very weakness is an evidence of the common sense of the need and the power of intellectual generality, since it is the affectation of that quality which provisionally sustains the practical influence of a doctrine now in universal disrepute, which has no other office than keeping up, in an imperfect way, a notion of intellectual concentration in the midst of the most active dispersion. When the advent of the true philosophy shall have stripped the metaphysical doctrine of every vestige of this attribute, the supposed philosophy will disappear, probably without any discussion, or any other notice than a comparison of its uses with those of its successor. Then the great preparatory schism, organized by Aristotle and Plato, between natural and moral philosophy, will be dissolved. As modified by Descartes, it has now reached its last term, after having fulfilled its provisional office. The intellectual unity, vainly because prematurely sought by scholasticism, will now result, irrevocably, from the perpetual coincidence of philosophical science and scientific philosophy. The study of moral and social Man will obtain without opposition the due normal ascendency which belongs to it in the speculative system, because it is no longer hostile to the most simple and perfect contemplations, but is even based upon them and contributary to their use. However men may act in the presence of this change, whether young thinkers adhere to the philosophy of egotism or join that of renovation; whether the savans will rise to philosophy, or philosophers will return to science; and however a narrow and self-interested majority may resist the change, there will be a nucleus of eminent minds to form the new spiritual body (which may be indifferently called scientific or philosophical), under the sway and guidance of an adequate general education.

Here ends my historical review of the last half-century, and with it, of the whole past of the human race: a survey which yields the conviction that the present time is that in which the philosophical renovation, so long prepared for and projected by Bacon and Descartes, must take place. Amidst some personal impediments, everything is essentially ready for the process. I have endeavoured to show how clear it is, after the failure of all manner of vain attempts, that science is the only basis of a true philosophy; and that their union affords the only fulfilment of the conditions of order and of progress, by substituting a sustained and determinate movement for a vague and anarchical agitation. It is for the thoughtful to judge whether my fundamental theory of human evolution, illustrated by the history of human progress, contains the principle of this great solution. But, before I proceed to the philosophical conclusions derivable from the whole of this Work, I must offer a general elucidation of the new political philosophy which has been disclosed by the successive portions of my dynamical estimate, by specially and directly considering the

LAW OF HUMAN EVOLUTION.

387

proper nature of the spiritual reorganization in which we have seen the whole past converge, and from which the The law of whole future must evidently proceed. The reader evolution. cannot fail to bear in mind the concatenation of events, as presented in my historical analysis; and he will not lose sight of my explanation that, though I was compelled, for the sake of clearness, to separate the negative from the positive progression of modern times, the two were in fact most intimately connected, and must be so considered, in the act of drawing conclusions from them. It certainly appears to me that the whole course of human history affords so decisive a verification of my theory of evolution, that no essential law of natural philosophy is more fully demonstrated. From the earliest beginnings of civilization to the present state of the most advanced nations, this theory has explained, consistently and dispassionately, the character of all the great phases of humanity; the participation of each in the perdurable common development, and their precise filiation; so as to introduce perfect unity and rigorous continuity into this vast spectacle which otherwise appears altogether desultory and confused. A law which fulfils such conditions must be regarded as no philosophical pastime, but as the abstract expression of the general reality. Being so, it may be employed with logical security to connect the past with the future, notwithstanding the perpetual variety which characterizes the social succession; for its essential course, without being in any way periodical, is thus constantly referrible to a steady rule which, almost imperceptible in the study of any separate phase, becomes unquestionable when the whole progression is surveyed. Now, the use of this great law has led us to determine the necessary general tendency of existing civilization by accurately marking the degree already achieved by the great evolution: and hence results at once the indication of the direction which the systematic movement should be made to take, in order to accord with the spontaneous movement. We have seen that the most advanced part of the human race has exhausted the theological and metaphysical life, and is now at the threshold of the fully positive life, the elements of which are all prepared, and only awaiting their co-ordination to form a new social system, more homogeneous and more stable than mankind has hitherto had any experience of. This co-ordination must be, from its nature, first intellectual, then moral, and finally political; for the revolution which has to be completed proceeds in fact from the necessary tendency of the human mind to substitute for the philosophical method which suited its infancy that which is appropriate to its maturity. In this view, the mere knowledge of the law of progression becomes the general principle of solution by establishing a perfect agreement in the whole system of our understanding, through the preponderance, thus obtained, of the positive method,

in social as in all other researches. Again, this last fulfilment of the intellectual evolution necessarily favours the ascendency of the spirit of generality, and therefore the sentiment of duty, which is, by its nature, closely connected with it, so as naturally to induce moral regeneration. Moral laws are at present dangerously shaken only through their implication with theological conceptions that have fallen into disrepute; and they will assume a surpassing vigour when they are connected with positive ideas that are generally relied on. Again, in a political view, the regeneration of social doctrine must, by its very action, raise up from the midst of anarchy a new spiritual authority which, after having disciplined the human intellect and reconstructed morals, will peaceably become, throughout Western Europe, the basis of the final system of human society. Thus, the same philosophical conception which discloses to us the true nature of the great problem furnishes the general principle of the solution, and indicates the necessary course of action.

