No

to constant injury. Even now, vast benefit would ensue if, in preparation for the system to come, positive knowledge and philosophy were sedulously brought within reach of the people. În the educational direction, the intellectual expansion would be much greater than is now easily believed: and the advantage in the other respect, in protecting them from collision with the governing classes, would be no less evident. The positive philosophy would teach them the real value of the political institutions from which they are apt to hope so much, and convince them of the superiority of moral over political solutions. All evils and all pretexts derived from social disturbance would thus be obviated: quacks and dreamers would lose their vocation; and no excuse would be left for delay in social reform. When it is seen why wealth must chiefly abound among the industrial leaders, the positive philosophy will show that it is of small importance to popular interests in what hands capital is deposited, if its employment is duly useful to society at large: and that condition depends much more on moral than on political methods. jealous legal provision against the selfish use of wealth, and no mischievous intervention, paralysing social activity by political prohibition, can be nearly so effectual as general reprobation, grounded on an ascertained principle, under the reign of positive morality. The new philosophical action would either obviate or repress all the dangers which attend the institution of property, and correct popular tendencies by a wise analysis of social difficulties, and a salutary conversion of questions of right into questions of duty. In its impartiality it will make the superior classes participate in the lesson, proving to them the great moral obligations inherent in their position; so that, for instance, in this matter of property, the rich will morally consider themselves the depositories of the wealth of society, the use of which will not involve any political responsibility (except in extreme cases), but should lie under a moral supervision, necessarily open to all, from the indisputableness of its principle, and of which the spiritual authority is the natural organ. Since the abolition of personal servitude, the lowest class has never been really incorporated with the social system: the power of capital, once a means

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of emancipation, and then of independence, has become exorbitant in daily transactions, however just is its influence through its generality and superior responsibility. In short, this philosophy will show that industrial relations, instead of being left to a dangerous empiricism and an oppressive antagonism, must be systematized according to moral laws. The duty to the lower classes will not consist in alms-giving, which can never be more than a secondary resource, nor made reconcilable with any high social destination, in the present advanced state of human condition and dignity. The obligation will be to procure for all, suitable education and employment, the only conditions. that the lower classes can justly demand. Without entering on the perplexed subject of wages, it is enough to say that their settlement will be largely influenced by the same agency. We need not inquire whether any political institutions will in course of time embody social securities of this kind: it is enough that the principle will remain eminently moral, in as far as it will be efficacious and harmonizing.

Reciprocal effects.

Such will be the effect on society of the philosophical preparation for the new system. It is very observable that the reciprocal action on philosophy will be no less beneficial. In such a combination, the people will give to the philosophers more than they will have received from them. The popular adhesion will be the safeguard of the spiritual power against aggression from the temporal, such as will be instigated by human passions under the positive system, as under every other, notwithstanding its milder practical activity, and the increased sway of reason over conduct. On the one

hand, the rich men may show their pride of wealth on occasion of the material dependence of the speculative class; and these again may manifest the disdain which men of theory are wont to feel towards men of practice and then will the people become the regulators of their conflicts, more even than in the Middle Ages, being indebted to the one power for education and moral influence, and to the other for employment and material assistance; and always holding the balance between them, as of old.

Preparatory stage.

If such be the prospect of the normal condition, it is easy to describe the preparatory stage which is near at hand. If popular participation is necessary to the new spiritual authority in its established condition, much more must it be so as a help to attain that condition. The wise permanent advocacy of popular interests is the only means by which the people can be taught the importance of the philosophical action which statesmen scoff at: and, when the spiritual power has become strong enough, its intervention in the collisions which must happen frequently in the absence of industrial system, will make its value more felt, and its function better understood, perpetually, by all classes. The classes which now recognize the supremacy of wealth alone will then be led by decisive, and sometimes very painful experience to implore the protection of the spiritual authority which they now regard as purely chimerical. The same causes which will make it the arbiter in collisions will make it the moderator in the social controversies in which already the need of such an influence is sorely felt : and on such services will rest its power, because they will command free assent and allegiance. There is nothing to be hoped from the political controversies which agitate the upper classes. Their disputes about the substitution of persons, ministerial or royal, have little interest for the bulk of society, and have no organizing tendency. The popular point of view is the only one which naturally offers a survey sufficiently large and clear to connect the present with the whole of the past, and to give an organic direction to the general mind. No agitation about political rights will meet the popular need, which can be satisfied with nothing more restricted than security of Education and Employment; and these can be obtained by no means short of social reorganization. This is the strong bond between popular needs and philosophical tendencies; and by means of it, the true social point of view will prevail in proportion to the share borne by the claims of the lowest classes in the great political problem. When the positive philosophy shall have penetrated that class, it will doubtless find a readier and happier reception than in any other; and the reaction that will ensue upon the higher classes

