this case on a real superiority of birth, which would not shrink from investigation. utopia rea might Combine the above remarks and we can see in its true light were this the utopia of the Virgin-Mother, the aim of which is to furnish lised, others Positivism with a synthetical condensation, the equivalent of follow. that given to Catholicism by the institution of the Eucharist. Supposing the problem never solved, its utility, morally and intellectually, will never cease to be as great as was for material progress that of the dream of the transmutation of metals. But, supposing it solved, then, so imperfect is man's world, another will soon take its place, one not less adapted to be the central focus of our advance. Though I may not here broach the question, lest I distract attention, I recommend my successors to connect the new enquiry with our bodily existence, the material and the moral progress between which that existence is the link being already occupied. In any case I have now laid the groundwork for the systematic employment of utopias, in default of which the religion of Humanity would be incapable of adequately presenting the totality of our highest aspirations, poetical, philosophical, and political. With this preamble I have it in my power to enter properly on the direct examination of the Positive regime, abstraction made however, in treating it, of the ideal limit just constructed, except in so far as I may make implicit use of it in order to bring out more clearly the general tendency of human progress. Though for the regulation of our existence, the concert, the permanent concert of the two powers in society, is a necessity, the function more particularly belongs to the priesthood. Giving full effect in the name of Humanity to the power, both for control and guidance, it derives from the education, the priesthood disciplines the wills of men, whether as individuals or as corporations, by appealing in succession to feeling, reason, and lastly to public opinion. The action of the temporal government bears only on the outward act, it can only therefore complete the spiritual discipline, by establishing, for the ruder and more urgent cases, a force for prevention or correction. But this subsidiary material power, though never to disappear, must be constantly on the wane, in proportion as civilisation developes the moral power. Its sphere is the larger, the more distant and the vaster the relations with which it The direct of the Posi examination tive Regime. The func government tion of the tions of Participa two powers Positive always social under deals. I have here only to treat it accessorily, in reference to each several portion of the direct discipline. The leading function of the temporal government is to direct man's activity, and the systematic view of human industry is reserved for my concluding treatise, promised at the end of the last chapter, for 1861. Social under all its aspects, Positive morality, in distinguishing between the three forms, personal, domestic, and civic, all its forms, of human life, distinguishes them only as the natural gradations of one and the same discipline, in which each is a preparation for the next, and is acted upon by the next. Ranked on the principle of increase in the extension, decrease in the intimacy of the relations, a principle from which flows their interdependence, the rules applicable to them are always referred to the service of the Great Being, the sole source of the true unity which they confirm and develope. It is in the perfect homogeneity thus obtained, that should lie the superiority, morally, of Positivism over Catholicism, for Catholicism, owing to the egoistic character inherent in the absolute Synthesis, could directly regulate only individual existence. (i) Personal Morality. Physical injunctions. Henceforth regarded as the basis of social life, the importance of individual existence will not be less, and its dignity will be increased. But this primary form, even more than the two others, ought to be always considered from the point of view of the indivisibility of our nature; we must see, that is, in the intellect and the activity the indispensable ministers of feeling, on any true estimate, inseparable from it. It is in this way that our physical progress, and à fortiori our mental or moral progress, will be organised synthetically under the perpetual invocation of Humanity, who alone can dispel uncertainty of convictions, hesitation in conduct. Besides the general cases which admit of formal rules, the discipline of Positivism must extend equally to the minor events of life, referring them to the Great Being through feeling as the source of unity. The most trivial resolutions may thus be ennobled and become consistent to a degree unknown to the individualistic system of Metaphysics or Theology. It is especially in regard to physical injunctions that Positivism will develope its competence to regulate aright our personal existence, when medicine shall be more thoroughly incorporated with religion than it was under the theocratic regime. Health, as happiness, consists in unity, whether considered as the unity of the body or of the brain. Taking into account the close connection of our physical and moral existence, disorders in the one can never be treated apart from the other, even in the higher animals, much more in man. Civilisation increases this consensus, and therefore requires that the function of the physician be more and more absorbed into the office of the priest, instead of sanctioning the ever-widening divergence of the two, which was applicable only to the Western transition. But it is for Sociocracy irrevocably to effect the fusion, by virtue of the encyclopædic character of the common education; everyone by it being qualified to assist the priesthood in these accessory duties, always subordinate to its principal function. Such aid is particularly to be looked for from women, who will know how to recover for the sanctuary of the home most of the functions which have been one after the other usurped by Western physicians, leaving the clergy only the more important consultations. Not to dwell on the facilities for concentrating medicine in the hands of the priests given by its systematisation, we see that, notwithstanding their limited numbers and their other avocations, the sick will have the advice and the care they