The ministers of Hu manity. The problem is how to combine concert with independence. every living being must be judged by its adult state, whilst in the case of Humanity we have as yet before us only its childhood and its adolescence. This explains why it is that the idea of the Great Being could not effectually assert itself previously; it marks the opening of our mature existence; it is an evidence that its preparatory stages are past. But henceforth, in the light of that conception we can appreciate the Normal state by the conjoint aid of the previous periods, sufficiently to ensure a truly rational, as opposed to an essentially empirical develope ment. The peculiar difficulties attendant on its acceptance once fairly overcome, the hardest point remaining in the theory of the Great Being is the right estimate of individuals as its ministers. An uninterrupted service on their part, either as agents or even as representatives, is a necessary condition of collective existence in any form. No association could act, or make itself felt, except through individuals. As this is clear for the Family and the Country; à fortiori must it hold good of Humanity. In this condition we find the primary source of the attributes and the difficulties which alike inhere in the very idea of a composite existence. To combine, and that persistently, concert with independence is the capital problem of society, a problem which religion alone can solve, by love primarily, then by faith as the basis of love. The superiority of Humanity lies mainly in this: that its immediate instruments are beings in nature similar to itself, though at a lower stage of developement, and apparently capable of standing alone. On the other hand, as such, they tend to separate, losing sight, in an exaggerated sense of their own importance, of the absolute dependence of the parts on the whole. The danger exists in the best constituted society; in periods of anarchy it takes such proportions as at the present time to be the main hindrance to the advent of the Great Being. And yet the danger to society would be equally great if concert could ever succeed in stifling independence. Distinctness then, no less than convergence of effort, being an essential condition of human co-operation, the great problem ultimately comes to this, how to reconcile Order and Progress, universally held by Antiquity to be incompatible. Of the two dangers, however, the greater is, it must be allowed, the excess of independence; with few and transient exceptions that from excess of concert is less urgent. The actual generation dependent on the past and the tinuity. It follows from this discussion of the question that the existence of the Great Being requires, as, its necessary basis, that the actual generation be in permanent dependence on the two future. Consubjective portions of Humanity, its past and its future generations. In the past we have the source, in the future the aim, of the active service rendered by the present. Man always labours for posterity, impelled thereto by the labour of his ancestors, who have handed down to him the materials with which, the processes by which, he works. It is his highest privilege that the individual can perpetuate himself indirectly in a subjective state, if whilst actually living his course has left worthy results. Thus, even from the very earliest beginning, arose the idea of Continuity properly so called, an idea more really characteristic of man than mere Solidarity. Continuity implies that our successors continue our service as we continued that of our predecessors. in the The Family by its very constitution manifests this primary Continuity attribute of every composite existence, the children represent- Family. ing the future, the elders the past, both in immediate dependence on the members in full vigour. Hence it is that the chief historical period, the century, equivalent to the length of human life in the normal state, is subdivided into three generations, the object being, that the active portion of any society may be in close connection with the two which can understand it, a conception which had dawned on the old friend mentioned in the general preface of the work. To simplify this dependence and give greater precision to the notion, we should now suppress the second subjective element, the element of the future, which indicates the end of human co-operation, but does not affect the question of its origin, or its exercise. Reduced to this dual form, the sphere of continuity is the connection between the representatives and the agents of Humanity. The dead are her representatives, the living her agents; since the dead stand pre-eminent in dignity, the living are superior in efficiency. The direct service of the Great Being is the exclusive appanage of our objective life; but the excellence of Humanity can only be worthily shown by its subjective and eternal existence. Our nature needs to be purified by death for its higher Continuity the past and as limited to present. The Dead. The subjec tive exist ence, The Dead of the subjective life. Necessity of the objective life. attributes to be seen; they stand out then clear of the grosser accompaniments which previously obscured them. In death alone can we attain the sublime transformation towards which our animal nature tends. The cerebral life, in constant dependence on our organic life, seems ordinarily to have no other function than to strengthen and perfect this last. And yet the higher parts of man's nature, his affections, thoughts, and even actions, all have a relative function, all look to the collective organism and reject a mere individual purpose, in proportion as the animal life attains fuller developement. Social life advances in the same direction towards that state in which the body becomes simply the support of the brain, whilst the direct action of the brain becomes the characteristic of our nature. The change indicated is not, however, fully realised till we reach the subjective life, which at once, by virtue of such a power, becomes our ideal in the objective. In two senses, then, the living are brought more and more under the patronage of the dead, the dead being at once their protectors and types. The dead alone can represent Humanity; they collectively really constitute Humanity; the living, born her