have been, since the close of the middle ages, the real source of the discipline of this instinct, a discipline which has been constantly gaining strength even in despite of the Western anarchy. Without enlarging here on explanations reserved for my treatise on Morals, I must still point out the capabilities of Positivism in regard to the discipline of the nutritive instinct, a discipline left inchoate by Theologism, from an insufficient knowledge of human nature.

The whole discipline of nutrition rests on the natural combination of two social grounds: the obligation to husband carefully the provisions which have been accumulated by the Great Being for the use of its servants viewed collectively; the duty of making the nourishment of the body subserve the function of the soul. Those who would look on themselves as the masters when they are simply the stewards of wealth, may not forget that their coarse enjoyment imposes unjustly privations upon others. If intemperance involves no evil consequences to bealth, it invariably disturbs the functions of the brain, especially the affective functions, but in a degree also its active and speculative functions. From these two points of view, nothing but our anarchical habits can explain, if it cannot excuse, the universal tendency to indulge appetite beyond what is requisite for or allowed by its social purpose. But the normal state must begin especially with the two classes on which it devolves to regenerate the others; for they, more than the others, ought to appreciate the degradation consequent on excess in food and have a higher respect for accumulations which exempt them from producing. Women and priests will everywhere adopt the Positive standard of sobriety, accomplishing and perfecting that which Islam attempted so admirably, the entire abandonment of wine and other physical stimulants, when alimentation has become sufficiently nutritious. Favourable alike to sound health and high self-respect, their initiative will soon be followed by a population predisposed to place happiness in the constant play of the sympathetic affections, the supremacy of which must in two ways be fostered by such a regimen.

There is no need for me to set forth the full application of this mode of viewing the subject to all the other questions which concern the instinct of self-preservation, in the gratification of which, and that directly, is incurred the larger part of our expenditure. If we meet its legitimate demands, we are the

better able to control it, in that the moderation inculcated allows us to judge more clearly of the impulses traceable to it by calling into activity our physical and moral sensibility. Judicious control however—not unwise compression--such is the dictate of Positive morality in regard to this instinct, for the compression would tend to take away from our proper value as servants of Humanity.

Instinct.

As for the second constituent of the principal pair of per- (ii) Sexual sonal instincts, the preceding remarks suffice for the present to make us aware that it needs a sterner discipline, especially in the man. Useless for the preservation of the individual, in the propagation of the species the sexual instinct contributes but in an accessory degree, and even that degree is open to question. Philosophers really untrammelled by superstition ought more and more to look upon it as tending to interfere with the true purpose of the vivifying fluid. But without waiting for the realization of the utopia as to women, it is possible to effect, if not the atrophy, at any rate the inaction of this instinct, now stimulated unduly by the brain; and to attain this result with more ease than might be inferred from the ineffectual efforts of Theology. Not merely will the Positive education make all feel the defects of the instinct and raise a hope of its entire desuetude, but the whole tendency of the definitive regime will be to institute a revulsive treatment of greater efficacy than the austerities of Catholicism. For the universal participation in family and public life will develope to such a degree the sympathetic instincts, that feeling, intellect, and activity will all combine to discredit and repress the most troublesome of the egoistic instincts. As we contemplate the thousands of instances of chastity found in Buddhism and Catholicism, in spite of the dangers of celibacy and of a discipline more calculated to irritate than to crush, we cannot but admit the possibility of taming an instinct of dubious character by appealing to the grand aim which it contravenes.

It were superfluous here to dwell on the direct discipline of the intermediate couple of the personal instincts, seeing that the Positive state, by its nature, favours the instinct of construction and restrains that of destruction. Notwithstanding its spontaneous energy and its natural connection with the military life, the latter was sufficiently disciplined by the education of mankind to cause no further anxiety, save as regards the repair of

(ii) Indestruction struction.

stincts of

and con

(iv) Pride and Vanity.

the havoc caused by modern anarchy. Duelling, and even suicide, have already become so opposed to the manners and habits of the West, that in the Positive state a sufficient corrective of these two aberrations of the destructive instinct will be found in treating the bodies of those guilty of them as the bodies of murderers. A religion which devotes all our powers to the uninterrupted service of Humanity, forbids us, more forcibly than any other, ever to dispose of the life so consecrated; none but the ministers of the Great Being may take that life in exceptional cases of incurable perversion. And yet the instinct in question will always require careful watching, as it will never cease to play a part in all our operations, even the operations of our intellect; implying as they do the incessant destruction of the obstacles which impede the gradual construction of the means of action.

Now that the exigencies of our carnivorous nature are concentrated by the institution of a public service, the propensity to destroy, even when it sinks into evil speaking, may be kept in check without any direct effort, as a simple result of the general habits implanted by Positive education.

