivist Calendar (see pp. 66–67).

9. Edger, Henry, The Positivist Calendar: Or, Transitional System of Public Commemoration Instituted Auguste Comte (Modern Times, N.Y., 1856), p. 17.Google Scholar

10. Ibid., p. 6.

11. Schneider, , Apostleship, p. 70.Google Scholar

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13. Edger, Henry, The Positive Community: Glimpse of the Regenerated Future of the Human Race (Modern Times, N.Y., 1863), PP. 7, 33, 24, 23.Google Scholar

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16. Hutchison, William R., The Modernist Impulse in American Protestantism (New York, 1976), pp. 32–35;Google ScholarAhistrom, Sidney E., A Religious History of the American People (New Haven, 1972), pp. 764–765.Google Scholar

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19. Friess, , “Adler,” pp. 13–14.Google Scholar One ofAdler's associates, Percival Chubb, commented later about his youth in England, “Not only did I come under the spell of Emerson and Whitman, but I read Huxley, Tyndall, Clifford, Hume, Spencer, Comte … and attended innumerable lectures [while in London], including those of Frederic Harrison and the Positivists, with whom at one time I was tempted to throw in my lot.” See Adler, Felix et al. , The Fiftieth Anniversary of the Ethical Movement, 1876–1926 (New York, 1926), p. 78.Google Scholar

20. See Clark, Clifford E. Jr, Henry Ward Beecher: Spokesman for a Middle-Class America (Urbana, Ill., 1978);Google ScholarMcLoughlin, William G., The Meaning of Henry Ward Beecher (New York, 1970).Google Scholar

21. Hutchison, , Modernist, p. 35;Google ScholarFriess, , “Adler,” pp. 13–14;Google Scholar McLoughlin, Beecher, ch. 3.

22. Rainsford, , Religion, p. 9.Google Scholar Also quoted in Hutchison, , Modernist, p. 35.Google Scholar

23. McLoughlin, , Beecher, p. 138.Google Scholar

24. Friess, , Adler, pp. 13–14.Google Scholar

25. New York World, 14 09 1867, p. 1.Google Scholar The article is unsigned but is very likely by David G. Croly.

26. Anon., “In Memoriam David Goodman Croly. Estimates of the Man, His Character and His Life's Work,” The Real Estate Record and Builder's Guide, 43 (18 05 1889), p. 3;Google ScholarLevy, David W., “The Life and Thought of Herbert Croly, 1869–1914”(Ph.D. diss., University of Wisconsin, 1967), pp. 58–59Google Scholar. The hail is listed as DeParmo elsewhere.

27. Wakeman, Thaddeus Burr, “The New York-Manhattan Liberal Club: The Story of its Past, Present, and a Prophecy of its Future,” Truth Seeker, 23 01 1909, p. 59;Google ScholarMemories of Jane Cunningham Croly—‘Jenny June’ (New York, 1904), p. 53;Google ScholarWakeman, Thaddeus Burr, Free Thought: Past, Present and Future (Chicago, 1899?), p. 26.Google Scholar The two slightly different accounts by Wakeman suggest that he was himself unsure about whether the conference was held in 1867 or early in 1868. See, also, Record and Guide, p. 3. Curiously, , Trow's New York City Directory, ed. Wilson, H. (N.Y., 1867)Google Scholar gives Croly's home address in the Bronx. It may be that a single, permanent organization was not created until 1869 when the “Positive Society of North America” was established under secretary William Owen and treasurer H. H. Hall. The Positive Society of North America and the New York Positivist Society appear to have been two different groups but Schneider sometimes treats them as identical. See Apostleship, pp. 100–104, 288.

28. “From New York,” Springfield Republican, 31 01 1872, p. 5.Google Scholar

29. David Croly's boss at the World, Manton Marble, represents an instructive social contrast. Marble moved in significantly more powerful and prestigious circles than did Croly. While both were active conservative Democrats, Marble helped determine national party policy. See: “Manton Marble,” Dictionary of American Biography, first ed. (New York, 1933), 6:267;Google ScholarKaplan, Sidney, “The Miscegenation Issue in the Election of 1874,” Journal of Negro History, 34 (1949): 274–343.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Croly, himself, coined the word “miscegenation.” McJimsey, George T., Genteel Partisan: Manton Marble, 1834–1917 (Ames, Iowa, 1971), p. 76.Google Scholar

30. Hall, G. Stanley, Life and Confessions of a Psychologist (New York, 1924), p. 179;Google ScholarWilson, R. Jackson, In Quest of Community: Social Philosophy in the United States, 1860–1920 (New York, 1968), p. 123.Google Scholar Jackson Lears interprets G. Stanley Hall's “admiration of ‘feminine’ values” as part of his “revolt against positivism.” (See Lears, J., No Place of Grace: Antimodernism and the Transformation of American Culture, 1880–1920 [New York, 1981], pp. 247–251.Google Scholar) This element of Hall's thought could, however, be viewed instead as a product of his youthful exposure to orthodox Comtean positivism. Comte's system was a complex blend of romantic and Enlightenment elements; it valued “feminine” sentiment and would, in that respect, appeal to the anti-modernist.

