2 With the aid of the Positive doctrine can construct unity, ab stract and concrete. tivism. In the combination Fetichism, in accordance with its nature, still confines itself to the external world, and no longer strays in the direction of man's world. There is this change, however its domain was of old purely concrete, it is now in the main abstract, its application, both in affection and action, will concern Phenomena rather than substance, but without ever separating the two. Its deficiency thus naturally and regularly supplied, the Fetichist the Positive doctrine is able, without further preliminary, definitively to organise human unity, the unity of which I proceed the ultimate to give the general characteristics, by a description at once of the Positive religion and life. That I can describe them thus simultaneously, first from the abstract, then from the concrete point of view, is in itself an indication of the full completeness of that unity. For hitherto such a conjoint presentation has been impossible, from the want of sufficient agreement between theory and practice. Abstract Positivity combines all aspects of human existence. Positivism alone can secure the supremacy of Love. It is the best note of true Positivity, -the harmony, systematic but also spontaneous, which it introduces as a permanent link between the various aspects of our personal and social life. Ever bent on the preservation and amelioration of the Great Being, the affections, thoughts, and actions of man, are, when so harmonised, brought as far as possible under control and into concert. The composite nature of Humanity involves its having as its principle, love, the sole source of voluntary cooperation. The constant supremacy of feeling over thought and action thus becomes the fundamental law of the human consensus. Love, as the principle of synthesis, had been instinctively recognised by Fetichism, and deliberately sanctioned by Theocracy. But apart from their inadequate estimate of the benevolent instincts, these two rudimentary religions were found irreconcileable with the ulterior progress of our intellectual and active powers. Their triumphant advance broke through the earlier discipline, but the sense that they needed control gave rise to an admirable attempt to reconstruct the supremacy of the heart. The ultimate result of the effort was, however, to show the increasing loss of power in the fictitious synthesis in regard to this capital problem, the true solution of which necessarily devolved on the principle which gave to reality the sanction of utility. The gradual outcome of the unfettered evolution of thought and activity, the positive spirit has a natural tendency to restore to feeling its ascendancy, the better to place under its direction the normal developement of our powers. previous as The several aspirations evolved by the successive stages of Realises all the education of mankind thus find a simultaneous satisfaction, pirations. however conflicting they may be in appearance, the result simply of the inadequacy of the provisional synthesis. Ever looking to the nature of man in its entirety, the discipline of Positivism ought to promote in an equal degree the growth and concert of all our functions. More favourable to the intellect than the civilisation of Greece, as a social system, it has greater power than Rome had to make public life control private, speculation depend on action; whilst more than feudal Catholicism does it give the primacy to our emotional nature. Completely real, profoundly sympathetic, unceasingly active, the Great Being is, pre-eminently qualified to regulate without obstructing. It has a direct tendency to discipline our wills, as it forms us to order by love, with a view to progress. Its nature asserts at once the subjective origin and the objective basis of the true religion. Sanctioning as it does the close connection of the three parts of the soul, Humanity as centre makes the improvement of each depend on the reaction upon it of the two others, founding thereby true unity, an unity as stable as it is perfectible. Fully to appreciate in the abstract a state which, however near at hand, does not admit of direct inspection, I must now take it in detail, dwelling separately on feeling, intellect, and action. feeling. And first for feeling. Unity in this respect, as conceived by (i) Unity of Positivism, has for its basis the existence in human nature of the sympathetic instincts, which found no place in the theological synthesis. So only can we state in its true form the problem man has to solve, the subordinating egoism to altruism. To these instincts we look mainly for the solution of this problem, and it is their continuous growth under the influences of society which is the one standard by which to measure our progress, ever unsatisfactory unless accompanied with this growth. Their unceasing search after the true has for its aim. the attainment of the good under the inspiration of the beautiful, and their ascendancy is at once the best stimulus and the best regulator of all our powers. In no degree oppressive as Diversity of the sympathetic in stincts. Their training during tory period. regards the personal instincts, they cffer those instincts the legitimate satisfaction of a noble purpose. The right understanding of this moral unity necessitates our taking into account the inherent differences between the instincts of benevolence. Arranged, as the whole hierarchy of our conceptions is arranged, on the principle of decrease in energy, increase in dignity, the first unites, equals, and regulates the present; the second regards superiors and consecrates the past; the third looks towards inferiors and prepares the future. In every social relation there is room for the free and simultaneous play of the three; but the proper province of the first is private, that of the third, public life, the second alone being common to both. From the closest ties to the widest relations of man, they form, then, by their union, a complete discipline. Attachment secures the growth of the love on which our whole system rests, whilst benevolence directs that love to its true. end, universal love; veneration institutes subordination, the indispensable condition of stability in human relations. The preparatory stage of human existence hampered this the prepara discipline, in theory as in practice, yet in