must here remind the reader of the tendency of the Positive regime to rely rather on the use of contrast than of repression, rewarding the good, that is, rather than punishing the bad. In reference to the abuse of wealth, it will prefer creating capitalists to reducing them to poverty, and therefore will extend the practice of gifts, without absolutely renouncing confiscation, even in perpetuity. This mode will become so consonant to the general feeling, that, in default of the action of government, the donations might, at need, take the shape of purely voluntary subscriptions. Still, as this supplementary action always implies some defect in the constitution of society, it requires as many precautions as confiscation. It will be seen below in what way the regular progress of the Sociocracy will of itself supersede the necessity of frequent recourse to any such extraordinary methods, applicable principally during the last phase of the transition.

Chivalry.

More important than either is another supplementary insti- Industrial tution of an universal character, a moral and political institution; the systematic reconstitution of chivalry, the feudal germ of which must receive careful cultivation in industrialism, allowing for modifications in practice. In Industrialism, the voluntary protectorate, as the wrongs which it repairs or obviates, will concern property rather than persons; and, as such, its organisation will be easier and on a vaster scale. Its real strength will lie in a central nucleus, a body of patrician widowers, solemnly dedicated by their own free act to the office, but not therefore ceasing to take part in industrial life, except at stated periods of retreat, in buildings set apart for the purpose, in order to rekindle their zeal by contact with the priesthood. Round them will rally, before reaching their maturity, all such as, possessed of the requisite wealth, aspire to be enrolled one day in the protecting corporation. The consecration of wealth to such an object will make all feel the great importance of respecting liberty in the employment of capital, even when its holders have no distinct function, for such may exceptionally become the most useful members of the wealthy class, if they use aright the freedom which their position gives them. The central chivalry will in general find another source of support in the elder patricians, who will often retain great influence, even after they have transferred their capital. Lastly, it will complete itself by the adjunction

Precautions

against

part of the

Priesthood.

of the nobler proletaries, their devotion and their energy compensating their poverty, and offering the body of voluntary protectors an alliance which ensures success.

Such an aggregate of guarantees should in general suffice to abuse on the guard against the abuses to which the patriciate is liable. For the priesthood, the repression of abuse on its part neither requires nor admits of any special institution, since the power which consecrates all the others cannot be subject to any standing external control. So long as its degeneracy, however extensive, does not reach the high priest, he has the regular remedy in his power, in the substitution, in case of need, of an entirely new clergy. But, if he too, supported by the body, go wrong, then the only remedy left would be the refusal of cooperation, a remedy which can never fail, as the priesthood rests solely on conscience and opinion, and succumbs, therefore, to their adverse sentence. The patriciate would curb it sufficiently by suspending its stipend, for in cases of serious error, popular subscriptions would not replace it, unless on the supposition of a fanaticism scarcely compatible with the Positive faith, where there is enthusiasm for the doctrines rather than for the teachers.

Functions

of the indus

The aims of industry and the conditions of industry having trial classes. been explained, it remains for me, in order to complete the organisation of labour, to determine, first, the functions of the directors of industry, when reorganised, secondly those of its agents.

The Directors.

The patriciate centralises both action and nutrition, but it is the latter that will always be its principal function, and that increasingly. For, the continual reproduction of materials must principally relate to provisions, notwithstanding that there is a proportionate increase of the instruments of production; for these, as less perishable, form a prominent part of the capital of man without affecting in any high degree the ordinary expenditure. In regard to this latter, we distinguish two cases, according as the maintenance allotted is public or private, a point which depends on the nature of the services rendered, according as they are general or particular. The first mode is exclusively applicable to the government, spiritual and temporal equally; it is the second therefore which I have specially to examine here, for it is the mode of maintaining the families of the people, and as such is the great

object of the patricians' attention. When I have explained it, I shall complete the subject by a consideration of the public expenses, which will never be anything but a small item in the cost of production.

mainte

The plebeian no less than the patrician ought to have, as the Private basis of his material existence, a distinct connection with the nance. planet which is the abode of Humanity. Without it, action is deficient in steadiness, continuity is impaired, even solidarity is incomplete. Owing to the want of this connection, the earliest and most important of the revolutions in the temporal order, the passage, namely, from the nomad to the sedentary life, is as yet, in no single instance, ended. For in Western industry we are often struck by the scandal of wealthy capitalists who are not the owners of the buildings in which their business is carried. But it is in the proletaries above all that we trace the imperfect fulfilment of this condition, they but rarely obeying the social law enunciated in my second volume. For the normal state, it is indispensable that every family become the owner of whatever it needs for its exclusive and continual use. In the case of the proletaries, we may sum up this in the ownership of their house; beyond this their aiming at property would be prejudicial to their happiness no less than to their duty.

on.

