Precedent in the Eucha rist. Former The transmutation of metals. The sole decisive example of such a complement to synthesis naturally, then, emanated from Catholicism, instituting, as it did, at its origin, the incomparable sacrament of the Eucharist, to condense at once its worship, its doctrine, and even its regime. So completely characteristic of the Western Monotheism was this admirable condensation that the system lost all coherence as soon as it was changed. Although, however, as the first type of the concentration of a synthesis, the Catholic sacrament deserves eternal reverence, in the Positive religion we must satisfy the same want in another way. As a fact, the Catholic systematisation was, strictly speaking, limited to the emotions; it was not able satisfactorily to include intellect or activity, though it managed to evade their demands so long as the affective transition lasted. On the contrary, the comprehensiveness inseparable from the Positive synthesis compels the institution, which is to serve as its condensation, to be a presentment at once of the three constituents of human nature, in their true order of dependence. In a word, the synthetical conclusion of Positivism must harmonise order and progress, by the institution of a progress which is the developement of order in the full signification of the term. Now, this is what rightly constructed utopias can effect, and in the increasing production of such utopias we have the indication, though not the satisfaction, of the craving for unity arising from modern anarchy. There is a necessary correlation between these synthetical constructions and the progress of Positivity; hence, as yet, they have been confined to the external order, especially the inorganic order, but not to the exclusion of the vital. The best worked out and the most effective took its rise in the Middle Ages, with Chemistry. During the greater portion of the Western revolution, the transmutation of metals offered an admirable rallying-point for all the efforts, both theoretical and practical, directed to the improvement of man's environment. Its sway lasted till the approach of the final crisis, when the spirit of utopian speculation was ennobled by having a social aim given it, as had been foreshadowed, for three centuries, by abortive attempts. But the social or ultimate domain of Positivity, whether imaginative or dealing with reality, required a doctrine of universal application, in default of which an utopia, which ought to be a condensation, remains simply an aperçu, an element of disturbance rather than a source of progress. Now this great primary condition is adequately met by the definitive advent of Sociology, with its consequence, the irresistible convergence of the revolutionary movement towards the installation of the Positive religion. This religion, as the legitimate issue of previous advance, comes forward at once to eliminate subversive utopias, and to substitute a synthetic conception which shall rally all high aspirations around one important progress, representative of the universal supremacy of Morals. utopia. Phil.Pos. vol. iii. 432 1st ed. As early as 1838, in the third volume of my Philosophy' Biological there was the implicit announcement of a movement in this direction, in the proposal to introduce, deliberately, in Biology imaginary organisms, in order to perfect the science as a whole. But as, in this its earliest form, the suggestion had only an intellectual bearing, it could not be taken as a type of Positive utopias, which must be practical quite as much as theoretical. Yet, compared with the transmutation of metals, it was an advance in the institution of utopias, for it enlarged their sphere by adding to the inorganic the vital order. A better instance of progress in the same province, was the suggestion made at the beginning of the present work, as to the transformation of herbivorous into carnivorous animals, viewed as the limit of the improvement of animals. Whilst it opens a wide field for science, this utopia equally interests art, not as regards the animals which elaborate our food, for in them an excess of animalisation would be an evil, but as regards the companions of our labour, which are thereby rendered more active and more intelligent. This advance, however, is still inadequate, confined as it is to the domain of profane science and not carrying Positive idealisation into the world of man, which is its true sphere, as being at once more important and more modifiable. To direct aright, then, the growth of utopias, which are to be the condensations of the final synthesis, we must carry them into the domain of sacred science, as the only one in which we can condense progress on the basis of order, by a combination of the three modes or degrees of amelioration, physical, intellectual, and moral. of utopias Such is the theory, from the historical as well as the dog- The theory matical point of view, of utopias in the Positive sense, in which complemenpoetry and philosophy should be in more perfect concert than of religion. tary to that Utopia of the VirginMother. Inductive considera tions. they were in the utopias of Theology or Metaphysics, since in the Positive the relative takes the place of the absolute. The theory, as here stated, becomes the complement of the theory of religion, by condensing the real unity in an ideal limit, the point of convergence for all the distinct aspirations, plans, and attempts bearing on the continuous advance towards perfection of our threefold nature. The better to secure this convergence, it is necessary to assign it one single object; we may substitute others when it has been attained; a course always open, so boundless is the domain of human Providence, though as yet scarcely existing in rudiment, even as regards our environment. In this way I am led to present the utopia of the VirginMother as the synthetical condensation of the Positive religion, all the various aspects of which find their place in it. Its examination in detail belongs to the work promised for 1859 on the theory and practice of Morals. All that I can do here, is to coordinate, in regard to it, the main points. Rising superior to scientific prejudices, we must first acknowledge that there is