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WHAT WE BELIEVE.
A DIALOGUE BETWEEN AN INQUIRER AND AN “INCOMPLETE”
POSITIVIST.
I
NQUIRER. I understand you do not believe in a Personal God 01
great First Cause.
Positivist. We neither deny nor affirm respecting either.
There may be a God such as Christians and Mohammedans gen
erally accept as existing, but they no more than we can demonstrate
the fact, if it be a fact.
Inquirer. Then your religion does not recognize any God at all.
Positivist. Oh yes, it does. John Stuart Mill has done us grievous
injury in saying that August Comte propounded a religion without a
God or a future state; whereas we, with Comte, believe in both, if
allowed to define what we mean. Our Supreme Being is Humanity,
whom we love and serve. We say the only God man can know, or
whose existence can be- demonstrated, is the collective Man—the sum
of all human personalities, past, present, and future.
Inquirer. This strikes me as vague. How can you make a Thing
or a Person out of what is clearly an abstract conception ?
Positivist. But the human mind does very readily personify abstract
conceptions. The Town, the State, the Nation, the Church are no
more actual things or entities than is Humanity; yet they are—they
convey a definite impression to the rudest intelligence. Now Human
ity clearly exists as a subjective conception no less than an objective
phenomenon.
Inquirer. But how about the Creator? How do you account for
the origin of the universe ?
Positivist. We know nothing of the beginning of things. It is be
yond our ken. So far as we know, matter and force are eternal.
Science proves this in that no atom of matter can be destroyed or any
force wasted. Each can take a different form, but the precise quantity
or energy of the one or the other always exists in the same definite pro
portions. Hence to the human scientific mind there never was a be
ginning—there never can be an end. Eternity with us is a circle; in
other words, the old Hindoo symbol —the serpent with his tail in his
mouth. The ordinary conception is that of a straight line with a be
ginning and end.
�/
WHAT
WE BELIEVE.
149
Inquirer. When you discriminate between matter and force, do you
mean that there is any real difference between them ?
Positivist. Oh, I speak in a popular way of course. We want what
Mr. Lincoln called the “plain people” to understand us. We know of
matter only through force; that is, through its changes—by the im
pression it makes upon us; but this conception, which is simple enough
to you or me, is too subtile for common comprehension, and hence we
speak of matter and force as two distinct entities.
Inquirer. But the ordinary conception of God must have some valid
basis.
Positivist. So it has. All gods are idealizations of man himself.
They are man-made. Every attribute, with two important exceptions,
which the human race in its past history have ascribed to its gods, is
purely human. Thus love, justice, wisdom, mercy, as well as revenge
fulness, vanity, and lust—in short, all the emotions and passions which
have been attributed to Deity, are purely human. To these have been
added conceptions of the Infinite and Absolute, which are extra-human.
The elements which compose the popular notion of God vary with
every age. The Jewish Jehovah was stern, revengeful, jealous, vain;
the Christian God is a tender, loving Father; the more human or man
like the God, the better he is—hence the noblest Deity of all is the
man Christ-Jesus. In short, this brief and imperfect analysis shows us
that Humanity is, after all, the only pure metal in this alloy of gods.
Let us consecrate all our energies to the service of the only Supreme
Being we can ever know—Humanity. There may be in addition an
Infinite and Absolute Deity; we do not say there is not; but we hold
with Sir William Hamilton, Prof. Mansell, and Herbert Spencer, that
from the laws of our being we can never know or understand Him;
He is out of all relation with us. Unlike Herbert Spencer, we regard
the worship of an unknowable God as a rank absurdity. His ways
cannot be as our ways, nor his thoughts as our thoughts. He is for
us as if he were not. Such is the verdict of modern Philosophy and
Science.
* Inquirer. How about Immortality? If a man die, shall he live
again ?
Positivist. We know we live upon this earth. We do not know
that we shall continue our personal consciousness after death. It may
be so, but we cannot demonstrate .it by any scientific proof. If the
phenomenon of Spiritualism so-called could be proven, all would be
plain sailing; but it resists scientific tests. There is, however, a real
immortality which we are scientifically sure of. We know that the
materials of which we are composed are indestructible. Every atom
which has formed a part of this body of mine from birth to death will
exist forever. And so too of the forces I generate; they cannot be lost
or wasted. “ The good I do lives after me.” I live in my children—in
the work I do—in what I hand down from those who came before to
�150
WETA T
WE BELIEVE.
those who will follow me. The machine becomes unusable and decays,
but the forces to which it gave birth live forever.
Inquirer. But does not life lose much of its interest and glory by
being confined to this earth, and the few, the very few years we spend
upon it ?
Positivist. We must take things as they are, and not as we would
like them to be. No doubt the hope of a personal, conscious immor
tality has done much in times past to soften and brighten the harsh
lot of myriads of human beings who else would have been given over
to despair from the wretchedness of their material surroundings; but
notwithstanding the comfort men have got from this and other pleasant
illusions, we Positivists decline countenancing the dogma of conscious
immortality until it is proven. So far it has no basis of fact to rest
upon. If it ever should be demonstrated, we should believe in it; but
we do not think this possible.
Inquirer. Do I understand you to wish to unsettle the faith of the
mass of mankind in a Personal Creator of the universe and a Personal
Immortality ?
Positivist. By no means. The prevalent disbelief and scepticism is
to us a worse symptom of the times than the current theological illu
sions. Any religion, even the most baseless, is better than the bald
atheism and materialism which is gaining such hold upon the age.
We want to build up a religion to supply the -spiritual needs of man
kind, and one which is based upon the facts of nature. The old faiths
rest upon supernatural authority and revelation; the new, upon dem
onstrated facts — in other words, upon science. The priest of the
Past appealed to the Unknown; the priest of the Future will be the
expounder, or rather the declarer, of the Known.
Inquirer. Does the belief in a future state do any harm ?
Positivist. Yes; it attracts the best and purest minds of the race
away from the solution of practical problems involving human well
being, to the consideration of insoluble questions. Now what is needed
is that all the energies of the race shall hereafter be devoted to making
this earth the fabled heaven. Human effort should be confined to
human improvement, and to making the earth more habitable.
�
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What we believe: a dialogue between an inquirer and an "incomplete" positivist
Description
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Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [148]-150 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway.
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Conway Tracts
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Victorian Blogging
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An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Frauds in reprints
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Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [246]-247 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870.
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RELIGION AND SCIENCE.
*
BY PBOF. J. D. BELL.
HAT do we know? This is the ultimate question in
speculation, and on its decision depends the future of
thought. To those unused to thinking it may seem
very simple and easily answered. But the more we reflect
upon it; the more we study its scientific, historical and social aspects;
the more are we convinced that it is the abstrusest and most farreaching inquiry ever put by man to himself or to his fellows; and
hence there have been (since it was first broached) almost as many
responses as thinkers. As only confusion and misunderstanding can
result from ignoring the real issue, let us formulate it in its full force.
It is as follows: Have we any real knowledge, either direct or inferen
tial, of the Supernatural, call it First Cause, Absolute, or Infinite ? In
$ word, have we any such knowledge as would warrant us in asserting
or denying the existence of such a being ? or in asserting or denying.
the existence of any or all attributes, which the reverential feelings of
humanity in times past have applied to the object of their adorations ?
Let it be noted that the argument does not now turn on whether or
not we have innate ideas—something in the mind antecedent to all ex
perience of the external world. Indeed, it is perfectly competent to
take the negative on the alleged knowledge of the Supernatural, while
at the same time fully accepting intuition.f Provided our innate ideas
be solely phenomenal, we can take whichever side we please in the
great controversy of Locke and Leibnitz. The question of the origin
of our knowledge is very important still'and was much more so in the
past, but this importance is secondary. The extent of that knowledge
is the prime question to which all others, must bow.
Upon reflection it must be evident that the question as above stated
W
* A Review of Herbert Spencer.
+ The current empiricism seems utterly unphilosophical. For the organization
of the brain must be antecedent to all experience whatsoever; even extending the
Lockeian conception to the race or to all life (as Mr. Spencer does), only pushes the
difficulty further back ; but does not solve it. The “ mirror,” “ slate,” and “ sheet
of white paper,” theories of the mind are mere verbal fallacies. Life, be it in a zo
ophyte or in man, must precede all experience; and as thought is but the highest
expression of life, this is the same as saying that our mental apparatus possesses
innate (organic) ideas.
�122
RELIGION AND
SCIENCE.
is capable of solution, and that that solution will rigidly exclude all
others. It is not meant that at a single sitting the question can be
settled. Men do not so give up cherished opinions. They are only
abandoned when seen to be contradictory to decisive experiences. As
long as they do not perceive the contradiction, men can sincerely hold
the most contradictory views. But when the discrepancy is perceived,
they never rest until it is removed. It must be noted, too, that in all
cases of psychological surgery the operation is not performed until a
new organ is prepared to take the place of the old; which- new organ
not only supplies the vacancy, but goes further, filling what was left
empty by its predecessor, and locating functions before almost useless
from positional instability. It was thus with Newton’s law of Gravita
tion ; with the great generalization of Dr. J. R. Mayer, Joule, Grove,
et al., known as the Conservation of Force; with the Darwinian law of
Natural Selection ; and it will be so with the relations of the natural
and the supernatural. And as in the former the explanation of other
wise inexplicable occurrences is easily obtained by means of the law, so
in the latter the difficulties inherent in every compromise will disappear
in the real solution.
I.
It is admitted on all sides that a controversy exists. Thinkers are
not so well agreed as to its nature or solution. The object of the
present essay is threefold. To briefly examine this controversy; the
compromises to which it has given rise; and the solutions proposed.
Many of the thoughts here put forth were suggested by the writer’s
opposition to Mr. Herbert Spencer’s Reconciliation of Religion and
Science, which he believes to be erroneous and misleading; the exposi
tion will consequently take somewhat of the form of an inquiry into
the truth of some fundamental assertions made by that philosopher.
As I shall, unfortunately, have more occasion for dissenting from Mr.
Spencer’s mode of reasoning than the reverse, it is the more directly
incumbent upon me to bear witness to the largeness of his views, and
to his acuteness in analysis and,extraordinary powers of co-ordination.
Though considering the task undertaken by him ifiipossible, and his
synthesis of the knowable far from being true as a whole and in many
parts totally false, I acknowledge that the world owes him a debt of
gratitude for provoking healthful speculation by the lucid expression
of his own suggestive thoughts.
When did the controversy begin ? " Of all antagonisms of belief,”
says Mr. Spencer, “the oldest, the widest, the most profound and the
*
most important is that between Religion and Science. It commenced
when the recognition of the simplest Uniformities in surrounding
* First Principles of a System
Part I. The Unknowable, p, 11.
of
Philosophy. 2ded. New York, 1868.
�RELIGION AND SCIENCE.
,
/
123
things set a limit to the previously universal fetishism. It shows itself
everywhere throughout the domain of human knowledge: affectingmen’s interpretations alike of the simplest mechanical accidents and
of the most complicated events in the histories of nations.” Is this
very comprehensive assertion true ? On its face it appears to be his
torical, but the sources of it are not indicated. It is to be regretted
that very many contemporary writers, and Mr. Spencer among them,
refuse their readers the privilege of checking their statements by
references to the authorities for their facts.
*
The practice of citation
'though onerous on the writer, should never be allowed to fall into
desuetude, as it saves him from hasty generalizations or at least guards
against their banefulness, while at the same time forming an admirable
logical exercise for the reader. In this case a search for such authori
ties would have preserved our author from a totally groundless state
ment. Faith other than that in evidence being out of place in his
torical discussions, let us apply some well-known facts to this very con
fident assertion.
1. The Bible being in every one’s hands will furnish a first test.
The Old Testament Scriptures show us a state of society in which the
recognition of uniformities had not only set limits to a previously uni
versal fetishism, but, according to Mr. Spencer himself, a state in
which this recognition had been carried so far as to differ in little but
name from what M. Comte designated as the perfection of the meta■ physical and positive (or scientific) systems respectively.! In this very
favorable case for Mr. Spencer, it is safe to say, after careful study, that
no such antagonism is found. Antagonisms did exist, but they were
political—questions of ethics and government, and not in any sense
discussions about the origin and extent of our knowledge.! For in
stance, men might and did deny that a certain man was sent by God,
but was it ever doubted that some men were sent by God ? Again, it
might be denied that certain rules of conduct were revealed by God,
but did any one ever doubt that God revealed some rules ? Finally,
men might deny the authenticity of certain traditions, said to have
been revealed, but did they ever doubt the existence of revelation ?
After this cursory vjew and argument which every reader can extend
and verify for himself, it is hardly presumptuous to deny that this assumed antagonism affects <( men’s interpretations alike of the simplest
. I mechanical accidents and of the most complicated events in the hisL tories of nations.” Both these and all such occurrences were believed
* “Many authors entertain,not only a foolish, but a really dishonest objection to
acknowledge from whence they derive much valuable information.”—Charles
Dickens—“ The Pickwick Papers.”
®
. f The Classification of the Sciences. 2d ed. New York, 1870, pp. 35, 36.
t Revue des Deux Mondes. 1867, t. LXIX,pp. 818-850 and LXX. pp. 147-179.
