Law 3 (XV.) of con subordina tion of the mean terms to the extremes. I complete the last group of universal laws by the law tinuity; the which represents the intermediate state as in all cases subordinate to the extremes which it brings into connection. I have so frequently applied this law in the volumes of this work, as to make it unnecessary for me to dwell on it here. The great Buffon seems to me to have had a glimpse of it, but I think that I am as fully warranted ultimately in claiming it for myself, as I am in claiming the great majority of the fourteen previous laws, all more or less conjectures of my various predecessors, yet all peculiar to my systematisation. The appearance of subjectivity attaching to this law, due especially to its finding its application in logic rather than in science, must not throw into the shade its objective character. For it proclaims the interdependence of the objects studied quite as forcibly as it does the connection of their studies. Such are the fifteen uni versal laws, closely con nected, un changeable in order, and amply suffi cient for all sound specu- of Bacon. We have thus the ultimate basis of the dogmatic system of Positivism in the combination of fifteen laws of universal applicability, forming three natural groups: the first of three laws; the two others each of six, each also subdividing into two equal series. The various connections above indicated suffice to show the perfect interdependence of the whole so formed, Philosophia' although the number of such connections will be largely increased when we come to use it. Without insisting on this at present, I must call attention to the definitive nature of the arrangement of these fifteen laws, definitive by the nature of the case, no one of them being transposable without a violation of the rational order. As for their completeness as a whole, this follows from their giving us even now the means of satisfactorily regulating all healthy investigation. We may regard, then, as realised the noble aspiration of Bacon, the construction of a first, a prime philosophy, qualified to direct us in all our scientific meditations, nay even to aid us in the exercise of our practical reason. The First Philosophy brought to bear in the The power of this philosophy as an instrument of systematic thought, will become palpable by the construction of the formation of Positive hierarchy of phenomena and conceptions, on the basis of a relative view of the whole order of the world. the hierar chy of the sciences. Relation of chy to the synthetic This hierarchy, the grand result of the course of objective this hierar investigation which prepared the way for the ultimate synthesis, has for its legitimate object the completion of the synthetic, the direction of the analytic, constitution of the Positive doctrine. and analytic dogmatic systems. thetic con mena hu The synthetic form, the direct offspring of the fundamental The syntheory of the Great Being, finds its complete ideal expression stitution. in the worship, and condenses all the various theories in Morals, for in Morals we study human nature for the government of human life. All our real speculations, the most abstract and the most simple not excepted, necessarily converge towards this human domain, for indirectly they help us to the knowledge of man under his lower aspects, on which the nobler are dependent. Strictly speaking, there is no phenomenon within All phenoour cognisance which is not in the truest sense human, and that man. not merely because it is man who takes cognisance of it, but also from the purely objective point of view, man summarising in himself all the laws of the world, as the ancients rightly felt. Yet each class of attributes must be studied with reference to the simplest cases; that is, in beings where it exists, if not isolated, at any rate freed from all complication with the higher attributes, which we eliminate provisionally by abstraction, the better to understand their foundations. Thus beginning with the simplest phenomena, we gradually increase the complication of our enquiries by the introduction in succession of higher properties, so training ourselves by a course of decreasing abstraction for the normal state of the scientific reason. When we have reached it, we enter on the regime of complete synthesis, the regime in which man, viewed directly as indivisible by nature, is the constant object of all theories calculated to make him more fit for the service of the Great Being. Abstraction thus loses its scientific preeminence and retains solely its logical utility; we habitually concentrate all our efforts on the most important problems, recurring to the lower only to meet the wants, in particular respects, of the higher domain. Our intellectual life, however, as here sketched, will always require a training of the individual analogous in kind to the initiation of the race; a training in which objective analysis provides us with the necessary basis of the subjective synthesis which, in the normal state, is to be paramount. In the second place, the direct cultivation of the higher domain will often call for new researches, logical or scientific, in the various inferior sciences. Now the training and the researches equally must be guided by the Positive hierarchy which is a consequence of the threefold system of universal laws above given. That hierarchy realises the confused wish of Bacon as to the construction of a An indiviration dual prepa needed to synthesis. attain this The study of sciences will researches in In both the higher call for new the lower. cases the hierarchy useful. Scientific appreciation tive scale. scala intellectus, having for its object the enabling us to pass, in both directions, without a breach of continuity from any one class of researches to any other. This encyclopædic scale, instituted in my philosophy, and become an integral part, by constant use, of the present work, requires no further explanation here except as to its immediate connection with the subjective synthesis. The conception of the hierarchy of the sciences from this of the Posi- point of view implies, at the outset, the admission, that the systematic study of man is logically and scientifically subordinate to that of Humanity, the latter alone unveiling to us the real laws of the intelligence and activity. Paramount as the theory of our emotional nature, studied in itself, must ultimately be, without this preliminary step it would have no consistence. Morals thus objectively made dependent on Sociology, the next step is easy and similar; objectively Sociology becomes dependent on Biology, as our cerebral existence evidently rests on our purely bodily life. These two steps carry