it to matters which have some bearing upon the interests of humanity. They hold that much scientific speculation, though not erroneous, isoiseuse '-that is to say, otiose: a mere play of the mind, of no more value than whist or chess, and therefore to be discouraged as a waste of the intellectual powers which should be devoted to the service of mankind. Undoubtedly this attitude towards scientific men easily passes into one of suspicion or dislike to science generally. It is difficult to distinguish between the Pope, who says 'Submit your reason to my infallible authority,' and M. Comte who says 'Keep your reason within the bounds which I have demonstrated to be desirable.' There is a closer analogy between Comte and the mystic who deprecates all profane learning, not as false, but as distracting to the soul. The resemblance, however, to Catholicism, whatever its value, is not an argument to be used against Comtists with any hope of influencing them. They fully accept and endorse it. Mr. Congreve replies to Prof. Huxley that Positivism is Catholicism plus science. The medieval church is regarded as the nearest approach that has hitherto been made to the ideal order of things. Take away, that is, such trifles as the belief in God, and the whole body of Catholic dogma, and the organisation with a new creed would give us very nearly what we need. Comte himself constantly regrets that the moral decline of Catholicism made it impossible that the new should not have been developed from the old without any abrupt breach of continuity. I have always regretted,' he says, 'to see the Catholic organism extinguished without being able to utilise for the final transition the débris of a hierarchy whose construction exacted so much time and labour, too little recompensed by its true

services.

If the revolution could have been brought about systematically, the monastic orders might have become the nursery of a philosophical priesthood, propagating intellectual enfranchisement with a wise circumspection, never deteriorated by hypocrisy.' He specifies the Franciscans as peculiarly adapted for such a task, as they were constituted in such a manner as to become independent of the degenerate papacy; and holds that they might have regulated 'the spontaneous tendency of women to convert the preponderating adoration of the Virgin into direct preparation for the worship of Humanity.' The impossibility of this plan was indeed due not so much to the moral degradation of the orders, but to an inevitable mental contradiction. It could only have. been carried out by means of an intelligent conception of history, which was necessarily wanting until the advent of Positivism. The clergy could never appreciate the being to whose providence they owed everything. Comte refers in an odd inversion of customary theological language to their dim consciousness of truths not yet revealed to them. The Christian or Mohammedan devotee,' he says, 'who thanks his God for the benefit really due to our true Providence, cannot put up his anti-social prayers, except in a language which emanates from the Supreme Being whom he does not acknowledge.' This lamentable blindness, strange as it now appears, could not be remedied until the chance of regeneration was hopelessly gone by. Yet the medieval church will always remain as the type of the spiritual power which is ultimately to prevail; and, though marked by many imperfections, was the first great attempt to fulfil the most fundamental condition of a satisfactory organisation of mankind. The close resemblances, therefore, which

may be detected between the Church of Rome and the ideal Church of Paris, though they may deter minds stupefied by Protestantism, are in no sense a stumblingblock to Comtists. On the contrary, they delight to dwell upon them, and to bring them into the plainest relief. Arguments directed against the value of a religion which systematically ignores the existence of a Deity, are obvious enough and are thoroughly to the purpose; but to accuse it simply of resembling the system which it aspires to supplant is to say nothing which the most ardent supporters would not be prepared to claim as a strong recommendation.

This in fact is the main principle which must be borne in mind, whilst endeavouring to appreciate fairly Comte's Utopia. It is difficult to separate fairly the accidental details from the essential parts of his scheme. Like many other writers of less note he has caused many accidental difficulties to the acceptance of his doctrines, in addition to those which no skill or forethought could have softened, by plunging into a mass of very ludicrous detail. The result has not indeed been entirely prejudicial. Thinkers who wish to impress new ideas upon the world, may take one of two courses. They may lay down the great seminal principles, and leave it to their followers to work out the details in practice: or they may seek to anticipate the probable objection that their schemes could not be carried out, by laying down an elaborate system of directions. They may content themselves with designing a general sketch of the edifice that is to be erected: or they may insist upon providing us with a series of working drawings, settling what are to be the position and dimensions of every room and passage, and closet, from the cellarage to the weathercock on the steeple. The advantage of this

latter plan is, that although many of the data will necessarily have been assumed at random and the details. be liable to great alteration, no one will be able to say that it is impossible to embody the theory in concrete brick and mortar. Whether this be so or not, there is the incidental advantage that the quaintness or the absurdity of the details acts as a useful advertisement and helps to fix public attention. People who care very little for the classification of the sciences or for the organisation of a spiritual hierarchy are amused by the little eccentricities which are perhaps not a very essential part of the scheme. On the other hand, Comte's plan undoubtedly raises a certain presumption against a thinker, whose intellectual deficiencies, whether of imagination or humour or some other faculty, were so great as to lay down with so amazing a gravity propositions which are so irresistibly absurd to the majority of his species.

