Still, even under these

sympathetic

unity at

tainable.

forget that its normal attitude is one of subordination to the heart.

This same existence, however, at a certain stage of its growth conditions, has the power of reproducing unity, relative unity, when the doctrine and the regime are so far developed as to accord with the worship. Our study of the laws of Physics leads us to the admission of the laws of the intellect, the link between them and the moral laws. Our conception of the universal order, originally limited to the moral laws, becomes in this way complete and systematic, with the effect of subordinating intellect to feeling. In like manner, man's active life requires for its full developement a collective advance, which of itself cultivates altruism. This moral reaction of his activity at first affects veneration only, as the basis of discipline, but it includes subsequently the two other social instincts, in proportion as the efforts of the individual are found to conduce to the welfare of the state, nay even of the race. Thus ultimately the doctrine and the regime converge to the worship, the result being a more complex, but also a more highly developed unity, than one which should rest simply on feeling. The stability of this unity is ensured by its affording a legitimate occupation to the powers which have a tendency to disturb it, and it employs them by devoting them to its own consolidation.

The regime more infiu

ential than the doctrine in maintaining unity.

Hence the doctrine must be subordinated to the regime.

In the installation and maintenance of this normal state, the share of the regime is to be held greater than that of the doctrine, considering its more natural and more complete affinity with the worship. For the isolation requisite for the cultivation of science has a tendency to make us despise, or at any rate neglect, our moral life. Nor is it any security against this error, that the intellect is occupied in synthetical investigations, and that with a directly social aim. Action, on the contrary, by its nature, predisposes us to sympathy, as it never lets us lose sight of the necessity of others' cooperation. Practical life stimulates this moral influence, even when analysis becomes the prevailing characteristic of its course, by the ultimate predominance of the industrial life.

Taking into account this difference in their influence on feeling as the principle of unity, the doctrine must hold a subordinate position in relation to the regime, as it does in relation to the worship, though in order of time the systematisation of our intellectual must precede that of our active life, as it is to

guide the latter. The most important part of the Western transition-the Roman-made contemplation the handmaid of action. Although later the monotheistic synthesis impaired this relation, the practical instinct of man has upheld it, and that avowedly in the interest of feeling, as the common superior alike of intellect and activity. Retrograde as are the tendencies of modern anarchy, the whole of human existence has so fostered the previous disposition as to make it easy for the Positive religion to secure the recognition of action as the principal minister of affection. In the normal state, it is only in the developement of our esthetic faculties that the intellect takes precedence of action, and for them we should interrupt at regular intervals the ordinary course of practical life. If, on the one hand, the doctrine completes the worship by connecting the human with the external order, on the other it prepares the way for the regime by systematising man's submission to, and interference with, the world without. The object thus assigned it regulates the developement of the intellect, guarding it against the misdirection to which, if left to itself, it is liable, and concentrating it on the great problems. Action then becomes the best guarantee of unity, if once developed on such a scale as to combine faith and love. Maugre their natural affinity, sympathy and synthesis tend to diverge, if sympathy degenerate into mystical affections, synthesis into speculation for speculation's sake. Such degeneration, such divergence, find in the influence of action their only permanent prevention or remedy. It must be remembered, however, that if action is thus to regulate and combine love and faith, it can only do so when it takes a collective character, no other being compatible with the predominance of the heart and the free growth of the intellect. Now, the essential feature in the ultimate regeneration is the promotion and consolidation of this transformation of activity, as a consequence of the whole of the gradual preparation made during the first life of Humanity. Thus the solution of the human problem is drawn from the working out in full of the very conditions in which the problem has its origin. To demonstrate this is the main object of the present chapter, which is more than any other adapted to delineate the genuine system of the Positive religion.

Action the

best guaran

tee of unity.

retical

Whilst it is the active class that must be most affected by The theothe systematisation of the regime, whilst it depends for its attainment principally upon women, to inaugurate it and

power must systematise the regime.

Hence the Priesthood must be

dwelt on.

Two pre

liminary cautions,

uphold it belongs exclusively to the spiritual power. It is on this ground that, before proceeding farther, I must here explain in detail the constitution of the Positive priesthood, and even state its fundamental function in reference to the common education. These two points determined, we then form a direct estimate of the definitive systematisation of human life, in relation successively to the Individual, the Family, and the State.

So intimate is the correlation between the constitution of the priesthood and the system of education, that any clear definition of the former is not possible, so long as the latter remains undetermined. But in the General View' the education has already been explained, so that I may here proceed to examine the former question in which are necessarily implicated all parts of the regime.

First, however, there are two cautions to be given, applicable equally to the other sections of this chapter and even of the next. The first relates to the numbers which I have thought it second as to right to introduce in order to give precision to our conceptions,

one as to the numbers given, the

the assump

tion made.

