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as we see by the new interest excited by astronomy in the intellectual centres of Western Europe, by chemical researches, and even by the first sound anatomical observations that had ever been regularly instituted. The rise of philosophy, though the latest, and mixed up with the metaphysical spirit and the beginning of scholasticism, indicated the approach of a radical renovation, one symptom of which was the direction taken at that time by the controversy of the Realists and the Nominalists. From all the four points of view it thus appears that the beginning of the fourteenth century is the date of the first development of modern civilization, as far as we may venture to assign dates to sociological processes, which are too gradual to have any natural connection with special dates, such as we introduce as aids to order of thought and precision of memory.

The development of new social elements was coincident with the decay of the old ones in this way. Their early Rise of new growth was both repressed and concealed under the elements. contemptuous protection of the preponderant powers of the time, till those powers entered into mutual conflict; then the new elements, being necessarily called in as auxiliaries, could not but aid by their mere action the disorganization of which the conflict was a sign. To the same end, as the Catholic and feudal system was transient in its nature, its decline must begin from the moment of its highest splendour; for, its provisional office being fulfilled, its elements immediately began to lose at once the aim of their activity and the restraint which had curbed their mutual antipathy. From that precise moment the germs of the new system began to expand. When aggressive warfare was over, the human energy which was set free resorted to industrial interests for occupation; and when the monotheistic philosophy had obtained all the political ascendency it could ever have, the highest minds, finding no more theological development to be looked for, obtained a worthy scope in a scientific or artistic career. Thus we see that there was nothing accidental or empirical in the coincidence of the rise of the new order of things with the decay of the old, but rather a precise accordance between the principles and the facts of the

case.

As to the order which we should assign to the four kinds of development, it is determined by the great law of the priority of the more general and simple over the more special and complex,though the working of the law may not be recognized till it is revealed by distance of time. This law is not confined to the coordination of speculative conceptions, but extends to all positive modes of human activity, practical and individual, as well as theoretical and collective; and its final customary application will be in social classification, the character of which will be determined by the whole of its deductions. We shall see this fully in the next

chapter, and I mention it here only because I have to arrange my historical material by means of the principle.

Philosophical

ployments.

The way in which it is to be applied, amidst the distracting speciality of the multitude of human occupations, is order of em- by drawing out a vast line comprehending all those occupations, from the most insignificant material acts to the sublimest speculations, æsthetic, scientific, or philosophical, in an ascending succession of generality and abstractness, in a normal view of their character; and therefore in a descending series of professions, according to the increasing complexity of their immediate purpose, and the more direct utility of their daily operations. Regarded as a whole, this vast series presents in its higher divisions a more eminent and extended relation, but one less complete, direct, and certain, so that it in fact often fails; whereas the lower divisions compensate for their inferior and restricted nature by the plenitude, promptness, and clearness of their unquestionable services. Individually compared, these degrees should manifest as they ascend a more and more marked preponderance of the noble faculties which most distinguish humanity; and the corresponding social labours will exhibit a more complete concentration and closer connection in proportion as we ascend to works which are, on account of their difficulty, accessible to a smaller number of cooperators, while they need a smaller variety of organs, according to the more extended scope of their respective action; whence results a more vast but less intense development of the universal sociality which, on the contrary, in the descending hierarchy, diminishes more and more till it is restricted almost within the limits of domestic life, where, in truth, it is most valuable and best relished.

This series is like the animal hierarchy (of which it is in fact a kind of special prolongation), in admitting and even Classification. requiring, in the midst of its continuity, some rational divisions, founded on the affinities which occasion certain modes of activity. Of those divisions, the first and most important results from the distinction between the practical and the speculative life, which we have been studying under the names of the temporal and the spiritual order. We need not subdivide the first of these, which we may call, in a general way, the action of Man upon nature: but the other, the speculative life, must be divided into two,-æsthetic and scientific speculation. And thus we have that part of the scale appropriate to modern civilization divided into three great orders; the Industrial or practical; the Esthetic or poetic; and the Scientific or philosophical,―of which this is the natural order. All are indispensable in their several ways: they represent universal, though not equally pressing needs; and aptitudes also universal, though unequally marked. They correspond to the three several aspects under which every subject may be

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positively regarded, as good or beneficial, as beautiful, and as true. They are regarded in this ascending order by commonplace minds, in which the affective life prevails largely over the intellectual; whereas the reverse order is the rational one, and that which gains upon the other in proportion as the intellect assumes a larger share in the human evolution :-all which is consistent with what we have seen to be the result of our cerebral organization, which compels men in general to think most of practical utility, and next of ideal perfection; while very few are qualified for the persevering search after abstract truth. Whichever way we enter upon the study of the classification of human pursuits, I am convinced that we shall find the æsthetic element always intermediate between the industrial and the scientific, partaking of the nature of both, without however preventing their having direct relations with each other. Such is the series which furnishes the only rational basis for a statical, and therefore for a dynamical analysis of modern civilization. But there is a further subdivision which, though merely provisional, it is necessary to notice, because, however certain to disappear, its duration is no less than from the beginning of the fourteenth century to the future complete establishment of the positive philosophy. I refer to the distinction between science and philosophy, which, it may have been observed, I have just spoken of as one. They are radically one: but at present our science is not so philosophical, nor our philosophy so scientific, as to permit their being thoroughly united in our view; and for purposes of historical exposition of the last five centuries, we must make a fourth element out of this subdivision. In fact, we must submit to a final protraction of that old Greek error of twenty centuries ago, of separating natural from moral philosophy; an error which has been sustained and rendered conspicuous during the last five centuries by the expansion of natural philosophy, properly so called, and the consecutive transformations of moral philosophy. I proceed, then, on the supposition of there being four classes of social elements, the industrial, the aesthetic, the scientific, and the philosophical,—striving to keep before my own mind and the reader's the merely provisional character of the last division.

