eate conceptions, and those which by their complexity are accessi- ble to only a small number of highly prepared understandings, are to be abandoned to the arbitrary and variable decisions of the least competent minds." ^ This argument is conclusive. If social life, the acts of men, are as much and as certainly determined by phys- ical laws as material changes, those who have ascertained these laws are entitled to control all other men. As it would be prepos- terous to allow men to build our houses or navigate our ships who would not obey the laws of nature, so it would be absurd, on this hypothesis, to allow those ignorant of social laws to govern society. Comte avows his admiration, not of popish doctrine, but of the papal organization, which in the new order of things he proposes to continue. " Papal infallibility," he says,^ " was a great intellec- tual and social advance." Prof. Huxley pithily chai-acterizes Posi- tivism, in this regard, as " Cathohcism minus Christianity."
Religion is not excepted from this absolute subjection. The Positive Philosophy, as it denies the existence of the soul and the being of God, would seem to leave no place for religion. Comte placed on the title-page of his " Discours sur I'Ensemble du Posi- tivisme," the announcement that his design was to reorganize soci- ety " sans Dieu ni Roi." Nevertheless, as men must have, as they always have had, some religion, a philosophy which aspired to ab- solute dominion over all the departments of human life, must make some provision for this universal, although imaginary, necessity of our nature. Comte, therefoi-e, published a catechism of religious belief, and a ritual of religious worship. The object of worship was to be the aggregate of humanity formed by the absorption of the successive generations of men. Every great man has two forms of existence : one conscious before death ; the other after death, unconscious, in the hearts and intellects of other men. The God of the Positive Philosophy is, therefore, the aggregate of the mem- ories of great men. " Undoubtedly," says Huxley, " ' Dieu ' dis- appeared, but the ' Noveau Grand-Etre Supreme,' a gigantic fetich, turned out bran-new by M. Comte's own hands, reigned in his stead. 'Roi' also was not heard of; but in his place I found a minutely-defined social organization, which, if it ever came into practice, would exert a despotic authority such as no sultan has rivalled, and no Puritan presbytery in its palmiest days could hope to excel. While, as for the ' culte syst^raatique de I'humanit^,' I, in my blindness, could not distinguish it from sheer Popery, with
1 Phihsophie Positive, vol. u. pp. 14, 15. * J^- vol. ii. p. 268
262 PART I.— THEOLOGY. [Ch. m. - Anti-Theism.
M. Comte in the cliair of St. Peter, and the names of most of the saints clianged," ^
There are, however, to be two forms of worship, the one private, the other public. The special object of the former is woman, be- cause she is the most perfect representative of humanity. As " Mother, she excites veneration ; as wife, affection ; and as daugh- ter, kindness." To excite these sentiments, ideal woman is to be worshipped. Humanity, or the memory of great men, is the ob- ject for public worship, regarding which minute details are given. The new religion is to have ten sacraments, a peculiar architecture, and an extended hierarchy, under the control of one absolute High Priest. Such is the system which Comte was allowed to believe would supersede the gospel of Jesus Christ. It has already al- most passed away. Among the advanced men of science in Eng- land there is scarcely one so poor as to do it reverence.^
E. Scientific Materialism. Leading Principles.
The leading principles of the modern scientific form of Material- ism are embraced, by some at least, who do not consider them selves Materialists. They, however, adopt the language of the system, and avow principles wdiich, in their generally accepted meaning, constitute what in the history of human thought is known as Materialism.
The most important of these principles are the following, many of which, however, are not peculiar to the system.
1. Matter and force are inseparable. Wherever there is matter there is force, and wherever there is force there is matter. This proposition, at least in the first instance, is to be understood only of physical force.
1 Lay Sermons, etc., p. 164.
2 Professor Huxley says : " For these sixteen years, it has been a periodical source of irritation to me to find JI. Comte put forward as a representative of scientific thought; and to observe that writers whose philosophj' had its legitimate parent in Hume, or in them- selves, were labelled ' Comtists,' or ' Positivists,' by public writers, even in spite of vehe- ment protests to the contrary. It has cost Mr. Mill hard rubbings to get that label off; and I watch Mr. Spencer, as one regards a good man struggling with adversity, still engaged in eluding its adhesiveness, and ready to tear away skin and all, rather than let it stick. My own turn might come next; and, therefore, when an eminent prelate the other day gava currency and authority to the popular confusion, I took !\n opportunity of incidentally re- ■vindicating Hume's property in the so-called ' New Philosophy, and at the same time of repudiating Comtism on my own behalf." — Ut supra, p. 165. The mistake complained of is a very natural one, as Comte and Hume have so much in common. Professor Huxley's quotation from Faust is in point here : —
" Ungefahr sagt das der Pfarrer auch Nur mit ein bischen andern Worten."