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If the objection to

placing the Worship

first were

Valid, it

to be placed a ter the

Regime.

nature, subserve, the one the worship, the other the regime. This allotment of their provinces answers to the distinction between the subjective creation and the objective appreciation of the central dogma, or Humanity. For this dogma remains one and indivisible so long as it is the immediate basis of morality; its division is allowable only when it is looked at as the condensation-a condensation imperatively required-of the whole order of the world.

The explanation shows that the only plausible reasons for maintaining the older arrangement of the three parts of religion are based on a mistake, viz., on the confusion of the doctrine, which is the foundation of the religion, with the system of dogmas properly so called. This latter is really nothing but a systematisation of an analytical kind, necessary for our action, but by the nature of the case, secondary to the synthetical construction of which the worship is the natural expression, and therefore it is with the worship that the rational study of Positive unity must begin. However normal this course may be, it would yet have been impossible to take it, had we not made it our object in the last chapter to establish directly the fundamental theory of the Great Being.

To place in stronger relief the unsoundness of the reasons for upholding the present position of the worship after the dogma, it must be added that, allowing them to be valid, would have they would lead to its being placed after the regime, as there must be a general conception of the regime or the worship would be a failure. The truth is, the worship can idealise the two other parts of the religion when yet undeveloped analytically; all that is required is, a clear synthetical conception of them, such a conception as may guide us in their definitive systematisation. All the scientific notions, cosmological, biological, and, above all, sociological, requisite for the theory of the Great Being, have been firmly established in the three preceding volumes on the basis of science formed into a complete whole. This enabled me, at the opening of the present volume, to proceed at once to the construction of the theory itself, a construction which involves the conjoint establishment of the three divisions of religion, with a view to their ulterior separation, under proper conditions, for the purposes of study. Such separate consideration of them is the condition of any satisfactory systematisation of the doctrine and the regime, the objective

analysis giving completeness to the subjective synthesis by which alone it could be guided. The outline already given qualifies us however for now proceeding directly to the construction of the worship, as the principal portion of the religion, the portion in which the idea and the feeling of unity find their best expression. At no distant period Positivism will correct in all the provisional habits which are the result of the existing condition of things, with its proud sense of revolution, and its consequent stimulation of the reason of the individual to construct a universal synthesis independently of all collective influences. The preliminary explanation here ended leads me to ex-) Destinaamine, in the first place, the destination of the Positive cultus; (i) Nature secondly, its nature in the general; before I give its direct ship. exposition in detail, which must be the great object of the chapter.

We adore Humanity in order to serve her better by the aid of fuller knowledge; worship then cannot but modify, under all its aspects, the existence which, as a whole, is represented in the constitution of the Great Being. But the normal preference of the worship to the two other constituents of the universal religion rests on this ground mainly, that it has for its principal domain the direct and persistent encouragement of our instincts of sympathy, the sole source of the Positive unity. Once grasp this idea of Sociolatry, and we are qualified to appreciate its influence on thought and even on action.

The Positive worship depends for its efficacy entirely on the fundamental law by which the continuous improvement of man's faculties is the result of their judicious exercise. In the adoration of the Great Being these faculties find a simultaneous exercise, as it always expresses our emotions in an idealised form. Practically, the idealisation of our altruistic instincts consists more especially in their purification from their ordinary admixture of egoism. So purified, they become in the fullest sense communicable, and the communication requires the combined and persistent exertion of our intellectual and active powers. It does not, that is, call into play merely the function. of language, but also contemplation, abstract or concrete, nay even meditation, deductive no less than inductive meditation. As, for expression, when perfect, all the muscles of outward action are brought into use, it follows that communication makes a demand on the whole active life, whether we consider

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it in its instruments, the muscles, or in its organs in the brain. Even when the outward manifestation is limited to the voice, without the aid of either gestures or attitudes, no part of our whole active system escapes its influence, from the close connection which allows each several part to substitute its cerebral influence for that of the other parts.

It is in this way that the worship becomes the synthetic sation of our idealisation of the life which it is its function to perfect. It consecrates all the parts of that life, by their direct cooperation in the adoration of the Great Being; but it does more, it assigns them all their proper rank, by vindicating the constant preeminence of feeling over intellect, of intellect over activity. The power to do this is seen, it is true, in a rudimentary form in the provisional religion, but it is the peculiar property of the definitive cultus, a property derived from its unselfishness no less than from its reality. For the synthesis based on imagination never gave a sanction to the benevolent instincts, nay it even denied their existence when it was condensed into Monotheism, and consequently the worship, in Theology, could but indirectly cultivate them. Their direct cultivation, on the contrary, becomes the leading object of Sociolatry, from the purely sympathetic character of the object of its worship; and the result is, that in the Positive system of cultus we have the best source of the just ascendancy of altruism over egoism.

