The meaning of this simply is, that man, like all other things, is a product of nature, and nothing more— 'simply the apex of the animal series," as Mr Lewes has it.1

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There is one being only, the growth of nature's forces. There are not two orders of being, as all Theology believes, and all Metaphysic implies; but only one order. The spiritual is not a distinct quality or essence in man, but only a function of the physical -its final result and expression. This is the fundamental position of Positivism-the fundamental antithesis which it presents to Theism. Positivism may disown Materialism, as it disavows Atheism. Comte, we are aware, expressly did both.2 But this he only did by changing the meaning of the expression. Materialism, in its ordinary sense, is that view of man's condition and destiny which, beginning with nature, ends with nature, or, in other words, which denies that there is any order of being, and consequently of knowledge, save that of the objective world cognisable by the senses. The postulate of all Theology, on the contrary, is, that there are two orders of being, and two sources of knowledge-the one natural, the other supernatural-and that man belongs to both. The spirit, soul, or reason, while manifesting itself under natural conditions, is yet in itself, apart from these conditions, a reality belonging to a higher order of life, of which God is the head. The higher element in man is his spiritual being. He is "spirit" and not "matter." The higher order is the real order, of which the other is only the manifestation. Real or

1 Vol. ii. p. 72.

2 A General View of Positivism, p. 49.

absolute Being is "behind the veil." Nature hides it while she reveals it. This idea of a higher and supernatural order of being to which man belongs lies at the root of all theology, of all spiritual philosophy. The denial of this-of an immaterial being in man, and of a Supreme Spirit above him, of a divine reason within him, and a divine reason governing him-is what is commonly understood by Materialism and Atheism. The two conclusions are interchangeablelogically inseparable. If there is no spirit in man, he can never find a Spirit above him. "Nisi in microcosmo spiritus, nec in macrocosmo Deus." And, on the other hand, as all the higher forms of theistic philosophy admit, the reality of a spiritual Reason in man, with the fundamental principles which it implies of Cause, Substance, Personality, is the only rational foundation of belief in a supreme spiritual Existence or Divine Being.

III. Positivism, in denying the divine side of man and a divine order in the universe, quite consistently makes Humanity its highest word - its " "Supreme." It knows no transcendental order. It has not only constructed an elaborate philosophy on a physical basis, but with a strictly consistent logic it has constructed a religion on the highest results of this philosophy-in other words, on the supreme conclusions of science. There was no other authority remaining for it. Men have hitherto supposed that in order to constitute a religion it was necessary to fall back on some personal authority-to recognise some higher Being or Beings of a kindred nature with man, and possessed of power to reward or punish him according to his good or ill desert. But Positivism, having exploded the

idea of the Supernatural and eliminated the element of the Divine from the sphere of knowledge, could fall back on no other authority than that of scientific opinion. The consensus of the highest minds set apart from the study of science becomes necessarily the governing principle of human action, and the highest subject of human knowledge. Humanity itself, in its collective history and ideal, becomes with equal necessity the object of supreme regard, or the centre of religious reverence and affection.

We have already indicated our opinion that Positivism, in order to be understood fully, must be taken as a whole; that its philosophy cannot be consistently separated from its religion. Comte plainly designed, from the beginning, to establish an authoritative organisation of society. It was the idea of social reform, rather than of any mere organisation of scientific thought, which animated his career. Or rather, it was the former task which gave to the latter, in his estimation, all its special value. It was necessary to organise thought in order to reorganise society. A philosophy of the sciences was needed as the basis and instrument of a new and higher mode of life. It appeared to him that the old principles of government, religious and philosophical, had lost all hold of modern society; and that it was necessary to reconstruct the social system and the activities of individual life on the immutable principles which science had brought to light. The religion of Positivism is therefore a direct expansion of its philosophy-the one is the necessary complement of the other.

It is plain, moreover, that there was no object of religion remaining for Comte except Humanity. If

you cut off all higher knowledge from man, all knowledge beyond the facts of nature, cosmical and sociological, there remains for him nothing to reverence or worship above himself, or the nature in which he shares. Within the sphere of natural facts man is highest. All preceding facts culminate and find their supreme meaning in him. He is nature's choicest result and crown; and if he is to worship at all, he must worship the ideal of Humanity as exhibited in its most perfect forms. And this is exactly what Comte has taught. Humanity is with him the collective sum of individual laws and existences. It is not an abstraction, but the highest reality, ideally conceived, the whole of human beings, past, present, and future. Nor is it an eternal principle or source of being of which human life and all life are merely manifestations. This would be to imply something beyond Nature-something behind and above it. And Comte is amazingly consistent in refusing to lift his eyes beyond natural phenomena. He will see no facts beyond the facts of earth or of man-of the Cosmos or of human society. He will own no light from any other region. There is no other region. Humanity as it has been, is, and will be, is at once the highest fact and the highest thought. Human life in its historical development, in its present activity, and its future progress, is to him Supreme-le vrai Grand Être.1

We share in this life objectively during our visible existence upon earth; we share in it subjectively by living in the hearts and intellects of others after we are dead. This is the only-" the noble "-immor

1 Cat. Pos., p. 74.

tality which Positivism allows the human being. Such a conception is not only the loftiest in itself, as revealing the true identity of human existence as a vast organism in which we all share and whose servants we are, but as furnishing to man the only idea of a God which is practically useful to him—a God who needs his service, and whose fulness of being can be advanced or retarded by his activity.1 This is the Positivist idea of God.

The Religion of Humanity has an elaborate cultus, private and public. The former divides itself into personal and domestic worship, each of which has its special rites. The objects of personal worship are the "Guardian angels of the family"—the mother, the wife, and daughter-as respectively the highest representatives of Humanity. "The existence of the Supreme Being is founded entirely on love, for love alone unites in a voluntary union its separable elements. Consequently the affective sex is naturally the most perfect representative of Humanity, and at the same time her principal minister. Nor will Art

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1 There is yet a singular inconsistency in the Positivist reverence for humanity, even looking at it from a Positive point of view. For while Comte speaks with enthusiasm of the manner in which the smallest tribe, and even family, may come to look upon themselves as the essential stock of humanity, and of the security which the Positivist idea alone gives for regarding all human beings as essentially linked together, every one members one of another," according to "the admirable St Paul," who yet imperfectly understood his own saying, he does not hesitate at the same time to speak with great contempt of the multitudes of human beings who, according to the energetic reprobation of Ariosto, are born upon the earth merely to manure it" (" sol per far letame mere digesting machines,” “forming no real part of humanity." Here the essential exclusiveness-the aristocratic narrowness-of all merely human religion comes out: how different from the human ideal of the Gospel, which is "preached to the poor," and which came "to save that which was lost"!

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