Previous recognition of the two in Fetichism and Polytheism. In Monotheism. claiming them as exclusive characteristics of the Positive state, as that might clash with what has been previously said of the general connection of the second life of the race with its first. It is only since its inevitable decline that the older Synthesis has been really adverse to these attributes. In its period of power it naturally lent encouragement to their spontaneous growth, which had been impossible without it. Firstly, there was no incompatibility between Fetichism and scientific prevision, the rudiments of which we trace in regard to celestial phenomena; still less was there such incompatibility in regard to the direct recognition of the value of the sympathetic instincts. And although Theologism proved less favourable, yet as Polytheism it encouraged both attributes on a decisive scale. By the extension of divination, the priestly, as the military, period of antiquity fostered the practice of prevision in the only form admissible under the then conditions of intelligence and action. Altruism could not receive its due recognition in the polytheistic Synthesis, but the vague presentation of it which that Synthesis allowed, was sufficient to extract their beneficial effects from the impulses of practical life, so long as the fusion of the two powers concentrated man's attention upon his earthly existence. Passing to Monotheism, it is its doctrine alone that is responsible for its more marked opposition to these associate attributes, and the defects in that doctrine were long counterbalanced by the wisdom of its priesthood and the influences of the social state. In the name of its doctrine, Catholicism, the religion of our adolescence, proscribed the divination appropriate to our childhood, but could not substitute prevision, as that was reserved for our adult age, and the proscription would have seriously compromised an indispensable branch of mental cultivation had not some fortunate inconsistencies tempered the compression. Astrolatry, anterior in time and superior in value to Theologism, in defiance of the official belief, was the source of a philosophical impulse which saved our tendency to look forward from irreparable disuse, and gained the victory over the competing power of revelation. As for altruism, the monotheistic period of transition found in its system of life the corrective of its doctrinal antagonism. Its purely objective immortality gave, it is true, in principle the predominance to absolute egoism, but the result, in a social point of view, of the doctrine was the separation, however imperfect, of the spiritual and temporal power, and the consequence of that separation was, throughout the whole Western world, the culture-the indirect it may be, yet the decisive culture-of our moral nature. The sympathetic portion of our nature was the supreme province of the divine power, and the defective theory of human nature was hereby corrected as far as it could be. Moreover, as any moral discipline whatever tends to second the spontaneous growth of the benevolent inclinations, they really found the greatest encouragement under the empire of the beliefs which were least disposed to admit their existence. Practically, then, the adverse attitude of the older Syntheses to the two attributes of Positivism must be limited to the decline of Monotheism during the Western revolution, when the priesthood had lost its power of correcting the doctrine. But the peculiar circumstances of that period gave the ascendancy to an intellectual and practical movement, which, in spite of the empiricism and egoism that defaced it, led directly to the growth of prevision in science and of innate altruism in morals. The strongest condemnation of the reaction attempted in the name of order is its futile protest against this fuller acceptance of the two doctrines, an acceptance ever tending towards a complete systematisation. The bostility of Monotheism confined to its decline. under the Formation old Regime and the adapted to of the Habits The doctrine of historical filiation, the inevitable dependence, that is, of the ultimate solution on the whole of the preparatory state of human life, were incompletely stated if in its consideration we neglected the important point of the formation, the instinctive formation of the habits, nay, even rity. of the principle adapted to the maturity of mankind. Principle our matu The most difficult point for Positivism in its effort to The Habits. reorganise is to secure in the minds of men the continuous developement of the subjective existence. Each generation as it passes must ever feel itself by virtue of that existence placed between the sum of the generations that have preceded it, and of those which are to follow it, so as to give full effect to that basic continuity in the name of which it obeys the past and serves the future. We shall be bound to keep up an intercourse with the dead, and even with those yet unborn, more uninterrupted though less intimate than our intercourse with our contemporaries. We cannot avoid the difficulty of this requirement, and yet it were too great for us were it not The Prin ciple. Humanity. for the previous theological training, which yet had no eye to this capital result. Fetichism gave life to all around us, but in Fetichism we were never in contact with any but actually living, though in many cases absent, beings. It was during the long period of Theologism that we gained the habit of living in the presence of purely ideal beings, in whom, however, none the less was our whole destiny bound up. And although the rise and growth of this habit-of this subjective life-were necessarily due in larger proportion to Polytheism, it was Monotheism which organised it provisionally into a system, and by so doing in some degree made amends for the diminution of intensity it produced. Lastly, when we come to consider the fundamental conception of the new Synthesis, it is not difficult to see, in the light of the last volume, a distinct preparation of it running through the whole past. To minds influenced by the existing anarchy, every collective being tends to present itself as a mere entity, yet none the less is it true that no coherence, no dignity have been or are possible for the individual unless in subordination to some larger and composite existence. It