us on to the conception of Chemistry as the normal basis of Biology, since we allow that vitality depends on the general laws of the combination of matter. Chemistry again in its turn is objectively subordinate to Physics, by virtue of the influence which the universal properties of matter must always exercise on the specific qualities of the different substances. Similarly Physics become subordinate to Astronomy when we recognise the fact that the existence of our terrestrial environment is carried on in perpetual subjection to the conditions of our planet as one of the heavenly bodies. Lastly, Astronomy is subordinated to Mathematics by virtue of the evident dependence of the geometrical and mechanical phenomena of the heavens on the universal laws of number, extension, and motion. Logical ap preciation of Positive Scale. When it has reached this term, the subjective arrangement of the objective hierarchy is complete, by its termination in the one science which has no other below it, and which therefore can be the direct object of study on the basis of certain spontaneous inductions independent of all deduction. Although the encyclopædic series is here rested solely on the ground of scientific relations, yet, as at the outset, the ground so taken always coincides with its logical appreciation. For although the Positive method is necessarily uniform, nevertheless, it is only in the simplest branches of study that its deductive capacity can find its proper developement. Its inductive properties must come into view subsequently, as in due and gradual course more complicated phenomena introduce observation in Astronomy, experiment in Physics and Chemistry, comparison in Biology, filiation in Sociology. When induction has thus complemented deduction, the final science brings the two into their normal and direct combination by its construction of the subjective method, properly speaking peculiar to Morals. of Morals. Such, under its two aspects, is the connection by virtue of Supremacy which this supreme science organises, one after the other, all the Positive sciences, the culture of which henceforth will be controlled by the inseparable relations which exist between them and the science of man. Morals, as the synthetical terminus of the whole scientific construction, is as superior to its various preliminaries in rationality as it is in utility, since the phenomena which are its proper subject matter necessarily influence us in our examination of all the rest. At first, it is true, they must be kept out of view, but as our speculations are not in the fullest sense real till this temporary abstraction has ceased, we must not continue it longer than is necessary. To appreciate at its just value the hierarchy above given, it is necessary to recognise its competence to guide us in the subdivision of each special science no less than in the coordination of the whole body of distinct sciences. The same principle of the interdependence and simplification of studies by virtue of the degree of generality in the phenomena, will give us in all cases our subdivisions of each of the seven fundamental sciences, provided that we attain sufficient precision in our classification. It follows, from the necessarily homogeneous character of these several subdivisions, that in combination they perfect our scientific scale, in relation to its most important attribute, by developing its continuity. In this way thought may habitually pass from the lowest mathematical speculations to the sublimest moral conceptions, or vice versâ, by a series of intermediate steps so easy as to require no effort to a well-trained mind. To whatever degree we specialise our enquiry, the unity of human science remains intact, the student never losing sight of the two or three consecutive subdivisions which connect each particular branch of science with the general hierarchy. The hierarwithin the each special chy valuable sphere of science. The concrete Again, the full appreciation of this Positive scala intellectus as a logical and scientific institution, involves our looking on it the hierar hierarchy; applied to Beings. chy, that is, as equally adapted to represent the interdependence of beings or existences as that of phenomena and speculations. Under its concrete aspect, when viewed as a whole, it forms a series of states which rise in dignity in a direct ratio with their complication, each resting upon its predecessor. The result is the relative conception of the order of the world, an order necessarily distributed into seven categories, superimposed one on the other in such a way that each modifies that which precedes, and commands that which succeeds. This series of modifying and commanding influences issues in presenting man as the true condenser and spontaneous regulator of the social, vital, and inorganic milieu, in dependence on which he developes. But his personal action, as it has for its object the modification for the better of destiny by will, is efficient and noble only on this condition that it be freely devoted to the constant service of the Great Being, the being of which the individual is the indivisible element and the necessary product. When his activity thus takes its normal direction, man is continually improving the order to which he is subject, by strengthening the reaction of its vital influences on its material, availing himself, for this purpose, of the ever-growing cooperation of al! his voluntary associates. We thus see how our relative conception of the economy of the world, by using, both in theory and practice, the Positive hierarchy, is able, in an equal degree, to give systematic expression to the dignity of the individual, and his devotion to society. Here again the hierar ciple valua ble for subdivision. To this concrete application of the encyclopædic scale I chical prin- must extend the observation above explained when treating of the abstract hierarchy, the object of which was to introduce into it greater continuity. The classification on the principle of increase of complication and decrease of generality, is as applicable in the subdivision of the hierarchy of beings as in that of attributes, so as to connect, by sufficiently easy steps, all the intermediate terms whatsoever. Its power in this respect is most sensible in regard to the higher beings, in Biology, that is, first, and then in Sociology, whilst it is in the lower domain that the abstract subdivision finds its most appropriate sphere. Thus we form, in as full developement as our enquiries can possibly require, a general scale of co-existent beings, and as the completion of such scale, a series of states offered to our view by the only being capable of continuous advance. So |