world within. But the first mode alone is adapted to real life, the other is exclusively suited to the preparatory period, whether of the individual or of the race. Now on this point, the evolution of the West presented a grave anomaly which has a tendency to persist in the family, if its conditions are misconceived. For the normal mode was worthily presented only Rome. by Roman civilisation, when the subordination of speculation to action was inseparably connected with that of private to public life. This correlation had been completely lost sight of in the Greek movement, which with characteristic inconse- Greece. quence, even in its utopias, proclaimed simultaneously the superiority of the political and of the contemplative life. Inheriting as it did the organisation of Rome, Catholicism in Catholicism. its systematisation only escaped the Greek contradiction by unduly exalting feeling at the expense alike of intelligence and activity, at the same time that it defined beatitude as speculation.

times.

Since the end of the Middle Ages, under the combined Modern weight of these conflicting antecedents, the intellectual movement of Western Europe presented in this respect, as in so many others, a profound discrepancy between the influence of the scientific and that of the practical impulse. The former, more in accordance with the mind of Greece than the genius of Rome, protracted under a metaphysical form the reactionary movement of Catholicism, ignoring the capital step in advance taken by the Romans, our true social ancestors, in placing action above speculation. The error was the more serious as in a certain degree in harmony with the real nature of the modern revolution, an intellectual rather than a social revolution. And yet all the time, the thinkers, especially those with utopian tendencies, accepted, nay even exaggerated, as was the wont of their Greek prototypes, the supremacy of public as compared with private life. The main cause, however, of the adhesion to this conclusion is to be found in the impulse indirectly emanating from practical life, in proportion as industry got the upper hand and the prevalent form of human action was consequently in incessant contradiction with the aspirations of pedantocrats. All the West, with the exception of the lettered classes, has undergone this continuous influence, so that the normal state, initiated by the spontaneous action of Rome, will be established in a sufficient degree, on

Subordination of private to public life.

Systematisa

tion of the

Family by the country

in the name of Humanity.

Three groups in the normal

family.

the recognition of the natural correlation between the superiority of action and that of the civic life. Although the habits implanted by Catholicism set themselves everywhere against this conclusion, the instinct of the proletariate has already risen above them in its aspiration after a collective existence, and the patriciate with its empirical policy will evince a similar disposition, as soon as Positivism shall remove its alarm at communism.

Nothing then, henceforward, can prevent the noble subordination of public to private life, the aspiration of Antiquity transmitted to us by Chivalry, even against the teaching of Catholicism. Yet the theory of human unity is so little understood, that I was compelled to enter on the above explanation, an explanation at once historical and dogmatical, before I could set forth the life of the family. For such is the attraction of this life, that there would be always a risk of our returning to the contemptuous attitude of Catholicism in relation to public life, were not Positivism to obviate the danger, by appealing to a truer estimate of the very feeling in which the risk originates. But the superiority of speculation to action being definitively and universally rejected, none can fail to recognise the ascendancy of the civic life, which alone gives full scope for activity, the foundation on which rests the whole existence of Humanity. The second mode of Positive unity will, however, continue to exist in the preparatory period of life, when the providence of man dispenses with action, not, however, to the prolongation of this preliminary state, even for the rich, when education issues in its proper destination, that is, in action.

This introduction enables me to expound the systematisation of the Family by the instrumentality of the Country in the name of Humanity. I must begin by completing and correcting the indications of my Social Statics as to the number of constituents in the normal family.

My theory of the family reduces them to two groups; the one consisting of the married pair, the other of their offspring, to the number usually of three. Now, the family so constituted is adequate in point of solidarity, but defective as regards continuity, such continuity as there is only connecting the present with the future, not including the past. To remedy this defect, the Positive family must admit another couple,

formed by the parents of the husband. Without this complement, the normal state would on this point fall below the level reached by the earlier and preparatory period, through the institution of the Old Men. The Family would not be in sufficient accord with the City, since its feminine element represents only the moral side of the spiritual power, its intellectual aspect imperatively requires old age to represent it. As the mother of the husband combines in her own person these two sources of religious supremacy, she will become the goddess of the Positivist family, when the conjoint influences of the ultimate regime shall have wholly extinguished disputes originating in ungrounded pretentions. Equally subjective and objective, the unity of the Family thus constituted will form as solid a basis for practical duties as for the moral conditions, as it will ensure subsistence to the aged sufficiently for them to resign voluntarily the capital they cease to administer.