The warmest admirer, for example, must find it hard to suppress a smile when he comes to Comte's description of the Positivist flags, the necessity of which, he tells us, is already instinctively felt, in order that retrograde emblems may everywhere be replaced without adopting any anarchical banner. The religious flag, it seems, will represent on a white ground, the symbol of Humanity, a woman of thirty holding her child in her arms. The reverse will contain the sacred formula, 'L'Amour pour principe, l'Ordre pour base, et le Progrès pour but,' on a green ground, as the natural colour of hope. The political flag will be entirely green, but instead of the picture of Humanity will have a statuette on the top of the staff. One side will bear the political and scientific motto, 'Ordre et Progrès;' the other the moral and æsthetic motto, 'Vivre pour autrui.' The border of the flag will be coloured differently according to

the nation in which it is used. Comte does not always get so far in this peculiar kind of ritualism. He admits that the dress of the priesthood cannot at present be determined further than that it is to be something between the male and the feminine, and that its colour will indicate that it speaks in the name of the past for the future. Nor can he take upon himself to describe the architecture of the future. Each of the temples, however, provided for the worship of Humanity will be surrounded with the tombs of the worthy dead: each placed in a sacred grove. The axis of the temple itself and of the holy forest will pass through Paris, after the happy precedent of Mohammedanism. The sanctuary, in which & statue of Humanity will surmount the pulpit, will be large enough to contain a seventh part of the audience, in order that the interpreter of the Grand-Etre may be surrounded by the femmes d'élite who form his best representation. Seven chapels on each side will enclose the statues of the thirteen principal leaders of mankind each surrounded by his four best supporters; whilst the fourteenth will be reserved for a group of feminine types.

Perhaps, however, the boldest of Comte's anticipations is that in which he describes the great poem of the future. This 'épopée sans exemple' will be produced, it seems, about the middle of the transitional period (which lasts until the full adoption of Positivism at the end of the present century), by an Italian; and it may be remarked that sooner or later Italian will become the universal language. The poem of Humanity will consist of thirteen cantos. Its purpose will be to idealise the philosophy of history, and to characterise all the phases of life preparatory to the advent of the final state. The first canto will 'offer a statical character, in order to idealise the cerebral unity.' In

three more cantos the moral and mental descent will be accomplished from the relative to the absolute, first monotheistic, then polytheistic, and finally fetishistic, in a vain aspiration for complete harmony. Eight more cantos will exhibit the gradual rise to Positivist unity, through fetish-worship, astrolatry, theocracy, the rise of speculation, social polytheism, defensive monotheism, feudal civilisation, and the modern movement. Finally, the thirteenth canto will idealise the normal existence, speculative, temporal, and practical. This last part will not be further developed, because it is only in a more distant future that we shall be able to appreciate the final result of the long evolution through which society has passed. The fundamental idea of the poem is derived, as Comte tells us, from his own experience during his temporary attack of insanity. In that period, he says, he went rapidly backwards from Positivism to fetishism and then slowly remounted the scale; and certainly, though the technical phraseology gives an additional air of absurdity to the poem, one is hardly surprised at its origin. In Comte's opinion it will do for the present stage of human thought what Dante's incomparable poem did for medieval society.

Dr. Bridges has declared in answer to Mr. Mill that Comte had really a sense of humour; and he grounds the assertion upon the fact that Comte admired, not only Molière, but Aristophanes, Ariosto, Shakespeare, Cervantes and Fielding: and that in his calendar he inserted the names of nearly all the English and French humourists. As an illustration of the nature of his admiration, we might quote one of his criticisms upon some of these works. This profoundly original genius, he says of Shakespeare, was prevented by his Protestantism from properly appreciating the medieval period or even antiquity, and was forced to

reduce his principal tableaux to times too near his own to admit of a sufficient idealisation. Thus the development of historical poetry was reserved for the great Corneille; whilst Molière equally attacked the retrograde classes and corrected the progressive elements. Feeling the true nature of the western revolutions, rather intellectual than social, he laboured, under the Cartesian impulse, to discredit metaphysicians and to rectify medical men whose attitude was becoming vicious in proportion as they lost the scientific guidance. These remarks may be valuable in their way, as illustrating the social and philosophical influence of these great poets; but they certainly indicate no appreciation of their humour; and are to say the least compatible with a total absence of any sensibility to humour. No one, we feel sure, could detect from Comte's writings that he ever knew what a joke meant; it may be that he is far too much in earnest to be capable, of dallying with the lighter views of things; but it is characteristic of Comte's disciples that they cannot bear even the slightest detraction from the marvellous talents of their master. They would apparently wish that besides recognising him as an actual teacher of the highest class in moral and scientific questions we should also admit that he was potentially a poet and a humourist. It may be so; but they are asking us to swallow a rather powerful dose.