This ownership admits of two modes; either the possession of an apartment or of an entire house, the former required by the concentration of town life, the latter suited to the isolation of the country. The first, besides being most attainable, will offer many advantages socially, when the normal habits shall have removed causes which might now be occasions of disputes. It gives greater homogeneity to the proletariate by giving large opportunity for personal intercourse; it cements the mutual relations of plebeians and patricians, as the latter are in all cases the proprietors, and at times dwellers in the houses which on this scheme are divided into apartments for separate sale. The most common arrangement of the whole building would be into three stories, the two upper containing each three proletary families, the rest reserved for industrial purposes and for the patricians' dwelling. A seventh plebeian dwelling would belong to the family entrusted with the care of the whole, with the maintenance of order, and the facilitating the intercourse of the occupants, as the representative of the local magistracy of the proprietor.

Beneficial effects of this owner

ship.

Its religious effect.

Annual expenditure of

This ownership of the domicile besides its own direct and special value, is susceptible of an indirect influence on the heart and on the intellect, by increasing fixity of feeling and of thought by a corresponding fixity of habits. It is a confirmation and extension of the duty now too generally neglected, never capriciously to change our connection even with the humblest tradesman, so to facilitate prevision in industry. Though enforced by Positive morality, this obligation would be liable to frequent evasion, particularly on the part of the working classes, where it is of peculiar importance, were the instinct of caprice not curbed by fixity of abode.

The form adopted in towns for the working man's dwelling may further exercise a religious influence of a nature to be largely developed by the normal state in the children of Humanity. In the first place everyone thus connects his family's past with the apartment in which be was born; secondly, the fact that this apartment is an integral part of a larger building represents for him the solidarity of the citizen, nay even his connection with mankind. For there is an analogy between the distribution of the earth's surface among the possessors of the soil, and that of the social dwelling among the clients of the common proprietor, in whom, unless wholly unworthy, they may see the local representative of the Being to whom all belongs.

In order to complete the systematisation of the material each Family. existence of the proletaries, I have to determine the ordinary amount of the annual expenses of each family, and as a consequence the average salary of the workman who presides over it. First however, we may, by virtue of the previous explanation, strike out the rent of his dwelling, the rule being that he is owner and not occupier. The regular time for its acquisition is when the young agent of Humanity takes the sacrament of Destination, or at any rate before that of Marriage; so to provide a secure existence for the new household. best way is a yearly payment, taken during seven years from his wages, before his expenditure reaches its full amount. Even thus, however, as a rule, the new workman will require his father's aid to enable him to become the owner of his house, such aid being usually the last instance of parental assistance.

Wages.

The

It will suffice here if I simply restate the principle enunciated in my social Statics, which enjoins that wages, in their

normal amount, be divided into two unequal portions; the one fixed for each workman, whatever the work, the other proportional to the product of his labour. This law is as indisputable as that on which it rests, the necessarily gratuitous character of all human labour in a state in which all belongs to the Great Being, who entrusts his capital to his ministers to feed his agents. But I must now complete its statement by venturing to fix the normal ratio of the two portions, whereas in my second volume it was left to the patricians to determine it. I have. since come to feel that, for a right understanding of the principle, the spiritual power must take the initiative and give it at once a precise form, allowing for ulterior correction as with all the other numerical suggestions of the present chapter. For these reasons I do not hesitate to propose, that for each of the thirteen months of the Positivist year, each workman receive a salary of a hundred francs, always paid by his employer, whether in town or country, so long as the free mutual engagement lasts.

Fixed por

tion of

wages.

portion.

In towns, and towns must be the first organised, it seems to The variable me that this amount should, as a rule, be one third of the whole salary, the fluctuating portion of which I estimate at seven francs for the average day of actual work. Whilst all rules as to the festivals observed and even the weekly rest are a question of habits and manners, we may yet assume that the worship will be scrupulously attended, especially by the proletaries, as for them above all it is meant. If so, the above rates give nine francs for the daily maintenance of a working family, consisting, as has been shown, normally, of seven members.

of wages ultimately

very slight.

My object in fixing this amount is to give a type, yet it Inequalities differs but little from the results often attained even in the present anarchical condition of the West. On this point I see no ground for any distinctions between the several branches of industry in towns, the difference in their money returns being properly a question for the capitalist, as the industrial hierarchy The homogeneity characteristic of the proletariate will be constantly developed and fortified by the spontaneous concurrence of two influences, affecting the whole body equally, the one intellectual, the other moral. In the first place, from the completeness and uniformity of Positive education the workman will have it in his power to turn with such ease to a new trade that no serious inequality of wages can persist as between the

was.