require, without any necessity for a distinction which is as indefensible on moral as on rational grounds. Our object being to regulate individual existence, we must always consider it under two aspects, distinct yet co-existent, nay, correlated, the one negative, the other positive. The solution of the human problem, on which we now enter directly, lies in compressing egoism, developing altruism. The first method was the one naturally preferred by Catholicism; the second is essentially the more effective, even from the negative point of view, since the most powerful check on any instinct is in the uninterrupted growth of its antagonists. Instead of sacrificing everything to purity, Positivism sanctions the resistance of Chivalry, and places it below tenderness in women, below both tenderness and energy in men. Still it adopts the term, and gives it a wider extension by giving it a systematic definition, for it condenses in purity the proper repression of all the seven personal instincts, not limiting it to the most troublesome. Still, the restraint of this last will continue to require in the man direct efforts, as the sexual impulses are the least amenable to For regulating Purity the personal instincts grouped in three cou ples. (i) Negative aspect. Apparent possibility synthesis. discipline, from relating to the wants which offer the greatest opening for sophistry. But Positivism will triumph over them more completely than Catholicism could, and transfer its principal effort to the noblest pair of egoistic instincts, so to complete the process of purification begun by Theocracy when it disciplined the instinct of nutrition. a The process has been a gradual one; the better to make it systematic one, we should group the personal inclinations by pairs, in the order given in the synopsis of the brain, first excluding the maternal instinct as imperfectly developed in man, the main subject of the discipline we propose. The result is, three couples, lower, middle, and upper, so named quite as much in reference to their dignity as to their position. The first couple determines the predominant impulses, whilst the two others are destined above all to satisfy those impulses, the one acting upon things, the other on persons, so to convert the without into the instrument of the within. Such an unity of purpose would seem at first sight to imply the possibility of an egoistic synthesis, putting altruism for the of an egoistic time out of sight. In fact, on the one hand, the destructive or the constructive instinct, on the other, pride or vanity, are ready to acquiesce in the supremacy of the first couple, in spite of their own inherent energy, for this supremacy finds scope for their energy, though the sympathetic synthesis is better in this respect. The same arrangement might be available for women, provided that in the primary couple the maternal take the place of the sexual instinct, the last being as undeveloped in women as the maternal is in men. Rejected on deeper examination. But a deeper examination of this coordination strengthens the conviction of the impossibility of forming any directly personal synthesis. For, in the system supposed, there would be two instincts sharing the supremacy, instincts which are often irreconcilable, especially in men. Nearly equal in energy, the most constant inevitably prevails, were it only as presiding over the continuous gratification of our imperious physical Where human foresight adequately provides for these, as with the wealthy, the sexual instinct would tend to reign supreme over the whole existence, were there not the antagonism of altruism and the intervention of society to check its demands. It would never attain a lasting preponderance, for such would soon endanger life, by the unbounded desires it excites. Short of this however, its capricious aspirations would always be an obstacle to any decisive triumph of the instinct of conservation. The conclusion is: that our personality, if it is to be systematized, must be so by subordinating itself to our sociality, which alone can discipline the within and connect it with the without, for it alone can sanction all our instincts, suiting its rule to the nature of each. played by the instincts servation of self-pre and benevo lence respec tively. The fundamental instinct is sanctified by the altruistic The part synthesis, by the entrusting to its care the general direction of the bodily life on which rests that of the brain. It is in the fullest sense amenable to discipline, by virtue of a function as definite as it is legitimate, which excess imperils. Thus we see the scale of the affections beginning and ending with a propensity which may be regulated by an appeal to itself. The centres respectively of the soul and of the body, benevolence and the instinct of self-preservation, organise happiness and health as the result of the unity which springs from their concert. But whilst each of them tends to sanction the other in the name of its own proper object, yet there can be no hesitation as to precedence, the general synthesis being only possible on condition of the second bending to the first, as alone competent to regulate the within by binding it to the without. of nutrition. By accepting this subordinate position for the instinct of The instinct nutrition, we may discipline it with equal energy and respect, without any serious hesitation, whereas all merely personal motives leave room for doubt in the struggle between prudence and appetite. Physicians but rarely succeed, even as against their own inclinations, when they prescribe sobriety in the interest of health. It was solely by an appeal to an authority superior to individual judgment, that Theocracy and Catholicism obtained on this point their decided success; that it was not lasting is evidence of the inadequacy of supernatural motives. We must get rid of personality in every shape, even of the personality of an imaginary being, if we would found a powerful and enduring discipline, in the name of Humanity. Unable to bring altruism into the field against egoism, the old regime had a constant tendency to become illusory because it involved a contradiction; curbing self-interest solely by stimulating it, it left each to judge of the sacrifices to be made. The new Synthesis groups systematically around the Great Being the social motives which, even in their empirical form, |