In his book, "The Dualism in Our Most Recent
Philosophy" (1866), Brandes took up the dangerous question of the
relation of science to religion, and treated it in a spirit which
aroused antagonism on the part of the conservative and orthodox party.
This able treatise, though it may not be positivism pure and simple,
shows a preponderating influence of Comte and his school, and its
attitude toward religion is approximately that of Herbert Spencer and
Stuart Mill. The constellation under which Brandes was born into the
world of thought was made up of the stars Darwin, Comte, Taine, and
Mill. These men put their stamp upon his spirit; and to the tendency
which they represent he was for many years faithful. Mill's book on "The
Subjection of Women" he has translated into Danish (1869), and he has
written besides a charmingly sympathetic essay, containing personal
reminiscences, of that grave and conscientious thinker, whose
"Autobiography" is perhaps the saddest book in the English language.
The three next books of Brandes, which all deal with aesthetical subjects
("AEsthetic Studies," 1868, "Criticisms and Portraits," 1870, and "French
AEsthetics at the Present Day"), are full of pith and winged felicities
of phrase.
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