with education, and
that of the temporal with action, in the wide senses of those terms. The
defects of this dual system were due to the irrational theology. But
the theory of papal infallibility was a great step in intellectual
and social progress, by providing a final jurisdiction, without which
society would have been troubled incessantly by contests arising from
the vague formulae of dogmas. Here Comte had learned from Joseph de
Maistre. But that thinker would not have been edified when Comte went
on to declare that in the passage from polytheism to monotheism the
religious spirit had really declined, and that one of the merits of
Catholicism was that it augmented the domain of human wisdom at the
expense of divine inspiration. [Footnote: Cours de philosophic positive,
vi. 354.] If it be said that the Catholic system promoted the empire of
the clergy rather than the interests of religion, this was all to the
good; for it placed the practical use of religion in "the provisional
elevation of a noble speculative corporation eminently able to direct
opinions and morals."

But Catholic monotheism could not escape dissolution. The metaphysical
spirit began to operate powerfully on the notions of moral philosophy,
as soon as the Catholic organisation was complete; and Catholicism,
because it could not assimilate this intellectual movement, lost its
progressive character and stagnated.

The decay began in the fourteenth century, where Comte dates the
beginning of the Metaphysical period--a period of revolution and
disorder. In the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries the movement is
spontaneous and unconscious; from the sixteenth till to-day it has
proceeded under the direction of a philosophical spirit which is
negative and not constructive. This critical philosophy has only
accelerated a decomposition which began spontaneously. For as theology
progresses it becomes less consistent and less durable, and as its
conceptions become less irrational, the intensity of the emotions which
they excite decreases. Fetishism had deeper roots than polytheism
and lasted longer; and polytheism surpassed monotheism in vigour and
vitality.

Yet the critical philosophy was necessary to exhibit the growing need of
solid reorganisation and to prove that the decaying system was incapable
of directing the world any longer. Logically it was very imperfect, but
it was justified by its success. The destructive work was mainly done
in the sevent