“ Les Prophetes d’Israel,” and Id. t. LXXXIII, pp. 76-112. “ La Religion primitive
d’lsrael,” Essays by Albert Reville, in review of Dr. Kuenen’s researches.
�124
RELIGION AND
SCIENCE.
to be due to the anger of the deity,—the conception of Law versus
Miracle having never entered the Hebrew mind as far as can be gath
ered from their sacred books.
2. Passing over the Koran, which, with the Hebrew Scriptures, may
be said to contain the general speculation of the Semite man, and to
which an identical train of reasoning will apply, let us turn to the
Aryan man. The early thought of this race is preserved in three wellknown compilations: the Veda for the Hindus; the Zend-Avesta for
the Persians; and the Homeric Poems for the Greeks. A candid ex
amination of these works conclusively shows that this assumed antag
onism did not exist at the time they were composed. There is antag
onism in all, but it is person against person, and not ‘uniformities
against persons. In the Veda the Devas (or ‘bright ’ gods,) fight and
conquer their enemies—the ‘ dark ’ powers of nature; but he would be
a bold man who should assert that the former were laws and the lattei
persons. The bright gods are themselves superseded in the ZendAvesta ; but is it in favor of uniformities ? Not at all. The radiating
gods (Light, Fire, etc., conceived as persons) take their places; but
the mode of interpretation has not varied. Lastly: the Honieric
Poems are almost as well known as the Bible; has this antagonism
been found in them ? It will be perhaps a sufficient and conclusive
answer to this interrogatory to cite the opinion of Mr. Grote, the great
est living authority on “ the free life of Hellas.” Discussing this ques
tion in. the sixteenth chapter (Part I) of his “ History of Greece,”* he
reaches the conclusion that in the Homeric age “ no such contention
had yet begun,” though the elements of it seem to have existed, the
Moerse (or Fates) at rare intervals overruling the decisions of Zeus.
Unfortunately for Mr. Spencer’s argument, however, these Moerae were
not uniformities, but persons, like Zeus himself. As the world of
speculation may be said to be divided between the Aryan man and the
Semite, and as no such antagonism has appeared in the early specula
tions of either, Mr. Spencer’s account of the commencement of the
controversy must be rejected.!
The foregoing was written before the appearance of Mr. Herbert
* 3d Edition, London, 1851, Vol. I, p. 483. See also Chap. LXVIII (Part II)—
Sokrates.
f The following interesting diagram, showing the religions of the world whose
rites are found systematized in books, is transferred from the second of the “ Lec
tures on the Science of Religion,” by Professor Max Muller, which appeared in
“ Frazer’s Magazine ” for May, 1870, pp. 581-593. The whole six lectures of the
course, delivered last winter before the Royal Institution of London, will appear in
successive issues of “ Fraser,” commencing with April. The attention of thinkers
is invited to them, not indeed as being likely to contain anything very new, but as
showing the drift of even orthodox thought. Surely the world is not standing still
when an Oxford professor can coolly inform his brilliant Christian audience that to
the scientific man all revelation must stand on the same footing, and that the mere
assertion of its votaries that a religion is revealed affords no-presumption in its
favor, (p. 590.) These lectures can be very advantageously compared with six fine
essays by Simile Burnouf on “La Science des Religions ; sa Methode et ses Lim-
�RELIGION AND
SCIENCE.
125
Spencer’s paper “ On the Origin of Animal Worship, etc.,” * which Sug
gested the propriety of so far extending the limits of the present article
as to admit a few remarks on the interesting subject there discussed.
The ostensible aim of that essay is to give the genesis of the important
historical facts which Mr. J. F. McLennan had recently published in the
“ Fortnightly Review.”! This acute sociological observer collected from
all sources a mass -of data bearing on the early worship of our race; and
upon them, aided by the law of exogamy, viz.: that among savages, in
order to guard against incest, marriage only takes place between indi
viduals belonging to different "clans or stock families —all persons
*
having the same tribal name (“the lion,” “the turtle,” “the beaver,”
etc.) being considered of the same family,J founded an hypothesis or
ites.”—Revue des deux Mondes, December 1st and 15th, 1864; April 15th, August
15th and October 1st, 1868 ; and July 15th, 1869.
The diagram is as follows:
SEMITIC FAMILY .
ARYAN FAMILY.
Veda
Brahmanism
Old Testament
Mosaism
. Zend-Avesta
Zoroastrianism
TripiZaka
Buddhism
TURANIAN
New Testament
Christianity
|
Koran
ARYAN ________
|
Mohammedanism
The Professor adds that China became the mother of two religions at almost the
same time, each founded on a sacred code—the religion of Confucius and that of
Lao-tse; the former resting on the Five King and Four Shu, and the latter on the
Tao-tei King. The eight codes here given form the Sacred library of the world.
The diagram shows that each of the great families in which speculation is indig
enous has given birth to three separate forms of religion. Brahmanism and Bud
dhism are directly affiliated, as are Mosaism and Christianity, while Zoroastrianism
and Mohammedanism are only indirectly connected to the parent code. There is
another curious fact pointed out by Muller, that both Buddhism and Christianity
failed to take permanent root in their own families, and were compelled to abandon
the fruitless task of ‘ reformation ’ with which they both set out. It should be also
noted that the former went to a family lower than itself, cerebrally, while the lat
ter came to one higher. There is another interesting fact to be gathered from the
appended rough census of religions: it is that Christianity and Buddhism unite
’ noarly two thirds of the human race. As quoted from Berghaus’ Physical Atlas
by Max Muller, (“ Chips; from a German Workshop,” Vol. I, p. 158,) the figures ac
companying each form of religion indicate the percentage of the human race
swayed by its dogmas:—Buddhism, 31.2 per cent; Christianity, 30.7 ; Mohammed
anism, 15.7; Brahmanism, 13.4; Jews, 0.3 and Heathens 8.7.
* “ Fortnightly Review,” May, 1870, pp. 535-550.
f “ The worship of Animals and Plants,” Id., Oct. 1st and Nov. 1st, 1869, and
Feb. 1st, 1870. These essays will well repay perusal.
| “ Primitive Marriage,” by J. F. McLellan, 1865; also, “Kinship in Ancient
Greece,” by the same, “ Fortnightly Review,” April 15,1866, pp. 569-588; as well as
“ The Early History of Mankind,” by E. B. Tylor, London, 1865.
On “ Exogamy,” Mr. Darwin has the following remarks, which show how deeply
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working theory. Briefly stated, it is as follows : All the ancient nations
passed through “ Totemism ” before attaining the higher religious rites.
' Totem is a name borrowed from the Indians of our continent, and sig
nifies a protecting spirit, or, as the Canadians call it, “ Medicine.” The
Totem may be either animal or vegetable. The permanent name of the
stock-tribe was derived from it, and it early became a kind of vague
sin, if an animal to kill it, if a vegetable to gather’it, and in either case
to eat of it. This prohibition, known as “ tabu,” is absolute among
the Fijians, it being criminal to partake of the Totem-god. In Egypt,
the deity side of the Totem was still more developed, live animals
having real religious rites in their honor. The same also occurred in
India, as is very conclusively shown in Mr. Fergusson’s magnificent
“ Tree and Serpent Worship.” In a word, traces of this embryo cultus
are found everywhere among even the most civilized nations of
antiquity—polytheism itself being apparently but a pantheon of Totems
derived from each of the separate stocks represented in the nation, and
modified by the increasing refinement of manners and advancement in
speculation. Mr. McLennan further believes that to Totemism, and
not to any pretended likeness, we can trace the names of the signs of
the Zodiac and of the constellations, Bear, Dog, Swan, etc.; these
designations being then given to new discoveries in the heavens, as
marks of the esteem in which the terrestrial animals so named were
held, just as, for some years, the planet discovered by the illustrious Sir
that illustrious biologist has penetrated into ancient thought. They fbnh a happy
contrast to the nonsense so current in relation to “ hygienic practices,” “ confusion
of descent,” etc., etc.:
“ It would be interesting to know, if it could be ascertained, as throwing light
on this question with respect to man, what occurs with the higher anthropomor
phous apes—whether the young males and females soon wander away from their
parents, or whether the old males become jealous of their sons and expel them, or
whether any inherited instinctive feeling, from being beneficial has been generated,
leading the young males and females of the same families to prefer pairing with
distinct families, and to dislike pairing with each other. A considerable body of
evidence has already been advanced showing that the offspring from parents which
are not related are more vigorous and fertile than those from parents which are
closely related; hence any slight feeling, arising from the sexual excitement of
novelty or other cause, which led to the former rather than to the latter unions,
would be augmented through natural selection, and thus might become instinctive;
for those individuals which had an innate preference of this kind would increase in
number. It seems more probable, that degraded savages should thus unconsciously
have acquired their dislike and even abhorrence of incestuous marriages, rather
than that they should have discovered by reasoning and observation the evil
results. * * * In the case of man, the question whether evil follows from close
interbreeding will probably never be answered by direct evidence, as he propagates
his kind so slowly and cannot be subjected to experiment; but the almost universal
practice of all races at all times of avoiding closely-related marriages is an argu
ment of considerable weight; and whatever conclusion we arrive at in regard to
the higher animals maybe safely extended toman.”—The Variation of Animals
and Plants under Domestication. 2 vols. New York, without date. Chap. XVII,
Vol. II, pp. 153, 154.
In connection with this question, it would be interesting to know on which part
of the system—the muscular or the nervous—close interbreeding reacts most unfa
vorably. From many well-known facts it would seem to be the latter—but it
should be experimentally settled.
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127
W. Herschel was named from him, and as many proposed' to call the
planet Neptune “ Le Verner,” in honor of one of its mathematical
discoverers. ■ •
In the development of his thesis, Mr. McLennan had taken for
granted that what is variously known as fetishism or animism repre
sented the view of the early men on the producing causes of phe
nomena ; in other words, that to savages, the conception of life and
volition was unlimited. A tree, a stone, the. wind, the earth, sun,
moon, etc., might have the one and exercise the other. He also
remarked, that Totemism, “ the worship of animals and plants,” pre
ceded in historical order anthropomorphism or the worship of man.
The former theory of early thought Mr. Spencer regards as totally
false; and to the latter statement he can only accord a qualified accept
ance. Dealing with it first, he says, that while if we restrict the word
worship to its present meaning, Mr.'McLennan’s theory is true, still, if
we go to the foot of the matter—to the very origin of this Totemism
itself—it requires great modification. “ The rudimentary form of all
religion,” says he (p. 536), “ is the propitiation of dead ancestors, who'
are supposed to be still existing, and to be capable of working good
or evil to their descendants.” This belief in everlasting life he thinks
generated out of the savage conception of present human existence as
double, which belief in its turn he traces to the following leading expe
riences: (1) The man’s shadow, which accompanies him continually;
r - (2) the reflection of his face and figure in water, which seems another
self, or rather an emanation from self; (3) echoes, which appear to be
voices eluding his search; (4) dreams—“the root of this belief in
another self lies in the experience of dreams;” (5) suspended anima
tion, apoplexy, catalepsy, etc. And from all these the savage view of
death is generalized, viz.: that the man has but abandoned his resi
dence and may return to it again; and, consequently, that having
given favors while present, he still remains capable of doing so in his
absence. The question at once arises, if this theory be true, how came
men to worship animals and plants, as, from the conclusive evidence
adduced, Mr. Spencer acknowledges they did ? Very simply, says our
author. Men named (or as he prefers to designate the process, “ nick
named ”) each other from the phenomena of nature, in accordance with
some real likeness between them; such as “the bear,” for a rough or
unmannerly person; “ the sly old fox,” for a cunning person; “ car
rots,” for a red-haired person; “ the mountain,” for a fat person, etc.
This is the sole origin of proper names which become surnames by
hereditary descent. Thus, in case the ancestor has done some notable
action, his children will be proud of it and retain it. Now, when once
two things have the same name, owing to the “ concreteness ” of primi
tive language, the distinction in nature is lost, and what belongs to the
one is unconsciously applied to the other. Hence comes the belief
that the animal is the ancestor of the tribe; hence worship is offered
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RELIGION AND
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to it; and hence, finally, there appears in history the semblance of
fetishness or animism. In a word, Mr. Spencer regards the embryo
religious cultus, Totemism; and the primeval scientific hypothesis,
fetishism or animism, simply as “ habitual misrepresentations,” caused
by words.
This extraordinary hypothesis attempts to account for three things
—(1) for men’s names; (2) for their “worship of animals and plants”;
and (3) for their fetishism. The following reasons show their incom
pleteness, even if they do not refute Mr. Spencer’s conclusions.