In the present stage, the philosophical contemplation and labour Speculative are more important than political action, in regard preparation. to social regeneration; because a basis is the thing wanted, while there is no lack of political measures, more or less provisional, which preserve material order from invasion by the restless spirits that come forth during a season of anarchy. The governments are relying on corruption and on repressive force, while the philosophers are elaborating their principles; and what the philosophers have to expect from wise governments is that they will not interfere with the task while in progress, nor hereafter with the gradual application of its results. The French Convention is, thus far, the only government that, since the opening of the crisis, has manifested any instinct of its true position. During its ascending phase, at least, it strove, amidst vast difficulties, to introduce progressive though provisional institutions; whereas, all other political powers have written on their flimsy erections that they were built for eternity.

As for the kind of persons who are to constitute the new spiritual Spiritual authority, it is easy to say who they will not be, and authority. impossible to say who they will be. There will be no organization like that of the Catholic priesthood, for the benefit of any existing class. I need not say that it will not be the savans. It will not be any class now existing; because the natural elements of the new authority must undergo a thorough intellectual and moral regeneration in accordance with the doctrine which is to organize them. The future spiritual power will reside in a wholly new class, in no analogy with any now existing, and originally composed of members issuing, according to their qualifications, from all orders of existing society, the scientific having, to all appearance, no sort of predominance over the rest. The advent of this body will be

NEW SPIRITUAL AUTHORITY.

389

essentially spontaneous, since its social sway can arise from nothing else than the voluntary assent of men's minds to the new doctrines successively wrought out: and such an authority can therefore no more be decreed than it can be interdicted. As it must thus arise, little by little, out of its own work, all speculation about the ulterior forms of its constitution would be idle and uncertain. As its social power must, like that of Catholicism, precede its political organization, all that can be done now is to mark its destination in the final social system, so as to show how it may act on the general state of affairs, by accomplishing the philosophical labours which will secure its formation long before it can be regularly constituted.

I cannot but suppose my readers convinced by this time that there is a growing pressure of necessity for a spiritual power entirely independent of the temporal,-governing opinions and morals, while the civil rule applies only to acts. We see that the grand characteristic of human progress is an ever-increasing preponderance of the speculative over the active life: and, though the latter always keeps the active ascendency, it would be contradictory to suppose that the contemplative part of Man is to be for ever deprived of due culture and distinct direction in the social state in which the reason will find habitual scope and expansion, even among the lowest order, while the separation existed, in the Middle Ages, amidst a civilization which stood much nearer to the cradle of human society. All the wise now admit the necessity of a permanent division between theory and practice, in order to the perfecting of both; even in regard to the smallest subjects of study: and there can be no more hesitation about applying the principle to operations of the utmost difficulty and importance, when we are advanced enough for the process. Intellectually, the separation of the two powers is merely the external manifestation of the same distinction between science and art, transferred to social ideas, and there systematized. It would be a vast retrogression, most degrading to our intelligence, if we were to leave modern society below the level of that of the Middle Ages, by reconstituting the ancient confusion which the Middle Ages had outgrown, without any of the excuse that the ancients had for that confusion. Yet more striking would be the return to barbarism in the moral relation. We have seen how, by the aid of Catholicism, Morality escaped from the control of policy, to assume the social supremacy which is its due, and without which it could not attain a necessary purity and universality. This procedure, so little understood by the philosophic vulgar, laid the foundation of our moral education by securing from the encroachment of inferior and private interests the immutable laws which relate to the most intimate and general needs of the human race. It is certain that this indispensable co-ordination would have no consistence amidst the conflict of human passions if, resting only on an abstract doctrine, it was not animated and con

firmed by the intervention of a moral power distinct from, and independent of, the political. We know this by what we see of the breaches of morals that take place through the spiritual disorganization, and though the morality which accords with modern civilization is thereby secured from dogmatic attack,—fallen as is the Catholic philosophy, which was its original organ. We may observe in our metaphysical constitutions themselves some recognition of the principle of separation in those remarkable preliminary declarations which give to the humblest citizens a general control of political measures. This is a feeble image and imperfect equivalent of the strong means furnished by the Catholic organism to every member for resistance to every legal injunction which should be contrary to established morality,-avoiding, the while, any revolt against an economy regularly founded on such a separation. Since Mankind first really entered upon a career of civilization, this great division has been, in all respects, the social principle of intellectual elevation and moral dignity.-It fell into discredit, it is true, with the decline of Catholicism; but revolutionary prejudices are not to last for ever; and the nature of modern civilization both prescribes and prepares for a renewal of the distinction, without any of the forced character which belonged to it in the Middle Ages. Under the ascendency of Industry, there can be no confusion between the speculative and the active authorities, which could never be united in the same organ, for the simplest and most restricted operations; and much less for those of high social importance. Morals and manners are as adverse to such a concentration as capacities. Though the different classes imitate one another too much, and though wealth is held in pre-eminent honour at present, no one will pretend that riches can confer any right to decide on great social questions. Again, while artists, and, more disgracefully, scientific men, struggle in rivalship of wealth with industrial leaders, there is no reason to fear that the æsthetic and the scientific career can ever lead to high station by means of wealth. The generous improvidence of the one order of men, when their vocation is real, is incompatible with the anxious solicitude necessary to the acquisition of wealth. The highest degrees of fortune and of consideration can never be united; the first belonging naturally to services of immediate and material utility; and the other following, more remotely, upon speculative labours, which, in proportion to their superior social value, find at length their social reward in the highest veneration. There is some recognition of the necessity of a separate spiritual government in the influence which actually belongs to men of letters and metaphysicians in our day; and the only real question is whether society shall be governed on a basis of ascertained knowledge and unquestionable philosophy, or whether it shall be guided by organs qualified neither by sound knowledge nor by genuine conviction. The answer is found in the fact that, whereas in the Middle Ages