is only in dependence on some such existence that we can satisfy our desire to perpetuate this transitory life, for we thus link it to an imperishable being. This, the direct mode of satisfaction, must be held to have long preceded the indirect mode due to the fictions of Theology, since it dates from Fetichism, being a consequence of the creation by Fetichism of the Family. This primal solution was never superseded by the promises of supernatural religion, for its promises, though increasing in attractiveness, appealed exclusively to man's selfish instincts. Unconsciously he was constantly drawn on by his unselfish affections to extend his relations, so the better to secure a subjective immortality. Prior to the impulse given by Monotheism towards absolute isolation as the true aim of each individual, Polytheism in both its forms, sacerdotal and military, had already definitively created the Country, and in practice the influence of the idea habitually overbore that of the monotheistic theory. The Family and the Country, these are the two collective beings which in due succession were to lead by a natural process to the conception and the feeling of Humanity, which may be looked on as the common country or the universal family. The three complex terms will ever be the successive steps of a natural progression indispensable for our heart and intellect if we would reach the true Synthesis. On a comparison of the two terms peculiar to the earlier period, we see at once that the larger union is of a nature to foster our sense of dignity, the more intimate to insure fixity of existence. The family is the basis of the state, but it requires the influence of the state upon it to perfect it. They react one, on the other, and are thus seen to be both equally connected with the term which completes the series of collective existences. intercalated. On a closer consideration of this synthetic progression, we The West see in it an announcement, as it were, of the proximate advent of the third term, Humanity, by the intercalation, after the second, of a new and capital conception. Between the Family and the State Theocracy had introduced the Caste, on the ground of its value as a combination of birth and calling. Similarly Catholicism legitimately avails itself of the distinction between the two powers to introduce the conception of the West, the immediate precursor of Humanity, which it prepares by familiarising us with a purely spiritual union. This completes the preparatory process needed to enable us to feel and to conceive the Great Being, though each subdivision of that process is threatened with absolute impuissance by the anarchy of modern times. The survey shows us how deeply the reconstruction offered by Positivism is rooted in the past-how it will realise all the aspirations of that past-only under new forms, as the condition of their converging. The nature and object of the volume necessitated the special introduction here given. It is sufficient to place us in the frame of mind appropriate to the construction—a construction such as has never before been attempted-on which I now enter without further preface. The imminent danger of such a construction's sinking into a utopia can only be avoided by keeping constantly in view the earlier history of each institution, its roots in the past. This we may do by the aid of the two preceding volumes, so far at least that the regeneration of the world by Positivism may be shown in the present volume to be as indispensable as it is inevitable, in that it offers the sole issue of the Western Revolution. The process of determining the future will be simply the continuation and develope Intercala- tion of the tween the City and Humanity. The deter mination of the future the explanapast. Ob depends on tion of the stacles not to be over rated. Systematic ment of the method on which I have throughout relied for treating in succession the several phases of the past, each of which in turn was, relatively to its predecessor, future. We must not attach too great weight to the obstacles presented by the spread of disorder. As it spreads, the aspirations after an universal order grow stronger as they have ever done; and the vague presentiment of that order simply demands for the satisfaction of ardent longings its systematic construction. The subversion of the civic and even family ties with which we are now threatened cannot conceal an undefined tendency towards the regeneration which shall place them on a new, sounder, and purer basis, by bringing them into their proper subordination to the only tie which has strength enough to overcome collective selfishness in all its forms. And although it is the longing for order which is above all satisfied by the Religion of Humanity, its first welcome was from the instincts of progress which it undertakes to discipline. In entering on the systematic exposition of Humanity, as of Human- the basis of the Positive Religion, I presuppose in my readers a Preparation familiarity with the earlier volumes and their successive con ity. for it in the previous volumes. Humanity real and useful. (a) Its Reality. tributions, constituting a natural preparation of the subject. The first volume dealt directly with the conception in its general outline; the second explained its nature in the abstract; the third treated its historical and concrete developement. The three facilitate greatly the detailed construction of the present volume, the crowning effort of the work, but they cannot take its place. Above all, our previous labour warrants us in considering the conception of Humanity as having stood satisfactorily the two general tests of all positive conceptions, that they should be real and be useful. Were there solid grounds for contesting the existence of the Great Being its kingdom could not be at hand. But at its present stage its existence needs no proof; its reality is deeply stamped on all its creations, in morals, in the arts and sciences, in industry; in all of which, by positive analysis, we trace the co-operation of all ages and nations. The less general, the less durable the result, as in industry, the more has this co-operation of time and place been ever recognised, as the greater facility of attainment throws it open to larger numbers to share in it, and this of itself challenges recognition. Where the intensity |