the natural course of things it tended to prevail, though its rational acceptance was reserved for the present century. It had a natural origin in the fetichist state, for in Fetichism the feelings of man were attributed to all things; but the doctrine of Fetichism could give it no sanction, limited as it was to the outer world, and the life confined to the Family was too narrow a sphere. Subsequently, when theology and war were dominant, the benevolent instincts could have but an indirect and partial sway, for man's action was destructive, and his creed egoistic. Still they grew even then, by virtue of the extension of human intercourse due to common opinions and collective purposes. When Polytheism was condensed into Monotheism, the latter declared them alien to human nature, but in this very rejection lay a consecration of them, for it rested on the superiority. which marked them out as the special province of the divine will. The compression of the personal instincts by the religion gave a fuller ascendancy at that time to the sympathetic; although the denial of them on principle stamped a character of selfishness on our whole moral culture. It was under these conditions of provisional acceptance that they received a triumphant recognition by the devotion to them of the three finest chapters of the extraordinary poem in which Catholicism found its condensed expression. The metaphysical philosophy, the prevalence of which is due to the indiscipline of modern times, is more adverse than Theology to the free growth of sympathy; and yet sympathy has grown with the Positive spirit even whilst the action of man wore a purely personal, his speculation a dispersive, character. The tendency of science was to demonstrate the innateness of our unselfish affections, and industrial life prepared the way for the universal acceptance of their legitimate rule. Since the outbreak of the final crisis the maintenance of moral order in the midst of intellectual disorder is due solely to the influence of sympathy, nor is there any other possible basis for the reorganisation of the West. Thus it is that the Positive spirit-the unfailing characteristic of which is the combination of the real and the useful -finds at length its chief sphere, as an intellectual theory and a practical system, in the study and the cultivation of the benevolent instincts. The true unity of the individual, the true unity of the society, springs from their normal predominance, as in them, and in equal degree, order has its source, progress its end. Ever ready to accept dutifully all that is inevitable in our condition, they make a noble resignation the basis of our amelioration, whilst they incessantly urge us to wise exertion. As a consequence of the omnipresent control of Morals, they offer philosophy the soundest discipline and the sublimest object, to the exclusion of all idle speculations and the concentration of our intellectual efforts on the continuous improvement of our nature. To poetry they throw open its noblest field, as by their aid it can idealize all human ties, present, past, or even future. Political action, recognising them as supreme, is enabled peacefully to carry out the largest plans, by bringing all our practical energies to bear on the direct improvement of man's condition upon earth, in concert with the animal races which, as sympathetic, are justly associated with Humanity. These hints give a sufficient idea of the general character of the Positive order of things, as a synthesis resting on universal love, that love aided by a faith susceptible of demonstration. And yet the idea were incomplete without a direct examination of the chief attribute of human unity, viz., the necessary Their fate in modern times. They are the true domain of the posi tive spirit. Chief attri bute of hu man Unity. Duty and happiness coincidence of duty and of happiness, both equally placed in coincident. Living for Others. Complete as is the sanction, and natural as complete, given by the sympathetic instincts to every right exertion of our intellect, every right exercise of our active powers, such efforts are always urged as means to an end, the means adapted to the overcoming the difficulties of man's position. The highest gratification they can afford is derived from their unavoidable and constant ministration to the Great Being. Set aside these wants, and man's happiness, as his true unity, depends on his emotional nature. A woman's pen has fitly expressed this prerogative of man, and the admirable expression is her chief claim to immortality, There is nothing real in the world but love.' Feeling to be encouraged for its own sake. Living for others, others live for us. This maxim of Delphine may seem at first sight an exaggeration, yet the Positive religion must adopt it, to enforce the conviction that it is in feeling that lies the chief value of feeling. Whilst speculation and even action contribute to our happiness by their results alone, and results as dependent on external conditions often elude us, the gratification we derive from affection is always direct and certain and depends on ourselves alone. Real happiness, then, cannot reside either in our thoughts or actions, but exclusively in our sympathies, and their highest recompense is their existence. When once by a right exercise we have learnt to appreciate this sovereign good, we cease to find satisfaction as formerly in the most successful intellectual or active exertions. We then see that our opinions and our efforts depend for their main value upon our feelings, the only immediate sources of happiness and duty for the individual as for the society. Thus realising the highest aspirations of theology in its dreams, the kingdom of Humanity is a kingdom of love, perfecting our inward satisfaction by cooperation from without. Each makes others his chief object, and as a natural result gains the support of others in his own need. But he may not gain it, and if he gain it, it is not the motive for altruism nor can it be its adequate reward. We are liable to set too much store by such reciprocity of services, owing to habits contracted under the egoistic synthesis, and any over-value of it would endanger the unity of our sympathetic, by stimulating our personal, instincts. Even in the anarchy of modern times, the true moral conception found its spontaneous expression in the noble wish |