Positivism, being more pacific and more efficacious than Communism,

because more true, is also broader and more complete in its solution

of great social problems. The superficial view of property, springing

too often from envious motives, which condemns Inheritance because

it admits of possession without labour, is not subversive merely,

but narrow. From the moral point of view we see at once the radical

weakness of these empirical reproaches. They show blindness to the

fact that this mode of transmitting wealth is really that which is

most likely to call out the temper requisite for its right employment.

It saves the mind and the heart from the mean and sordid habits which

are so often engendered by slow accumulation of capital. The man who

is born to wealth is more likely to feel the wish to be respected. And

thus those whom we are inclined to condemn as idlers may very easily

become the most useful of the rich classes, under a wise reorganization

of opinions and habits. Of course too, since with the advance of

Civilization the difficulty of living without industry increases, the

class that we are speaking of becomes more and more exceptional. In

every way, then, it is a most serious mistake to wish to upset society

on account of abuses which are already in course of removal, and which

admit of conversion to a most beneficial purpose.

[Intellect needs moral

control as much as wealth]

Again, another feature in which the Positivist solution surpasses the

Communist, is the remarkable completeness of its application. Communism

takes no account of anything but wealth; as if wealth were the only

power in modern society badly distributed and administered. In reality

there are greater abuses connected with almost every other power that

man possesses; and especially with the powers of intellect; yet these

our visionaries make not the smallest attempt to rectify. Positivism

being the only doctrine that embraces the whole sphere of human

existence, is therefore the only doctrine that can elevate Social

Feeling to its proper place, by extending it to all departments of

human activity without exception. Identification, in a moral sense, of

private functions with public duties is even more necessary in the case

of the scientific man or the artist, than in that of the proprietor;

whether we look at the source from which his powers proceed, or at

the object to which they should be directed. Yet the men who wish to

make material wealth common, the only kind of wealth that can be held

exclusively by an individual, never extend their utopian scheme to

intellectual wealth, in which it would be far more admissible. In fact

the apostles of Communism often come forward as zealous supporters

of what they call literary property. Such inconsistencies show the

shallowness of the system; it proclaims its own failure in the very

cases that are most favourable for the application. The extension of

the principle here suggested would expose at once the inexpediency

of political regulations on the subject, and the necessity of moral

rules; for these and these only can ensure the right use of all our

faculties without distinction. Intellectual effort, to be of any

value, must be spontaneous; and it is doubtless an instinctive sense

of this truth which prevents Communists from subjecting intellectual

faculties to their utopian regulations. But Positivism can deal with

these faculties which stand in the most urgent need of wise direction,

without inconsistency and without disturbance. It leaves to them

their fair measure of free action; and in the case of other faculties

which, though less eminent, are hardly less dangerous to repress, it

strengthens their freedom. When a pure morality arises capable of

impressing a social tendency upon every phase of human activity, the

freer our action becomes the more useful will it be to the public. The

tendency of modern civilization, far from impeding private industry, is

to entrust it more and more with functions, especially with those of a

material kind, which were originally left to government. Unfortunately

this tendency, which is very evident, leads economists into the mistake

of supposing that industry may be left altogether without organization.

All that it really proves is that the influence of moral principles is

gradually preponderating over that of governmental regulations.

[Action of organized public

opinion upon Capitalists.

Strikes]

The method which is peculiar to Positivism of solving our great

social problems by moral agencies, will be found applicable also to

the settlement of industrial disputes, so far as the popular claims

involved are well founded. These claims will thus become clear from

all tendency to disorder, and will consequently gain immensely in

force; especially when they are seen to be consistent with principles

which are freely accepted by all, and when they are supported by

a philosophic body of known impartiality and enlightenment. This

spiritual power, while impressing on the people the duty of respecting

their temporal leaders, will impose duties upon these latter, which

they will find impossible to evade. As all classes will have received

a common education, they will all alike be penetrated with the general

principles on which these special obligations will rest. And these

weapons, derived from no source but that of Feeling and Reason, and

aided solely by Public Opinion, will wield an influence over practical

life, of which nothing in the present day can give any conception. We

might compare it with the influence of Catholicism in the Middle Ages,

only that men are too apt to attribute the results of Catholicism

to the chimerical hopes and fears which it inspired, rather than to

the energy with which praise and blame were distributed. With the new

spiritual power praise and blame will form the only resource; but it

will be developed and consolidated to a degree which, as I have before

shown, was impossible for Catholicism.

This is the only real solution of the disputes that are so constantly

arising between workmen and their employers. Both parties will look

to this philosophic authority as a supreme court of arbitration. In

estimating its importance, we must not forget that the antagonism of

employer and employed has not yet been pushed to its full consequences.

The struggle between wealth and numbers would have been far more

serious, but for the fact that combination, without which there can be

no struggle worth speaking of, has hitherto only been permitted to the

capitalist. It is true that in England combinations of workmen are not

legally prohibited. But in that country they are not yet sufficiently

emancipated either intellectually or morally, to make such use of the

power as would be the case in France. When French workmen are allowed

to concert their plans as freely as their employers, the antagonism

of interests that will then arise will make both sides feel the need

of a moral power to arbitrate between them. Not that the conciliating

influence of such a power will ever be such as to do away entirely with

extreme measures; but it will greatly restrict their application, and

in cases where they are unavoidable, will mitigate their excesses. Such

measures should be limited on both sides to refusal of co-operation; a

power which every free agent ought to be allowed to exercise, on his

own personal responsibility, with the object of impressing on those who

are teaching him unjustly the importance of the services which he has

been rendering. The workman is not to be compelled to work any more

than the capitalist to direct. Any abuse of this extreme protest on

either side will of course be disapproved by the moral power; but the

option of making the protest is always to be reserved to each element

in the collective organism, by virtue of his natural independence.

In the most settled times functionaries have always been allowed to

suspend their services on special occasions. It was done frequently in

the Middle Ages by priests, professors, judges, etc. All we have to

do is to regulate this privilege, and embody it into the industrial

system. This will be one of the secondary duties of the philosophic

body, who will naturally be consulted on most of these occasions, as

on all others of public or private moment. The formal sanction which

it may give to a suspension or positive prohibition of work would

render such a measure far more effective than it is at present. The

operation of the measure is but partial at present, but it might in

this way extend, first to all who belong to the same trade, then to

other branches of industry, and even ultimately to every Western nation

that accepts the same spiritual guides. Of course persons who think

themselves aggrieved may always resort to this extreme course on their

own responsibility, against the advice of the philosophic body. True

spiritual power confines itself to giving counsel: it never commands.

But in such cases, unless the advice given by the philosophers has been

wrong, the suspension of work is not likely to be sufficiently general

to bring about any important result.

This theory of trade-unions is, in fact, in the industrial world,

what the power of insurrection is with regard to the higher social

functions; it is an ultimate resource which every collective organism

must reserve. The principle is the same in the simpler and more

ordinary cases as in the more unusual and important. In both the

intervention of the philosophic body, whether solicited or not, whether

its purpose be to organize popular effort or to repress it, will

largely influence the result.