It will be at once admitted that while all the four elements coexist permanently, they are, from their nature, Order of developed at unequal rates; and also that the same succession. law which regulates their respective positions in the scale, decides the succession of their development; and again, that the rise of any one of them impels that of the rest. I need not enlarge again on the reciprocal influence, for direction and excitement, of the scientific evolution and the industrial; and the great social consequences of this connection will appear hereafter. But we are much less aware of the equally certain connection between the aesthetic and

VOL. II.

U

the two extreme evolutions. The positive theory of human nature shows us that the cultivation of art naturally succeeds that of industry, and prepares for science and philosophy; and when the progression is, by an exceptional course, in an inverse direction, it is certain, though not so obvious, that scientific activity urges to a certain æsthetic activity, if only for the sake of mental relaxation; and that the practice of art is again favourable to industry. And thus it appears that the mutual action of these elements is as unquestionable as their respective position; that is, their dynamical as their statical arrangement.

In regard to the historical application of this arrangement, and bearing in mind that it is not the origin of any element that we are here concerned with, but its historical appearance, it seems unquestionable that we must ascend the scale, noticing first the industrial aspect of modern civilization, and rising to the philosophical. It is certainly the industrial quality of modern societies which offers their first great contrast with those of antiquity. The industrial element is new; and the others, though far more powerful in recent than in ancient times, had then a very conspicuous existence. After the emancipation of the primitive labourers, the most advanced societies were mainly distinguished by the gradual preponderance of the industrial over the military life; and it was thus the source of their other essential attributes, and the mainspring of their method of social training. The intellectual awakening consequent on this practical activity, and the relative ease spread through society, naturally occasioned a more disinterested extension of the fine arts, which had never been so widely propagated, in their three chief forms, during the polytheistic period. In another view, we see that the improvement in the industrial arts has raised them to a kind of aesthetic quality, especially in the case of the geometrical arts. Again, the industrial evolution was necessary to impart to the scientific spirit of modern times the thorough positivity which characterizes it, and which has extended from it to the philosophical spirit. So that, on all accounts, we see that the ascending direction is that in which human progression is to be traced; and that the descending one, which alone is perfectly rational, is impracticable till social science has advanced much further than at present.

Such doubt as there is, relates to the order of the aesthetic and scientific evolutions. Though their order is usually what I have now made it, it may be objected that in Germany, the development of science clearly preceded that of art. But, for this single instance, exceptional reasons might be assigned, if it were within my province; and it must be our rule to study the civilization, not of any one nation, however important, but of the whole portion of mankind involved in the movement of western Europe; that is (specifying the nations once for all), Italy, France, England, Germany,

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and Spain. These five great nations may be regarded as having constituted, after the first half of the Middle Ages, one single people, immensely different in various respects, but bound up together under the Catholic and feudal system, and undergoing together all the subsequent changes which the system brought after it. This being our field of observation, we shall decide that the scientific development was certainly posterior to the aesthetic. This is remarkably clear in regard to Italy, which led the rest of the world in the most important particulars of civilization, and in which we observe the spirit of Art gradually growing up on the traces of industry, and preparing the way for science and philosophy, through its beneficent property of awakening speculation in even the most ordinary minds. As the descending order, however, was the natural one in the infancy of society, when all civilization issued from the theocratic principle; and as it will again be the natural one when society shall be philosophically organized, it is now the natural order in the interior of each of the divisions in the scale of human pursuits. In each, we shall find the course of progression to be from the more general to the more special,-from the abstract to the concrete. And thus, for five centuries past, the ascending and descending order of progression has gone forward,—the one for the general human advancement, and the other for the three special modes of advancement. The actual case represents the natural course of an ideal society, whose early stages could be preserved from theology and war; and it is exhibited to us now in the more restricted instance of individual education,-in as far, at least, as it is spontaneous,-in which æsthetic follows industrial activity, and prepares for scientific and philosophical action.

I have thus laid down the date and order of succession of modern civilization; and we may proceed to survey its four great departments, beginning with the industrial evolution.

THE INDUS

It appears to me that when serfage succeeded to slavery, the change constituted a kind of direct incorporation, in the earliest degree, of the agricultural population TRIAL MOVEwith society in general, to which that population had MENT. been hitherto a sort of domestic animals. From that moment, the cultivator, attached to the land, which was then the most stable of possessions, began to acquire, even in his poor and precarious condition, something like social rights;-if no more, the most elementary of all, that of forming a family, properly so called, which was now for the first time sanctioned by his new position. This amelioration, from which all other civil emancipation proceeded, seems to assign the country as the first seat of popular enfranchisement; and this great social phenomenon connects itself naturally with the instinctive predilection of feudal chiefs for an agricultural life, with its precious independence, and with the fine spectacle, so