1. The general framework for this study is based on: Cooke, George Willis, Unitarianism in America (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1902)Google Scholar; Allen, Joseph Henry, A History of Unitarianism in the United States (New York: Christian Literature Co., 1894)Google Scholar and Our Liberal Movement in Theology (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1892)Google Scholar; Octavius Frothingham, Brooks, Boston Unitarianism, 1820–1850(New York: G. P. Putnam, 1890)Google Scholar; Wright, Conrad, The Liberal Christians: Essays on American Unitarian History (Boston: Beacon Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Hutchison, William R., The Transcendentalist Ministers: Church Reform in the New England Renaissance (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1959)Google Scholar; Howe, Daniel Walker, The Unitarian Conscience: Harvard Moral Philosophy,1805–1861 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1970)Google Scholar; Persons, Stow, Free Religion: An American Faith (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1947)Google Scholar; and Warren, Sidney, American Freethought, 1860–1914 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1943).Google Scholar

2. Allen, , Our Liberal Movement, p. 116.Google Scholar

3. Frothingham, , Boston Unitarianism, pp. 42 ff.Google Scholar and Persons, , Free Religion, pp. 4–6.Google Scholar

4. Frothingham, , Boston Unitarianism, pp. 266, 267.Google Scholar

5. Ibid., p. 254.

6. The basic works on Comte's influence in the U. S. are Hawkins, Richmond L., Auguste Cointe and the United States, 1816–1853 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1936)Google Scholar and Positivism in the United States, 1858–1861 (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1938).Google Scholar There is also information in Bernard, Luther Lee and Bernard, Jessie, Origins of American Sociology: The Social Science Movement in the United States (New York: Russell and Russell, 1943), esp. chaps. 9–11.Google Scholar For European baekground see Simon, W. M., European Positivism in the Nineteenth Century (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 1963).Google Scholar

7. For the relationship of Comte and Mill see Simon, , European Positivism, pp. 180–195.Google Scholar Also Lévy-Bruhl, L., ed., Lettres inédites de John Stuart Mill à Auguste Comte publiées avec les réponses de Comtc et une introduction (Paris: F. Alcan, 1899).Google Scholar

8. For evidence of the Unitarian connection between Spencer and Comte see Christian Examiner 72 (1862): 337Google Scholar; 74 (1863): 446; 80 (1866): 238, and Radical Review 1 (1877): 352–357.Google Scholar Recent historians seem to support Spencer, however. See Simon, , European Positivism, pp. 217–219.Google Scholar

9. Miss Martineau's translation, The Positive Philosophy, appeared in two volumes. The most prominent indirect sources of positivism were a July 1838 article by SirBrewster, David which first appeared in the Edinburgh Review and later was reprinted in the New Jerusalem Magazine in 1840Google Scholar; Mill, John Stuart, A System of Logic (1843)Google Scholar; and Young's, John Henry translation of Emile Littré, De la philosophie positive which appeared In the Democratic Review of 1847.Google Scholar Comte was summarized in Lewes, George Henry, The Biographical History of Philosophy from Its Origin in Greece down to the Present Day (1846)Google Scholar and Morell, John David, Historical and Critical View of the Speculative Philosophy of Europe (1846).Google Scholar

10. Letter of May 8, 1879, to English positivist Frederic Harrison, reprinted in Frothingham, O. B., Memoir of William Henry Channing (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1886), p. 373.Google Scholar Channing wrote an article including some material on Comte in the November 15, 1843, issue of Present, a journal he edited. Hawkins, (Auguste Comte, p. 15)Google Scholar claims for Channing the distinction of being the first American to take an interest in Comte. Brownson, as usual, reacted in his own unique way. He claimed that positivism helped push him toward Catholicism. It emphasized the need for a single, unifying ideology, showed how Protestantism could not provide this, and presented evidence that Roman Catholicism had once admirably supplied such unity. Catholicism became, then, at once a refuge from scientific positivism and an answer to the intellectual crisis which Comte had discerned so well. See Brownson, H. F., ed., The Works of Orestes A. Brownson, 20 vols. (New York: AMS Press, 1966), 2:442–443,Google Scholar 3:403.

11. Hawkins, , Auguste Comte, p. 25n.Google Scholar

12. Parker, Theodore, A Discourse of Matters Pertaining to Religion, pp. 21n, 22n, and 39 ff.Google Scholar (chapter entitled “Three Great Historical Forms of Religion”). [All Parker citations are from the fifteen-volume Centenary edition of his works (Boston: American Unitarian Association, 1907–1911).]