We are now in a position to state with more precision the main

practical difference between the policy of Positivism, and that of

Communism or of Socialism. All progressive political schools agree in

concentrating their attention upon the problem, How to give the people

their proper place as a component element of modern Society, which

ever since the Middle Ages has been tending more and more distinctly

to its normal mode of existence. They also agree that the two great

requirements of the working classes are, the organization of Education,

and the organization of Labour. But here their agreement ends. When

the means of effecting these two objects have to be considered,

Positivists find themselves at issue with all other Progressive

schools. They maintain that the organization of Industry must be based

upon the organization of Education. It is commonly supposed that both

may be begun simultaneously: or indeed that Labour may be organized

irrespectively of Education. It may seem as if we are making too much

of a mere question of arrangement; yet the difference is one which

affects the whole character and method of social reconstruction. The

plan usually followed is simply a repetition of the old attempt to

reconstruct politically without waiting for spiritual reconstruction;

in other words, to raise the social edifice before its intellectual and

moral foundations have been laid. Hence the attempts made to satisfy

popular requirements by measures of a purely political kind, because

they appear to meet the evil directly; a course which is as useless

as it is destructive. Positivism, on the contrary, substitutes for

such agencies, an influence which is sure and peaceful, although it be

gradual and indirect; the influence of a more enlightened morality,

supported by a purer state of Public Opinion; such opinion being

organized by competent minds, and diffused freely amongst the people.

In fact, the whole question, whether the solution of the twofold

problem before us is to be empirical, revolutionary, and therefore

confined simply to France; or whether it is to be consistent, pacific,

and applicable to the whole of Western Europe, depends upon the

preference or the postponement of the organization of Labour to the

organization of Education.

[Public Opinion must be

based upon a sound system of

Education]

This conclusion involves a brief explanation of the general system of

education which Positivism will introduce. This the new spiritual power

regards as its principal function, and as its most efficient means of

satisfying the working classes in all reasonable demands.

It was the great social virtue of Catholicism, that it introduced

for the first time, as far as circumstances permitted, a system of

education common to all classes without distinction, not excepting

even those who were still slaves. It was a vast undertaking, yet

essential to its purpose of founding a spiritual power which was to be

independent of the temporal power. Apart from its temporary value, it

has left us one imperishable principle, namely that in all education

worthy of the name, moral training should be regarded as of greater

importance than scientific teaching. Catholic education, however, was

of course, extremely defective; owing partly to the circumstances of

the time, and partly to the weakness of the doctrine on which it

rested. Having reference almost exclusively to the oppressed masses,

the principal lesson which it taught was the duty of almost passive

resignation, with the exception of certain obligations imposed upon

rulers. Intellectual culture in any true sense there was none. All

this was natural in a faith which directed men’s highest efforts to

an object unconnected with social life, and which taught that all the

phenomena of nature were regulated by an impenetrable Will. Catholic

Education was consequently quite unsuited to any period but the

Middle Ages; a period during which the advanced portion of Humanity

was gradually ridding itself of the ancient institution of slavery,

by commuting it first into serfdom, as a preliminary step to entire

personal freedom. In the ancient world Catholic education would have

been too revolutionary; at the present time it would be servile and

inadequate. Its function was that of directing the long and difficult

transition from the social life of Antiquity to that of Modern times.

Personal emancipation once obtained, the working classes began to

develop their powers and rise to their true position as a class; and

they soon became conscious of intellectual and social wants which

Catholicism was wholly incapable of satisfying.

And yet this is the only real system of universal education which the

world has hitherto seen. For we cannot give that name to the so-called

University system which metaphysicians began to introduce into Europe

at the close of the Middle Ages; and which offered little more than

the special instruction previously given to the priesthood; that

is, the study of the Latin language, with the dialectical training

required for the defence of their doctrines. Morals were untaught

except as a part of the training of the professed theologian. All this

metaphysical and literary instruction was of no great service to social

evolution, except so far as it developed the critical power; it had,

however, a certain indirect influence on the constructive movement,

especially on the development of Art. But its defects, both practical

and theoretical, have been made more evident by its application to

new classes of society, whose occupations, whether practical or

speculative, required a very different kind of training. And thus,

while claiming the title of Universal, it never reached the working

classes, even in Protestant countries, where each believer became to a

certain extent his own priest.

The theological method being obsolete, and the metaphysical method

inadequate, the task of founding an efficient system of popular

education belongs to Positivism; the only doctrine capable of

reconciling these two orders of conditions, the intellectual and the

moral, which are equally necessary, but which since the Middle Ages

have always proved incompatible. Positivist education, while securing

the supremacy of the heart over the understanding more efficiently

than Catholicism, will yet put no obstacle in the way of intellectual

growth. The function of Intellect, in education as in practical life,

will be to regulate Feeling; the culture of which, beginning at birth,

will be maintained by constant exercise of the three classes of duties

relative to Self, to the Family, and to Society.

I have already explained the mode in which the principles of universal

morality will be finally co-ordinated; a task which, as I have shown,

is connected with the principal function of the new spiritual power.

I have now only to point out the paramount influence of morality on

every part of Positive Education. It will be seen to be connected at

first spontaneously, and afterwards in a more systematic form, with the

entire system of human knowledge.

Positive Education, adapting itself to the requirements of the Organism

with which it has to deal, subordinates intellectual conditions

to social. Social conditions are considered as the main object,

intellectual as but the means of attaining it. Its principal aim is

to induce the working classes to accept their high social function of

supporting the spiritual power, while at the same time it will render

them more efficient in their own special duties.

[Education has two stages:

from birth to puberty, from

puberty to adolescence.

The first, consisting of

physical and esthetic

training to be given at home]

Presuming that Education extends from birth to manhood, we may divide

it into two periods, the first ending with puberty, that is, at the

beginning of industrial apprenticeship. Education here should be

essentially spontaneous, and should be carried on as far as possible

in the bosom of the family. The only studies required should be of

an esthetic kind. In the second period, Education takes a systematic

form, consisting chiefly of a public course of scientific lectures,

explaining the essential laws of the various orders of phenomena.

These lectures will be the groundwork of Moral Science, which will

co-ordinate the whole, and point out the relation of each part to

the social purpose common to all. Thus, at about the time which long

experience has fixed as that of legal majority, and when in most

cases the term of apprenticeship closes, the workman will be prepared

intellectually and morally for his public and private service.

The first years of life, from infancy to the end of the period of

second dentition, should be devoted to education of the physical

powers, carried on under the superintendence of the parents,

especially of the mother. Physical education, as usually practised,

is nothing but mere muscular exercise; but a more important object is

that of training the senses, and giving manual skill, so as to develop

from the very first our powers of observation and action. Study, in

the ordinary acceptation, there should be none during this period, not

even reading or writing. An acquaintance with facts of various kinds,

such as may spontaneously attract the growing powers of attention,

will be the only instruction received. The philosophic system of the

infant individual, like that of the infant species, consists in pure

Fetichism, and its natural development should not be disturbed by

unwise interference. The only care of the parents will be to impress

those feelings and habits for which a rational basis will be given

at a later period. By taking every opportunity of calling the higher

instincts into play, they will be laying down the best foundation for

true morality.