children, as a rule become her servants, unless they degenerate into mere parasites. Granting it possible to form a judgment of the objective life during its course, it seldom is so fruitful in results as to secure its main achievement from being obscured by subsequent degeneration. Till it be ended, even in the best men, the true attributes of our nature cannot fully assert themselves; we have to make constant allowance for the defects due to the necessities of our physical constitution. The true sphere of the soul's superiority is the subjective life; that, apart from exceptional cases of reprobation, belongs exclusively to such of its functions as are assimilable by others, the purely personal elements no longer interfering. No amount of superiority, however, can call the subjective life into existence, or give it permanence; for this it is dependent on the objective. The living, it is true, are subject to the sway of the dead, but, on the other hand, the dead cannot exercise their power save through the medium of the living, though it is not open to the latter to refuse their co-operation even when rebelling against the inevitable yoke. The objective life is direct and complete, its chief characteristic is will; the subjective passes under the empire of fate. The function of the dead is to form the immoveable foundation, that of the living to introduce the secondary modifications of man's destiny. The direct service of Humanity, then, has its source in the will, the condensed expression of all our brain action; for the will, in its proper sense, combines the impulse given by the heart with the light derived from the intellect and the guidance furnished by the character. And the will has a natural safeguard against caprice, in that its efficiency depends on the maintenance of the subordination of the living to the dead. Emancipated from this control the will loses its power for good, and becomes a mere source of disturbance. Our conception of the constitution of the Great Being remains defective unless we associate with man all the animal races which are capable of adopting the common motto of all the higher natures: Live for Others. Without the animals, the Positive Synthesis could but imperfectly form the permanent alliance of all voluntary agents to modify the external conditions of our life so far as they are modifiable. Since the close of the fetichist period there has been a growing inability on the part of the provisional religion to sanction this coalition, though its utility has been constantly on the increase. It was reserved for Positivism to organize it by recognizing as integral portions of the Great Being the animals which voluntarily aid man, whilst eliminating its unworthy parasites in human form. The service rendered by the animals is, it is true, indirect, for it is in two senses individual, there entering into it no consciousness of a social function; yet as voluntary, we are justified in our recognition of it. The constitution of the Great Being sufficiently explained, the next step in elaborating its theory is to examine its situation, and subsequently its destination. The first of the three points was the hardest, so that I may be briefer in my treatment of the two others. Incorpora tion of the animals into Humanity. (ii) Situamanity. tion of Hu intimately on the human order. It is a strict consequence of the reality of its existence that Humanity Humanity is more dependent, as more complex, than any other dependent being. Freed, so far as the subjective condition is concerned, from the laws of the outer world, her never-ceasing subjection to the laws of the social or moral world is but the more distinctly seen. Although this subjection, owing to its higher degree of complication, could not be understood till last, it was Dependent also on the external. Humanity dependent, and still more so her individual servants. This dependence the source of greatness. felt before any other, more particularly in reference to the moral laws. But Humanity, whilst bound by laws of her own, submits, for she has an objective basis, to the laws of our bodily existence, the laws that is of vitality; nay, further, she submits to the laws of the outer world, the laws of that material order in the midst of which man lives and works. The laws of vitality make themselves constantly felt in those conditions of organic life on which ultimately depend the extent and the exercise of all our faculties, during life in the first place, and consequently after death. Nay, more, the Great Being can never escape the sad fate which often deprives it through some flaw in these conditions of its best servants, their highest powers yet unexerted. As for the laws of the outer world, it is equally impossible not to recognise their power, for though less direct, it is more beyond our intervention. As the economy of things, then, is such that increase of dignity implies increase of dependence, the peculiar eminence of the Great Being subjects it to all the necessary conditions of existence without exception. Still less independent are its servants, indulge what anarchical illusions they may at the suggestion of the will, which is the distinct feature of our objective life. For with it they are subject to the external conditions, whether inorganic or vital, as they are to the statical and dynamical laws of the collective existence. But, besides, they are always subject to the action of the body upon the brain, an influence we need not take into account in the social economy, neutralized as it there is by individual differences, but which cannot but deeply affect the economy of the individual. Without any break, then, the empire of will is subordinate to that of necessity. Accept it in a right spirit, and in this very dependence lies the chief source of our true greatness. I have shown in the last volume, that the attribute of omnipotence introduces a radical contradiction into the idea of God, from the impossibility of reconciling omnipotence with wisdom and goodness. Compare the two cases and we see more distinctly the logical connection between the dignity and the dependence of the true Great Being. The condition of unity for man is complete submission; without it, as I have shown over and over again, his feelings would be ill-regulated, his thoughts incoherent, his |