Bristol.
* * * * *
Minor Notes.
_Objective and Subjective._--I tried, a little while ago, to show in your
pages that this antithesis, though not a good pair of terms, is
intelligible, and justified by good English usage. But I must allow that
the writers who use these terms, do all that is possible to put those who
justify them in the wrong. In a French work at least, recently published, I
find what appears to me a curious application of the corresponding words in
that language. M. Auguste Comte, in the preface to the third volume of his
_Système de Politique Positive_, speaks of some of his admirers who had by
their "cotisations," or contributions, supported him while he was writing
the work; and he particularly celebrates one of them, Mr. Wallace, an
American, adding:
"Devenu jusqu'ici le principal de mes souscripteurs, Wallace a perpétué
_subjectivement_ son patronage _objectif_, en me leguant une annuité de
cinq cent francs."
I must confess that the metaphysics according to which a sum paid by a
living man is _objectif_, and a legacy _subjectif_, is beyond my depth.
{171}
While I write, as if writers of all kinds were resolved to join in
perplexing the use of these unfortunate words, I read in a journal,
"objective discussion in the sense of hostile or adverse discussion,
discussion which proposed _objections_." I think this is hard upon the
word, and unfair usage of it.