During the period of about seven years comprised between the second

dentition and puberty, Education will become somewhat more systematic;

but it will be limited to the culture of the fine arts; and it will

be still most important, especially on moral grounds, to avoid

separation from the family. The study of Art should simply consist

in practising it more or less systematically. No formal lectures are

necessary, at least for the purposes of general education, though of

course for professional purposes they may still be required. There is

no reason why these studies should not be carried on at home by the

second generation of Positivists, when the culture of the parents will

be sufficiently advanced to allow them to superintend it. They will

include Poetry, the art on which all the rest are based; and the two

most important of the special arts, music and drawing. Meantime the

pupil will become familiar with the principal Western languages, which

are included in the study of Poetry, since modern poetry cannot be

properly appreciated without them. Moreover, independently of esthetic

considerations, a knowledge of them is most important morally, as

a means of destroying national prejudices, and of forming the true

Positivist standard of Occidental feeling. Each nation will be taught

to consider it a duty to learn the language of contiguous countries; an

obvious principle, which, in the case of Frenchmen, will involve their

learning all the other four languages, as a consequence of that central

position which gives them so many advantages. When this rule becomes

general, and the natural affinities of the five advanced nations are

brought fully into play, a common Occidental language will not be long

in forming itself spontaneously, without the aid of any metaphysical

scheme for producing a language that shall be absolutely universal.

During the latter portion of primary Education, which is devoted to

the culture of the imaginative powers, the philosophic development

of the individual, corresponding to that of the race, will carry

him from the simple Fetichism with which he began to the state of

Polytheism. This resemblance between the growth of the individual and

that of society has always shown itself more or less, in spite of the

irrational precautions of Christian teachers. They have never been

able to give children a distaste for those simple tales of fairies and

genii, which are natural to this phase. The Positivist teacher will

let this tendency take its own course. It should not, however, involve

any hypocrisy on the part of the parents, nor need it lead to any

subsequent contradiction. The simple truth is enough. The child may

be told that these spontaneous beliefs are but natural to his age, but

that they will gradually lead him on to others, by the fundamental law

of all human development. Language of this kind will not only have the

advantage of familiarizing him with a great principle of Positivism,

but will stimulate the nascent sense of sociability, by leading him

to sympathize with the various nations who still remain at his own

primitive stage of intellectual development.

[The second part consists

of public lectures on the

Sciences, from Mathematics

to Sociology]

The second part of Positivist Education cannot be conducted altogether

at home, since it involves public lectures, in which of course the

part taken by the parent can only be accessory. But this is no reason

for depriving the pupil of the advantages of family life; it remains

as indispensable as ever to his moral development, which is always to

be the first consideration. It will be easy for him to follow the best

masters without weakening his sense of personal and domestic morality,

which is the almost inevitable result of the monastic seclusion of

modern schools. The public-school system is commonly thought to

compensate for these disadvantages, by the knowledge of the world which

it gives; but this is better obtained by free intercourse with society,

where sympathies are far more likely to be satisfied. Recognition

of this truth would do much to facilitate and improve popular

education; and it applies to all cases, except perhaps to some special

professions, where seclusion of the pupils may still be necessary,

though even in these cases probably it may be ultimately dispensed with.

The plan to be followed in this period of education, will obviously be

that indicated by the encyclopædic law of Classification, which forms

part of my Theory of Development. Scientific study, whether for the

working man or the philosopher, should begin with the inorganic world

around us, and then pass to the subject of Man and Society; since our

ideas on these two subjects form the basis of our practical action. The

first class of studies, as I have stated before, includes four sciences

which we may arrange in pairs: Mathematics and Astronomy forming the

first pair; Physics and Chemistry the second. To each of these pairs,

two years may be given. But as the first ranges over a wide field, and

is of greater logical importance, it will require two lectures weekly;

whereas, for all the subsequent studies one lecture will be sufficient.

Besides, during these two years, the necessities of practical life

will not press heavily, and more time may fairly be spent in mental

occupation. From the study of inorganic science, the pupil will proceed

to Biology: this subject may easily be condensed in the fifth year

into a series of forty lectures, without really losing either its

philosophic or its popular character. This concludes the introductory

part of Education. The student will now co-ordinate all his previous

knowledge by the direct study of Sociology, statically and dynamically

viewed. On this subject also forty lectures will be given, in which the

structure and growth of human societies, especially those of modern

times, will be clearly explained. With this foundation we come to the

last of the seven years of pupillage, in which the great social purpose

of the scheme is at last reached. It will be devoted to a systematic

exposition of Moral Science, the principles of which may be now fully

understood by the light of the knowledge previously obtained of the

World, of Life, and of Humanity.

During this course of study, part of the three unoccupied months of

each year will be spent in public examinations, to test the degree to

which the instruction has been assimilated. The pupils will of their

own accord continue their esthetic pursuits, even supposing their

natural tastes in this direction not to be encouraged as they ought to

be. During the last two years the Latin and Greek languages might be

acquired, as an accessory study, which would improve the poetic culture

of the student, and be useful to him in the historical and moral

questions with which he will then be occupied. For the purposes of Art,

Greek is the more useful of the two; but in the second object, that of

enabling us to realize our social Filiation, Latin is of even greater

importance.

In the course of these seven years the philosophic development of the

individual, preserving its correspondence with that of the race, will

pass through its last phase. As the pupil passed before from Fetichism

to Polytheism, so he will now pass, as spontaneously, into Monotheism,

induced by the influence on his imaginative powers which hitherto have

been supreme, of the spirit of discussion. No interference should be

offered to this metaphysical transition, which is the homage that he

pays to the necessary conditions under which mankind arrives at truth.

There is something in this provisional phase which evidently harmonizes

well with the abstract and independent character of Mathematics, with

which the two first years of the seven are occupied. As long as more

attention is given to deduction than to induction, the mind cannot but

retain a leaning to metaphysical theories. Under their influence the

student will soon reduce his primitive theology to Deism of a more or

less distinct kind; and this during his physico-chemical studies will

most likely degenerate into a species of Atheism; which last phase,

under the enlightening influence of biological and still more of

sociological knowledge, will be finally replaced by Positivism. Thus at

the time fixed for the ultimate study of moral science, each new member

of Humanity will have been strongly impressed by personal experience,

with a sense of historical Filiation, and will be enabled to sympathize

with his ancestors and contemporaries, while devoting his practical

energies to the good of his successors.

[Travels of Apprentices]

There is an excellent custom prevalent among the working men of France

and creditable to their good sense, with which our educational scheme

seems at first sight incompatible. I refer to the custom of travelling

from place to place during the last years of apprenticeship; which

is as beneficial to their mind and character, as the purposeless

excursions of our wealthy and idle classes are in most cases injurious.

But there is no necessity for its interfering with study, since it

always involves long residence in the chief centres of production,

where the workman is sure to find annual courses of lectures similar

to those which he would otherwise have been attending at home.

As the structure and distribution of the philosophic body will

be everywhere the same, there need be no great inconvenience in

these changes. For every centre not more than seven teachers will

be required; each of whom will take the whole Encyclopædic scale

successively. Thus the total number of lectures will be so small as

to admit of a high standard of merit being everywhere attained, and

of finding everywhere a fair measure of material support. So far from

discouraging the travelling system, Positivism will give it a new

character, intellectually and socially, by extending the range of

travel to the whole of Western Europe, since there is no part of it in

which the workman will not be able to prosecute his education. The

difference of language will then be no obstacle. Not only would the

sense of fraternity among Western nations be strengthened by such a

plan, but great improvement would result esthetically. The languages

of Europe would be learnt more thoroughly, and there would be a

keener appreciation of works of art, whether musical, pictorial, or

architectural; for these can never be properly appreciated but in the

country which gave them birth.