no flaw in the agreement of the institution with the whole system of natural laws. Restricted to the most modifiable species, and in that species peculiar to the sex which is most perfectible, in that sex it concerns the noblest function of organic life, the one in which the brain can most influence the body. The reasonableness of the problem has its ground in our determination of the real office of the male generative system, which has as its chief purpose the supply to the blood of a stimulating fluid, capable of invigorating the action of all the organs, the organs of animal as well as those of vegetal life. When compared with this general function, fecundation becomes but a particular case, one more and more secondary as the organism is higher. It is conceivable, then, that in the noblest species, the liquid may cease to be indispensable to the fertilisation of the germ, and that this result might be attained by many other means, even material means, but especially by a better action of the nervous on the vascular system. The advance is foreshadowed in the constant growth of chastity, an idea peculiar to the human species, at least in the male, and which shows the value for that race of a right use of the vivifying fluid-its value physically, intellectually, and morally. Still more applicable is the observation to women, if we take account of the unfailing combination of three special symptoms: the very slight share of the liquid in fecundation; menstruation; and the influence of the mother on the fœtus. considera In support of this objective induction, we may adduce the Subjective subjective consideration of the general course opinion has tions. followed in reference to human reproduction. In point of fact, as shown in the comparison pointed to in the first chapter of this volume, the current of opinion is more and more in favour of the greater participation of the woman. Now, an advance of this kind does not merely tend to smoothe the way for, and bear witness to, the advent of the utopia in which it finds its completion. All who estimate at its due value the general unison between the objective and the subjective, will allow that this course of our conceptions may represent the course of phenomena, in an order which is very modifiable, the earlier steps of which are unknown to us, from the want of a theory of hereditary transmission. If so, it is conceivable that civilisation not only predisposes men to a better appreciation of woman, but also increases the share of the latter in reproduction, and that in the limit, reproduction should be the exclusive appanage of the sex. Adopting this conclusion, the higher minds can feel no repugnance to examine, in the general, the legitimate consequences of an improvement, unattainable unless as a result of the aggregate advance of man, his physical and moral amelioration, fixed in the race by hereditary transmission. The synthetical aim of the institution makes it incumbent upon me, in the present place, to indicate summarily its several reactions on the individual, the Family, the State: with the further advantage of enunciating its chief conditions. Reaction of sion on our this conclu advance in all direc tions. As regards personal morality, the modification is calculated (i) Personal. to improve the constitution, of brain and body alike, of both sexes, by encouraging the habit of chastity, the importance of which was more and more felt by the general instinct, even under the rule of license. In the woman, this result will be ensured by the weakness of sexual desire, any activity of which, in her case, usually depends on the wish to become a mother. In the man the reverse is true; but when the pretext for sexual indulgence is gone, education and opinion will not find it difficult to make it yield to the need of preserving the vivifying fluid for (ii) Domestic. (iii) Civic, its proper function, the scope of which will be enlarged, the value more duly estimated.. From the point of view of the Family, the change would bring its constitution more into conformity with the general spirit of the Sociocracy, as it would complete the just emancipation of woman, thus rendered independent of man, even physically. It would be no longer possible to contest the full ascendancy of the affective sex over children which were its offspring exclusively. But the most important consequence would be the perfecting the fundamental institution of marriage, its Positive theory becoming, in the case supposed, irrefragable. So purified, the conjugal union would experience as marked an improvement as when monogamy took the place of polygamy; for it would be the realisation of the mediæval utopia of maternity compatible with virginity. The full developement thus allowed for woman's most eminent quality would not, it must be remembered, exclude the sympathetic influence of the sexual instinct, the more certain the more limited its satisfaction, without absolutely forbidding a pleasure which loses its dignity after the primary concession. Judged in reference to the State, this institution alone allows us to regulate the most important kind of production, any satisfactory regulation of which is impossible while accomplished under the delirium of passion, and with no sense of responsibility. If restricted to its best organs, the function of reproduction would improve the human race, by introducing greater certainty into the hereditary transmission of such beneficial changes as have been effected by the sum of the continuous influences, social or individual, to which the race has been subjected. The main laws of this great phenomenon of transmission will probably remain unknown till this simplification has been effected. But, as reproduction in its systematic form must ever remain more or less the special privilege of the higher types, the comparison of the two forms would, besides throwing valuable light on the subject, give rise to an important institution, conferring on Sociocracy the greatest advantage possessed by Theocracy. For the extension of the new method would soon give rise to a caste without the hereditary principle, a class better adapted than the mass of the population to supply spiritual, nay even temporal chiefs, with an authority resting in |