Comparison

of expres sion and action.

Action.

To complete our view, it is desirable to place in direct juxtaposition expression and action, the object of the comparison being to obviate any charge of mysticism or quietism. The exaggeration of feeling which leads to the neglect of works, in favour of the exclusive cultivation of the inward dispositions, could have no serious importance except in the theological period, and even there it was due rather to hypocrisy than to error, as is seen by its not arising till the decline of the system. If the sincere culture of sympathy, even when indirect, was calculated to be a preservative against this excess, it is one which will easily be removed by the direct cultivation of benevolence, resulting from the whole system of adoration.

Over and above the particular results which are the proper aim of action, action has more power than expression to excite altruism through the medium of the brain, inasmuch as it leads to an exertion requiring greater effort. It follows that nothing will ever equal the practice, even with intermissions, still more

the habitual practice, of good works as a means of cultivating our sympathetic instincts. Expression has however several natural advantages over action, and therefore, weaker though it be than action, it will always remain indispensable to the full developement of our emotional nature.

As expression depends on ourselves exclusively, whilst action Expression. is dependent on the external world, action is intermittent, expression alone can be permanent under one or other of its various forms. Again, action is not only less at our command than expression, but is often of a more mixed character. In the first place it almost invariably demands efforts of the intellect or of the body, and these cannot but impair its results in point of sympathy. But in action we have, above all, the complication habitually arising of selfish motives mingling with our benevolent impulses. The only case in which we avoid these two disturbing forces is when the brain devotes all its powers to perfect our unity through the direct expression of love, with no external aim in particular.

A cultus of this kind has to discipline our action and therefore can never lead us to despise it. For it fosters the affections which urge us to the direct pursuit of the good. If our devotions seemed to lead to inertness, such a degradation would necessarily imply a want of sincerity.

If we analyse the moral influence of Positive worship with reference to the distinction between the three altruistic instincts, we find that it is greatest as concerns the instinct which by its organ and its function is in closest connection with the two others. The exercise of the affections which is the direct result of adoration more particularly concerns veneration, not merely veneration for the Great Being, but for its worthy representatives, as is indicated by the prevailing attitude. Now the instinct of veneration is the one in most constant use as the normal basis of true discipline, and at the same time it has the least strongly marked character as being nearly independent of the influences of the selfish instincts. Be it remembered however that it cannot act without stimulating by its action benevolence and attachment, between which it is the connecting link both statically and dynamically. Language bears special witness to this connection in the admirable expression piété (pietas), a term primarily implying respect, but, by a natural extension, embracing all the sympathetic instincts. Again, the two other

Moral in

fluence of

the Positive

Worship

(1) on Al

truism.

(2) Egoism.

Intellectual influence of Sociolatry.

Art.

altruistic feelings receive direct encouragement from an adoration which has gratitude and love for its invariable basis. Benevolence, strictly so called, implies, it is true, protection, yet it is specially called into play in the Positive worship, most particularly towards the Great Being, not merely through imitation of that highest type, but also as a consequence of the nature of Humanity, who can never dispense with the aid of her servants.

Sociolatry is by its very conception emancipated from the interested motives which were paramount in the worship of Theologism, nay even of Fetichism; yet it grants the self regarding instincts the culture they require for their due cooperation in the practical conduct of life. In the first place, it stamps them with its direct sanction as the permanent basis of the conservation of the individual, and the primary source of the action of society. Secondly, their relations severally with the social instincts procure them in the Positive worship an indirect stimulus in constant dependence on their influence on our sympathies, and therefore not liable to abuse. This combination of sanction and discipline is especially applicable in the case of the higher personal instincts, pride and vanity, as more amenable to social influences. But it applies also to all the other personal motors, not excepting the instinct of destruction, each and all admitting an altruistic direction.

The proper province of Sociolatry is our emotional life, and it is to this that this chapter as a whole is devoted; so that having sufficiently explained its influence on that life in the general, I must now explain its power in reference to intellect, first in the domain of art, then in that of science.

The true definition of the two terms, art and worship, is sufficient to show the inseparable connection between them, a connection recognised as a matter of experience by Theologism, but which it devolves on Positivism to adopt and expand on rational grounds, whilst it accepts the spontaneous character it wears in Fetichism. In art and worship equally, improvement is ever the direct end of all our efforts. In the worship it is always moral progress, and therefore the worship alone can withdraw art from its natural predilection for physical beauty, the beauty most easy to represent as it is most easy to feel. Sociolatry, by displaying the charm inherent in the altruistic affections, throws open to poetry its noblest field, one which

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