[Concentration of study]

Judging by our present practice, it would seem impossible to include

such a mass of important scientific studies, as are here proposed,

in three hundred and sixty lectures. But the length to which courses

of lectures on any subject extend at present, is owing partly to the

special or professional object with which the course is given, and

still more to the discursive and unphilosophical spirit of most of the

teachers, consequent on the miserable manner in which our scientific

system is organized. Such a regeneration of scientific studies as

Positivism proposes, will animate them with a social spirit, and thus

give them a larger and more comprehensive tendency. Teachers will

become more practised in the art of condensing, and their lectures

will be far more substantial. They will not indeed be a substitute for

voluntary effort, on which all the real value of teaching depends.

Their aim will be rather to direct such effort. A striking example,

which is not so well remembered as it should be, will help to explain

my meaning. At the first opening of the Polytechnic School, courses of

lectures were given, very appropriately named _Revolutionary Courses_,

which concentrated the teaching of three years into three months.

What was in that case an extraordinary anomaly, due to republican

enthusiasm, may become the normal state when a moral power arises

not inferior in energy, and yet based upon a consistent intellectual

synthesis, of which our great predecessors of the Revolution could have

no conception.

Little attention has hitherto been given to the didactic value of

Feeling. Since the close of the Middle Ages, the heart has been

neglected in proportion as the mind has been cultivated. But it is

the characteristic principle of Positivism, a principle as fertile in

intellectual as in moral results, that the Intellect, whether we look

at its natural or at its normal position, is subordinate to Social

Feeling. Throughout this course of popular education, parents and

masters will seize every suitable occasion for calling Social Feeling

into play; and the most abstruse subjects will often be vivified by its

influence. The office of the mind is to strengthen and to cultivate the

heart; the heart again should animate and direct the mental powers.

This mutual influence of general views and generous feelings will

have greater effect upon scientific study, from the esthetic culture

previously given, in which such habits of mind will have been formed,

as will give grace and beauty to the whole life.

[Governmental assistance not

required, except for certain

special institutions, and

this only as a provisional

measure]

When I speak of this education as specially destined for the people,

I am not merely using words to denote its comprehensiveness and

philosophic character. It is, in my opinion, the only education,

with the exception of certain special branches, for which public

organization is needed. It should be looked on as a sacred debt which

the republic owes to the working classes. But the claim does not extend

to other classes, who can easily pay for any special instruction that

they may require. Besides such instruction will be only a partial

development of the more general teaching, or an application of it to

some particular purpose. Therefore if the general training be sound,

most people will be able to prosecute accessory studies by themselves.

Apprenticeship to any business involves very little, except the

practice of it. Even in the highest arts, no course of systematic

instruction is necessary. The false views now prevalent on the subject

are due to the unfortunate absence of all general education, since

the decay of Catholicism. The special institutions founded in Europe

during the last three centuries, and carefully remodelled in France

by the Convention, are only valuable as containing certain germs of

truth, which will be found indispensable when general education is

finally reorganized. But important as they may be from a scientific

aspect, their practical utility, which seems to have been the motive

for establishing them, is exceedingly doubtful. The arts which they

were intended to promote could have done perfectly well without them. I

include in these remarks such institutions as the Polytechnic School,

the Museum of Natural History, etc. Their value, like that of all

good institutions of modern times, is purely provisional. Viewed in

this light, it may be worth our while to reorganize them. Positivist

principles, discarding all attempts to make them permanent, will be all

the better able to adapt them to their important temporary purpose.

Indeed there are some new institutions which it might be advisable to

form; such, for instance, as a School of Comparative Philology, the

object of which would be to range all human languages according to

their true affinities. This would compensate the suppression of Greek

and Latin professorships, which is certainly an indispensable measure.

But the whole of this provisional framework would no doubt disappear

before the end of the nineteenth century, when a system of general

education will have been thoroughly organized. The present necessity

for a provisional system should lead to no misconception of its

character and purpose. Working men are the only class who have a real

claim upon the State for instruction; and this, if wisely organized,

dispenses with the necessity of special institutions. The adoption of

these views would at once facilitate and ennoble popular education.

Nations, provinces, and towns will vie with one another in inviting

the best teachers that the spiritual authorities of Western Europe can

supply. And every true philosopher will take pride in such teaching,

when it becomes generally understood that the popular character of

his lectures implies that they shall be at the same time systematic.

Members of the new spiritual power will in most cases regard teaching

as their principal occupation, for at least a considerable portion of

their public life.

[We are not ripe for this

system at present; and

Government must not attempt

to hasten its introduction]

What has been said makes it clear that any organization of such

education as this at the present time would be impossible. However

sincere the intentions of governments to effect this great result

might be, any premature attempt to do it would but injure the work,

especially if they put in a claim to superintend it. The truth is

that a system of education, if it deserve the name, presupposes the

acceptance of a definite philosophical and social creed to determine

its character and purpose. Children cannot be brought up in convictions

contrary to those of their parents; indeed, the influence of the

parent is essential to the instructor. Opinions and habits that have

been already formed may subsequently be strengthened by an educational

system; but the carrying out of any such system is impossible,

until the principles of combined action and belief have been well

established. Till then the organization that we propose can only be

effected in the case of individuals who are ripe for it. Each of

these will endeavour to repair the faults and deficiencies of his own

education in the best way he can, by the aid of the general doctrine

which he accepts. Assuming that the doctrine is destined to triumph,

the number of such minds gradually increases, and they superintend the

social progress of the next generation. This is the natural process,

and no artificial interference can dispense with it. So far, then, from

inviting government to organize education, we ought rather to exhort it

to abdicate the educational powers which it already holds, and which,

I refer more especially to France, are either useless or a source of

discord. There are only two exceptions to this remark, namely, primary

education, and special instruction in certain higher branches. Of these

I have already spoken. But with these exceptions, it is most desirable

that government, whether municipal or central, should surrender its

unreasonable monopoly, and establish real liberty of teaching; the

condition of such liberty being, as I said before, the suppression of

all annual grants whatsoever for theological or metaphysical purposes.

Until some universal faith has been accepted on its own merits, all

attempts made by Government to reform education must necessarily

be reactionary; since they will always be based on some one of the

retrogressive creeds which it is our object to supersede altogether.

It is with adults, then, that we must deal. We must endeavour to

disseminate systematic convictions among them, and thus open the

door to a real reform of education for the next generation. The

press and the power of free speech offer many ways of bringing

about this result. The most important of these would be a more or

less connected series of popular lectures on the various positive

sciences, including history, which may now be ranked among them. Now

for these lectures to produce their full effect, they must even when

treating of the most elementary point in mathematics, be thoroughly

philosophic and consequently animated by a social spirit. They must

be entirely independent of government, so as not to be hampered by

any of the authorized views. Lastly, there is a condition in which

all the rest are summed up. These lectures should be Occidental, not

simply National. What we require is a free association of philosophers

throughout Western Europe, formed by the voluntary co-operation of all

who can contribute efficiently to this great preliminary work; their

services being essentially gratuitous. It is a result which no system

but Positivism is capable of effecting. By its agency that coalition

between philosophers and the working classes, on which so much depends,

will speedily be established.