Constitution of the Priesthood.

though any exact determination is as yet unattainable. When the necessary data are obtained, it will be easy, on the principles here stated, to effect the requisite corrections in my primary estimates. In the second place, in my exposition of the life, just as in those of the doctrine and of the worship, I have to keep in view the Positive state in its normal plenitude; I assume it, that is, established throughout the world. It belongs to the next chapter, the determination of the general course of its advent to full power; the question is as much out of place here as it would have been in social statics. For clearness' sake, however, my detailed statements will bear exclusively on the West, in the full sense of the term, including therein its colonial settlements; this gives a total population of one hundred and forty millions, and to this population the regeneration will at first be confined. We must multiply the numbers given by seven, when we take the whole race into account (its amount at present is quintuple), allowing for the normal increase of the nations which at present are below the western rate (sixty inhabitants to the square kilometre).

In order to consolidate the separation of the two powers, the general basis of the Positive regime, it is essential to limit the Its numbers numbers of the contemplative class as far as is consistent with its full functions. Without this reduction, it would be im

limited.

possible to secure the rare combination of intellectual and moral qualities, required for the priesthood of Humanity, the extent of which must be determined with especial reference to the encyclopædic instruction which completes and systematises Positive education. I have already stated that this instruction will occupy seven years, during which each pupil remains throughout under the same teacher, teaching, be it added, both sexes, though in separate classes.

Each Positive school, then, will require seven priests, and in addition three vicars, in order that the philosophical presbytery may suffice for the demands of the worship; of preaching; and of consultation, on moral, intellectual, or even physical questions. The scheme already referred to binds each professor, as a rule, to two lectures only in each week during ten months of the Positivist year, besides a month of examination. Every school is annexed to the temple of the district, as is the presbytery, the residence of the ten members of the sacerdotal college and of their families, with the senior member for president, and with a separation of residence for the vicars from the priests.

Require

ments of

each Posi

tive School.

thousand

required for The temples,

the West.

one for ten

thousand

families.

On these data, it seems to me that the spiritual wants of Twenty the West may be duly met by a corporation of twenty thousand philosophers, of whom France would have the fourth. This rate is equivalent to having a temple for every ten thousand families, each family consisting of seven members, in agreement with a law to be explained later. Positive religion by its nature admits of this great reduction of the contemplative class, though its duties are more extensive than those of the analogous class under any Theologism. Always demonstrable and never ambiguous, its precepts will but seldom require explanation from the priests, remembering the universal diffusion of systematic instruction, which will often enable women and the elders to supply the place of the priest in counsel. With a view to their more entire concentration on the duties of teaching and worship, the philosophical class will be freed from all material cares, each temple being placed under the protection of the nearest banker, on whom it devolves to maintain the fabric and the priests.

The Positivist clergy must be recruited from all classes, by conferring, at the age of twenty-eight, the provisional degree of aspirant on anyone who is thought qualified for the priesthood, on a judgment of his scientific noviciate, and of the subsequent

Mode of rethe Posi

cruitment of

tivist clergy.

Artistic and scientific

period of unfettered action. Equally unfettered is the period of training for the priestly office, under the moral and intellectual surveillance of the senior member of the nearest college; a yearly stipend of one hundred and twenty pounds being allowed, but not beyond the age of thirty-five at the farthest, that being the normal age for the vicariate. It is with this office that begin the functions and obligations of the priesthood, restricted, however, to education and purely private consultations. From the vicars are chosen at the age of forty-two the priests of Humanity, the sole possessors of the full spiritual power, under the control of the high priest. Although each priest has first been vicar, nay even aspirant, in exceptional cases the supreme head of the Positivist clergy may confer the vicariate, nay even the priesthood, on any whom he may deem to fulfil the essential conditions, without requiring the regular course. Over and above the intellectual and moral tests, marriage, at any rate in the subjective form of the institution, is binding upon all priests, that they may be under the full influence of affection; they also renounce all property by inheritance, the better to ensure the complete abandonment of all idea of temporal greatness. An official residence being provided, for their subsistence the vicar and the priest depend on a yearly stipend of two hundred and forty pounds for the vicar, four hundred and eighty for the priest, plus their expenses for visitations and journeys.

Not included in the priesthood, but within the limits of the pensioners. contemplative class, a suitable existence must be offered to those who, by the peculiarity of their constitution, are in heart and character below the level of their intellect. These pensioners, artists or savans, without any restriction as to number, receive annually, according to each case, the stipends of the aspirant, the vicar, or the priest. Moreover, the central priesthood provides for the expenses their works involve, in order that they may freely develope the incomplete powers they have, without obtaining the consideration which is due to the spiritual power.

The High
Priest of

The whole spiritual hierarchy is immediately and uninterHumanity. mittingly under the influence of the High Priest of Humanity; he names, transfers, suspends, and even discards, on his sole responsibility, any of its members.

Normally the residence of

the pontiff must be Paris, as the metropolis of the West, but