and as the author honestly warns us that he
has given all his attention to a more profound co-ordination, instead of
working out the special explanations more fully, as he had promised, we
need not be surprised if the result is disappointing to those who had
mastered the corresponding portion of the _Positive Philosophy_. Comte
explains the difference between his two works. In the first his "chief
object was to discover and demonstrate the laws of progress, and to
exhibit in one unbroken sequence the collective destinies of mankind,
till then invariably regarded as a series of events wholly beyond the
reach of explanation, and almost depending on arbitrary will. The
present work, on the contrary, is addressed to those who are already
sufficiently convinced of the certain existence of social laws, and
desire only to have them reduced to a true and conclusive system."

The Positivist system.

The Religion of humanity.

The main principles of the Comtian system are derived from the _Positive
Polity_ and from two other works,--the _Positivist Catechism: a Summary
Exposition of the Universal Religion, in Twelve Dialogues between a
Woman and a Priest of Humanity_; and, second, _The Subjective Synthesis_
(1856), which is the first and only volume of a work upon mathematics
announced at the end of the _Positive Philosophy_. The system for which
the _Positive Philosophy_ is alleged to have been the scientific
preparation contains a Polity and a Religion; a complete arrangement of
life in all its aspects, giving a wider sphere to Intellect, Energy and
Feeling than could be found in any of the previous organic
types,--Greek, Roman or Catholic-feudal. Comte's immense superiority
over such prae-Revolutionary utopians as the Abbe Saint Pierre, no less
than over the group of post-revolutionary Utopians, is especially
visible in this firm grasp of the cardinal truth that the improvement of
the social organism can only be effected by a moral development, and
never by any changes in mere political mechanism, or any violences in
the way of an artificial redistribution of wealth. A moral
transformation must precede any real advance. The aim, both in public
and private life, is to secure to the utmost possible extent the
victory of the social feeling over self-love, or Altruism over
Egoism.[1] This is the key to the regeneration of social existence, as
it is the key to that unity of individual life which makes all our
energies con