While the work of propagating Positivist convictions is going on in the

free and unrestricted manner here described, the spiritual authority

will at the same time be forming itself, and will be prepared to make

use of these convictions as the basis for social regeneration. Thus

the transitional state will be brought as nearly as possible into

harmony with the normal state; and this the more in proportion as the

natural affinity between philosophers and workmen is brought out more

distinctly. The connexion between Positivist lectures and Positivist

clubs will illustrate my meaning. While the lectures prepare the

way for the Future, the clubs work in the same direction by judging

the Past, and advising for the Present; so that we have at once a

beginning of the three essential functions of the new spiritual power.

We have now a clear conception of popular education in its provisional,

and in its normal state. Long before the normal state can be realized,

the mutual action of philosophers and workmen will have done great

service to both. Meeting with such powerful support from the people,

the rising spiritual power will win the respect if not the affection

of their rulers, even of those among them who are now the most

contemptuous of every influence but that of material power. Their

excess of pride will often be so far humbled that they will invite

its mediation in cases where the people have been roused to just

indignation. The force of numbers seems at first so violent as to carry

all before it; but in the end it usually proves far inferior to that

of wealth. It cannot exist for any length of time without complete

convergence of opinion and feeling. Hence, a spiritual power has very

great weight in controlling or directing its action. Philosophers will

never, indeed, be able to manage the working classes as they please,

as some unprincipled agitators have imagined; but when they exercise

their authority rightly, whether it be in the cause of Order or that

of Progress, they will have great power over their passions and

conduct. Such influence can only spring from long cherished feelings

of gratitude and trust, due not merely to presumed capacity but to

services actually rendered. No one is a fit representative of his own

claims; but the philosopher may honourably represent the cause of

working men before the governing classes; and the people will in their

turn compel their rulers to respect the new spiritual power. By this

habitual exchange of services the aspirations of the people will be

kept clear of all subversive tendencies, and philosophers will be led

to abandon the folly of seeking political power. Neither class will

degrade itself by making its own interest the chief consideration: each

will find its own reward in keeping to the nobler course of its own

social duty.

[Intellectual attitude of

the people. Emancipation

from theological belief]

To complete this view of the political attitude which Positivism

recommends to the working class, I have now to speak of the

intellectual and moral conditions which that attitude requires, and on

which the character of their spiritual leaders depends. What is wanted

is only a more perfect development of tendencies which already exist in

the people, and which have already shown themselves strong in Paris,

the centre of the great Western movement.

Intellectually the principal conditions are two; Emancipation from

obsolete beliefs, and a sufficient amount of mental culture.

The emancipation of the working classes from theology is complete, at

least in Paris. In no other class has it so entirely lost its power.

The shallow deism, which satisfies so many of our literary men, finds

little favour with the people. They are happily unversed in studies

of words and abstractions, without which this last stage in the

process of emancipation speedily comes to an end. We only require a

stronger expression of popular feeling on this point, so as to avoid

all deception and false statement as to the intellectual character of

the reorganization that is going on. And the freedom that we are now

enjoying will admit of these feelings being unmistakably manifested,

especially now that they have the new philosophy for their exponent.

A distinct declaration of opinion on this subject is urgently needed

on social grounds. That hypocritical affectation of theological belief

against which we have to fight, is designed to prevent, or at least

has the effect of preventing, the just enforcement of popular claims.

These unscrupulous attempts to mystify the people involve their mental

subjection. The result is, that their legitimate aspirations for real

progress are evaded, by diverting their thoughts towards an imaginary

future state. It is for the working classes themselves to break

through this concerted scheme, which is even more contemptible than

it is odious. They have only to declare without disguise what their

intellectual position really is; and to do this so emphatically as

to make any mistake on the part of the governing classes impossible.

They will consequently reject all teachers who are insufficiently

emancipated, or who in any way support the system of theological

hypocrisy, which, from Robespierre downwards, has been the refuge of

all reactionists, whether democrat or royalist. But there are teachers

of another kind, who sincerely maintain that our life here on earth is

a temporary banishment, and that we ought to take as little interest

in it as possible. A prompt answer may be given to such instructors

as these. They should be requested to follow out their principle

consistently, and to cease to interfere in the management of a world

which is so alien to what, in their ideas, is the sole aim of life.

[From metaphysical doctrines]

Metaphysical principles have more hold on our working classes than

theological; yet their abandonment is equally necessary. The subtle

extravagances by which the German mind has been so confused, find,

it is true, little favour in Catholic countries. But even in Paris

the people retains a prejudice in favour of metaphysical instruction,

though happily it has not been able to obtain it. It is most desirable

that this last illusion of our working classes should be dissipated,

as it forms the one great obstacle to their social action. One

reason for it is that they fall into the common error of confounding

knowledge with intelligence, and imagine in their modesty that none

but instructed men are capable of governing. Now this error, natural

as it is, often leads them to choose incompetent leaders. A truer

estimate of modern society would teach them that it is not among our

literary, or even our scientific men, proud as they may be of their

attainments, that the largest number of really powerful intellects are

to be found. There are more of them among the despised practical class,

and even amongst the most uninstructed working men. In the Middle Ages

this truth was better known than it is now. Education was thought more

of than instruction. A knight would be appreciated for his sagacity

and penetration, and appointed to important posts, though he might be

extremely ignorant. Clear-sightedness, wisdom, and even consistency of

thought, are qualities which are very independent of learning; and, as

matters now stand, they are far better cultivated in practical life

than in scholastic study. In breadth of view, which lies at the root

of all political capacity, our literary classes have certainly shown

themselves far below the average.

[Their mistaken preference

of literary and rhetorical

talent to real intellectual

power]

And now we come to another and a deeper reason for the prejudice of

which I am speaking. It is that they make no distinction between

one kind of instruction and another. The unfortunate confidence

which they still bestow on literary men and lawyers shows that the

prestige of pedantry lingers among them longer than the prestige of

theology or monarchy. But all this will soon be altered under the

influence of republican government, and the strong discipline of a

sound philosophical system. Popular instinct will soon discover that

constant practice of the faculty of expression, whether in speech or

in writing, is no guarantee for real power of thought; indeed that it

has a tendency to incapacitate men from forming a clear and decided

judgment on any question. The instruction which such men receive is

utterly deficient in solid principles, and it almost always either

presupposes or causes a total absence of fixed convictions. Most minds

thus trained, while skilled in putting other men’s thoughts into shape,

become incapable of distinguishing true from false in the commonest

subjects, even when their own interest requires it. The people must

give up the feeling of blind respect which leads them to intrust such

men with their higher interests. Reverence for superiors is doubtless

indispensable to a well-ordered state; only it needs to be better

guided than it is now.

What then, working men may ask, is the proper training for themselves,

and consequently for those who claim to guide them? The answer is,

systematic cultivation of the Positive spirit. It is already called

into exercise by their daily occupations; and all that is wanted is

to strengthen it by a course of scientific study. Their daily work

involves a rudimentary application of the Positive method: it turns

their attention to many most important natural laws. In fact, the

workmen of Paris, whom I take as the best type of their class, have

a clearer sense of that union of reality with utility by which the

Positive spirit is characterized, than most of our scientific men.

