Indication as to number. (2). As to Quality. In what consists the Gifficulty of the problem. completes and systematises science and morality. Without the normal division of the two powers, characteristic of the religion of Humanity, procreation in our race can only be regulated by legal measures, and such are as ineffectual as they are unseemly. It may seem premature, on scientific and moral grounds, to approach the subject, yet two general symptoms warn us that it will shortly demand our attention; such is the inference to be drawn from the spontaneous convergence of the questions everywhere coming up as to the number and quality of the children born. A sophistical, perhaps a blameworthy theory, first drew the attention of Western Europe, were it only by the indignation it excited in the nations which had escaped Protestantism. Veiling its metaphysical and empirical character under a varnish of science, it erred, scientifically, by ignoring the general law by which, throughout the series of living beings, fecundity diminishes in proportion as the race is higher in the scale. It erred, practically, in that it was in direct contradiction with the constant rate of increase observed in the population of the West, during the thirty centuries of the great transition, a rate unaffected by the parallel increase of general wellbeing. Again, the hereditary transmission of the more serious diseases, and that frequently in an aggravated form, has induced a general sense that it is desirable to regulate, not merely the quantity, but still more the quality of man's offspring. The Western world in modern times has become increasingly averse to the barbarous institutions which aimed at compensating this inevitable evil, so that the danger has assumed proportions calculated to excite universal attention, in proportion as the decline of Theology allowed an examination of the question. But the materialistic tendencies of medicine have prevented our conceiving of any remedy but one which is as illusory as it is oppressive, the prohibition, viz., of marriage to all of bad constitution. Still, in the fact that economists and physicians continue their joint efforts, however discordant and irrational their views may be, we have an historical indication, that the question is ripe for settlement, more especially since the advent of the religion which is destined to accomplish that settlement. The difficulty is this, how to reconcile two wants, both equally imperious: the obligation of regulating human propagation; the duty of respecting the marriage union as the universal basis of the Family which in its turn is the basis of the State. Now, this is only possible by a moral regulation of marriages, to the exclusion of legal checks; so to make the production of children a responsible function voluntarily assumed. On this question the Positive religion has two general solutions to offer, the one radical but an hypothesis, the other real but inadequate; the two may always act in concert. As I have already sufficiently expounded them, it is enough, here, to point out their conjoint application to this great problem. The two are the utopia as to women, and chaste marriage, the chief purpose of which I have already stated. Utopia. We should look on the former as supplying the only possible (a) The basis for a definitive systematisation of human reproduction, which, by its adoption, becomes voluntary and responsible. So long as it is not attained, the evil will never be attacked at its source; all remedies will be but palliative. But the noblest vegetative function of Humanity once duly confined to her highest organs, the rapid spread of the Positive theory of hereditary transmission will allow a gradual regulation of that function, both as to number and quality. The natural laws of these two conditions will, at the same time, have become cognisable by all, by virtue of a considerable evolution of the universal Sociocracy. The solution, however, is one which will always be limited to the higher natures, for it is essentially of a moral kind and, as such, requires the persistent combination of higher sensibility and extreme purity. marriage. Even if realised, then, it will never entirely supersede the (6) Chaste less important institution, alone feasible at present, and a consequence of the systematic encouragement of chastity in marriage. When the Positive faith shall have generally subdued the coarse view sanctioned by Theologism as to the nature and destination of women, this form of marriage will rapidly spread; already, prior to any theory, decisive instances proclaim its approach. A noble use of adoption will allow the completing of this exceptional form of marriage, by offering the parental relation in its purest form to those in whom the union of soul is most perfect, with the additional advantage of relieving the married couples who are in the best conditions for reproduction. Inadequate, and inadequate because it is negative-this latter solution may even now, over and above its moral efficacy, This a nega tive solution but useful. Intervention of the Priest cases. lead to physical results of value by preventing the birth of children whose short life could be but a burden both to themselves and to society. As a palliative also, it foreshadows, nay even prepares the way for, the grand remedy, as it draws general attention to the problem, and gives rise to partial efforts towards its solution. Equally in either case, there will naturally be a necessity hood in both for the Positivist priesthood to intervene, to point out the end and judge of its attainment. But besides its general means of access to the sociocratic family, it will have a special introduction, with a view to its action on this point, in the body of opinions implanted by education and cultivated in the worship. That the maternal functions are social functions-this was duly if incompletely recognised by Catholicism,-Positivism stamps the truth with its definitive sanction, and the free acquiescence of the family is evidenced by its asking for and receiving the sacrament of Presentation. Direct treatment of The normal reaction of private life upon public life thus public life. sufficiently explained, the next step is to lay down the plan of public life, which we do by a systematic statement first, of its fundamental