It is time, however, to proceed to a more serious argument. The strange elaboration of details which casts an air of ridicule over Comte's ideal of the social future, enables us at any rate to form a very distinct conception of the more essential elements of his scheme. Comtists may abandon the flag, and may cross themselves after a different fashion from that which he has prescribed; they may build temples on a different plan; they may even write poems

which are not in thirteen cantos, or devoted to setting forth their ideas in the orthodox order of development. These are the mere outside husk-the trappings which may be altered without prejudice to the essence of the faith. Comte has a very different message to deliver, and one which is deserving of much deeper attention. The best way of appreciating it will perhaps be to set forth as well as we can the main lines upon which he proposes that the edifice of the future shall be erected-always admitting that it is capable of the widest modifications; and that, whatever Comte himself may have thought, his followers are only desirous of securing the recognition of certain fundamental truths, without insisting upon every subordinate fragment of the main plan. Their Utopia may be put into operation without a servile adherence to all the bylaws of the original legislator.

The first and most essential point, as we have already remarked, is the foundation of a spiritual power resembling that of the Catholic Church in the middle ages, but with superior concentration of authority. The European priesthood will consist of twenty thousand philosophers-the numbers, as we may say once for all, being assumed rather to fix ideas than as essential to the success of the scheme. The Positivist Pope, who shall reside at Paris, will enjoy the most absolute authority. He will be able to nominate, displace, suspend, and revoke the authority of any priest on his own responsibility. He will indeed be assisted by a college of cardinals, increasing in proportion to the spread of the Positivist creed, but ultimately amounting to forty-nine in number. He will name his own successor, according to a general principle applicable to all Positivist functionaries, though the college will have a certain voice in 'controlling or rectifying' his

choice. He may, says Comte, if he pleases, change, in case of necessity, all the members of the priesthood without really affecting the spiritual organism. Never, he declares, could the papacy, always trammelled by the sacred college, and often exposed to councils, obtain such an ascendant as will spontaneously fall to the Pontificate of Humanity, on occasion of the separation of the spiritual and temporal powers.

The priests, who thus form a spiritual army of such coherence and concentration as has never before been exhibited, will exercise a tremendous influence. The country will be supplied with temples, though on a more moderate scale than has hitherto been found necessary. Thus there will be five hundred temples in France, each temple serving for ten thousand families, and each family consisting of seven people. (The total population is thus assumed at thirty-five millions.) Connected with each of these temples will be a sacerdotal college, consisting of ten married priests, under the presidency of the eldest. This number, he calculates, will suffice for the needs of worship, of preaching, and of consultation, whether intellectual, moral, or even physical. It will be amongst the first duties of the priesthood to renounce all claims to wealth, and they will depend principally upon salaries of from 240l. to 480l. a year. The priesthood will thus have at least the merit of cheapness, for even the Positivist Pope is only to have five times the revenue of an ordinary priest. Comte calculates that the European priesthood will thus cost less than the Anglican clergy. The priests will all be compelled to marriage, at least, subjective' (that is, we presume, their wives must either be living or dead), and must renounce all claims to inheritance, in order to ensure their abnegation of temporal grandeur. They may well make the sacrifice, in consideration of the

enormous authority which they will enjoy.

In the first place, they will have the chief control of education. Children during the first fourteen years of their lives will be left to maternal care, and their education will be almost entirely moral and æsthetic. From fourteen to twenty-one they will undergo a complete course of teaching from the priesthood, during which period-so improved will be the state of human knowledge-they will listen to a series of lectures upon all the sciences, so far as Comte thinks that science can be pursued without degenerating into useless speculations. The result of this education will be to develop a profound humility. Instruction, 'far from developing discussion, will systematise submission.' The pupils will desire to retain the principles which they have learnt, and to forget the demonstrations upon which they repose, in order to devote themselves more effectually to practice. The habit of reading will be discouraged, because it interferes with meditation, which can be really assisted only by the inexhaustible study of the great poems of the world. Indeed the true Positivist will be able, even if he be a priest, to reduce his library to one hundred volumes. Ten of these will condense all philosophy; twenty more will contain poetry; the remainder will contain all the works worthy to survive the systematic destruction of the immense masses which at present compress or pervert thought.' The greater part of useful knowledge will be handed down by tradition, books being reserved for the most part for the communication of real improvements in general scientific conceptions.

The Positivist clergy will thus preside over a population drilled from their earliest years to unhesitating faith in their teachers, and although it is true that all men and