13. Ibid., 117 ff.

14. Parker, , Sermons on Theism, Atheism and the Popular Theology, pp. 71–72, 165.Google Scholar

15. Ibid., p. 58.

16. Parker, , Discourse, p. 21nGoogle Scholar; also Theism, Atheism and the Popular Theology, pp. 43, 58, 165.

17. Parker once attacked Comte for having supported “selfishness in ethics,” hardly a fair criticism to one fully familiar with Comte. [Parker, Theodore], Dial 2 (1842): 498.Google Scholar See also the editorial comment by George W. Cooke in Parker's Works, 4:455.Google Scholar

18. Wharton, Francis, Treatise on Theism (Philadelphia: Lippincott, 1859), p. 244Google Scholar lists Child, L. Maria, The Progess of Religious Ideas, Through Successive Ages, 3 vols., (New York: C. S. Francis, 1855)Google Scholar as an example of positivist influence among Unitarians. There are some passages in Mrs. Child's work which contain vaguely positivist statements about stages of society, about man's creation of deities to explain what was yet mysterious, or about the giving of anthropomorphic attributes to gods. (see 2:159, 164, 173–174) But it is doubtful that there was any direct Comtian influence. Her bibliography, collected with the advice of Parker and her brother Convers Francis, does not include Comte. Some indirect influence is possible; it seems unbelievable that she would not have read Parker's Discourse. But generally she seems to have been a person who disliked philosophical quarrels and worked diligently to avoid becoming entangled in them. See her comments on the English positivist Buckle, Henry in Letters of Lydia Maria Child (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin 1882), pp. 99–101, 169.Google Scholar Cf. Hawkins, , Positivism, pp. 100–102.Google Scholar

19. Walker's lectures were never printed and the manuscripts have not survived. The news paper coverage upon which these passages are based is admittedly imperfect, but really quite detailed. See Boston Morning Post, January 27 March 25, 1841, January 15 -March 8, 1842; Boston Evening Transcript, January 17 - February 25, 1843; Christian Register, January 21 - February 25, 1843. Dates for the lectures (twelve consecutive Tuesday and Friday evenings beginning the second week of January each year) are found in the records of the Lowell Institute, John Lowell, trustee. Hawkins' dating is incorrect (Auguste Comte, pp. 16–17). For an example of one contemporary who was influenced by Walker's treatment of Comte, see Allen, Joseph Henry, “Comte's Positive Philosophy,” Christian Examiner 50 (1851): 174.Google Scholar

20. Allen, Joseph Henry, Christian History in its Three Great Periods, 3 vols. (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1883), 3:299.Google Scholar

21. Walker, James, “The Philosophy of Religion,” Christian Examiner 47 (1849): 255–256.Google Scholar

22. Bartol, C. A., “Peabody's ‘“Christian Consolations,’” North American Review 72 (1851) 345–348.Google Scholar

23. [Peabody, E. P.], “The Being of God,” Christian Examiner 65 (1858): 239–248.Google Scholar The quotation is from p. 248.

24. Howe, Julia Ward, Reminiscences, 1819–1899 (Boston: Houghton-Mifflin, 1899), pp. 198, 211, 305–307.Google Scholar

25. Allen taught ecclesiastical history- at Harvard Divinity School from 1878 to 1882. He was assistant editor of the Christian Examiner from 1857 to 1863, editor from 1863 to 1865, and part owner from 1863 to 1869. He edited the Unitarian Review from 1885–1891. Chadwick, John White, “Joseph Henry Allen,” The New World 7 (1898): 300–313Google Scholar and Mott, Frank, History of American Magazines, 1741–1850 (New York: Appleton, 1930), pp. 284–285n.Google Scholar

26. Allen, Joseph Henry, “Comte's Positive Philosophy,” Christian Examiner 50 (1851): 174–202.Google Scholar Allen cites as his sources for this article, in addition to the Cours itself, Brewster's 1838 article in the Edinburgh Review, Walker's 1842 Lowell Lectures, a chapter in J. D. Morell, History of Philosophy, and Mill's System of Logic. For his relationship to Walker, see Allen's, Christian History, 3: 299n.Google Scholar While in Bangor, Allen corresponded with Parker about his work. Parker sent him bibliographic suggestions and offered to lend books from his well-stocked library. Parker also read some of Allen's unpublished manuscripts, helpfully offering criticism. Parker commented that he could see the “influence of Comte and Gfrorer, two able helps” on one such paper. But he also feared that Allen's writing was abstruse and added good-naturedly, “perhaps Comte is not likely to have a good influence on your style.” See Weiss, John, ed., Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker, 2 vols. (New York: Appleton, 1864), 1:379–383.Google Scholar

