Philosophic assailants of Comtism have not always resisted the temptation to recall the circumstance that its founder was once out of his mind.
However that may be, the whole battle - into which we shall not enter - as to the legitimateness of Comtism as a religion turns upon this erection of Humanity into a Being.
An enemy defined Comtism as Catholicism minus Christianity, to which an able champion retorted by calling it Catholicism plus Science.
Richard Congreve was tutor at Wadham from 1849 to 1854, and three men of that time, Frederic Harrison, Beesly and John Henry Bridges (1832-1906), became the leaders of Comtism in England.
But his great influence on modern thought is undeniable, both as the historic founder of French socialism and as suggesting much of what was afterwards elaborated into Comtism.