The speciality of their employment is no doubt disadvantageous with

respect to breadth and coherence of ideas. But it leaves the mind

free from responsibility, and this is the most favourable condition

for developing these qualities to which all vigorous intellects are

naturally disposed. But nothing will so strongly impress on the

people the importance of extending and organizing their scientific

knowledge, as their interest in social questions. Their determination

to rectify a faulty condition of society will suggest to them that

they must first know what the laws of Social life really are;

knowledge which is obviously necessary in every other subject. They

will then feel how impossible it is to understand the present state

of society, without understanding its relation on the one hand with

the Past, and on the other with the Future. Their desire to modify

the natural course of social phenomena will make them anxious to know

the antecedents and consequences of these phenomena, so as to avoid

all mischievous or useless interference. They will thus discover

that Political Art is even more dependent than other arts, upon

its corresponding Science. And then they will soon see that this

science is no isolated department of knowledge, but that it involves

preliminary study of Man and of the World. In this way they will pass

downwards through the hierarchic scale of Positive conceptions, until

they come back to the inorganic world, the sphere more immediately

connected with their own special avocations. And thus they will reach

the conclusion that Positivism is the only system which can satisfy

either the intellectual or material wants of the people, since its

subject-matter and its objects are identical with their own, and since,

like themselves, it subordinates everything to social considerations.

All that it claims is to present in a systematic form principles which

they already hold instinctively. By co-ordinating these principles of

morality and good sense, their value, whether in public or in private

questions, is largely increased; and the union of the two forms of

wisdom, theoretical and practical wisdom, is permanently secured.

When all this is understood, the people will feel some shame at

having entrusted questions of the greatest complexity to minds that

have never quite comprehended the difference between a cubic inch

and a cubic foot. As to men of science, in the common acceptation of

the word, who are so respected by the middle classes, we need not

be afraid of their gaining much influence with the people. They are

alienated from them by their utter indifference to social questions;

and before these their learned puerilities fade into insignificance.

Absorbed in the details of their own special science, they are quite

incapable of satisfying unsophisticated minds. What the people want is

to have clear conceptions on all subjects, _des clartés de tout_, as

Molière has it. Whenever the savants of our time are drawn by their

foolish ambition into politics, ordinary men find to their surprise

that, except in a few questions of limited extent and importance,

their minds have become thoroughly narrow under the influence of the

specializing system of which they are so proud. Positivism explains

the mystery, by showing that, since the necessity for the specializing

system now no longer exists, it naturally results if prolonged, in a

sort of academic idiocy. During the last three centuries it did real

service to society, by laying down the scientific groundwork for the

renovation of Philosophy projected by Bacon and Descartes. But as soon

as the groundwork was sufficiently finished to admit of the formation

of true Science, that is, of Science viewed relatively to Humanity,

the specializing method became retrograde. It ceased to be of any

assistance to the modern spirit; and indeed it is now, especially in

France, a serious obstacle to its diffusion and systematic working.

The wise revolutionists of the Convention were well aware of this

when they took the bold step of suppressing the Academy of Sciences.

The beneficial results of this statesman-like policy will soon be

appreciated by our workmen. The danger lest, in withdrawing their

confidence from metaphysicians or literary men, they should fall into

the bad scientific spirit, is not therefore very great. With the social

aims which they have in view, they cannot but see that generality in

their conceptions is as necessary as positivity. The Capitalist class

by which industry is directed, being more concentrated on special

objects, will always look on men of pure science with more respect.

But the people will be drawn by their political leanings towards

philosophers in the true sense of that word. The number of such men is

but very small at present; but it will soon increase at the call of the

working classes, and will indeed be recruited from their ranks.

[Moral attitude of the

people. The workman should

regard himself as a public

functionary]

This, then, should be the attitude of the working class,

intellectually. Morally, what is required is, that they should have

a sufficient sense of the dignity of labour, and that they should be

prepared for the mission that now lies before them.

The workman must learn to look upon himself, morally, as a public

servant, with functions of a special and also of a general kind. Not

that he is to receive his wages for the future from the State instead

of from a private hand. The present plan is perfectly well adapted to

all services which are so direct and definite, that a common standard

of value can be at once applied to them. Only let it be understood

that the service is not sufficiently recompensed, without the social

feeling of gratitude towards the agent that performs it. In what are

called liberal professions, this feeling already obtains. The client or

patient is not dispensed from gratitude by payment of his fee. In this

respect the republican instincts of the Convention have anticipated the

teaching of philosophy. They valued the workman’s labour at its true

worth. Workmen have only to imagine labour suppressed or even suspended

in the trade to which they may belong, to see its importance to the

whole fabric of modern society. Their general function as a class, the

function of forming public opinion, and of supporting the action of

the spiritual power, it is of course less easy for them to understand

at present. But, as I have already shown, it follows so naturally

from their character and position, and corresponds so perfectly with

their requirements as a class, that they cannot fail to appreciate

its importance, when the course of events allows, or rather compels

them to bring it into play. The only danger lies in their insisting

on the possession of what metaphysicians call political rights, and

in engaging in useless discussions about the distribution of power,

instead of fixing their attention on the manner in which it is used. Of

this, however, there is no great fear, at all events in France, where

the metaphysical theory of Right has never reached so fanatical a pitch

with the working classes as elsewhere. Ideologists may blame them, and

may use their official influence as they will; but the people have too

much good sense to be permanently misled as to their true function in

society. Deluged as they have been with electoral votes, they will soon

voluntarily abandon this useless qualification, which now has not even

the charm of a privilege. Questions of pure politics have ceased to

interest the people; their attention is fixed, and will remain fixed,

on social questions, which are to be solved for the most part through

moral agencies. That substitutions of one person or party for another,

or that mere modifications of any kind in the administration should be

looked on as the final issue of the great Revolution, is a result in

which they will never acquiesce.

And if this is to be the attitude of the people, it must be the

attitude no less of those who seek to gain their confidence. With

them, as with the people, political questions should be subordinate

to social questions; and with them the conviction should be even more

distinct, that the solution of social problems depends essentially

on moral agencies. They must, in fact, accept the great principle of

separation of spiritual from temporal power, as the basis on which

modern society is to be prominently organized. So entirely does the

principle meet the wants of the people, that they will soon insist

on its adoption by their teachers. They will accept none who do not

formally abandon any prospects they may have of temporal power,

parliamentary as well as administrative. And by thus dedicating their

lives without reservation to the priesthood of Humanity, they will gain

confidence, not merely from the people, but from the governing classes.

Governments will offer no impediment to social speculations which do

not profess to be susceptible of immediate application; and thus the

normal state may be prepared for in the future without disturbance,

and yet without neglecting the present. Practical statesmen meanwhile,

no longer interfered with by pretentious sophists, will give up their

retrograde tendencies, and will gradually adapt their policy to the new

ideas current in the public mind, while discharging the indispensable

function of maintaining material order.

[Ambition of power and

wealth must be abandoned]

For the people to rise to the true level of their position, they have

only to develop and cultivate certain dispositions which already

exist in them spontaneously. And the most important of these is,

absence of ambition for wealth or rank. Political metaphysicians

would say that the sole object of the Great Revolution was to give

the working classes easier access to political and civil power. But

this, though it should always be open to them, is very far from

meeting their true wants. Individuals among them may be benefited by

it, but the mass is left unaffected, or rather is placed often in

a worse position, by the desertion of the more energetic members.

The Convention is the only government by which this result has been

properly appreciated. It is the only government which has shown due

consideration for working men as such; which has recognized the value

of their services, and encouraged what is the chief compensation for

their condition of poverty, their participation in public life. All

subsequent governments, whether retrograde or constitutional, have, on

the contrary, done all they could to divert the people from their true

social function, by affording opportunity for individuals among them

to rise to higher positions. The monied classes, under the influence

of blind routine, have lent their aid to this degrading policy, by

continually preaching to the people the necessity of saving; a precept

which is indeed incumbent on their own class, but not on others.

