6 of the great Danton, Perish my memory, only let my country be free. reward of a noble life. Yet even in this heroic cry we trace the idea that the out- Subjective immortality ward reward of a great life extends to its subjective immortality. the fitting He who has truly lived for others should hope to live on, in, and by others. This subjective return is purer at once and surer than the objective, for it carries on the services rendered and perfects the judgment of those services. Under the impulse given by the Positive spirit, spontaneously and systematically, this noble recompense is accessible to all who are capable of understanding it and deserving it. The unhappy daughter of the old friend before mentioned, a few days before her death expressed to me naïvely her deep sense of the value of such a recompense in a touching utterance which connects her memory with that of my eternal companion. She said of her-it was three years after her death- She is fortunate indeed, she is sure of immortality.' tual Unity. An examination in detail of the emotional aspect of Posi- (ii) Intellec tivism was obligatory from its immediate connection with the fundamental principle of true human unity. In dealing with the intellect and even with the activity of man, I may limit myself to a clear explanation of their proper subordination to feeling. In judging the altruistic synthesis from the intellectual side, we shall take first its esthetic aspect, then its scientific. Rising above modern prejudices, the Positive religion decides (a) Art. that in dignity art ranks above science, as art is more closely connected with feeling, science with action. Hence a synthetical hierarchy, embodied in the order of succession of the principal phases of education, which, common to all equally, is first the education of the affections, then of the esthetic faculties, thirdly of the scientific, lastly of the practical capacity. The classification is in conformity with the principle of the encyclopædic scale; it is a condensed expression of the natural affinities of our various powers; it marks their serial order, and so makes it easy to compare them. Art satisfies the deeper wants of our nature better than science. It is more sympathetic; it is more synthetic. At the same time it is invariably alien to mere speculation, and leads directly to action of the noblest kind, viz., the elevating our feelings by their ideal expression. No other form of existence is as completely in unison with the sacred formula of Positivism, More sympa more synscience. thetic and thetic than Art more closely con Religion. for an all-comprehensive sympathy is its source, the highest progress its aspiration, the highest order its basis. Its normal developement issues naturally in the combination of independence with cooperation, for its productions are emphatically individual whilst the aim of those productions is agreement on the widest scale. It is a common error to overrate the ultimate importance nected with of science from regard to its services as a preparation. So long as it was the prime object to call out our several powers, the special exercise of our scientific faculties, as weakest in point of energy, was of importance; for though weakest, it was to them we had to look for the construction of an objective basis for human wisdom. But now that our immediate object is to regulate those powers, religion must employ art rather than science, art being the nearer to the principle of unity. Although art and science alike, tend, if cultivated amiss, to stimulate unduly pride and vanity, the pursuit of science exerts, besides this, a more noxious moral influence-an influence inseparable from it in that the concentration it demands discourages affection. Therefore it is that in the normal state, science must, by suitable means, be limited to its strict function; the knowledge of the order of the world sufficient for a dignified acceptance and wise modification. Such knowledge is a paramount necessity solely because of the exigencies of our physical condition, binding us to a form of action which at the outset is egoistic, whereas, given a situation so favoured by nature that we stood in no need of science, art would still have an inherent charm and a power to raise us. Even in reference to the objective construction we require for wise action, art contributed more than science to the intelligence of the higher and less obvious phenomena, poetry hitherto having anticipated philosophy in stating, in outline at least, the laws of our intellectual, and still more those of our moral nature. Art in edu cation. As a part of the system of Positive education art must hold equal rank with science. In real life it passes before science, as all that science gives us is the rational basis for action; its guidance does not enable us in practice to dispense with the complement of experience. With all classes, the priesthood included, the mind will, as a rule, exert itself in the esthetic rather than in the scientific direction, so the better to concentrate our efforts on the knowledge and improvement of our nature. Scientific works are seldom to be read again even by the theorician, whilst the creations of the artist are the objects of ever fresh admiration. It were superfluous to dwell longer on the strong esthetic tendency of a synthesis, the natural result of which will be the prevalence of the intellectual and moral dispositions most favourable to poetry. of the Past. The history of the past carries with it the proof, that such Testimony is the future which awaits the Positive spirit in the normal state, as since the disappearance of the Theocracy the master works of poetry have multiplied in proportion as the West disengages itself from the trammels of Theologism and war. The creation of Positivism as a system evidences its affinity for art; for art already owes to it a philosophy of esthetics, whereas true thinkers of the metaphysical school sought one in vain. ments of To place in a clearer light the decided superiority, estheti- New instrucally speaking, of Positivism, I would indicate here, in general poetry. terms, the introduction of a new series of poetical appliances, originating in the perfectly legitimate fusion of the Fetichist with the Positivist spirit. milieus. By the incorporation of Fetichism, art in its maturity re- Subjective possesses the external world, which in the full sense