much easier in some departments than in others ; for in some the facts to be observed are less numerous and less com)3licated. In mathematics and astronomy the facts are all of one kind ; Avhereas in physiology and sociology they are of very different kinds, and vastly more complicated. The same rule, however, applies to all departments. In all, the sequence of events is uniform and neces- sary ; and if we can only, by a sufficient induction of facts, ascer- tain what the law of sequence is, we shall be able to predict the future as certainly in one department as in another. The astrono- omer can tell what will be the position of the stars and planets a century hence. The Positivist will be able to foretell with equal certainty how a man will act in any given circumstances, and what will be the progress and state of society in time to come.
It follows, therefore, according to the Positive Philosophy, — (1.) That all our knowledge is confined to physical phenomena. (2.) That all we can know of such phenomena is, that they are, and the relations in which they stand to each other. (3.) That these relations are all included under the heads of sequence and resemblance. (4.) These relations constitute the laws of nature, and are invariable. (5.) As everything tliat exists is material, these laws, or "invariable relations of succession and resemblance," control all the phenomena of mind, as Ave call it, and of social life and of history, as well as those of nature, in the common sense of that word. (6.) As everything is included in the department of physics, everything is controlled by physical laws, and there is no more freedom in human acts than in the motions of the stars ; and, therefore, the one can be predicted with the same certainty as the other.
The following quotations from the " Philosophie Positive," " freely translated and condensed by Harriet Martmeau," ^ include all the points above mentioned.
" The first characteristic of the Positive Philosophy is that it regards all phenomena as subjected to invariable natural laws. Our business is, — seeing how vain is any research into what are called causes, whether first or final, — to pursue an accurate dis- covery of these laws, with a view to reducing them to the smallest possible number." 2 " Our positive method of connecting phenom- ena is by one or other of two relations, — that of similitude or that of succession, — the mere fact of such resemblance or succession being all that we can pretend to know ; and all that we need to know ; for this perception comprehends all knowledge which con-
1 New York, 1855. 2 Vol. i. p, 5.
256 PART I. — THEOLOGY. [Ch. IH. — Akti-Theism.
sists in elucidating something by something else, — in now explain- ing, and now foreseeing certain phenomena, by means of the resemblance or sequence of other phenomena." ^ " If we regard these functions [of the mind] under their statical aspect, — that is, if we consider the conditions under which they exist, — we must determine the organic circumstances of the case, which inquiry involves it with anatomy and physiology. If we look at the dynamic aspect, we have to study simply the exercise and results of the intellectual powers of the human race, which is neither more nor less than the general object of the Positive Philosophy." ^
Comte is obliged to use the word " power," and to speak of its exercise, yet all his philosophy denies the existence of any such thing as efficiency. The laws which determine events are nothing more than facts of uniform sequence. According to the passage just quoted, one department of psychology (the statical) belongs to anatomy and physiology ; the other (the dynamic) to the observed sequence of certain facts called intellectual. The sequence is inva- riable. The intervention of will is necessarily excluded, because philosophy, at least Positivism, is nothing unless it secures the power of prevision. But free acts cannot be foreseen by man. Hence Comte says, " The arbitrary can never be excluded while political phenomena are referred to will, divine or human, instead of being connected with invariable natural laws."^ " If social events were always exposed to disturbance by the accidental inter- vention of the legislator, human or divine, no scientific prevision of them would be possible." *
Intellectual exercises being regarded as a function of the brain, Comte says, " The positive theory of the intellectual and affective functions is therefore henceforth unchangeably regarded as consist- ing in the study, both rational and experimental, of the various phenomena of internal sensibllitj^, which are proper to the cerebral ganglia, apart from their external apparatus. It is, therefore, sim- ply a prolongation of animal physiology, properly so called, when this is extended so as to include the fundamental and ultimate at- tributes." 5
Comte, being an ardent phrenologist, founded one of the argu- ments for his system on the organization of the brain ; but his great dependence was upon the law of human development. He admitted no essential difference between man and irrational ani- mals. The superiority of man is only in the degree of his intelli-
1 Pkihsophie Positive, vol. ii. p. 515. 2 Vol. i. p. 11. » Vol. ii. p. 47
« Ibid. p. 73. 6 See Prof. Porter's Human Intellect, p. 5i