I. The slender evidence afforded by his Scotch excursion and by
the customs of some manufacturing districts, hardly warrants the
sweeping deduction that this “ bow-wow ” mode of naming men is the
sole and original one. All travelers inform us that the natives gladly
call their children after them. Among ourselves the same thing takes
plaoe. How many Washingtons, Lincolns, Jeffersons, Jacksons are
there ? We know that occupations gave names to men; as did their
places of residence. They were and are “ nick-named ” from the color
of their skin (“ nigger ”—Gr; Aithiops); from their gait in walking
(“limper”); from defects in pronunciation (“stutterer”); from im
portant events, either sad or joyful (“ Ichabod,” the glory is departed
from Israel, etc.); from acts, either voluntary or involuntary (“Jacob,”
supplanter; “ Karfa,” replacer); * from good or bad qualities; and it
is said that, in some parts of Ireland, servants often address each other
by their master’s surname. Mr. Spencer asserts that we must carry
back our present mode of “ nick-naming ” to the infancy of the race.
Very good! But the mode is not single (unfortunately for his hypo
thesis) but infinitely complex. To form a true conception of the sub
ject, therefore, we must take all the facts—not one. If we do so, a
glance will show how impossible it is to accept Mr. Spencer’s theory.
All the modes of naming here pointed out, and there are many more,
should have given rise, if the “ word ” be omnipotent, to the worship
of everything which ever gave a name to man. Has it done so ?
II. In the next place, even granting Mr. Spencer’s “ nick-name ”
theory (which we are far from doing), it leaves the real question with
out solution. What did men first name—those things which im
pressed them as most important or as least important ? Men are nick* “Travels in, etc., of Africa;” by Mungo Park. New Ed. London, 1823.
Ch. XX, p. 408, ff. Especial attention is called to this brief but suggestive sketch
of the Mandingoes, their mode of “ naming,” etc. He adds: “ Among the negroes
every individual, besides his own proper name, has likewise a Tcontong or surname,
to denote the family or clan to which he belongs ; . . . . and he is much flattered
when addressed by it.” This looks like the “ Kobong ” of the New Zealanders and
the “ Totem ” of our North American Indians. There is a good account of the In
dian mode of choosing an occupation, in the paper from the N. A. Review, referred
to on p. 132, note. See also “ Nouveau voyage dans le Pays des Negres, etc.,”
par M. Anne Raffenel. Paris, 1856. T. I, p. 403, on naming children; and p. 237,
ff., for an account of the Bambara god—Bowri. The whole volume is worthy of
attention.
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t RELIGION
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129
named from natural objects, but what were these objects named from ?
On this supremely important point our philosopher has thrown no light.
Now, no matter what theory may be held on the origin of language,
the thought of the name-giver, be it ever so crude, must have exercised
a preponderating influence in the formation of the symbol. Language
. in its beginnings is analytical; the name separates the thing receiving
it from certain other things. Dr. Latham thinks, correctly enough, ■
*
that it is the attribute creating the feeling which suggests the name •
and that the other attributes connected with the cause are practically
non-existent. But his opinion, that the intellect has little to do with
the operation, seems erroneous—as emotion is at least as strong in
animals as in ourselves, yet without producing articulate speech. If
we apply this view to the case in hand, we see that the fact (admitted
by Mr. Spencer) of external objects being first named, proves that,
whether really so or not, they were to men in that state more, import
ant than their fathers, who were only named after them. But as men in
all ages have really made deities of the objects most important to them,
and as philological research shows that naming followed a similar
course, it follows that Mr. Spencer’s hypothesis cannot be true. For,
if so, men would have named and worshipped the least important
things. While, secondly, if language be essentially analytical, the very
fact that no Word represented the inanimate as distinguished from the
animate, shows plainly that the distinction had not been perceived. It
is, indeed, somewhat surprising that Mr. Spencer should throughout
his paper have spoken as if words were like the “themistes” of the
old Greeks,—things breathed into man from without, and hence entirely
separate from his mental apparatus. It is conceded that there can be
thought without language, but can there be language without thought ?
It should never be forgotten that the world (objective to man) always
supplies the subject-matter of thought, while the mind itself con
nects these objects together. “ Things in motion,” said Shakespeare,
“sooner catch the bye than what not stirs.” Consequently, we find
the early men slaves to the dynamical aspects of nature,—all the oc
currences requiring explanation were explained by some force. Now,
it cannot be questioned that the force best known to men was the
organic feeling of life—vital force; nor can it be doubted that they
always explain the less known by the more known. Hence, the
fetishistic view of nature as alive, and the theological or volitional
hypothesis, of the universe, as created, supported, moved, etc., by the , I
will of a god. It is only much later that, by the progress of sci
ence, a more correct view of nature is obtained. Then comes into
view the great law, applied in physics by Bacon, and distinctly for
* “ Elements of Comparative Philologyby R. GE Latham, F. R. S., etc.
London, 1862 ; p. 737. See also the ninth of Max Muller’s “ Lectures on the Sci
ence of Language;” I. Series. New York, 1862; and the eleventh of Prof. Whit
ney’s “ Lectures on Language, etc.” New York, 1867.
*
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RELIGION AND SCIENCE.
mulated by M. Comte, as applicable to all phenomena,—that our
theories, the connections furnished by the mind itself, should be
subordinated to our objective materials. In a word, that observation
must be supreme; all theories not founded on observed facts and
against which any future observed facts can be opposed, must, ac
cording to it, be abandoned.
The assumed “ concreteness ” of words has, therefore, nothing to
do originally with the confusion, which modern thinkers have named
variously the fetishistic or animistic hypothesis. All words are by no
means ‘concrete’ (in Mr, Spencer’s sense) at the earliest period.
But even if they were, it could only show that, as the analytical
faculties and language are correlated, the correctness of the word
arose from confusion in the thought.
*
Its cumbrousness has not been urged against Mr. Spencer’s theory.
We do not know whether nature intended things to be simple or
not, and, therefore, complexity affords no presumption against a pro
posed scheme for connecting them. But there is one point which
cannot be passed over in silence. If men, when they first named
the phenomena of nature, , drew a perfectly definite distinction be
tween animate and inanimate, between human and merely animal,
and if they afterwards confused the two together, by “ the worship
of animals and plants,” imagining them to be their ancestors, then
it follows that, as men advanced in civilization, they retrograded in
powers of analysis. In other words, civilization (or progress) depends,
in part at least, on well directed emotions; to seek out this proper di
rection is a process of analytical reasoning; still, as man ascended the
scale on the one side, he was going down on the other. When it is re
membered that the lower races fail most-conspicuously in analysis,—
even among the Chinese, it is.said, there is not a single native mathema
tician,—such a deduction from a sweeping theory is likely "to give us
pause and make us rather bear the ills we have than fly to other that
we know not of.” Mr. Spencer thinks that his theory affords a better
explanation of the facts of mythology than the current hypothesis. If
the latter be taken with Mr. McLennan’s " totem” supplement, this does
not seem to be true. Nor do the instances given by him furnish con* Those wishing to follow up the subject of fetishism are referred to Mr. E. B.
Tylor, “ The Early History of Mankind ” (London, 1865), and “ The Religion of
Savages,” Fortnightly Review, Aug. 15, 1866, pp. 71-86; to Mr. G. Grote, “ The
History of Greece,” Part I, especially Ch. XVI, in which he endorses M. Comte’s
view (vol. I, p. 498); to R. F. Burton, “ The Lake Regions of Central Africa ”
(London, *1860), Ch. XIX, vol. II, pp. 324-378 ; and more especially to M. Auguste
Comte, Cours de Philosophie positive, lecjon 52, t. V, 1st ed., 1841, pp. 30-115, and
2d and 3d editions, edited by Littre, 1864, and 1869, pp 24-83. Now that the Sci
ence of Religions is taking its place in Sociology, the remarkable discussion of the
subject by M. Comte is worthy of attention. See work cited, lecons'52, 53, 54, con
tained in the fifth volume. The laws of mind, or the Philosophia primct, will be
found stated in Chapters III and IV of the fourth volume of the Politique positive.
Attention is also directed to the essays printed as an Appendix to that volume.
�HJiLlGIO.Y AND
SCIENCE.
131
vincing proofs of its truth—especially when coupled with the reasons
above given against its reception.
As to the unqualified assertion that, •“ the rudimentary form of all
religion is the propitiation of dead ancestors, etc.,” it is extremely rash
at the present day to decide such, a point ex cathedra. It must be ad
mitted that‘ propitiation ’ is one form, but it was totally impossible for
such a religion to become organizing. Until it superadds the ‘ thanks
giving’ form it remains always a rudiment, and hence merely merits
the name of one of the elements, out of which, when supplemented by
others, religious rites are developed. Propitiation is always joyless:
only when the man is sick and the family in distress is it thought
*
necessary. Being much more mercantile than religious, this propitia
tion belief, except in such moments, exerts little influence on its firm
est adherents. The mere make-shift for religion found among the
poorest and most degraded of humanity, it has the fatal want of contin
uity and reverence. Anything like a proper conception of religion
springs up only when men begin to be better fed. In such cases the
food presented to them appears a worthy object of reverence. And,
there can be little doubt that “grace before, meals” is a relic of Totem
ism still lingering among us, and one of the earliest real religious cus
toms of humanity. The numerous feasts of the ancient religions, and
the times they were held, “ harvest,” “sheep shearing,” etc., point to the
thanksgiving aspect of ancient faiths. While the traces of it, every
where apparent, demonstrate its greater importance in the immense
majority of cases. It can surely not be omitted in tracing the genesis
of religion.
As to the other part of the statement, the question at once arises, *
who in savage modes of thought were a man’s ancestors ? To the answer—solely his human progenitors—it may be objected, that though
this is the correct view and the popular one at present, nothing shows
it to have been held by the early thinkers. In their opinion, on the
contrary, all dynamical phenomena might produce men, and thus be
come ancestors of individuals or the race. Habitual misrepresentation
cannot account for such a belief. It is sui generis. In this connection
attention should be directed to two historical facts decidedly opposed
to Mr. Spencer’s hypothesis—(1) The religion of ancient Israel seems to
have been a nature worship in which the attributes of strength, stabil
ity, etc. (El, strong, Jahveh Zabaoth,pleader of the hosts of heaven),
were reverenced. The large element of fear in the primitive concep
tion, and which was never discarded, as its usual concomitant, led to
the most onerous propitiatory ceremonial.f But as far as can be gath
ered from the researches of the learned, no man-worship appears in it
from beginning to end. Indeed it is a well known historical fact that
* See a fine account of one of these ceremonies in “The Zulu-land,” by Rev.
Lewis Grout, Phila.: 1864, chap. xi. pp. 132-162.
+ See Reville’s Essay on “ The Primitive Religion of Israel,” mentioned above.
g
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the conception of a god-man, so familiar to the Greeks, was so utterly
distasteful to the Jews as to lead more than anything else to the
destruction of Christ. The second fact is still more germane to the
subject—“ In no Indian language could the early missionaries find a
word to express the idea of God. Manitou and Okie meant anything
endowed with supernatural powers, from a snake-skin or a greasy Indian
conjurer up to Manabozho and Jonskeha (kind of creator of the World).
The priests were forced to use a circumlocution, ‘ The Great Chief of
Men/ or ‘ The Great Manitou who lives in the Sky.’ Yet it should
seem that the idea of a supreme controlling spirit might naturally arise
from the peculiar character of Indian belief. The idea that each race
of animals has its archetype or chief, would easily suggest the existence
of a supreme chief of the spirits or of the human race—a conception
imperfectly shadowed forth in Manabozho. The Jesuit missionaries
seized this advantage. ‘If each sort of animal has its king/ they
urged, e so, too, have men; and as man is above all the animals, so is
the spirit that rules over man the master of all the other spirits.’ The
Indian mind readily accepted the idea, and tribes in no sense Christian
quickly rose to the belief in a one controlling spirit. The Great Spirit
became a distinct existence, a prevailing power in the universe, and a
dispenser of justice.” *
Mr. Spencer’s humanistic hypothesis seems utterly irreconcilable
with either of these facts. In this latter, each sort of animal had its
king, and still man had none. The author of the paper from which
the above extract has been made, shows very clearly the heterogeneous
elements out of which even so rudimentary a religion as these Indians
* had, Was formed. It seems not to be “ habitual misrepresentation ”
that leads men to worship the elements,—thunder, lightning,—but what
leads them in other circumstances to offer the best cow to the enraged
shade of their father, viz: the conception of power over their destinies
to be remorselessly used to their disadvantage. In a word, complexity
in genesis and. development is what above everything we must bear in
mind in tracing the history of religions.
Finally, on the subject of naming Mr. Spencer has adduced no proof
whatsoever that stock-names derived from Totems are the residua of
the nick-naming process which he so graphically describes. Indeed it
appears as if the stock-name stood on an entirely different footing,from what, by an anachronism, we may call the baptismal name. Park
and many other travelers show the way in which savages obtain the
latter, but they found the surname invariable,—each family being once
for all provided with such a designation. The whole subject deserves
careful study, but in the meantime a suggestion may not be out of
place. Recurring to Mr. Darwin’s acute hint on the subject of exogamy,
might not names have been originally given to men in order to guard
against the possibility of incest, and incidentally to. bind them together
* “Indian Superstitions," North Am. Review, July 1866 (N. S.), Vol. CIII, p. 10.
