The system of philosophy known as positivism, taught by Auguste Comte (1799-1857), discarding the possibility of knowing the beginning and the end of anything, concerns itself only with what lies between. It accepts neither atheism, theism, nor pantheism. It may be divided into two parts: The historic conception and the co-ordination of the sciences. The former is this: That the human mind passes through three stages, viz., the theological, the metaphysical and the positive. In all subjects capable of experiment it passes from metaphysics to experimental verification or exact science. In regard to the co-ordination of the sciences the basis is mathematics; then follow astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology and sociology. Take the last: The science of society is impossible without the science of life. The science of life is impossible without chemistry. Chemistry presupposes physics, physics astronomy, and astronony mathematics.

If we look intently at a bright star we notice that the color and intensity of the light is constantly changing from brilliancy to almost total obscurity, and from bright red to blue, orange, yellow, etc. This is the phenomenon usually spoken of as the "twinkling" or scintillation of the stars. The "twinkling" will be noticed more plainly when the star is near the horizon, and will diminish in intensity as it rises until it is near the zenith, at which time the twinkling is scarcely noticeable. It must be confessed that this twinkling has never been explained to the satisfaction of all investigators. However, it is generally believed to be due to controlling causes within the earth's atmosphere. That the cause may be looked for within the belt of air that surrounds our planet (to particles of vapor, dust, etc.) may be inferred from the fact that the planets never exhibit the characteristic twinkling so noticeable in the star. One reason for this is the size (apparent) of the planets. The planets each show a sensible disk even to the naked eye, while the strongest instrument in the world only shows the stars as being mere points of light.

This being the case, any foreign substance in the atmosphere would momentarily hide the light and make the star appear to "twinkle."

Two synonymous terms in science are Equinoxes and Equinoctial Points. More commonly, by the equinoxes are meant the times when the sun enters those points - viz. 21st March and 22d September, the former being called the Vernal or Spring Equinox, and the latter the Autumnal. When in the equinoxes, the sun, through the earth's rotation on its axis, seems to describe the circle of the equator in the heavens, and the days and nights are of equal length all over the world. At the vernal equinox, the sun is passing from south to north, and in the northern hemisphere the days are lengthening; at the autumnal, he is passing from north to south, and the days are shortening. As the earth moves more rapidly when near the sun, or in winter, the sun's apparent motion is not uniform, and it happens that he takes eight days more to pass from the vernal to the autumnal equinox than from the latter to the former. The equinoctial points are not stationary.

Thought-reading, or mind-reading, is a term which came up in 1881 to designate the act or art of discerning what is passing in another's mind by some direct and unexplained method, depending neither on gesture, facial expression, nor any articulate or other voluntary indication. It was brought into notice (1881) by Mr. W. Irving Bishop (d. 1889), who professed, while blindfolded, and without the aid of confederates, or of collusion with his subject whose hand and pulse he held, and with whom he thereby became in mesmeric sympathy, to find any article previously hidden by the subject, or to show in other ways that he was able to read the subject's thought. The believing explanation is that thought-force, nervous energy, or the like, passes in a perfectly natural but as yet unexplained manner through A's forehead into B's hand, and so to B's mind. The unbelieving theory is that A inevitably, but quite unconsciously, communicates a succession of slight but sufficient muscular indications to B, which B instinctively follows without being aware of them severally.

Enthusiasts have sought to include thought-reading in the sphere of spiritualism.