It is in the highest pair of the personal instincts that lies the great difficulty in the purification of human nature, since the ultimate regime has a peculiar tendency to stimulate in all pride and vanity. The perpetual antagonism of the two, grounded on the normal separation of the two powers, is a source of irritation rather than a basis of discipline in the case of instincts which are inseparable from the very idea of the patriciate and of the priesthood. At the same time the participation-subordinate yet permanent of the great body of the people in political and moral government, a participation indirect in one sex and direct in the other, must at once aggravate and spread the intrinsic dangers of the over stimulation of these two instincts. But an unceasing watchfulness on the part of all may keep them within the limits prescribed by their object, Positive education teaching us that they are the exclusive attributes of the temporal or spiritual chiefs, with whom they impair happiness whilst easing their work. Again, this education, besides encouraging humility, humility in classes no less than in individuals, places in so clear a light the conditions of competence and the principles of judgment, as to lead to an instinctive rejection of pride and vanity by the body which they would discompose.

remarks on

discipline.

Thus we see how the altruistic discipline gives completeness Concluding and system to the purification of human nature, begun under the negative the egoistic. Preparatory though it be, or secondary, the negative form of our moral progress will ever retain an importance disproportioned to its intrinsic efficacy, on the ground that it originates the decisive expansion of the moral power which, if not so tested, would continue inadequate, nay even doubtful whether it existed or not. Its several portions support one another, either by virtue of the contiguity of the organs or from the interdependence of the functions. Their mutuality becomes especially perceptible in the case of the principal pair, where we have already seen to what an extent sobriety facilitates chastity, though the converse be not as fully admitted, and yet it is equally true, for the need of food is in a direct ratio with that of repair of loss. But, over and above the several means of repressing personality, the essential condition of purification is the exertion of sympathy, which regulates individual existence by the family relations, and these again by the civic.

It follows that, from every point of view, the ultimate systematisation of human life must consist above all in the developement of altruism. No detailed explanations, however, are here needed of this paramount constituent of true morality, for the culture of our sympathies is introduced by the personal worship, and the completion of the process is an immediate consequence of the social ties, to which I shall devote the rest of this chapter. Only I must here recommend perfect spontaneity in our daily prayers, as ever indispensable for their chief purpose, any factitious or premature efforts interfering with its attainment, as they tend to conceal the evil, not to cure it.

In regard to our individual existence, in which acts are, usually, of less importance and less fixed than in domestic or civic life, I must not pass unnoticed the power it has to encourage our altruistic instincts by applying them in the regulation of all the ordinary incidents. These are often so unimportant that we have no intellectual or practical ground for deciding on our course, which the feelings alone can determine, and must determine if we are to avoid caprice, which is by its nature favourable to the worse suggestions. In these efforts known only to himself, and ennobled by their object, each may freely aspire to be more regular than the phenomena of the heavens,

(ii) Positive Altruism

Aspect.

the great

regulator.

(a) Personal considered feeling.

existence

in regard to

Then to intelligence.

(b) Domestic existence.

Preamble.

Two modes of the altruistic

synthesis.

as he may perfect the order he creates by availing himself of number, the earliest and most universal of human institutions, but which has not yet borne its best fruits.

Besides feeling, the discipline of the individual embraces also the intellect, but not the activity; that is essentially bound up with social life, domestic or civic, allowing, that is, for the share it has, a point previously settled, in the expression of feeling or of thought. But the mental discipline which is to complete the training of the individual, has been examined sufficiently, in the course of the preceding chapter. It condenses the intellectual capital of man, in art, in science, and in industry, into a hundred volumes, the half of which, as historical rather than dogmatical, there is little need of reading twice. Education ended, all classes, without excepting the priesthood, will confine their reading habitually to the masterpieces of poetry, which have a constant tendency to recall us to the principal field for our understanding. The scientific treatises containing the doctrine will be re-perused at times solely in order to revive the general impressions arising from the systematic noviciate, and the technical books will be consulted as occasion requires. If at any time some grave necessity call for really fresh meditations, they will always be connected with the special purpose which called for them, without increasing the abstract encyclopædia, which should remain so condensed as to be of universal use. I have given above a decisive example of the discipline indicated, in connecting with the regime a question of fundamental importance, the various intellectual aspects of which, poetical, scientific, or political, are so blended, that it would have been out of place in our study of the doctrine.

In order now to set forth the direct systematisation of family life on the basis of the preliminary coordination of the existence of the individual, the first point to insist on is, the necessity of subordinating the domestic existence to the civic, which alone admits of complete unity.

To attain its full proportions, the altruistic synthesis can be developed only in one form; but practically two are admissible, differing in the mode of interdependence established between the two indispensable ministers of feeling. Action rules or seconds the intellect, according as the object in view is to modify the external world, or to bring into evidence the