spiration, and is dedicated to her, with a oommemora* tion of her virtues, in language which would sound extravagant in Dante or Petrarch. Brief as the inti- macy had been, it ravolutionized Comte's whole na- ture and the entira spirit of his speculations.
TMs strange transmutation of doctrine exhibited it- self in the Discourse <m the general Character ofPoeitxv^ Mfn, which belonged to the midsummer of 1848, and was employed as an introduction to tlie Syttem oJfPos- iihe PotUkt. The rigidity and sterility of the cold and heartless rationaiion dT the Pontine Philoeophy was evidently unsuited to act upon society and to regen- erate it; and the application of the Positive doc- trine to practical ends almost necessitated the ad- mission of the moral element, which had been previ- ously disregarded. Men are not controlled by their reason ; they ara stimulated by their imagination, and impelled by their aflbctions. To discipline the heart, an authority, and not arguments, is required. But no practical morab ara possible, as an obligatory rule of action, which do not result fh>m the decrees of a supreme will. Thus the first step towards a system- atic plan of political authority, or of sociological inter- pretation, must be the recogmtion of a Divine Legis- lator and the acceptation of an incontestable creed. M. Gomte was thus driven, by the extension of his theories to their practical applications, to introduce ethics into the chcle of the sciences, to institute a di- vinity, to recognise or to invent a religion. His per- ception of the need was quickened, if his susceptibili- ties were not awakened, by the resuscitation of his natural affections, and the glow of sentiment was kin- dled by his preposterous passion. The long inter- val wUch separated the oompletion of the PkUosopMe Pomikfe fhim the commencement of the Politique Potu tive may have been, in reality, due less to the personal persecution of which he complains, and to the revolu- tionary anarchy of 1848, than to the time and thought requisite to systematize his new views, and to produce some appearance of harmony between the philosophic doctrine and its efflorescence in a theocratic dream. The whole plan was, however, arranged in his own mind when he entered upon the composition of his so- ciological treatlBe. Nothing is mora admirable than the rapidity and completeness, the methodical regular- ity, and the preordained precision with which each successive year brought forward at the appointed time a new volume of the PoKHque PoeUiioe^ tiD the whole was accomplished. Each volume appeared in its sea- son, like the blossoms of the returning summer. The first was publidbed in July, 1861 ; the second in May, 1862; the third in August, 1868; and the fourth in August, 1864. The second volume of the PotiHve Police was preceded in the same month by the pub- lication of the Calendar qf PoeUiviem—ihat singular and elaborate rebaptism of the months of the year and the days of the week which substitutes the no- tabilities of human progress for the Sundays and saints* days of the Gatholic Ghuroh, and the months of imperial Rome. In the October of the same year was published the Cateckiem of Positkitm, de- signed to diffuse a knowledge of the new philosophy and the new creed among the masses of the people. At the dose of the Politique PoeiHoe M. Gomte marks out the ulterior projects which he designed to achieve befbre advancing yean shoi^ld demand repose. Seven yean were to be devoted to the enlargement and rec- tification of his theory ; and then, on the attainment of his grand climacteric, he would sing his Dimittas. A S^ttem o/Potidve Logic, or the PkUooophig ofMaihe- fliofMSi, was promised for 1866 ; A Sgttem of Pondve Moraie, or TreaHee en Vnioereal Edwoationf fbr 1859 ; and A System of PotUioe Industry, or Treatise on the Action qfffumamty on its terrestrial AhodejtoT 1861. The first volume of the first of these woriu was pub- lished, according to announcement, in 1866, but before the second was ready Gomte died, in 1867. Tarious
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pamphletft hftd been issued by M. Comte at different periods of his career, in order to give immediate con- sistency to liis views on special points, or to popularize his doctrine. These it is needless to specify. More interesting in themselves, as more important fbr an appreciation of the man, are the annual circulars is- sued to those who participated in the subscription fbr his support
The System qfPotUmim, in accordance with what has already been observed, requires to be considered under two distinct, though connected aspects — ^the sci- entific theory as originally expounded in M. Comte's earlier work, and the practical application of that the- ory as presented in his latest complete treatise.
(L) The Positive I^ilo$ophy,—ThiB is the develop- ment and co-ordination of all the materialistic tenden- cies of science in the age of the Encydopasdia and the Revolution. It is not itself materialistic, because it proceeds beyond materialism in the same direction, and is attenuated into a pure sensuous phenomenalism. It contemplates merely ** the shows of things," and it co- ordinates them according to their concomitances and sequences, recognising no actual bond of connection between them, nor any power on which they depend. The function of philosophy is simply to introduce or- der and coherence into observed phenomena. Posi- tivism is, accordingly, a habit or intellectual temper- ament rather than a i^osophy, a method rather than a doctrine. Hence the most characteristic peculi- arity of this work, as of the whole intellectual evolu- tion of its author, is his arrangement of the sciences, with the principles on which that arrangement pro- ceeds. The treatise becomes, in consequence, an or- derly exposition of the sciences and of their reciprocal dependencies, embracing the statement of the results and processes of science, with an indication of defi- ciencies, excrescences, and aberrations in their present constitution. It is more profound in its execution than in its conception — ^in its details than in its general spir- it. The soUtaxy principle on which the whole elabora- tion of Positivism reposes is the doctrine of the Three States. To this may be referred Comte's classification of the sciences — ^his rule for their evolution, composi- tion, and rank — his exposition of their significance and disciplinary value — ^his history of society, and his the- oxy of humanity. This cardinal position is, that the whole human Damily, as well as each individual mind, passes through three successive and incompatible con- ditions: 1. The Theological State, which ascribes all phenomena to divine agency; 2. The Metaphysical State, which questions the divine action, and attributes all changes to influences, entities, occult causes, laws of nature, etc. ; and, 8. The Positive State, which ac- cepts the phenomena without reference to their orig- ination, and arranges them under general laws, which merely state '* the invariable relations of succession and resemblance." This principle of the Three States has been assailed by both admirers and opponents ; but it is rather Imperfect and misapplied than fiedse. The succession of these states is explained by the confusion and multiplicity of apparentiy disconnect- ed £eu:ts, which perplex the untutored mind, and sug- gest the arbitrary will of superior existences. As or- der reveals itself in the midst of disorder, an arbitrary government of the universe is repudiated, and law maintained by the operation of natural forces b more or less extensively accepted as the solution of the enig< mas of creation. Thus metaphysics is the crucible in which theology and fiuth are gradually evapora- ted. As the regularity of phenomena is more gen- erally apprehended, the jurisdiction of metaphysics is by degrees restricted, and is finally denied. No knowledge is admitted which does not promise to become science, no science which is not phenomenal only, no phenomena which suggest any other princi- ple than uniform harmony and consecution of &cts. ''n the process of speculative disentanglement by