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will be no less fortunate, as enlightening them, in the only possible way, in regard to the whole social situation. In the midst of the painful conflicts which must recur till the conditions of order and of progress are fulfilled, the true philosophers who will have foreseen them will be prepared to exhibit the great social lessons they afford, and will convince the hostile parties that political measures are altogether inadequate to the cure of social evils. These few remarks may direct the reader's attention to the connection between the systematic development of the positive philosophy and the social establishment of the popular cause,-exhibiting the alliance that is needed between a great idea and a great force; and I could not close my general estimate of the spiritual reorganization with a more emphatic statement.

Promotion of
Order and

To the reader's mind it may be safely left, to compare the conditions of order and of progress in the existing state of things, and Progress. in that which is to come. The new philosophy takes up the disorder at its source, and reorganizes opinions, which are next to pass into morals and manners, and lastly, into institutions. It adopts positive methods as well as doctrines, transforms the position of existing questions, the way of treating them, and their preparatory conditions: thus affording a triple logical security for social order. Subordinating the spirit of detail to that of generality, and therefore the notion of right to that of duty, it demonstrates the moral nature of the chief social difficulties. It substitutes the relative for the absolute spirit, and thus regards the whole past as a gradual evolution of the human mind and destiny, preparatory to present and future action. Lastly, it educes the science of Sociology, and assigns its position in the scale of human knowledge, under indisputable conditions, which exclude the incompetent from interference, and devolve these lofty contemplations upon the rare order of minds that are competent to them. Such is the promise with regard to Order. As to Progress-the revolutionary party, which alone is progressive, is by no means obliged to desert the great rules which have advanced it thus far; but only to strip them of their absolute metaphysical character, and to accept and use them as relative: and in

fact, when the ancient system is fairly discarded, and the new order is steadily growing up, the dogmas of the progressive party will acquire new strength, and admit of a bolder application than ever. Whatever demolition remains to be effected will be done with the avowal that it is a transitional act, necessary to open the path of progress. We have seen that the critical spirit, while duly subordinated to the organic, is rather favourable than hostile to its social efficacy; and in its renovated and clearly defined state it must become a genuine aid to progress, by exposing the impotence of metaphysicians and legists as a governing power, and by making war with the intellectual and moral vices which impede the growth of the new social elements. Thus will the positive philosophy fulfil the conditions laid down at the beginning of this volume. Without effort, and without inconsistency, it will show itself to be more organic than the retrograde school, and more progressive than the revolutionary, so that it may be described indifferently by either attribute. Tending to unite or to dissolve all parties by the satisfaction of all their reasonable desires, the positive school may hope to gather disciples from every class. Among the clergy, there may be some who can appreciate the restoration of spiritual authority, amidst the change of conceptions on which it must be grounded. Among the military class, there must be some who can rightly understand their existing function of preserving material order till it is systematically provided for. The scientific and æsthetic classes must hail a philosophy which will elevate them to the highest social rank and rule. The industrial leaders would appreciate, if their education did but admit of it, the protection to be afforded them against popular collisions, and the award of temporal supremacy. And I have shown why the positive school is likely to have the emphatic support of the lowest class of all. Among the equivocal and anomalous orders which can be included in none of these, there must be individuals who would gladly enter the positive school;-metaphysicians who see the virtue of generality in contrast to excessive speciality; and literary men, and even lawyers, who might find stimulus and scope for the exercise of their particular talents of exposition and discussion. I have never concealed my