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133
in war, blood, feud, etc.? Would not these names be derived from
what was to them the most important of surrounding existences ? and
would not these in the very rudest times be their food—the animals
and plants on which they lived ? To the savage emaciated by hunger,
food-must have seemed the greatest of life-givers. He, who a few
hours before, was lying pale, listless, taciturn, with muscles relaxed,
and nerves unstrung, now on the reception of food and with a slight
interval.for rest, appears as a new man—his carriage erect, with ruddy
color, voluble tongue, and nerve and muscle a’ctive. The kind of food
which they ate, first permanently divided men, and united them. Can
we wonder that when their circumstances improved, they should regard
with reverence, what preserved them alive and separated them from
all others. To the savage, life is the greatest of boons; why should
he then deprive of life the being which was his early life-giver?
Hence the Fijian “ tabu.” As to the belief that men were descended
from their Totems, it may have arisen out of the idea pointed out
above, viz: that food was the greatest of life-givers. It can hardly be
a reminiscence of the occurrence of any such fact—that is even if we
accept the Darwinian theory.
As to religion, the more it is studied the more apparent it is that
the deities of every people are divided into two great classes—extra
human and human. The former are from the first separated into two
*
kinds—-the one, the powers of nature, remote, terrible, recurring only
at intervals, contains the rudiments of what we know as the supernat
ural ; the other, present, familiar, but still marvelous, softens down the
fearful side of the former, and if allowed to proceed ends by sapping
its vitality. The religion of Israel seems to have been of the former *
kind; while the joyful religions of the Aryan nations, (specially but
wrongly designated as polytheistic, as if all religions were not both
monotheistic and polytheistic,) seem to have been of the latter. The
limits of the present essay merely permit the indication of this point,
together with the remark that with the decay of the extra-human dei
ties has grown the dignity of the human. Nature was the enemy of
man in the early times, and was consequently propitiated. Through
man’s inquiries it has become his friend, and is now vaguely rever
enced. Hence the pantheism so apparent at the present day. The
same thing has in a somewhat different mode taken place with man
himself,—he is now reverenced as a member of the great human fam
“ Polynesian Reminisceflces,” by W. T Prichard, F. R. G. S., etc. London, I860,
chap. V, pp. Ill, ff. “ Fiji and the Fijians,” by Thomas Williams. New York, 1859,
chap. VII. By the.way, there is much in this chapter utterly irreconcilable with
Spencer’s hypothesis. “ New Zealand, etc;: ” by Dr. Ferdinand von Hochstetter,
(Eng. trans, by E. Sauter.) Stuttgart, 1867, chap. X, p. 209, and the opinions of
Schieren there referred to. See also “ The Lake Regions of Central Africa;’ by R.
F. Burton. London, 1860, Vol. II, chap XIX, pp. 324-378. He especially repudiates
the ‘euhemerism’ supported by Mr. Spencer. A work too little known should
also be consulted, “ The Rambles and Recollections of an Indian official,” by Lt. Col.
Wm. H. Sleeman. 2 vols. London, 1844.
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ily, and not, as in former times, because he holds sa high position.
Love has taken the place of fear. Indeed, so far has this view pene
trated even orthodox thought, and that too outside of Germany, that
it is being boldly claimed that religion is a psychological product, no
more revealed than language. Before resuming the argument proper,
it may be well to add that a great deal asserted by Mr. Spencer is admit
ted as both true and important; but from the considerations above ad
duced, it must appear that he has failed to support his hypothesis. In
such discussions as the present a thinker cannot too carefully guard him
self against the sarcasm of Xenophanes—that if horses had deities they
would have made them in their own likeness. This was partially true
as to the Greeks, but as to the lower races the reverse would be nearer
the truth. The best observers agree in asserting that there is no feel
ing of personal pride among the latter, and hence their great gods were
more likely to be taken objectively to the human race. Peoples proud
of their individualism seem alone to have what may really be called
human gods; but as such a feeling comes late in the race, Mr. McLen
nan’s assertion that the anthropomorphic gods succeeded to the animal
gods seems fully borne out. - The truth of the whole matter may be
thus expressed: the formative element of all religions is human, but
the matter varies with the people, its scale of civilization, physical sur
roundings, etc.
Who are Parties to this Controversy ?—Mr. Spencer, accepting the
popular opinion, answers, Religion and Science. In order to test the
truth of this response, let us place clearly before us what he and others
mean by these two terms. About Science there can be no difficulty. We
find spread out before us a universe, containing certain existences, mat
ter, life, society, exhibiting certain properties or forces, without which
we never find them. In order to predict their future manifestations,
which, theoretically and practically, contain matters of high interest to
us, we trace out their general facts or laws. Two things are to be
noted—subject-matter and method. The former, matter of various
kinds with its forces; the latter, a mode of investigating and classify
ing them, and a ctest of truth’for the conclusions reached. Now,
what is Religion ? This very important factor in Mr. Spencer’s alleged
antagonism is very vaguely dealt with. After following him carefully
throughout his exposition, the only inference to be drawn is that, hav
ing constantly heard from the pulpit and seen in the newspapers Reli
gion and Science pitted against each other, he accepted the statement
as true, and forthwith set about the task of reconciling them. He as
serts (F. P., p. 30) that “to the aboriginal man and to every civilized
child the problem of the Universe suggests itself;” and (p. 43) that,
“leaving out the accompanying moral code, which is in all cases a supple
mentary growth, a religious creed is definable as an A priori theory of
the universe.” Is the inquiry into the whence and whither of the uni
verse religious ? if so, what is scientific, as opposed to it ? Is a relig
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ious creed the.religion itself? if so, in what does it differ from science,
except that the creed of the one is subjective and the creed of the
other objective ? But if Mr. Spencer could escape from the difficulties
here raised (which he cannot), how can he reconcile these statements
with that on p. 17, that “Religion under all its forms is distinguished
from everything else in this, that its subject-matter is that which
passes the sphere of experience ? ” How further can he reconcile this
assertion with that on p. 44, that “"Religions diametrically opposed in
their overt dogmas are yet perfectly at one in the tacit conviction that
the existence of the world, with all it contains and all which surrounds
it, is a mystery ever pressing for solution?” If this mystery is ever'
*
pressing for solution, the Universe must be the subject-matter of relig
ious speculation, and consequently it is not “ that which passes the
sphere of experience.”
The Real Merits of the Case.—No matter how modified, no such
antagonism as Mr. Spencer conceives has existed; his definition of Re
ligion will not hold; and therefore no Reconciliation is called for.
What science has always opposed is religious creeds—not because they
asserted a mystery, but because they gave certain explanations of it.
Indeed, with the most unpardonable inconsistency, Mr. Spencer asserts
both and endeavors to reconcile them. But they are irreconcilable. It
is not about the subject-matter presented for interpretation, but about
the method of interpreting that subject-matter, that the controversy
originated and is now carried on by all those in earnest in the matter.
Further, as a statement of fact, we deny that the subject-matter of re
ligion has anywhere ever passed the bounds of -experience. Though it
may not be consonant to usage to so designate them, all religious creeds
whatsoever have been scientific—that is to say, attempts to explain the
*
Universe.
The idea of mystery, in Mr. Spencer’s sense, is not found
in ancient times; and the conception of an unattainable unknown, had
never presented itself to the primeval mind. How it could with a voli
tional (or, in Comtean phrase, ‘ theological ’) hypothesis, is a mystery
which no one until Mr. Spencer had attempted to solve. In the earli-‘
est times everything on which speculation was exercised was animated;
man’s theories did not rise above his feeling of power or muscular sen
sations. Then the fetish-man, the rain-maker, the medicine-man, the
sorcerer—each could do with nature as he wished: he could close the
windows of heaven that it should not rain, and open them again by in
cantation; he could literally kill and make alive. Later, gods had
large domains, they gave revelations, had prophets and oracles to clear
up the difficulties which should present themselves.f These it would
seem were very adequate precautions against the Unknowable.
This being premised, the controversy can be limited to the method
* Emile Burnouf’s essays referred to above—especially V, Rewe des deux Mondes,
Oct. 1,1868.
f On the subject of ‘ Prophecy ’ see Reville’s papers, referred to above.
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of explaining the facts presented by the universe. Now if we can in
terpret those facts in two opposed .modes there is hope of reconciling
the parties. How chimerical this is all thinkers know. The parties to
this controversy are not Religion and Science ; they are different phil
osophies or religious creeds. The whole war is carried on inside of
religion itself, the strife being for the chief place in its gift—that of
corner-stone of the great edifice, and, consequently, of being supreme
guide of mankind in all its relations, practical and theoretical, moral
and esthetic. The adversaries are three in number—theology, meta
physics, and science. The first, represented among us by Christianity
in all its varied forms, has in its hands nearly all the»machinery for
controlling men’s minds. It has immense sums of money; stately
churches; gorgeous ritual; eloquent, and in many cases honest preach
ers. But what is its record at the present day. It has been slowly
-giving way. It asserts that the world was created by-the deity’s voli
tion, and is still ruled by his ordinance—but how few of its intelligent
votaries dare state these things as they were ^stated in the past. The
six days of creation laid down in the Mosaic cosmogony are explained
away in such mode as to shock the moral sensibility of the conscien
tious, and provoke the questionings of the inquiring. Theologians
have for centuries defended their own doctrines very feebly; that task
has mostly fallen into the hands of metaphysicians, whose impress, in
the shape of ontological entities instead of the fine personal concep
tions of the older creed, is plainly ^visible. A metaphysical god has
taken the place of Jehovah; and we can even see, by the advance of
Unitarianism, etc., that these- conceptions, long masters of the indi
vidual in his closet, are endeavoring to become masters of society
through the pulpit. Both of these, though essentially disparate, regard
with fear the rise and steady advance of the scientific doctrine elabo
rated by the observational method. It asserts that we have been una
ble to reach any creation; and that far from any such event being
recent, as the ignorance of the past asserted, that of even our earth is
immensely remote. It further ‘shows that as far as we have gone laws,
not volitions, govern the universe; while (as indeed the scientific con
ception implies,) these laws do not depend upon any volitions. The
fecundity of this method and the sterility of that opposed to it; the
development of scientific doctrine and its continuous addition of new
domain, contrasted with the unprogressiveness of its opponents; and
its immense practical importance as opposed to their utter impotence
in the affairs of life, all point in the direction of its ultimate victory
Would it not be contradictory to all experience if such was not the
sure precursor of that end ? Here is one mode of explaining the uni
verse which asserts that man has had communion with God, and yet
has, in a modified form. Still we challenge it to show anything prac
tical ever thus reached. It was not surely by prayer that the Atlantic
telegraph was laid or the Pacific'railway built. Here is another that
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holds that man carries with him at all times a machine (mind) which
can inform him of absolute knowledge, ‘ the nature of things,’ etc.
But we did not go there to receive our oracles in relation to the proper
mode of laying that cable, or the proper route for that railway. Nor
do astronomers go there to learn the distances of the stars; nor chemioo-astronomers to learn their elements. Ancient traditions, dignified
as Revelation, but full of contradictions and notorious ignorance;
*
modern introspection, full of pretense and high-named “discoveries,”
but barren of result, have, forsooth, more titles to be called religions
than has science, with its homogeneous method, mutually verifying re
sults and immense practical importance. On the contrary it will be
found that in the present state of the human mind in Western Europe;
and America, science can do more to legitimately satisfy all its yearn
ings than the assertions of theologians or the reveries of introspectionists, no matter how sanctified by age or covered with words. If this is
not the object of religion, what is ?
It is currently supposed that this contention arose first and solely
in Greece, when physical speculation began. Kapila and Buddha, in
India, were at least as early as the sixth century before Christ, and possibly
earlier. These thinkers felt this contradiction^ and 'Buddha gave a so
lution of it, which is one of the most wonderful in speculative inquiry.
Kapila was the Hume of India, and it is doubtful if the subtile Scot
has improved much on the introspective Hindu. But no matter where
it arose, it is confined to the Aryan race; the observing race; the men
who prized knowledge, for that is the meaning of Veda, the title of
their Sruti (or revelation). This clash of methods continued in Europe
for some centuries, until Christianity finally put the old controversy to
rest. It slept for ages, but was resumed again on its ceremonial side
by the reformers of the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries,
and on its speculative side by the physicists (more especially) after the
rise of the Italian school of scientists in the sixteenth century.
“ Clash of methods ” appears in the foregoing. To some readers it
may have occurred that not the methods, but the extent of our knowl
edge or assumed knowledge clash. This is true; but it is the method,
* The sterility of theological thought and the ignorance of Revelation is perhaps
shown by nothing more clearly than its account of a pretended fall of man. There
is almost complete certainty that it is just such a fiction as Rousseau’s ‘state of na
ture.’ Here are the remarks of Mr. E. B. Tylor: “The advocates of the theory
that savages are degenerate descendants _of civilized men have still full scope in
pointing out the imperfections of their adversaries’ evidence and argument. But
the new facts, as they come in month by month, tell steadily in one direction. The
more widely and deeply the study of ethnography is carried on, the stronger does
the evidence become that the condition of mankind in the remote antiquity of the
race, is not unfairly represented by modern savage tribes.”—“ Nature,” Nov. 25,
1869, p. 105-.