Without saving, capital could not be accumulated and administered; it

is therefore of the highest importance that the monied classes should

be as economical as possible. But in other classes, and especially in

those dependent on fixed wages, parsimonious habits are uncalled for

and injurious; they lower the character of the labourer, while they

do little or nothing to improve his physical condition; and neither

the working classes nor their teachers should encourage them. Both

the one and the other will find their truest happiness in keeping

clear of all serious practical responsibility, and in allowing free

play to their mental and moral faculties in public as well as private

life. In spite of the Economists, savings-banks are regarded by the

working classes with unmistakable repugnance. And the repugnance is

justifiable; they do harm morally, by checking the exercise of generous

feelings. Again, it is the fashion to declaim against wine-shops; and

yet after all they are at present the only places where the people can

enjoy society. Social instincts are cultivated there which deserve our

approval far more than the self-helping spirit which carries men to

the savings-bank. No doubt this unconcern for money, wise as it is,

involves real personal risk; but it is a danger which civilization is

constantly tending to diminish, without effacing qualities which do

the workman honour, and which are the source of his most cherished

pleasures. The danger ceases when the mental and moral faculties

are called into stronger exercise. The interest which Positivism

will arouse among the people in public questions, will lead to the

substitution of the club for the wine-shop. In these questions, the

generous inspirations of popular instinct hold out a model which

philosophers will do well to follow themselves. Fondness for money is

as much a disqualification for the spiritual government of Humanity, as

political ambition. It is a clear proof of moral incompetence, which is

generally connected in one way or other with intellectual feebleness.

One of the principal results of the spiritual power exercised by

philosophers and the working classes under the Positivist system, will

be to compensate by a just distribution of blame and praise for the

imperfect arrangements of social rank, in which wealth must always

preponderate. Leaving the present subordination of offices untouched,

each functionary will be judged by the intrinsic worth of his mind and

heart, without servility and yet without any encouragement to anarchy.

It must always be obvious that the political importance which high

position gives, is out of all proportion to the real merit implied

in gaining that position. The people will come to see more and more

clearly that real happiness, so far from depending on rank, is far more

compatible with their own humble station. Exceptional men no doubt

there are, whose character impels them to seek power; a character

more dangerous than useful, unless there be sufficient wisdom in the

social body to turn it to good account. The best workmen, like the

best philosophers, will soon cease to feel envy for greatness, laden,

as it always must be, with heavy responsibilities. At present, the

compensation which I hold out to them has not been realized; but when

it exists, the people will feel that their spiritual and temporal

leaders are combining all the energies of society for the satisfaction

of their wants. Recognizing this, they will care but little for fame

that must be bought by long and tedious meditation, or for power

burdened with constant care. There are men whose talents call them to

these important duties, and they will be left free to perform them;

but the great mass of society will be well satisfied that their own

lot is one far more in keeping with the constitution of our nature;

more compatible with that harmonious exercise of the faculties of

Thought, Feeling, and Action, which is most conducive to happiness.

The immediate pressure of poverty once removed, the highest reward of

honourable conduct will be found in the permanent esteem, posthumous as

it may be sometimes, of that portion of Humanity which has witnessed

it. In a word the title, _servus servorum_, which is still retained by

the Papacy from false humility, but which originated in anticipation of

a social truth, is applicable to all functionaries in high position.

They may be described as the involuntary servants of voluntary

subordinates. It is not chimerical to conceive Positivist society

so organized that its theoretical and practical directors, with all

their personal advantages, will often regret that they were not born,

or that they did not remain, in the condition of workmen. The only

solid satisfaction which great minds have hitherto found in political

or spiritual power has been that, being more occupied with public

interests, they had a wider scope for the exercise of social feeling.

But the excellence of the future condition of society will be, that the

possibility of combining public and private life will be open to all.

The humblest citizen will be able to influence not by command but by

counsel, in proportion to his energy and worth.

All the views brought forward in this chapter bear out the statement

with which it began, that the Proletariate forms the principal basis

of the social system, not merely as finally constituted, but in its

present state of transition; and admitting this, the present state will

be seen to have no essential difference from the normal future to which

it tends. The principal conditions of our transitional policy were

described at the conclusion of the last chapter. The security for these

conditions is to be found in the natural tendencies of the people of

Western Europe, and especially of France. Our governors will do well to

follow these tendencies instead of attempting to lead them; for they

are in perfect keeping with the two great requirements of the present

time, Liberty and Public Order.

[The working classes are the

best guarantee for Liberty

and for Order]

Liberty of thought and speech is enjoyed in France, and especially in

Paris, to an extent impossible in any other country, and it is due

principally to the intellectual emancipation of our workmen. They have

rid themselves of theology in all its forms, and yet have not accepted

any metaphysical system. At the same time, though totally devoid at

present of systematic convictions, there is in them a submissiveness of

mind which predisposes them to receive convictions combining reality

with utility. In all other classes there is a tendency to use forcible

measures in spreading their doctrines when discussion fails. It is

only to the people that philosophers can look for the support and

extension of Liberty, which is so essential to their objects; and from

this they derive moral confidence far more reassuring than any legal

security. However reactionary or stationary the views of particular

leaders or sects may be, with such a population as that of Paris, no

real oppression is possible. Of all the claims which France has to the

leadership of Europe, this is the strongest. The resistance which is

still offered to freedom of association and freedom of education will

soon be overcome by the force of its liberal sympathies. A population

of such strong social feeling as ours will certainly not allow itself

to be permanently deprived of the power of meeting together freely

in clubs; institutions most conducive both to its culture and to

the protection of its interests. It will insist with equal force

upon perfect liberty of teaching, feeling deeply the need of solid

instruction, and the incapacity of metaphysicians and theologians

to give it. Without popular pressure, the essential conditions of

educational liberty will always be evaded.

And if Liberty depends upon popular support, Public Order, whether

at home or abroad, depends upon it no less. The inclinations of the

working classes are altogether on the side of peace. Their strong

dislike of war is the principal reason of the present remarkable

tranquillity of Europe. The foolish regret expressed by all the

retrograde parties for the decline of the military spirit is a

sufficient indication of what the popular feeling is; but even more

significant is the necessity for compulsory enlistment, which began

in France and has extended to other parts of Europe. There has been

much factitious indignation on the subject, but at least it must be

allowed, that in our armies the officers are the only volunteers.

Again, the working class is more free than any other from international

prejudices, which still disunite the great family of Western nations,

although they are very much weaker than formerly. They are strongest in

the middle classes, a fact principally due to industrial competition.

But working men feel how similar their wants and their conditions

are in all countries, and this feeling checks their animosity. And

the consciousness of union will become far stronger, now that the

great social problem of their incorporation into modern society is

being raised everywhere. No errors that statesmen can commit, whether

in matters of war or peace, can prevent this from becoming the

preponderating question in every European country; and thus it tends to

preserve their mutual concord.

