But this reaction

the higher

domains where the

are most modifiable.

Great Being. But our resignation, in the earliest stage purely passive, before long is ennobled, by virtue of the activity suggested by the regularity of the order, regularity being always in proportion to simplicity. We transform our subjection, we make it the source of constant advance throughout the whole range of our life-physical, intellectual, and even moralfor we make it dependent on this unchangeable type, into accord with which in particular we bring the institution of time.

Still the theoretic, no less than the practical, power, must most felt in find its chief sphere in the phenomena most open to modifications, these being at once the most important and where the phenomena order of nature is most imperfect. Since our attainment of sufficient knowledge of the law of those phenomena to warrant rational prevision, we feel how greatly their study, in a positive spirit, may perfect human discipline, by its direct control over the internal sources of unity. It is in the continuous amelioration of the most imperfect, and yet the most important, order, that man's intelligence finds its best field both for theory and practice, such is the surpassing difficulty of the inquiries and so much greater room is there for modifications. But the consecration of the Positive spirit to this object necessarily implies its discipline, as diverting it from cultivating the inferior branches of study in a degree unwarranted by their legitimate destination. Thus it is, that reason, the immediate function of which is to judge everything but itself, finds an indirect control in the being devoted, above all, to consolidate and foster our emotional nature, without being thereby debarred from proceeding steadily in its advance towards the more complex phenomena. Thus we get rid of the main difficulty which attaches to the problem of Positive unity; founded upon the predominance of the heart, it seems to involve a pressure on the intellect, whilst unable to dispense with its cooperation. On the contrary, it is obvious that in the maturity of the Great Being the intellect of man enters into possession of the domain hitherto reserved for the supremacy of God, without neglecting such logical or scientific preparatory training as the cultivation of its new domain requires.

Relation of the dogma

to the worship most insisted on

here.

This indispensable introduction justifies us in considering the final systematisation of the Positive doctrine as having reached the point at which it is easy to preserve it from the

misleading analytical inquiries which were naturally thrown up by the preparatory period of scientific training. Such aberrations would tend to recur, unless the discipline of religion were continually turning us from them, as no partial synthesis, however vast its scale, is adequate or even possible; and therefore I was obliged to begin by insisting on the general connection between the doctrine and the two constituents of the religion between which it is definitively placed. True, it is in the next chapter that its relation to the regime must be more fully explained, but it has been sufficiently stated in the present for us never to lose sight of so clearly defined a destination, no further explanation of which in detail is needed. It being satisfactorily established that we must know the order we would modify, the main point was to estimate the importance of its study from another and less recognised point of view, when, that is, we solely aim at a wise acceptance. The twofold object must always assign its legitimate limits to our study of the several theories, necessarily a waste of time when carried farther than is required to guide our submission or our action. But both grounds naturally coincide so far as regards the highest sphere of our intellectual exertion, for it is the happy peculiarity of that sphere that in it the theory is inseparable from the application.

For the construction of the dogmatic system of Positivism it is required to determine, first, its general nature; secondly, its universal principles; lastly, its normal arrangement.

From the first point of view, it must be borne in mind that all real investigations can attain their true object, solely on the condition of being abstract in character; of being directed, that is, to the coordination of events independently of beings. To guide us in our obedience or in our intervention, the laws of nature must wear a form of complete generality, for such generality is the only possible basis of rational prevision, unattainable in concrete instances. We sway to and fro in conduct so long as we have not established rules without exception; and this implies that for the study of beings we have substituted that of events. Phenomena to be manifested must be attached to matter; substances are cognisable only through their properties. The twofold connection does not prevent the process of abstraction from habitually distinguishing events from beings, looking now to the attributes many bodies

Relation of theory and

practice.

Abstraction sanctioned, but with precautions.

possess in common, now to the sum of the qualities which constitute any given existence. To an analysis of this kind may be traced the origin of science, when towards the close of the first period of childhood, the childhood of the individual or of the society, abstract contemplation begins to prevail over the concrete. Till then, reason had not power to aid the feelings; not offering the fixity of conception which is the source of previsions qualified to guide us in action or in submission, as they remove the indecision to which we are naturally liable in all our resolutions.