See also “ Pre-historic Times,” by. Sir J. Lubbock, Bart., F. R. S., etc. 2d Ed.,
London, 1869, passim.
Every intelligent reader is acquainted with the acute remarks of Thucydides on
the early state of man in the opening of his History.
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and the method alone which sets limits to our knowledge. With the
theological method—explanation by volitions—there can be no un
known ; it is only by means of the positive method—explanation by
law—that such an unknown arises as a definite conception. Kapila’s
dialectic limited the knowledge of men, subjectively considered, to the
most wonderful extent, and hence, on his acceptance of its results,
Buddha, in furtherance of its religious projects, was able to lopp off at
a single stroke nearly the whole ceremonial observances of India. The
(so-called) physical philosophers of Greece limited men’s knowledge,
objectively considered, and hence were able to overturn many of the
ancient idola of the human mind, and lay the foundation for future
*
progress.
II.
Having recognized that the controversy arose in India and in
Greece at least six centuries before Christ, and that the ultimate ques
tion is as to the extent of our knowledge, which is itself a question of
methods, let us now proceed to briefly review some of the compromises
to which it has given rise.
* . Kapila, with Kantian inconsistency, did not deny u revelation.”
He, an utter agnoiologist,f as much so as Buddha himself, accepted the
Veda. According to Max Muller, his arguments are very similar to
those used by Dean Mansel in his celebrated Bampton Lectures. Pass
ing into Greece, we find Anaxagoras supposing a controlling mind
(Nous) and matter. He forgets all about the mind, as was pointed
out by Plato and Aristotle, after formulating it at the beginning.
--------------------------------------------------- ?----- - ------------------------------ .
* Max Muller finely remarks (“ Chips from a German Workshop.” 2 vols.
New York, 1869. Vol. I, p. 65) that Hindu thought was a psychological experi
ment. The philosophers of India seem to have been impressed by the want of con
sonance between what they found in consciousness on mental examination, and
what should be in it according to the traditional theology. They reached as near
to a true psychology as unaided introspection ever can hope to do. Except within
very narrow limits introspection, no matter how honestly and carefully performed,
must be fallacious. Man, the individual, is there made the measure of the universe
of mind. But no proof has been adduced to show that any two men have con
sciousnesses alike, any more than they have feet, or hands, or eyes alike. In the
next place, consciousness improves with civilization and increased education; there
is, therefore, no reason to think that what a man in our day finds in his consciousness, was in that of his barbarous ancestor. The addition of opium and intoxica
ting liquors to nutrition shows how consciousness can be changed. How do we
know that it is not so, but less marked, with other articles of diet ? A breakfast
might, therefore, vitiate a whole psychological analysis. To obviate these diffi
culties, Psychology must be studied historically. The language, manners and
customs, religious ceremonies, laws, etc., must show us the ancient thought of the
race. The other view of the question seems to have struck the Greek—the extemal and not the internal, the historical and not the introspective. Hence the
fecundity of the beginning made by him. With the Hindu,. there was only a
subjective test of truth; the Greek founded an objective one—he declared in history
the omnipotence of evidence, and in physics the omnipotence of observation.
j- Gr. Agnoia, ignorance ; and logos, discourse. Applied to one who is ignorant
of the existence or non-existence of the gods.
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Sokrates * divided the universe into two parts; the physical half be
longing to the gods, into which men were interdicted from inquiring;
and the human half, which was open to their search. The Platonic
compromise was based on that great thinker’s mental analysis and his
torical inquiries; and is. presented to us in his abortive attempt at
social reform. When centuries afterwards Christianity put life into
this scheme—gave it an object around which to crystallize, a solution
and not a compromise was presented to the world. The Church was
very largely indebted to Greek thought for its speculative embodiment;
to Greek subtilty for the disgregation of thought which afforded its
doctrine such free scope; to the Greek genius of Alexander who placed
Greece beyond itself; and more than all, to Greece it was indebted for
its founder. The god-man is, as above remarked, Grecian, not Mosaic.f
But despite all this, the speculation of that great people, as far as or
ganization was considered, was a failure. They were, however, the
great seminal minds of the world. Much of the Church’s metaphysics
was borrowed from the dialectics of Plato and his followers; and
some of its rules bear the impress of “The Republic” and “The
Laws; ” and Aristotle’s philosophy, to a certain extent objective and
observational, served for ages as its physical dreed. Still we must re
member, neither the socialism of Plato coupled with his idealism, nor the
physicism of Aristotle coupled with his shadowy, metaphysical god,
were alone able to reconstruct the world. Christianity supplied the
emotional life, without which all the rest was vain.
Descending to modern times, we find the same desire as in the
ancient world to save some part of supernaturalism. Descartes form
ally abjured any social bearing which his “ Method ” might seem to
imply; and this abjuration evidently sprung from his desire to retain
his position in the Church. The powerful appeals of Bacon, together
with the discoveries of Galileo and the physicists, had compelled a re
adjustment of philosophy, and the “ Discourse on Method ” was the
result. The continued advance of observational science, the remark
able speculations of Thomas Hobbes and Locke’s celebrated “ Essay
upon Human Understanding,” called for another adjustment. The
task was undertaken by Leibnitz, one of the greatest, though unfor
tunately, too little unitary minds, the race has ever produced. His
compromise is scattered up and down through his works rather than
codified in any one. It is at present of only historical importance.
Again, the advance of science, both physical and historical, and the
powerful, though in many places self-contradictory, negative criticism
of Hume, called for a new metaphysical revelation.
Immanuel Kant presented it to the world. - In many respects the
* “ Xenophon’s Memorabilia,” “ Plato’s Apology,” and “ Grote’s Greece.” Part
II, ch. LXVIII.
f “ The Place of Greece in the Providential Order of the World,” by the Right
Hon. W. E. Gladstone. (An Address, etc.). London, 1865.
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“Kritik der reinen Vernunft” leaves little to be desired. He has
stated and defended the phenomenality of all' knowledge with an ex
actness and vigor which cannot be too highly praised. He has guarded
against Hume’s glaring error of denying the Unconditioned—a mis
take which must detract very much from his famed acuteness. But,
while gladly acknowledging this, we find: (1) that Kant, not satisfied
with showing that Hume’s position was suicidal, and not seeing that
the only true position was one of neutrality, goes beyond the limits of
our faculties in the opposite direction from that of the ’Scotch philos
opher. (2) That the great German thinker has not only “pure” reason,
but “practical ” reason ; and, consequently, what he rejects out of the
former, he takes into the latter. And (3) that its “ high priori ” ten
dencies afforded no barrier against the developments given to them by
Schelling, Hegel, and others. Kantism has taught the world something,
but has failed as a system. It had the seeds of decay too deeply sown
in it, to be long-lived. Even now, Dr. McCosh,.in his “Intuitions of
the Mind,” criticises and refutes some of Kant’s antinomies.
Until Sir W. Hamilton, the Scottish philosophy of the Superna
tural never had a defender worthy of it. He, too, presented the world
with a scheme for reconciling the chronic controversies of ages. Like
Kant’s^ it reposed upon a verbal distinction. The great metaphysician
thought he had discovered a difference between “ belief” and “ knowl
edge,” and on this his whole compromise rests. It is, however, now
well known that this distinction is purely hypothetical—thinkers of
the most opposite schools, as Mr. Mill, M. Paul Janet, of the Institute
of France, and Dr. McCosh, agreeing in repudiating it; both in its
metaphysical bearings as used against Cousin, and in its theological
consequences as developed by Sir W. Hamilton’s admiring disciple
(now) Dean Mansel. Knowledge is and must be considered ultimate;
and if we have no knowledge, we can have neither physical belief nor
theological faith.
Two celebrated contemporary naturalists, Dr. Hooker and Prof.
Huxley, hold an opinion the exact reverse of that, of Sokrates.’ Ac
cording to .them, the physical universe is open to the inquiries of sci
ence, while man belongs to the gods. The former says: * “ If in her
track, Science bears in mind that it is a common object of religion
and science to seek to understand the infancy of human existence,
that the laws of mind are not yet relegated to the domain of the
teachers of physical science; and that the laws of matter are not
within the religious teacher’s province, these may then work together
in harmony and with good will.” While to the same purpose, but
more definitely, the latter remarks: f “ Some, among whom I count my* “ President’s Address before the British Association, 1868.” Report, p. lxxiv.
The word “ yet ” is suggestive.
f “ The Scientific Aspects of Positivism.” “ Fortnightly Review,” June 1,1869.
pp. 663, ff.
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self, think the battle (between Theology and Science) will forever re
main a drawn one, and that for all practical purposes this result is as
good as anthropomorphism (or Theology) winning the day.” And still
the eminent professor just before speaks about .philosophers arming
themselves for battle on this last and greatest of questions. What is
the use if it cannot be decided ? It is apparent that this position, like
that of Sokrates, is one of unstable equilibrium—the question must
have a solution.
It now. remains to briefly examine Mr. Spencer’s compromise, or as
he calls it reconciliation. We have cursorily examined its historical
basis, let us now turn our attention to its metaphysical. Mr. Spencer
divides the Universe into two parts—the one Knowable by our facul
ties ; the other Unknowable. The former is the domain of Science;
the latter, that of Religion. (1) Mr. Spencer’s nomenclature is open to
the very gravest objection—an objection which goes to the very root of
his distinction. He has not very clearly defined his terms, but a little
reflection will show that if the Knowable means anything more than
the known, either by induction or inference, it overpasses the limits of
our faculties; necessitating the proposer of such a step to define how far
he intends to advance,, and his safeguards against error in that terra
incognita. Again, the Unknowable is not a negative conception, but a
positive one (F. P., p. 91). If it does not mean all that is beyond
knowledge, that is to say, unknown, it must be a known and not an
Unknowable. Otherwise how can its existence be asserted ? Mr. Spen
cer holds that we have an indefinite consciousness of this Unknowable
(p. 88). If this be so, we surely know we have this consciousness; and
knowing this, it makes no difference whether we can formulate it or
not, we must be said to know it. Can we formulate the force of grav
itation ? Not at all; we can only formulate the law of its manifesta
tions. That we lenow gravitation must be conceded. Just in the same
way, if this Unknowable is present as an ‘indefinite’ consciousness,
who can tell but at some future time, some one will formulate the laws
of its manifestations, and then it will be known in just the same way
as we know the forces of matter ? * .
* How little we have added to purely metaphysical inquiry will he shown on the
complete publication of the philosophical works of the Hindus. As pure (or intro
spective) thinkers, they stand unrivaled as far as can be judged from extracts and
the comments of the learned. When we once have a comparative science of meta
physics, the futility of it will more than ever appear—though where there was no
physical science, it was all which could be done to prevent the mind from stagna■ting. The indefinite consciousness which Mr. Spencer finds in himself, and called
by him the Unknowable, is apparently the same as that found by the ancient
Hindus, and called by them much more correctly, Brahman (or power). Both the
■ Hindi! philosophers and Mr. Spencer' end by projecting this conception into the
Universe. But if that consciousness does exist, how can we tell that it is the power
which presents the Universe to us? This is wholly illegitimate reasoning. If the
metaphysical conception of a god contained in man be true on the one hand, it is
no less true on the other, that man’s religious instinct always prompts him to sup
plement it by another beyond himself. May not this consciousness called the Un
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RELIGION ANU SCIENCE.
(2) In the next place, none of Mr. Spencer’s arguments demonstrate
his conclusion. His argument to show that everywhere we reach by
the limits of our faculties a boundary, is and must be accepted. But
the man who points out an insuperable barrier has no justification for
stepping over it, and giving “ a local habitation and a name ” to such
supposed existence. If we reach a certain point beyond which it is
absolutely- impossible to go at the present day, and beyond which no
one in_ the past has gone, what confidence can be put in any assertion
presuming to tell us aught -of anything outside of this limit ? It is
unknown, and that is all we can say. Mr. Spencer will, however, not
rest satisfied with this plain statement of the case. Everywhere his
argument presupposes, and Ije asserts in many places, that we only know
the Relative as an antithesis to the Absolute (F. P., p. 88); that this
Unknowable is the cause of the Knowable—that in fact the forces of
nature are effects (F. P., pp. 158-161); and that, in a word, it is the
source of things. Now if all this can be legitimately predicated of
it, the Unknowable is not destitute of attributes or relations. If the
Relative is known only by its antithesis to the Absolute, the Absolute
must be itself known, or this antithesis coiild not be perceived. Again.,
before it can legitimately be asserted that the Unknowable is the cause
of the Knowable, it must be known. Besides cause and effect being a
relation, and relations being Knowable, this highest of relations must
be so. Hence we know the Absolute in two ways: negatively, as dis
tinguished from the Relative, and positively, as its cause; in the same
way we know the Unknowable—negatively, as contrasted with the
Knowable, and positively, as its cause.
This is all contrary to Mr. Spencer’s hypothesis. Again, if Mr.