object, then, of its general conditions, lastly, of its several functions in detail. Its funda mental pur pose. From the first point of view, the difficulty lies in determining the permanent end of the collective action in the industrial state, industry originally being necessarily individual in its character. In spite of the persistent efforts of the Theocracy,no other system has hitherto attempted to organise labour,-it has never been able to disengage itself sufficiently from its origin. Although the institution of castes in no way recognised the anarchical division of social functions into private and public, it could not but leave industry its essentially family character, it could not make it a really civic function. In fact, for this transformation two preliminary conditions are required: the separation of the capitalists and workmen; and the formation of the industrial hierarchy. The first alone is conclusive, the second, though necessary, has no social efficacy, save in so far as it is the spontaneous complement of the first. But, by an inversion, the second only was a consideration with the Theocracy; it was unable even to inaugurate the other, in default of a free developement of labour, a want traceable to the hereditary transmission of professions. Such forced inversion of the natural order allowed no intercourse between the different castes but such as sprang from their respective employments; the organisation of industry was out of the question, whilst each producer was capitalist and workman in one. When warlike activity emancipated the nation from the theocratic regime, a radical obstacle to industrial organisation lay in the necessity of enslaving the industrial to the soldier class in order to carry out the system of conquest. But this very subjection was ultimately to be the source of the regeneration of industry, the Western world escaping by its means the institution of castes. The true solution arose in the Middle Ages, when the change from conquest to defence had led to the gradual enfranchisement of the workmen, in the towns first, then in the country. From this point onwards, the directors of industry have become more and more distinct from the handicraftsmen, with a tendency to found a new patriciate, as a result of the progressive accumulation of productive capital. At the same time, their regular intercourse with one another has constantly led to fresh developement of the industrial hierarchy, a process which culminated in the gradual advent of the class whose special function it is to systematise man's peaceful activity. This highest patriciate can neither enter upon nor accomplish its social mission but under the all-pervading impulsion of the Positive religion. To judge aright its need of this, it is not enough to be aware, in the general, that every merely partial synthesis is impracticable, so long as the complete synthesis be not definitively established. We must go farther, and understand, in reference to this need, the radical difference that exists between the two successive forms of human activity. In its warlike stage it is intrinsically synthetical, in its pacific stage it is as naturally analytical; the first being in direct relation with the human order, where unity is the paramount idea, whilst the second deals exclusively with the external order, and here the predominant feature is dispersion. Hence the direct tendency of soldiers to develope the state, and the long persistence of the workers in the isolation of the Family. But if this natural difference gave the social superiority to war, during the whole course of human initiation, it will ultimately educe from the industrial existence a higher form of society. For war could only be organised on behalf of the Positivism favours in two ways the transformation of industry. The task requires the religion of Humanity. Moral ad vance supreme. Country, whilst industry for its systematisation requires the idea of Humanity. All States were naturally rivals during the military period, be it that they simultaneously aimed at empire which one could only gain, or as they resisted singly the forcible incorporation which alone could secure their union. In the industrial period, on the contrary, they naturally converge, as it assigns to each an aim which may become the aim of all, as it is invariably an external aim. All alike seeking to profit by the resources the earth offers, there may be a distribution of parts between the several Republics, analogous to that by which we coordinate the several component classes of each Republic. We thus see that peaceful activity is the natural introduction to the union of the race, which alone can give it its systematic form, whereas military society could not rise above the idea of the State. The distinction explains the ultimate superiority of the industrial condition, whilst it explains also the inevitable slowness of its triumph. Its rise has been possible only in the West, after the utter exhaustion, not merely of war, whether for conquest or defence, but also of the absolute synthesis, whether theological or metaphysical. The organisation of labour demanded: the ascendancy of the habits of peace, as alone susceptible of the universality it presupposes, and the triumph of the Positive spirit, the only basis for the coordination of industry. Such are the two claims of Positivism to exclusive competence in regard to a transformation which necessarily devolved on Sociocracy, however judiciously it had been initiated by Theocracy. Its accomplishment demands the establishment of the universal religion, which will give systematic precedence to feeling over both intellect and activity. If in previous chapters I have shown that the theoretical class is mistaken in seeking for a purely scientific synthesis, the reader must now see that practical men are equally wrong in aiming exclusively at the discipline of industry. Neither action nor faith can be systematised without love, though the coordination of action and thought is the indispensable complement of the unity constituted by sympathy. In its industrial form both universal and eternal, practical, as theoretic life, must look to feeling for its definitive organisation, the great outcome of the religion of Humanity. The first would degenerate into an useless accumulation of products, |