27. Allen, , “Comte's Positive Philosophy,” pp. 178–179, 183.Google Scholar

28. Ibid., pp. 184, 201–202.

29. Ibid., pp. 195–197.

30. Ibid., pp. 201–202.

31. Ibid., pp. 195–196.

32. This paragraph and the one which follows are based on previously unexploited materials on Allen and Comte in the archives of La Maison d'Auguste Comte Association Internationale, Paris. The quotation is from Allen's letter to Comte, dated January 23, 1853. Marginal notation by Comte indicates a reply was sent the day after its receipt. Since he had just been informed that Wallace's will provided him an annuity of 500 francs, Comte very likely refused Allen's generous offer of aid. (See letters from Wallace's brother to Comte on January 13 and April 15, 1853, reproduced in Hawkins, , Auguste Comte, pp. 54–56.Google Scholar) Previous historians such as Richmond L. Hawkins badly underestimated the interest of some Unitarians in Comte. Hawkins concludes, quite incorrectly, that Allen thought positivism “premature, vicious in its foundation, impossible, and absurd.” (Hawkins, , Positivism, p. 79.Google Scholar)

33. Two of Allen's visits to Comte at 10, Rue Monsieur le Prince are verified by two calling cards which were dated and left with Comte. They are now in the archives of La Maison d'Auguste Comte in Paris. References to the visits and their substance are found In Allen, , Our Liberal Tradition, p. 158Google Scholar; Allen, , Christian History, 3:294;Google Scholar and Chadwick, , “Joseph Henry Allen,” p. 304.Google Scholar

34. Allen, Joseph Henry, “Comte's Religion of Humanity,” Christian Examiner 63 (1857): 18–36.Google Scholar The quotation is from p. 31.

35. Hill, Thomas, “Miss Martineau's Compend of Comte's Positive Philosophy,” Christian Examiner 56 (1854): 364–372.Google Scholar The quotation is from p. 366. Hill did have some previous knowledge of Comte. He had referred briefly and unfavorably to him in a review of Mill's, System of Logic in Christian Examiner 40 (1846): 366–368.Google Scholar

36. [Bowen, Francis], “Martineau's Translation of Comte's Philosophy,” North American Review 79 (1854): 200–229.Google Scholar The quotation is from p. 217.

37. Ibid., pp. 200, 205.

38. The Unitarians would have had access to Spencer's Social Statics (1851), The Principles of Psychology (1855), the crucial First Principles of a New System of Philosophy (1864) and Essays: Scientific, Political, and Speculative (1868).

39. Christian Examiner 76 (1864): 442.Google Scholar Also Christian Examiner 74 (1863): 445–447Google Scholar; 75 (1863): 1–24; and 80 (1866): 208–219.

40. Berman, Milton, John Fiske: The Evolution of a Popularizer (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1961), p. 33.CrossRefGoogle Scholar Fiske's route to positivism began in 1859 with Henry Buckle's History of Civilization in England. Within a year he had read Mill, Lewes, and Martineau's translation of Comte. The following year, his first at Harvard, he became familiar with Spencer. (Ibid., pp. 17–18, 30.) During 1869–1870, Fiske was invited by Harvard President Charles Eliot to lecture on positivism (Ibid., pp. 73–74.) These lectures eventually grew into his synthetic Outlines of Cosmic Philosophy, 2 vols. (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1874).Google Scholar See also Pannell, H. Burnell, The Religious Faith of John Fiske (Durham: Duke University Press, 1957), pp. 43, 54–58, 206.Google Scholar

41. Christian Examiner 74 (1863): 447.Google Scholar

42. See Wasson, David A., “The Nature of Religion” in FRA, Freedom and Fellowship in Religion (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1875), pp. 34–36Google Scholar as well as his critical “Mr. Abbot'sReligion,” Radical 7 (1870): 408 ff.Google Scholar Also Longfellow's, Samuel comments in Radical 2 (1867): 520Google Scholar and Radical 10 (1872): 161–163.Google Scholar

43. The close relationship which existed in the minds of these Unitarians between positivism and German theology is noteworthy. Frothingham, O. B., for instance, asserted that “Kant, Reinhold, Fichte, Schelling, Hegel, Cousin, clear the ground for Comte and the ‘positivists,’ and the end arrives, according to programme.” Christian Examiner 77 (1864):328–329.Google Scholar Joseph Henry Allen also noted that “Strauss, Baur, Comte, Renan” all tended in the same direction. They all spoke from outside the sphere of theology and yet their forceful critiques were “constructive as opposed to negative or polemic. Christian Examiner 80 (1866): 212.Google Scholar

44. Frothingham, O. B., “Introductory,” in FRA, Freedom and Fellowship, p. 1.Google Scholar

45. Frothingham, O. B., The Religion of Humanity (New York: D. G. Francig, 1873), p. 33.Google Scholar Much of this same material had been serialized earlier under the same title in three articles appearing in the RadIcal 10 (1872): 241–272, 321–336, 401–417.Google Scholar