Spencer does not know the Unknowable, what right has he to define it
as a power ? He censures those who conceive the cause of the Uni
verse as a man I But if it be absolutely unknowable, we cannot tell
whether it is a man or not; and when once.this hypothetical power is
.admitted, it is impossible to prevent men from clothing it in what they
know and respect—goodness and knowledge. Mr. Spencer has been
eminently successful in showing that our knowledge is limited by an
unknown, but he has not shown that it is an Unknowable power. He
has utterly failed in showing the existence of such a power. His whole
argument presupposes that such ghosts of matter as w things in them
selves ” exist. Now if they do, by their very definition they are what •
Prof. Ferrier designated as those things which we can neither know
nor be ignorant of. As such they are of no momefrt to us; no matter .
how transcendent may be their importance to more favored beings than
knowable by Spencer, and Brahman by the Hindus, be the substratum of mind
itself, and nothing more—the ultimate fact of our psychological system, beyond
which we cannot go, and on which all our intellectual processes are built up ? In
a word, may it not be our gravitation, which needs a Newton to formulate its law ?
That it is God is unproved; and when examined, improbable. (See for ‘ Brahman ’
“ Chips,” Vol. I, p. 68.)
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ourselves. But if an adversary should require Mr.. Spencer to show
their existence, before he gives them a name and assigns them as the •
object of the adoration of Humanity, in what manner could Jie do so ?
and yet the request seems legitimate.
(3) This brings us to the last point to which we will now advert.
Mr., Spencer holds that we must have something in the nature of a reli
gion, and he assigns this Infinite Unknowable as the object of religious
*
adoration.
Many will no doubt be a little curious to know what the
nature of such worship can be. A careful reading of “ First Princi
ples,” may perhaps satisfy their curiosity.- As it does not seem to have
received that attention which an indication of the duty of the religious
man of the future deserves, it is presented in full. “ Very likely,” says
he (p. 113), “ there will ever remain a need, to give shape to that indefi
nite sense of an Ultimate Existence which forms the basis of our intel
ligence. * * * Perhaps the constant formation of such symbols
and constant rejection of them as inadequate, may be hereafter, as it
has hitherto been, a means of discipline. Perpetually to construct ideas
requiring the utmost stretch of our faculties, and perpetually to find
that such ideas must be abandoned as futile imaginations, may realize
to us more fully than any other course the greatness of that which we
vainly strive to grasp. Such efforts and failures may serve to maintain
in our minds a due sense of the incommensurable difference between
the Conditioned and the Unconditioned. By continually seeking to
know, and being continually thrown back with a. deepened conviction
of the impossibility of knowing, we may keep alive the consciousness
that it is alike our highest wisdom and our highest duty to regard that
through which all things exist, as the Unknowable.”
The first thing that strikes one on reading this extraordinary pas
sage is, that the celebrated “ relativity of all knowledge ” is useless as a
guide in practice or speculation. If we have to be continually beating
against the bars, what need in telling us that they will not give way?
Such information would seem to warn us against wasting our strength
on them. Here; on the contrary, we find, after all, that it is very likely
the old contest will last forever. In what, more than in name, does this
position differ from that of the Supernaturalists ? But, moreover, think
of the enormous loss of mental power that this “ formation of symbols ”
will entail; and for no practical object. In a world cursed with misery
and ignorance, who can read such a proposition with any patience ?
He who considers- that the Supernatural can be known, and that the
Absolute ought to be worshipped, is justified in meditating upon the
conception. But that a philosopher who holds that our faculties con- .
fine us to the relative, that all beyond is absolutely unknowable, and as
a consequence that we can form no conception whatsoever of it; who
* “ The Classification of the Sciences,” 2d Ed., p. 41 ; and “First Principles,’
passim.
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besides holds that we know nothing of immortality or a place where
the Unknowable could punish us for not so meditating; that, in a
word, a thinker who deals with philosophy from the scientific stand
point should recommend us to waste our time and energies in this
fashion, is a monstrous inconsistency, which nothing but its existence
could render probable.
*
HL
Having devoted morn space than could well be spared to Mr. Spen
cer’s a Reconciliation,” let us now say a few words on a real solution of
the difficulty. The contrQversy is of old standing, and already two
solutions have been given; both being in operation for ages. The first
was the Buddhistic. Owing to the grinding of the rules of Caste, which
haunted a man even beyond the grave, Buddha denied eternal life.
He was perhaps' the first to preach the immortality of works, and no
finer system of ethics has yet been founded than his. The gods required
so much time and their servants so much money, that Buddha was led
to investigate their existence, and he came to the conclusion that no
one had proved this existence. Buddha, as Max Muller says, turned a
philosophical system into a Religion, but he seems not to have been
able to see his way to a substitute for the gods he declared unknown—
for in this as in so many other things wiser than Hume, Buddha did
not deny the existence of the gods. The common people, however,
solved the question. They worshipped Buddha himself, and installed
tq keep him company an innumerable company of Bodhisattvas (or
saints). That this was. a real solution is shown by the fact that Bud
dhism has existed for 2,400 years, and Max Muller (“ Chips,” Vol. I,
p. 250), no favorable judge, asserts that if the show of hands were now
taken, it would have a plurality over any existing religion. A great deal
is said about Nirv&na, or annihilation, the summum bonwm of the Bud
dhists. But if we consider the state of India in his time, no imaginable
need was at all equal to the rest there promised.
The Christian solution was the second, and is so well known as to
need few comments. It has many points in common with Buddhism.
Like it, it preached good works and the abolition of sacrifices. Its
founders did not go as far as Buddha, because there was not the same
* In the text no remarks have been made upon the extraordinary fallacies which
Mr. Spencer has borrowed from Hamilton and Mansel purporting to give an
account of Ultimate Religious and Scientific Ideas. The reader who wishes to see
them handled with deserved severity and unrivaled philosophical acumen, may con
sult Mr, Mills’ “ Examination of Sir W. Hamilton’s Philosophy,” especially Chaps.
IV, VI, XII and XXIV. It is a matter of doubt whether Mr. Spencer really holds the
relativity of knowledge more firmly than did Sir W. Hamilton. Dr, McCosh also
dissents from these errors, as might be expected. See his fine work/' The Intuitions
of the Mind,” 2d Ed., N. Y., 1867. At p. 169 of which he asserts that knowledge is
even the root of theological faith.
�RELIGION AND
SCIENCE.
145
necessity. It is really a “ stable ” compromise. It tried to accept both
the Semite tendency and the Greek. For ages it seemed a complete
fusion. But the Greek inquiring spirit was only sleeping; when it
awoke, the irreconcilability of these two tendencies appeared. The
struggle between them called for a new solution—a solution which
should remedy the defects shown in those of the past.
For ages there had been growing up slowly the belief in invariable
laws in the Cosmos. The last decades have witnessed the wide dissem
ination of it. In the physical domain, np thinker now denies their ex
istence, and on all sides of us we see philosophers, even against their
wishes, recognizing that to both life and society do they also apply..
As all the presumptions are in favor of its ultimate success, let us see
what results from it. I. All“ontology ” becomes impossible. It is the
very essence of the “ being ” with which this study deals to be absolute.
The domain of law is, however, of the phenomenally relative. Hence
with the advance of science these questions of absolute being are, in
one domain after another, abandoned; the completeness of a science
being shown by its studied ignorance of such questions. It seems but
a legitimate inference that the complete extension of scientific method
over the whole of human. thought, must end by showing the inanity
of such study, and the much better channels of speculation. It will
be seen that this “ reign of law ” does not deny the existence of Abso
lute being or beings, it merely declares any law of their manifestations
unknown; and from the failure of the greatest minds of the past,
though continuously engaged in the search, it draws the inference, ap
pearing more or less strong to different minds, that this knowledge is
unattainable. At the same time that our assumed knowledge of ab
solute existence has been fading away, our real knowledge of “infinity”
has been continuously expanding. The ancients who imagined that a
high mountain reached heaven, “ the starry-visaged home of the gods,”
or those who on the plains of Shinar attempted to build a tower with
the same view, had in reality no conception of the Infinite. While to
the modern astronomer it is ever present both in time and space. And
the researches on the “ Antiquity of Man,” not to speak of the utterly
inconceivable age of lower forms of life, are introducing the conception
into biological and sociological discussions. This infinity is objective
and impersonal, while the ontological is subjective and personal; the
first is real, the second illusory.
It has been remarked by M. lEmile Burnouf that there is a subtile
pantheism underlying Buddhistic (so-called) atheism, or rather agnoiologism. In the same way modern naturalism or Positivism is built on a
modified and tacit form of the pantheistic spirit—too absolute and in
finite for any symbols of either expression or thought to contain.
Sir W. Hamilton called this region, the Unconditioned. The name
is a good one: much better than the unknown or the Unknowable. For
in reality it is neither; being known as to its existence, but utterly in19
�146
RELIGION AND
SCIENCE.
scrutable in the laws of its manifestation. “ It is,” in the fine language
of M. Littre, “ an ocean washing our beach, for which we have neither
*
ship nor sail, but the clear vision of which is as salutary as formid
able.”
This is the speculative side of the solution. We owe the form -in
which it is here stated, to M. Auguste Comte. All other defenders of
the phenomenality of knowledge attempt to show it by an analysis of
man’s knowing faculty. Even granting that all which is claimed could
be shown in this way, it is proper to supplement objectively and exper
imentally the a priori laws of mind, by the a posteriori advance in spec
ulation from the lower forms of speculation to the higher. While this
will appear still more necessary when we remember that the transcen
dental laws of mind have failed to stand the test of time—those fully
admitted in one age being rejected in the next, and even between con
temporaries ostensibly holding the same views on such subjects, there
are startling discrepancies; f and in the second place being personal,
they can never carry conviction to the mind of a disbeliever. The
contrary is true of the objective method and the resulting doctrine.
II. There is a second result of this belief in invariable natural
laws. When it was established in India that the attributes of the gods
were unknown and their existence unproved, the abolition of propitia
tory rites was the immediate consequence. The same result followed
the advent of Christianity, but from different causes. The whole oner
ous ceremonial of “ sacrifice ” was swept away. It had completed its
part in the education of humanity. Founded in selfishness, it taught
men altruism. Originally men gave up their dearest objects to buy
* “ Auguste Comte et la Philosophie positive.” 2d Ed. Paris, 1864, p. 519.
“ Cours de Philosophic positive.” Par Auguste Comte. 6 vols, 8vo. 3d Ed.
Paris, 1869.
/
“Preface d’un disciple,” par E. Littre, 1.1., pp. xxxviii-xlvi. It was only after
the text of this essay was in type that I met this fine piece of criticism. Its essence
is as follows:
(1) This notion of the Unknowable (using Mr. Spencer’s word) belongs to M.
Comte. “ He was the first who, by extending the positive method to Philosophy,
has given philosophical consciousness this notion, withdrawing it at the same time
from the provisional adequacy of Metaphysic, and the provisional inadequacy of
Science.” * * * (2) Mr. Spencer has used Unknowable in two senses, and has
failed to show their identity or even connection. The Unknowable of the faith (or
God in the theological sense) served to organize societies so long as progress be
longed to theological doctrines. The Unknowable of science, on the contrary, can
take no part in the government of the social world; for it is truly unknown, and
upon the unknown nothing can be built. * * * (3) Admitting Mr. Spencer’s
principle as true, faith and science should agree ; and if they do not, some defect is
shown in the principle. At all times faith defines the Unknowable—teaches the
origin and end of things; but science declares it indeterminable. Either the
former must lose its character or the latter; or if neither, then eternal conflict.
“ If faith insists upon this determination, it breaks with the scientific definition of
the Unkuowable ; if it does not, it breaks with faith that requires at least this de
termination. The impossibility of the attempted reconciliation could not be more
plainly shown.” M. Littre calls all that is beyond'knowledge, Immensity.
f Witness Sir W. Hamilton, Mansel, Mr. J. S. Mill, Mr. Herbert Spencer—
all of whom hold the relativity of knowledge, and yet individually explain it so
differently.
�RELIGION
*
I
AND ' SCIENCE.
147
the favor of the god or appease his wrath; afterwards they gave them
up without expectation of a quid pro quo ; and later still they sacri
ficed their interests for the benefit of others. To us, sacrifice has no
other meaning; and all are aware how much we owe to this change
from an extra-human and selfish standard of morality to a human and
unselfish one. But with the conception of invariable laws in the Con
ditioned, there arises the at first startling conception that prayer, the
solace of so many afflicted ones in the past and one of the most touch
ing religious rites, must be abandoned. Weakness seems to be one of
the ultimate religious ideas. Prayer is suggested by it, and for the ig
norant alone produces results. As the reduction of phenomena to
*
law proceeds, one domain after another is given up. Asking- has been
transformed into seeking. Every probability is in favor of the final
universality of this mode of overcoming nature. We no longer expect
a law to be broken by a miracle, but we inquire into the order of the
phenomenon’s manifestation. Every research made in this way, contrary
to the old selfish prayer, not only is of benefit to the immediate seeker
at that particular moment, but also to him and to others in all future
time in like circumstances. It becomes, as Comte has finely said, one
of the logical powers of the human mind. We here again see that in
fecundity and simplicity, though not in obviousness, the new far sur
passes the old. The latter could be vitiated by a word pronounced
wrong; was only of moment at the time, and only succeeded by chance;
while with the latter, personal peculiarities have little to do; is useful
at all times, and even its failures are matters for future redress.