it possessed only in its infancy, and even then its idealisation of it could only be inchoate. Poetry in the Positive state, whilst cultivating this its original domain, will extend it so as to include phenomena no less than beings, empowered to do so by the general growth of abstraction since the Fetichist age. The new field thus opened requires, to be available, the previous creation of subjective milieus; otherwise, in the cultivation of it, it would be difficult as a rule to avoid lapsing into a metaphysical tendency, in essential antagonism with art-a tendency to consider events independently of beings. In its true idea, Space is the first and hitherto the only perfect example of this logical artifice, which, when interpreted, in an objective sense, gave rise to so many errors. For Space logically is to be looked upon simply as an universal fluid, created by man's instinct, in the infancy of his genius, in order to enable him to conceive of extension and even of motion independently of actual bodies. In default of such a milieu, signs without images would be our only resource for the abstract developement of geometrical and mechanical speculations. The long familiarity of the western mind with this primeval Space hithonly in erto the stance. The philosophy of art in relation to that of science. (b) Science. All Positive theories must converge towards the science of man. institution is a hindrance to our due appreciation of its value, yet we may by imagining it in abeyance, measure the void actually existing in the case of all other phenomena, owing to the want of so powerful an instrument. It follows that we must deliberately create for the phenomena of Physics, Chemistry, nay even of Biology, the equivalent of the milieu which Space offers us without effort in the domain of Mathematics. In this way, and in this way only, can art in its maturity adequately idealise the world without, by giving life to these milieus of man's creation, just as in his infancy he attributed life to all the objects of nature. This done, the philosophy of art will be as complete as that of science; as, in accordance with its peculiar genius, it will organise its twofold empire, the world and man, an empire which it has in common with science, though poetically the world is not on the same level with man. Thus comprehensive, art will be better adapted than science to explain and promote the Positive logic, for art has exclusive competence in regard to images, and in Positive logic it is images which bring signs into convergence with feelings in order to facilitate thought. The value of Positivism in regard to science admits of a less full statement than its power in regard to art; since as a synthesis resting immediately upon natural philosophy it will be certain to perfect the whole range of scientific investigations. Suffice it here to indicate under its more prominent aspects the influence of religion upon science, in which it repays more than it received. Subject to the inevitable control of moral science, all scientific theories cleared of misdirected investigations take a sacred and synthetical character, as being definitive portions of the body of Positive doctrine, which, step by step, in the natural course of things, has been formed by their contributions. Science, thus renovated, regains with greater completeness and stability the majestic unity it attained under the fostering care of the Theocracy, so justly regretted by the leading thinker of the last half-century. The speciality without unity, which has hitherto been the great feature of modern scientific enquiry, reduces it in truth wellnigh to the level of empiricism, with an exception for Mathematics. And even in Mathematics, the scientific character is but too often purely superficial, since the prevalence of the tendency to substitute the combination of signs for the higher processes of thought, or at any rate, to make the latter subordinate. All the other branches of natural philosophy are so completely given over to anarchy and consequent retrogression, that religion alone, with its power of direction and repression, can introduce discipline and prevent the dissolution of the whole system. Now, for a state of synthesis, it is imperative that every Positive theory, normally viewed, become an affluent of the science by which man studies his nature in order to guide his conduct. For we are still under the dominion of analysis so long as the laws of the inorganic world, with their complement, the laws of life, are not referred directly to the laws of man's social and individual existence,-the domain of Humanity, the sole fountain of intellectual unity. I can give no better idea of this convergence than by setting it forth in detail with reference to the grand problem of moral science, the continuous developement, viz., of our sympathetic instincts, a problem which of itself alone is large enough to allow for all wise efforts, whether in thought or action. To begin with, the end proposed connects with the whole of active life, the results of the exercise of our feelings reacting on them to raise them. For the present, however, limiting ourselves to the purely intellectual question, we see that the growth of sympathy depends on the cultivation of the sciences, even as regards the external order, in our inevitable submission to which we have a check on egoism, and so an encouragement to altruism. Without forestalling an examination reserved for the third chapter, it must be added, that the contiguity of the organs of sympathy with the apparatus of the intellectual affords us the means generally of modifying the former. Not in contact with the world without, not in contact even with the viscera of organic life, it is only indirectly through the intellect or activity that they can be influenced. Still, by virtue of their peculiar connection with the organs of egoism, we can bring to bear upon them, by the agency of these latter, the influences derived from the nutritive system. So this practical problem, in which Morals depend primarily on Sociology, is in connection with Biology in its whole extent, and through Biology with the whole of Cosmology. Selecting one of the essential elements of the Dreams. problem for special consideration, we reduce to system the instinctive tendency of the ancient world towards the interpretation, nay more, the direction of dreams; for in dreams there is, |