31. Fisk, Ethel F., ed., The Letters of John Fiske (New York, 1940), pp. 192–193.Google Scholar

32. Wakeman, , “The N.Y. Liberal Club,” p. 50;Google ScholarLeach, , True Love, p. 139.Google Scholar

33. “From New York,” Springfield Republican, 8 April 1872. A New York City Directory for 1867 lists a Charles F. Wreakes as a Brooklyn insurance adjuster.

34. “Comte's Birthday,” New York World, 23 January 1872; “From New York,” Springfield Republican, 31 January 1872.

35. “From New York,” Springfield Republican, 31 January. 1872.

36. Hirschfeld, Charles, “The Memoirs of Herbert Croly: An Unpublished Document,” New York History 58 (1977), p. 320.Google Scholar

37. Lonchampt, Joseph, Positivist Prayer, trans. by Mills, John G. (Goshen, N. Y., 1877), pp. 29–31.Google Scholar The prayer read: “Holy Humanity, who art in all human time and space, Hallowed be thy Name, may thy recognition come to all men, and thy labors glorify the heavens and the earth. Grant us power to earn our daily bread, and deter us from erring as we strive to serve others aright, and teach us how to deliver each other from every evil. Amen” (p. 31).

38. The Modern Thinker: An Organ for the Most Advanced Speculations in Philosophy, Science, Sociology and Religion 2 (1873), quotation in endleaf by Henry Evans.

39. Courtlandt Palmer: Tributes Offered by Members of the Nineteenth Century Club to its Founder and First President (New York, 1889), p. 155.Google Scholar No editor is listed; it may have been Raymond S. Perini.

40. Schneider, , Apostleship, pp. 101–102.Google Scholar

41. David, C. G. [Croly, David G.], A Positivist Primer: Being a Series of Familiar Conversations on the Religion of Humanity (New York, 1872), p.5.Google Scholar

42. Croly, , “Religion Reconstructed,” Modern Thinker 1 (1870): 7, 12.Google Scholar

43. Croly, , “Creation, God, Soul, Hereafter: The Four Fruitless Problems,” Modern Thinker 2 (1873): 91.Google Scholar

44. Croly, , Positivist Primer, pp. 15, 46.Google Scholar

45. Ibid., p. 4.

46. Croly, , “Religion Reconstructed,” p. 7.Google Scholar

47. Wakeman, , “The New York-Manhattan Liberal Club; The Story of Its Past and Present, and a Prophecy of its Future,” Truth Seeker, 23 01 1919, p. 50.Google Scholar

48. Ibid. See note 27 above.

49. Schneider, , Positivism, p. 161.Google Scholar

50. Wakeman, , Epitome of the Positive Philosophy and Religion (New York, 1877), p. i;Google ScholarWakeman, , Free Thought, p. 26.Google Scholar

51. Schneider, , Positivism, p. 200.Google Scholar In becoming less sectarian, the Society also jettisoned much of Comte's social conservatism and attached itself to a broad spectrum of Gilded Age freethought and reform groups. Henry George was, for example, reported to have attended one of their soirees. A reform journal, Commonwealth, established its office in the Society's Lafayette Street address in the 1890s. Subtitled first “a monthly magazine and library of sociology,” for slightly over a year its masthead proclaimed it to be the “Official Organ of the Society of Humanity.” A year or so earlier, a journal advertisement for the Society had noted: “The work of the Society and of the Commonwealth being along similar lines, they have co-operated in many ways with good results, and hope, by continued co-operation, to accomplish much more, and to soon realize that future which cheered the last days of Harriet Martineau when she said: ‘The world as it is grows somewhat dim before my eyes, but the world that is to be looks brighter every day’“ (Commonwealth: A Monthly Magazine and Library of Sociology 1 [1893]: 3).Google Scholar These growing links between New York Comtists and Gilded Age Freerhought and reform closely paralleled Wakeman's evolving concerns between the Civil War and the turn of the century.

52. Bernard, , Origins, p. 175.Google Scholar

53. Allen, Joseph Henry, Positive Religion: Essays, Fragments and Hints (Boston, 1891), p. 206.Google Scholar

54. H. Edger, quoted by Schneider, , Apostleship, p. 156.Google Scholar For other explanations of the failure of orthodox positivism in the United States, see Harrison, Frederic, “Auguste Comte in America,” The Positivist Review 102 (1901): 121–125;Google ScholarHawkins, , Positivism, pp. 215–225.Google Scholar

55. Palmer: Tributes Offered, pp. 114–115.