Popular sympathies of this sort are, it may be said, less conducive

to internal tranquillity than to pacific foreign relations. But the

alarm which is naturally aroused by the spiritual anarchy around us

must not blind us to the real guarantees for Order which popular

tendencies, rightly interpreted, hold out. It is to the people that

we must look for the ascendancy of central over local power, which,

as we have seen, is so indispensable to public order. The executive

authority, provided only that it gives no cause to fear reaction, will

always have their support when opposed by an assembly the prevalent

tendencies of which will usually be adverse to their interests. They

will always turn instinctively to the dictatorial rather than to the

parliamentary branch of the administration; feeling that from its

practical character and the directness of its action, it is more likely

to meet their wants. Useless discussions on constitutional questions

may suit ambitious members of the middle classes, by facilitating their

arrival to power. But the people take very little interest in all this

unmeaning agitation, and often treat it with merited contempt. They

know that it can be of no use to them, and that its only result is

to evade their real wants by undermining the only authority that can

do them justice. Consequently the people are certain to give their

support to every government that deserves it; especially in France,

where political passions have already yielded to the superior and more

permanent interest of social questions. And while strengthening the

government they may do much to elevate its character; by confining

it strictly to its practical function, and resisting any attempts

that it may make to interfere with opinion. In all these respects

the spontaneous influence of the working classes will be of material

assistance in carrying out the systematic conceptions of social

philosophy.

[It is from them that we

shall obtain the dictatorial

power which is provisionally

required]

But a more striking proof of the political influence to be exercised

by the people is this. The dictatorship which our transitional policy

requires as long as the spiritual interregnum lasts must arise in the

first instance from their ranks.

In the word _People_, especially in the French language, there is a

fortunate ambiguity, which may serve to remind us that the proletariate

class is not, properly speaking, a class at all, but constitutes the

body of society. From it proceed the various special classes, which we

may regard as organs necessary to that body. Since the abolition of

royalty, the last remnant of caste, our political leaders have been

recruited, and will continue to be so, from the working class. In the

normal state, however, it will be required as a preliminary condition,

that the holder of dictatorial power shall have first received the

political training which is given by the exercise of authority in his

own business. In a settled state of society, Government, strictly so

called, is a mere extension of civil influence. Ultimately, therefore,

political power will fall into the hands of the great leaders of

industry. As spiritual reorganization proceeds, they will gradually

become more worthy of it than they are at present. Besides, the tenure

of power will become less burdensome, because it will be confined to

duties of a purely practical kind.

As yet, however, the case is very different; and therefore the

wealthy, though ultimately they will be the administrators of power,

are not those to whom it should as a rule be entrusted in our present

condition. Special departments may be given to them with advantage, as

we have seen proved recently, and that in cases where the functions to

be performed had no relation whatever to industrial skill. But they

are not competent as yet for dictatorial power, the power which has to

supply the place of royalty. Individual exceptions, of course, there

may be, though none have appeared hitherto, and at least they are

not enough for our provisional system to rely on. As yet the wealthy

classes have shown themselves too debased in thought and feeling for

an office of such importance. Nor do we find greater aptitude for

it outside the industrial class. Scientific men are most assuredly

unfit for it, especially in France, where the system of Academies has

narrowed the mind, withered the feelings, and enervated the character

to such an extent, that most of them fail in the conduct of common

life, and are utterly unworthy of the smallest post of authority, even

in their own department.

All other classes failing us, we have to look to the working class,

which has been left more free to form broad views, and in which the

sense of duty has been better cultivated. On historical grounds I

feel convinced that the workmen of France are more likely than any

other class to supply men competent for supreme power, as long as the

spiritual interregnum lasts; that is, for at least one generation.

On looking at this question calmly and without scholastic or

aristocratic prejudice, it will be seen, as I pointed out at the

beginning of this chapter, that the working class is better situated

than any other with respect to generality of views and generosity of

feeling. In knowledge and experience of administration they would

ordinarily be deficient; they would therefore not be fit for the

work of any special department. But this is no disqualification for

the supreme power, or indeed for any of the higher offices for which

breadth of view rather than special knowledge is required. These may be

filled by working men, whose good sense and modesty will at once lead

them to choose their agents for special departments from the classes

who have usually furnished them before. The practical character and

progressive spirit of such a government being beyond suspicion, special

talent of whatever kind may be made available, even in the case of men

who, if they had been placed in a higher position, would have proved

thoroughly hostile to republican institutions. Of all the diversified

elements of modern society, there is not one which may not be of real

service in assisting the transition. Among soldiers and magistrates,

for instance, there are many who will join the popular movement, and

become sincere supporters of republicanism. A government of this kind

would tranquillize the people, would obviate the necessity for violent

compressive measures, and would at the same time have a most beneficial

influence on the capitalist class. It would show them the necessity of

attaining to greater purity of feeling and greater breadth of view, if

they are to become worthy of the position for which they are ultimately

destined.

Thus, whether we look at the interests of Public Order, or at those

of Liberty, it appears necessary as a provisional measure, during

the continuance of our spiritual interregnum, that the holders

of dictatorial power shall be chosen from the working class. The

success of a few working men in the pursuit of wealth has exercised

an unsettling influence on the rest; but in the present instance we

need not fear this result. It will be obvious that the career of a

proletary governor is a rare exception, and one which requires peculiar

endowments.

In examining the mode in which this anomalous policy should be carried

out, we must bear in mind the object with which it was instituted.

It is most important to get rid of the custom, based on motives

of self-interest, which has grown up during the last generation,

of insisting on parliamentary experience as an apprenticeship for

executive power; executive power being always the real object of

ambition. We have found from experience what we might have anticipated

on theoretical grounds, that this plan excludes all except mere

talkers of the Girondin type, men totally devoid of statesman-like

qualities. To working men it offers almost insurmountable obstacles;

and even supposing these obstacles to be overcome, we may be sure

that they would lose the straightforwardness and native vigour which

constitute their best claim to the exceptional position proposed for

them.

It is best, then, that they should reach the position assigned to them

at once, without the circuitous process of a parliamentary career.

Our transition towards the normal state will then exhibit its true

character. It will be tranquil and yet decisive; for it will rest on

the combined action of philosophers without political ambition, and

dictators adverse to spiritual encroachment. The teacher who attempts

to govern, the governor who attempts to educate, will both incur severe

public censure, as enemies alike of peace and progress. The whole

result will be a change in our revolutionary condition identical with

that which the Convention would have realized, if, as its founders

contemplated, it had lasted till the Peace.

Such, then, is the nature of the compact into which all true

philosophers should enter with the leading members of the proletary

class. Their object is to direct the organic and final phase through

which the Great Revolution is now passing. What they have to do is

carefully to prolong the provisional system adopted by the Convention,

and to ignore, as far as possible, the traditions of all succeeding

governments, whether stationary or retrograde. Comprehensiveness of

view and social sympathy predominate alike in both members of this

great alliance; and it is thus a guarantee for our present state of

transition, and a sure earnest of the normal future. The people are

the spontaneous representatives of this alliance; the philosophers

its systematic organ. The intellectual deficiencies of the former will

easily be remedied by philosophers, who will show them how essential

it is on social grounds that they should understand the true meaning

of history; since otherwise their conception of the union of mankind

must be limited to the present generation, ignoring the more important

truth of the continuity of the Present with the Past and the Future. A

far greater obstacle is the moral deficiency of most philosophers of

our time. But the wholesome influence of the people upon them, combined

with a deep philosophic conviction of the preponderance of Feeling

in every subject of thought, will do much to overcome the ambitious

instincts which weaken and distract their energies in the common cause

of social renovation.