With this addition, seven members are allotted to the average Positivist family, formed in this way of three constituents, representing respectively the past, the present, and the future, and allowing equally for continuity and for solidarity. But whilst sufficient for the mass of the people, this number requires a fresh addition for the directing classes, more particularly for the capitalist; the addition by incorporation of the complete and permanent servants of the family, as settled in the worship. Whatever restrictions be called for by the luxury of the rich, it would seriously interfere with the public service, if the patricians, nay even the priests, were obliged, as the proletaries are, to rely on their own families exclusively for their ordinary household arrangements.

That envy is the source of the democratic objections on this point, is evidenced by the prevalent inconsistency which denies the rich what it allows the poor, the practice of Catholicism sanctioning the servants of the clergy. Such anarchical tendencies will be easily overcome by Positivism; for Positivism, systematising the habits of the West, which are yet in full vigour in the nations which have escaped Protestantism and Deism, consecrates Domesticity as an integral part, henceforth, of the worship of Humanity.

Taking into account this supplement, the family will as a rule comprise ten members, in the two aristocracies which are to guide the normal state. For the accession of the new

Thirteen for the patrician

class.

The domi

cile.

The prole

tary domi

seven rooms.

element, if it is to be consistent with self-respect in the domestics and stable, cannot involve their renunciation of the leading family ties. Once secure as a general rule the existence of the working classes, and no rich man will be able, with rare exceptions, to find a servant voluntarily separated from wife and child, especially as that wife and child can assist him in his service, no less than in supplying his own

wants.

For the clergy the addition of three members is sufficient; for the patrician family it must be doubled. For besides the requirements of a certain ostentation, in too close connection with command, for it to be either desirable or possible for the normal habits to put it down, the greater extent and greater complexity of service require such increase, which moreover will bind the patriciate more strongly to the proletariate. Thus, the Positive family, ordinarily of seven members, has ten in the case of the spiritual chiefs, thirteen in that of the temporal, nor, as a rule, are larger numbers consistent with the habits of life and the respective positions.

The numbers of the family determined, it will be well for completeness' sake to point out, though only in the most important case, the arrangement of its domicile. The French term ménage fuses the ideas of family and house, and so points to a universal recognition of community of abode as the result and condition of the intimacy required for the family. It is especially by such a common residence that we can clearly mark the limits of the elementary association, to the exclusion of all bonds of a strength inadequate to support the living together.

From the preceding remarks, each of the three elements of cile requires the proletary family requires its own separate portion of the common apartment, over and above the withdrawing and reception room which is usually distinct from that in which the meals are prepared and taken. However deep their sympathies, however identical their education, the difference of age and of situation would prevent the desired harmony between the two couples, the one in full activity, the other withdrawn from active life, unless it were open to them to separate and meet at pleasure, as also to be rid of the children. The children's part must be always subdivided in order to isolate the sexes, with no subdivision for number. Lastly, every family requires

but

an oratory, in which each member may properly develope his private worship, and which may serve as sanctuary for the celebration in common of the family worship. Normally then, the home of the working man consists of seven rooms of unequal size, with no useless part in an estimate which can only be deemed extravagant because in the existing anarchy the patrician is prone to neglect his duty, the plebeian to sink his selfrespect.

When, by the spread of the Positive religion the conviction has become general, that family life is of paramount importance for all as the best security for public order, and the great source of private happiness, all the chiefs will accept as a standing obligation to establish it for all on a firm basis. Then the above determination, resting on indisputable grounds, will be generally held to supply a fit standard for the duties of the rich, and for the claims of the poor, in the name of the Great Being whose ministers the former are, whose agents the latter. Remarking that our rule assigns to the domicile a number of rooms equal to that of the members of the family, it will be easy to extend its application from the proletary to the two other classes. It is for the reader to see that in the normal state the apartment will have ten or thirteen rooms, according as the household is sacerdotal or patrician. This law gives us a clear standard of luxury, in the true sense, and the object of having such a standard is, that whilst stigmatising its excess, we may, without violation to our feelings and habits, tolerate it -especially in the patriciate-in the degree suited to the average imperfection of human nature.

All the essential conceptions in the constitution of the Positive family have been sufficiently explained in the previous volumes, and the explanation has been rendered complete by these recent remarks, so that there remains only their coordination.

In effecting this coordination I rely principally on the fusion, the legitimate fusion of the two statical forms of the theory of the Family, which provisionally I disjoined, and the combination of which has been gradually prepared by our dynamical studies. Under one form the family was the basis of action, and was referred to the Country; under the other it was the source of education, and was referred to Humanity. The two modes must ultimately converge when the State