'
III. The belief in invariable natural laws leads to the further con
sequence, that as no religion exists without a Deity and Ceremonies,
however simple (God and the Rite), and no men without religion,
- that as from the earliest times there seem to have been two forms of
deities—extra-human and human, the latter coming into prominence
as the former faded away—so we may expect it to still continue. With
the decay of the propitiation of nature, real reverence for it has arisen;
and with the decay of the old degrading ceremonies before one man,
• there arises reverence for all. There seems to be another point worthy
of mention—that with every step in the scale of civilization, the relig
ious emotions have been more cast into the esthetic accompaniments,
as their dogmas have broadened into great moral rules. The religion
of the future will apparently have a mainly esthetic tendency; its doc
trines will be the generalization of science, and its deity the latent
pantheism of the Unconditioned in connection with the best type of
human excellence.
.* George Combe held and Prof. Tyndall apparently holds, that though prayer is
useless objectively, it may be a great subjective help. Only in one way, when men
believe that, what they ask will be given. “ He that cometh to God must believe
that he is,” is as true now as when St. Paul Wrote it.
�
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Religion and science
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Conway Tracts
Herbert Spencer
Religion and science
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THE
"CIVILIZATION OF THE FUTURE,
NECESSITY OF THE ORGANIZATION OF ^SOCIETY ON
SCIENTIFIC PRINCIPLES.
BY A.
BRISBANE.
HE idea of a Reconstruction of Society, involving an entire
change in the existing order of things, has taken possession
of a large number of minds at the present day. These minds
belong mainly to two extreme classes in society; to the most
advanced thinkers, and to the suffering masses. Profound reflection
and misery are alike leading men to comprehend the necessity of fun* damental social changes, and of a new and higher Order of society on
I the earth;—and this insight is giving rise to a vast under-current of
p agitation^-but little suspected by the conservative classes—which is
becoming powerful, and is destined ere long to change all the issues
that now occupy public attention.
The question of a Social Reconstruction is by far the most im- portant that can engage human thought. It should be a subject of
• the most serious study on the part of progressive and able thinkers,
- for ere long the question will become the order of the day: and when
r
this takes place, and the idea of a better social state penetrates the
minds of the masses, it will<give rise to great convulsions, to Social
Revolutions, unless the leaders of society are prepared with scientific
solutions. The work of real Thinkers at the present day is not with
partial and fragmentary reforms; it is with these solutions,—with the
. means of a fundamental and organic Reconstruction of Society.
We will endeavor to throw some light on this subject by an analysis
of Society—of its nature and constitution. We will examine it in its
relation to Man, who is a system of mental and moral Forces, and
who lives under and acts through its Institutions. Society (by which
we understand a synthesis of customs, laws, and institutions) is the
great external or collective Body of a collective Soul,—of a large
community of beings, co-operating industrially, politically, and socially,
and forming a State or Nation. In studying this Body, we must do
so with constant reference to the living and superior Principle which
acts through it, and to which it should be adapted.
The terms Society, Social System, Social Order, are used in a gen■L
29
T
�226
, THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE FUTURE.
eral and vague manner to convey the idea of a system of customs, laws,
and institutions, under which a community of human beings liveThey convey the idea of merely an indefinite Whole, which requires
to be decomposed or analyzed and defined, and its different parts shown
and explained, in order that a clear and intelligible conception of its
nature may be formed.
The Social System is then'to be considered as a Whole, composed
of subordinate parts or branches like other Wholes,—like the human’
body, for example, which is composed of subordinate organs, such as
the brain and nervous system, the lungs, heart, stomach, liver, etc., or
like a machine, composed of wheels, springs, and other parts. To
living Wholes, the name Organism is given: to inanimate Wholes,
constructed by man, that of Machine or Mechanism. Thus the
human body is an Organism, while a steam-engine is a Machine. To
the Social Whole, called the Social System or Order, the term Organ
ism may, we think, be justly applied, inasmuch as the living Forces
in man—the Senses, Sentiments, and Intellectual Faculties—act . in
and through it. It is, as stated, the external Body of a collective
Soul,—of a community, nation, or race.
In analyzing the social Organism, and decomposing it into its con
stituent parts, we find that it is composed of the following principal
branches.
TABLE OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM AND ITS BRANCHES.
Transitional Branch. EDUCATION : Development of the Child or germ.' INDUSTRY : Creation of Wealth.
Three
SOCIAL INSTITUTIONS: Regulation of the Social rePrimary
“
lations of human beings.
Branches.
GOVERNMENT : Regulation of the collective relations
t and interests.
Pivotal Branch.
RELIGION: Regulation of the relations of Man with the
invisible Universe.
J THE FINE ARTS. Harmony.
Accessory Branches.
1 THE SCIENCES. Knowledge.
We will explain briefly the functions of these various branches;
after which we will present a more complete analysis of the social Or
ganism.
Transitional Branch: The System of Education. We designate
this branch as transitional, as its function is to develop and form the
Child, which is the germ of the future Man, and to train and prepare
it for the industrial, social, and civil.pursuits and relations into which
it is later to enter. This branch is composed of three sub-branches :
1st Sub-branch : Industrial Education. The function of this
branch of the general Educational system is to develop the Child
physically, to initiate it into Industry, and thus render it a producer
capable of supporting itself, as it grows to manhood. This branch is
entirely unorganized in the present social Order; in fact, it does not
�THS
CIVILIZATION
Of
THE
FUTURE.
22?
exist, except in the rude state of the apprenticeship system for the
children of the poor. The upper and middle classes grow up entirely
uneducated industrially, and are, as a consequence, non-producers,
who must appropriate to themselves the wealth created by the poorer
classes,’ which they do through the parasitic operations of commerce
and finance, and the profits of capital.
2d Sub-beanoh: Social or Moral Education. The function
of this branch is to develop the social or moral Sentiments, and pre
pare the Child to become a true member of the body-social. This
branch is unorganized; the germ exists in -the families of the rich,
but in a feeble and artificial state. As a consequence, the honorable
social Sentiments are almost wholly undeveloped in men. The feel
ings of collective justice^honor, fright, and benevolence exist only
exceptionally in a very few individuals.
3d Sub-branch: Intellectual Education. The function of
this branch is to develop and cultivatejkthe Mind, and initiate the
Child into the Sciences. The whole attention of men has hitherto
been directed to this branch, and it has been developed and organized
to some extent. Our schools, colleges, and universities are the results
of the efforts to organize Intellectual Education. Under it, the chil
dren of the rich receive a fair degree of mental training; and are
much more developed intellectually than they are morally or indus
trially.
First Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System oe
Industry. The function of this branch is the creation of Wealth and
the regulation of the relations of Man with Nature. At present it
is unorganized or falsely organized, and does not second Man in his
industrial labors and operations, especially those of a higher and more
universal character. In the future, when scientifically organized, it will
furnish him the means of executing his industrial function or destiny
on the' earth; namely, that of cultivating and embellishing his globe,
of developing and perfecting the animal and vegetable kingdoms upon
it, of distributing them properly over its surface, and of establishing
order and harmony in Nature. Man, the Overseer of the globe, the
Beason of Nature, requires a scientifically organized system of Indus
try to execute the vast industrial labors that devolve upon him. This
first of the primary branches is composed of three sub-branches, which
are:
.
1. The Production of!Wealth, effected by agriculture, manu
factures, the mechanic* arts, mining, transportation, the fisheries, and
household labor.
2. The Exchange of Wealth, effected by commerce and bank
ing. Commerce buys and sells, that is, effects the exchange of products
already created. Banking gives credit, and credit is equivalent to the
exchange of products, one of which is not as yet created. The first is
synchronous exchange, the second exchange on-time.
�228
THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE FUTURE.
3. The Division- oe Wealth, effected or determined by the Laws
and Customs of Society, which regulate the ownership of property,
the system of labor, commerce, banking, the currency, interest, rents,
etc. The custom of Slavery, for example, determines a division of
wealth, based on the will of the master; it is different from that de
termined by the system of Wages or hired-labor, which gives the la
borer the right of refusal. Entailed estates, as the system exists in
England, determines a division of the products of the earth different
from that of the small proprietary system of Erance. The Commer
cial system, as it now prevails in our unorganized and incoherent
Industry, with its speculations, monopolies, and frauds, and its selfish
individual action, determines a division of the wealth created by the
first branch in a way most favorable to the commercial class. It is
these Laws and Customs which regulate the Division or Distribution
of Wealth among the different classes in society, and constitute the
third sub-branch of the Industrial system.
Second Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System oe’
Social Institutions. The function of this branch is the regulation
of the play and action of the social Sentiments in society, and of the
social relations between human beings to which they give rise. Thesel
Institutions are as yet in an undeveloped, and, consequently, in an un
organized state; they exist in fact only in germ. When fully developed
and organized in the future, forming part of a Scientific Social Or
ganism, they will secure a full and harmonious action of the social
Sentiments,—of those moral Eorces in man, which impel him to form
ties of various kinds with his fellow-creatures—ties of Friendship,
Love, Ambition, and Parentalism—and will lead to the creation of
social order and unity in Society. This branch of the Social Organism
places Man in sympathetic relation with Humanity, as the Industrial
branch places him in relation with Nature. It is composed of four
sub-branches:
1. System oe Rights and Obligations, regulating the social
relations of human beings as members of the body-social, and as
beings of the same species, without regard to sex, age, or capacity.'
2. System oe Marriage, regulating the sympathetic relations of
the Sexes.
3. System oe Hierarchy, (of grades, ranks, honors, and dis
tinctions in industrial, social, and political functions), regulating the
relations of human beings.as functionaries and co-workers, according
to capacity and merit. It is introduced in a more or less imperfect
manner in government, the army, and the catholic church.
4. The Family System, regulating the relations of parents and
children, and generally of the old and young, the strong and the .
weak.
These four Systems, when fully constituted and organized, will
become four Cardinal Institutions, which. will develop fully and
�THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE lUTUR'E.
229
normally the four cardinal Social Sentiments in the human soul,
regulate theirmction, and establish order and harmony in the Social
relations to which they give rise. These Sentiments iare—1. Friendship
or the ■■sentiment of humamequality and unity. 2. Love, or the symi - pathy betweeiuthe Jsexes. 3. The corporate and hierarchal Sentiment,
called Ambition. 4. Parentalism, or the family Sentiment. These
four Institutions, when truly and normally organized, will constitute
a general
o/ Laws and Ordinances, and of Rites, Ceremonies,
Usages, and other external forms, which will correspond perfectly to
the social Forces they are to govern; they will become the external
Organism, through which these Forces will manifest themselves and act.
Music furnishes an ^lustration that will render this intelligible. The
r Scien^ of music consists of the laws of the Sense of Hearing; and
the Art, orthe means and aids through which the Sense manifests itself
and acts. The two constitute its external Form and Organism. With
the aid of Music, the Sense is cultivated, and is truly and harmo
niously developed. We may call Music, to render our idea clear, the
Institution of the Sense of Hearing. When Institutions, as perfectly
adapted to the four Social Se'htiments as Music to that Sense, are discovered and established, they will develop them as harmoniously as
Muji^fdevmpps the musical Sense, and will create in the social world
accords as beautiful as Music creates in its sphere. The social Senti
ments, we will add, are in as low a state of development among the
civilized masses as the Sense of Hearing among savages and barbarians.
Third Primary Branch of the Social Organism: The System of
Government. The functions of this branch is .the regulation of the
conduct and action of Man in the extensive relations and combinations
he forms with his fellow-men as a citizen of the body-politic. As men
must form great political Associations or Communities, with complex
and varied interests and relations, there must be Institutions, with
their laws, ordinances and prescriptions, and their external forms, to
In
regulate these interests and Relations. They are the Political InstituMAonaErnd constitu^^ whole! called Government. They regulate the
Political or collective relations of human beings, as the preceding Insti?
tutions Lregulate their social and personal relations. This branch is
composed of three sub-branches.
1. The Legislative Branch,E-the^creation of Laws and Ordinances.
Legislation has been, first, Theocratic, having its source in the Emotions of theocratic rulers and law-givers, who attribute to inspiration
or the Divine will the laws they promulgate; second, Monarchic and
Oligarchic, having its source in the will of one or many Rulers; third,
Democratic, having itsjourcepn the deliberations of legislative Bodies,
Khat min the speculations and theorizing of human reason. The Laws
derived from these three sources are all arbitrary, incomplete, or false,—
those derived ‘from the ^speculations of Reason as well as the others.
The true and scientific Legislation of the future will be based on the
�230
THE CIVILIZATION Of THE FUTURE.
Laws of order and organization in creation, according to which the
government of the universe takes place.. The true function of Reason
is to discover these Laws and employ them in the government of
human relations and interests on the earth.
2. The Judiciary Branch,—the Interpretation of Laws and the
explanation of their intent and purpose. This interpretation has been
exercised; first, by Priests; second, by absolute Rulers; third, by civil
Judges, appointed by the government or the people. In the future,—
in the scientific Organization of Society,—it will be exercised by Men,
who will be guided entirely by science, and who will restrict themselves
to interpreting and explaining the laws of Nature.