46. Radical 10 (1872): 250–251.Google Scholar

47. Ibid., p. 253.

48. Ibid., pp. 255–256.

49. Prothingham, O. B., “The New Spirit and its Forms,” Radical 1 (1866): 379–380.Google Scholar

50. Radical 10 (1872): 409, 324–325.Google Scholar

51. Abbot, F. E., “Positivism in Theology,” Christian Examiner 80 (1866): 234–267.Google Scholar Spencer's disciple Youmans, E. L. wrote a vociferous, if not too successful rebuttal in Christian Examiner 82 (1867): 200–223.Google Scholar

52. Abbot, , “Positivism in Theology,” pp. 235–238.Google Scholar

53. Abbot, , Scientific Theism (Boston: Little, Brown and Co., 1885), p. 120.CrossRefGoogle Scholar For additional criticism of Spencer, see “Positivism in Theokgy,” esp. pp. 243–246.

54. Abbot, , “Positivism in Theology,” pp. 242–243, 250–251.Google Scholar

55. Ibid., p. 235.

56. Abbot, , Scientifio Theism, p. 202.Google Scholar

57. Abbot, , “Positivism In Theology,” p. 266.Google Scholar

58. Patterson, J. Stahl, “The Career of Religion,” Radical 3 (1868): 362.Google Scholar

59. Patterson, J. Stahl, “Spencer's Unknowable as the Basis of Religion,” Radical Review 1 (1877): 419.Google Scholar

60. Patterson, , “The Career of Religion,” p. 360, 364.Google Scholar

61. Patterson, , “Spencer's Unknowable,” p. 436.Google Scholar

62. Patterson, , “The Career of Religion,” pp. 358–360.Google Scholar See also Patterson's Beries of three articles entitled “The Historical Continuity of Religion,” Radical 4 (1868): 271–285, 357–366, 429–440.Google Scholar

63. Stow Persons argues convincingly that once the FRA Radicals had departed, others in the denomination seemed able to preach the same ideas safely. Once it had purged itself, the denomination felt more secure. Free Religion, p. 156.

64. Bartol, C. A., “Peabody's ‘Christian Consolations,’” North American Review 72 (1851): 343–357.Google ScholarChristian Consolations was a volume of Peabody's sermons which went through several editions beginning in 1846. It was predominantly concerned with the topics of providence and theodicy. Bartol was reviewing the second edition (1851).

65. Peabody, A. P., Christianity the Religion of Nature (Boston: Gould and Lincoln, 1863).Google Scholar

66. Peabody, A. P., “The Three Eras of Positive Philosophy,” Unitarian Review 8 (1877): 234–237, 240–242, 243–245.Google Scholar

67. Ibid., p. 242.

68. The Comtian influence in these lectures, 1878–1882, is most noticeable in his treatment of Protestantism as essentially a negative force and the Reformation as “a period not of construction but of transistion.” “Its chaotic struggles … were only the harbinger of … what we have learned to call Social Science.” Christian History 3:18–19.Google Scholar For other examples of Allen's continuing interest see “Review of Littre,” Christian Examiner 84 (1868): 110–112Google Scholar; “Review of Lewes,” Christian Examiner 84 (1868): 106–110Google Scholar; “Review of Spencer's Principles of Sociology,” Radical Review 1 (1877): 352–357Google Scholar; “To the Unknown God,” Unitarian Review 11 (1879): 160–165Google Scholar; “The Religion of Humanity,” Unitarian Review 14 (1880): 51–60Google Scholar; and Positive Religion (Boston: Roberts Brothers, 1891).Google Scholar

69. Allen, Joseph Henry, “Theism—Christian or Not?” Christian Examiner 85 (1868): 220ff.Google Scholar

70. See Calthrop, S. R., “Religion and Science,” Unitarian Review 2 (1874): 309–335Google Scholar; Dewey, Orville, “On the Validity of Our Knowledge of God,” Old and New 2 (1870): 199–207Google Scholar and “On the Known and Unknown in the Divine Nature,” Unitarian Review 1 (1874): 201–215Google Scholar; Everett, C. C., “Mysticism,” Unitarian Review 1 (1874): 5–23Google Scholar and “The Known and the Unknowable in Religion,” Unitarian Review 3 (1875): 445–456.Google Scholar Also, “The Religion of Auguste Comte and the Religion of Our Lord Jesus Christ,” Monthly Religions Magazine 36 (1866): 137–142Google Scholar and the editor's preface to Dudley, E., “New York Positivists,” Old and New 7 (1873): 299–304.Google Scholar

71. Chadwick, John White, “The Enduring Elements of Religious Positivism,” Unitarian Review 5 (1876): 377–389.Google Scholar

72. Allen, Joseph Henry, “The Religion of Humanity,” Unitarian Review 14 (1880): 57–58.Google Scholar

73. Persons, , Free Religion, p. 155.Google Scholar