26 POSITIVISM IN BENGAL

religious and commemorative services with music and prayers, administer the prescribed sacraments,
and sponsor pilgrimages to sites historically associated with some great being. By setting up a
Positivist free school, delivering series of lectures, setting up a Positivist library, offering French
classes for beginners, preparing biographies of ‘Great Men’, and sponsoring translations of Comte’s
writings they hoped to educate the working class along Positivist lines. Second to their educational
activities were efforts to shape public opinion on social and political questions. The ‘Positivist
Society’, a separate but affiliated body, was directly concerned with public affairs and had a
membership which met regularly to discuss political and social topics. The Newton Hall Positivists felt
that the Religion of Humanity was an important part of Comte’s doctrine and that religious activities
should be observed ; however, they saw no reason to suspend all other activity until men became truly
religious.35
Neither of the English Positivist groups completely ignored any aspect of Comte’s work, but
they differed in terms of emphasis and timing. The London Positivist Committee acted in accordance
with Laffitte’s directive that while, on the one hand, Comte’s work should not be treated as gospel, on
the other hand, his followers should not interpret his writings so freely as to recast his synthesis.36 The
acceptance of this doctrine gave members of the London Positivist Committee the freedom to act and
write on social and political issues which interested them, while the Church of Humanity restricted the
activities of its members. The result was that the leading members of the Newton Hall organisation
were well-known for their social activity although not always as ‘Positivists’.
Frederic Harrison (1831-1923), the most active and distinguished of Comte’s English
disciples, wrote numerous articles and pamphlets demanding social change. Harrison’s great concern
with the condition of the working class and his desire to improve their educational and economic level
led him to work with trade unions, school authorities, cooperative movements, and public health
officials. Because Positivism emphasized man’s social duty, he thought it a valuable doctrine to
replace man’s waning commitment to religious duty. According
35 London Positivist Committee, Reports 1881-1889 (London, 1882-1890).
36 London Positivist Committee, Report, 1884, p. 11.