This first fundamental step in advance is to be regarded as establishing the true distinction, and at the same time the true agreement, between theory and practice. The generality characteristic of theory, the speciality characteristic of practice, are owing to the fact that theory is abstract, practice concrete; for theory relates to events, action deals with beings. But the contrast between the two is no obstacle to their concert, as our action upon bodies aims solely at modifying their phenomena, the exclusive object of interest, whether for speculative or practical purposes. Abstract laws are, then, the common province of science and art-science applying them to the discipline of our intellect-art to the regulation of our activity. No serious inconvenience arises from ignorance of the concrete laws, for it does not prevent our giving both to our practical and intellectual life a sufficiently rational character, by the aid of such general indications as the simpler cases afford to guide us in the more complex. It might seem that action requires a fuller knowledge than does submission; but all the more essential conceptions, by the nature of the case, are available both for action and submission; as the basis of our conduct throughout is the invariability of the order of nature. In fact, such modifications as it admits solely affect the phenomena in degree, and therefore in effecting them we may find satisfactory guidance in an empirical estimate of the limits within which variation is allowable in each actual case, without requiring a concrete science which is beyond our reach.

However dangerous then for the heart, and even for the intellect, abstraction must receive a definitive sanction as indispensable to the systematic service of Humanity. The absorption, of withering tendency, to which it invariably leads,the chimerical judgments which are its frequent attendant—

both these results should but awaken us to the importance of restricting intellectual cultivation within its due limits, instead of looking upon it as the ideal of human perfection. It must be remembered also that its general disadvantages are remedied, as far as possible, by the encyclopædic character of Positive speculation, inseparably connected with the sacerdotal office. For abstraction decreases as independence and simplicity decrease, with this result, that theory is brought nearer to practice in proportion as our conceptions become objectively less general, subjectively more general. When once abstraction has reached the phase in which all the aspects of science converge, it necessarily ends, in order that there may be scope for the intellectual efforts which are in direct connection with practical objects. During its provisional government, it tends to engender overweening claims, as it gives free course to the deductive faculty. There was a danger in this, so long as the cultivation of science retained its partial character; but the danger disappears in the encyclopædic regime, for that represents the perfection of deduction as due principally to the absence of complexity in the lower departments, without any diminution in the growth of power when the field for its exercise rises in dignity.

Our normal state is as yet so poorly outlined, that abstraction in the Positive sense, however evident the need of it in natural philosophy, has not been organised except for mathematical speculations. Everywhere else, signs without images are as a rule our only aid in abstract meditation. The institution however of subjective media, mentioned in the first chapter of the present volume, has for its object, as it extends, to furnish us with appropriate means for representing all events whatsoever, apart from the beings in which they are seen. Although Theologism had its origin in abstract contemplation, the means it offered were throughout limited to the search after causes, with no power to directly promote the study of laws, not even if we make it include entities as well as Gods. Speculation in Positivism will not have its full aids until, by the institution of subjective milieus, images are brought into habitual combination with signs, so as to allow a permanent influence to the emotions.

The abstract character of the doctrinal system of Positivism thus established, I proceed to examine the hierarchy which

Aids for ab

straction in

the subjec

tive media.

The univerples on

sal princi

which the doctrine rests.

First philosophy.

First group

of three laws.

Law I.
The simplest

constitutes it, not however without first determining the universal principles which are the foundation of the whole.

These principles, dimly anticipated, or rather desired, by Bacon, under the vague name of Philosophia Prima, form three groups of general laws: one group objective and subjective in an equal degree; the second essentially subjective; the third mainly objective.

I form the first group by combining two scientific laws, naturally in close interdependence, with a logical law, which must precede, though apparently dependent on them.

This law consists, and there can be no more fundamental hypothesis. principle, in the injunction in all cases to form the simplest hypothesis consistent with the whole of the facts to be represented. This, the sole basis of true rationality, may be considered indifferently as objective or subjective, since it immediately controls the subordination of the subjective to the objective, as it satisfies at once our inclination and our duty. But in our use of it we must never forget that it is applicable to our affections; this definitive addition to its hitherto exclusively intellectual form was insisted on in the last volume. Complication being as pernicious to the intellect and to the heart when due to the feelings, as when due to the thoughts, we must clear our hypothesis from ill-will, not less than from other superfluities. If the latter, or intellectual, simplification is a direct aid to the process of thought, the former or moral simplification assists it indirectly; improving as it does the unavoidable participation of moral impulses in intellectual action, such impulses exerting a more disturbing, although intenser influence, when it is egoism, and not altruism, that takes the lead. Nor is the importance of this emotional complement less as regards the external object of our intellectual exertion, any excess of subjectivity interfering with the clearness of our vision equally, whether it be traceable to the heart or to the intellect. Thus conceived, the precept systematises at once the constitution of the Positive logic and its developement, for it introduces the combination of feelings with images and signs as an aid to, and even a regulation of, the intelligence.

Law II.
Invariabi-

The second principle, generally considered of superior lity of laws. importance to the first, is the invariability of all laws whatsoever which govern phenomena and consequently beings, though