3. The Executive Branch,—the enforcement of obedience to
Laws, and their Execution. This function has been exercised in the
past by agents of various kinds,—religious, military and civil, secret and
open,—according as they served priesthoods, monarchies or democracies.
At the present day, it is exercised in our civilized societies by men chosen
for the purpose,—by sheriffs, constables, policemen, executioners, and
others, employing as means the scaffold, prison, fines, exiling and other
penalties. In a true social Organization, with the reign of universal
education and wealth, and the normal development of the social senti
ments, the vices and crimes of our unorganized and incoherent Socie
ties will so far disappear, that the violent and brutal system of repres
sion and constraint, now necessary, will be dispensed with, and replaced
by one of direct incentives to, and of rewards and honors for, just and
honorable conduct.
Pivotal Branch: Religion. The function of this branch is to
develop the Sentiments and the Intellect of Man in their higher
degrees, to elevate them to universality, so as to awaken in him an
interest in the cosmical Whole to which he belongs; that is, in the
Humanities on its planets, its plan and design, and its laws and order,
and thus associate him in feeling and thought with its cosmical life and
destinies. Man, by his Senses and the physical wants they entail upon
him, is drawn down to the material or animal plane of existence, and
his sentiments and reason are subordinated to material and selfish con
siderations. Now as the function of social Institutions, with the influ
ence they exercise upon the social Sentiments, is to develop him
morally,, and attract him to Humanity, thus elevating him in one direc
tion above the animal plane; and the function of Science, with the
influence it exercises upon the Intellect, is to develop him mentally,
and attract hiigrto universal ideas, to laws and principles, thus eleva
ting him in another direction above that lower plane; the function of
Religion is to develop him both in sentiment and thought to the extent
to excite in him an interest in the great Whole, to which he belongs,
and of which he forms a part and is a member; and to seek to asso
ciate himself with its cosmical operations. and destinies, and with the
moral Order that reigns in it, thus raising him to the dignity of a citi
�THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE FUTURE.
231
zen of the universe. As it is noble in Man to become a truly social
being, associated in hisj sympathies with the whole of the Humanity to
which he belongs, and a scientific thinker, associated in his thought
with the Laws and Order of creation, it is nobler still to become ideally
a universal being, associated with the Cosmos, his finite life linked in
consciously with it, and participating through his aspirations in its
grandeur and harmony, its destinies, and its eternal life.
This pivotal branch is composed of three sub-branches, which, as
they have existed and now exist, are:
1. Worship,—a System of Bites and Ceremonies, through which
Man manifests his aspiration for Unity with Humanity, with the Uni
verse and its spiritual hierarchies, and with God; and a System of
Symbols by which he expresses through material forms, appreciable by
the Senses, invisible and mysterious truths, which the intuitions of the
Soul dimly apprehend.
2. Morality,—a System of Bules and Ordinances of conduct, of
moral life on earth, based on the mind’s conception of the moral attri
butes of the Deity—attributes to which he is stimulated to conform
from desire of unity with God.
3. Theology,^-Theory of the Universe and its general destinies,
of the immortality of the soul, and the Divine nature.
These three elements of Beligion will in the future—in the normal
social Organism of Humanity—be developed in a way widely different
from what they have been and are in the incomplete and outlined
Societies of the past and present.
.
„
, ( The Fine Arts.
iTui, g0IBK0BSH|
This branch accompanies the others, and is common to them all.
The function of the Fine Arts is to embellish the other branches
of the Social Organism, and establish refinement, beauty, and harmony
in the material and the social world. The function of the Sciences is
Organization and the creation of Order in all departments of human
affairs.
The Fine Arts comprise two sub-branches
1. The M atkrt at,. or the Fine Arts of the Senses, of which
music, painting, sculpture, architecture, and tlje dance are the princi
pal now developed. These Arts are external embodiments of the
Senses in their measured or harmonious development and action.
The Laws of the Arts are the modes of action of the Senses in this
development. Music, for example, is the external expression or em
bodiment of the Sense of Hearing,—of its perceptions distributed, co
ordinated, and classified by the Intellect or organizing Faculty. There
will exist, in the future, four Orders of this first Class of Art; namely,
the Arts corresponding to Hearing, to Sight, to Taste, and to Smell.
The Art which corresponds to Hearing—Music—has been fully de
veloped. That which corresponds to Sight—Painting, Sculpture,
�232
THE
CIVILIZATION OF THE
FUTURE.
Architecture, and Decoration—has been developed in outline; some
empirical principles have been discerned by instinct, but the laws of
visual Harmony are as yet unknown. The two Arts, corresponding to
Taste and Smell, are not discovered, or even recognized; they will be
come important Arts in the future, especially the first, and will hayp.
their interpreters, as has Music at the present day. The Sense of
Touch is the pivot or trunk out of which the other Senses spring or
ramify, and has not its Art.
2. Social or Moral Art, or the Fine Arts of the Spot at.
Sentiments. These Sentiments, when they shall receive a refinp.fi
development, will, like the Senses, give rise to a system of harmonious
expressions and forms, which will constitute a Harmony of Manners,
that may appropriately be called the Fine Arts of the Social Senti
ments. Its germs exist and are known under the name of Polite
ness. When a complete system of politeness, with its various elements
fully developed, such as urbanity, suavity, gracefulness, dignity, deli
cacy, and refinement, is established, with a Code of Etiquette—the
Laws or Science of the Art—we shall then see developed the new Art,
and shall understand its vast importance in refining, elevating, and
giving charm to the social intercourse of human beings. There will
be four branches to this second Order of Art, corresponding to the
four Social Sentiments that are to evolve it. Each Sentiment will have
its own special Art, that is, a System of Politeness and Etiquette pe
culiar to it. That .of Ambition will differ quite widely from that of
Friendship. The former will sum up all the forms of - hierarchal
dignity; the latter, those of frank and friendly equality.
The Sciences, classified objectively, or according to the subjects of
which they treat, form the following five sub-branches:
1. The Physical;—Theory of Matter and its Forces.
2. The Psychological;—Theory of Man, or theory of the mental
Forces that impel him, and their social functions.
3. The Sociological;—Theory of Society and its Organization.
4. The Cosmological;—Theory of the Cosmos, of its constitution,
organization, and order.
5. The Ontological;—Theory of pure Being or of primary Existence. (This latter is an illusive Science, which will be replaced by
another.)
A final Synthesis unites all these Sciences in one,—in a Pivotal or
Trunk-science; namely, the Science of the Laws of Order and Har
mony in the universe, according to which its various departments are
governed, and its phenomena regulated. These Laws are the mani
festation of the Supreme Reason, in action in creation—the Thought or
Logic of the universe. The finite Reason of Man, constituted on the
model of the Supreme Reason, (and it can be constituted on no other
for there are no more two kinds of reasoning faculties than there are
two kinds of mathematics), can discover and comprehend these Laws,
�THE
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OF THE FUTURE
233
and in so doing elevate itself to unity with its supreme Prototype, and
obtain the Key to the special Sciences, which key is the Science of
Laws, and underlies them all.
With these brief explanations, we will sum up and present in
tabular form the six branches of the Social Organism, so that it can
be seen both as a whole and in its parts.
SYNOPTICAL TTABLE OF THE SOCIAL ORGANISM, WITH ITS
BRANCHES AND SUB-BRANCHES.
Industrial Education
EDUCATION.
Social Education
Preparation of the Germ.
Scientific Education
( Development of the Body, and Ini| tiation of the Child into Industry.
I Development of the Social Sentij ments, and Initiation.of the Child
) into Social life and true social re( lations.
(Development of the Intellect, and
< Initiation of the Child into the
( Sciences.
Production of Wealth ■
INDUSTRY.
Relation of Man to Nature.
Exchange of Wealth
Division
of
Wealth
I
Institution
of
Rights
SOCIAL**
Institution of Marriage
INSTITUTIONS.
I Hierarchal Institution
Relation of Man to Hu?
manity.
Family Institution
GOVERNMENT.
Relation of Man to the
>
State.
Legislative Branch.
Judiciary Branch.
Executive Branch.
Worship
RELIGION.
Relation of Man to the
Universe.
Morality
Theology
The Fine Arts
ACCESSORY
BRANCH.
The Sciences
Agriculture, Manufactures, Min
ing, Transportation, Fisheries,
Domestic Production.
Commerce.
Banking.
Laws and Customs that regulate
landed property, capital, labor,
commerce, the currency, interest,
rents, etc.
Laws that regulate the relations of
human beings as equals.
Laws that regulate the relations of
the Sexes.
Laws that regulate the relations of
men as co-workers.
Laws that regulate the relations of
Parents and Children, and the
family.
Creation of Lawn.
Interpretation of Laws.
Execution of Laws.
'System bf rites, ceremonies, and
symbolic acts by which Man
manifests his unity with Human
ity and with God. Explanation
of spiritual truths by means of
material emblems.
’Aspiration for unity with God, and
desire for regulating human con
duct in accordance with the Di
vine Will—the true basis of Mo
rality.
Theory of the Divine nature, of
Creation,—its cause and origin,—
of Man’s cosmical destiny and his
I I immortality.
(The Material or Sensuous Arts.
J The Social or Moral Arts.
Science of the Laws of universal
Order,—the Logic of the Uni
verse. Basis of the five special
Sciences.
(
The table exhibits the branches (the special organs) of which the
general social Organism is composed. It exhibits, as a whole and in
its parts, the great external Body which a collective Soul creates for
itself. Without the developing, educating and directing influence of a
Social Organism, Man remains an undeveloped, .ignorant and gross
being, but little raised above the level of the lower animals, as is proved
30
�234
THE
CIVILIZATION
ON THE FUTURE.
by the social condition of the Savage. He elevates himself in propor
tion as he improves his Social Organism, and when, in the future, he
shall have discovered the true Laws of organization, and based it on
them, he will attain to a social Destiny, worthy of the cosmical Wis
dom that has planned the Order and Harmony of the universe,—an
Order and Harmony in which Humanity is involved, and is ultimately
to participate.
The different social Organisms which have existed oh the earth
since the beginning of history, are embodiments of the social concep-.
tions, and the experience of the various Races that have established
them, and mark the stages of the great social elaboration in which
Humanity has been, and .still is engaged,—the elaboration being sub
ject to the general Laws of development in creation,—the Laws that
regulate Eyolution in all departments. We will explain briefly the
order which has reigned in th&uccession of the social Organisms that
have been so far elaborated and. established, the true character of these
Organisms, and their place in the social career of Humanity on the
earth. Our views, both of the order of succession and of the character
of the Organisms, are deduced from the above Laws of Evolution, aided
by the study of social phenomena in the past and present.
In the course of the existence or the career of every finite thing,
whether concrete and. tangible, like a. plant or an animal, or abstract
and intangible, like a religion or a science, there exist two fundament
ally distinct states. The one is the Formative or Fm&rgonic phase in
the career,—the process of development from the germ or beginning to
the organized and completed state. It is a preparatory, transitional
and unorganized stage, during which the constituent elements dr parts
of the finite thing are elaborated and prepared, and the process of their
combination and organization takes place. The other is th® Formed,
Organized and Completed state, and the normal and permanent condi
tion of the finite thing,—its destination. In this second stage, the
elements are fully developed and regularly constituted,—forming an
organic Whole, which is the true or natural state. We thus find two
distinct states or conditions of existence in every finite career:—the
formative or embryonic, which is the inorganic state; and the fully
developed and completed, which is the organic state.
A few illustrations will explain this subject, and render clear the
difference between the state of Formative development and of Organic
completeness; between non-organization and organization.
The physical organism of a human being is formed—gradually
organized—in the mother’s womb. The elements of the new organism
are brought together successively in this wonderful workshop, where
the process of formation goes on for a fixed period, until the new being
is organized, when it is ushered into the world by an operation called
Birth. There are marked differences in the life, of a human being,—as
that, for example, between infancy and adult age,—but none so radical
�THE
CIVILIZATION
OF THE FUTURE.
235
and distinct as that between the formative or inorganic state, preceding
birth, and the formed and organic, following birth.
• In the career of our globe, we find an illustration of these two great
stages on a vast scale. The geological ages which preceded the appearance of the present flora and fauna and of Man, were the formative or
embryonic phase in the career of the globe—a phase of elementary
development and of immaturity, in which, the crust of the earth was
formed. The present state is one of organic completeness, although in
the early (infantile) organic stage, and susceptible of future develop
ments.
In the construction of an Edifice, we find an illustration of this
Law of Evolution, for nothing can escape.it. When an edifice is to be
built, the materials are collected, the foundations laid, the walls raised,
the timbers put in, and the roof puk on. A process of construction
(evolution or elaboration) takes place; and an incomplete and partially
finished (formative and inorganic) stage precedes the completed (or
ganic) state. When thejedific® has left the hands of the masons and
carpenters, it is then painted and cleaned, and enters its true and
organized state, or that designed for it, and becomes fit for habitation.
It (thus passes, like a living organism, through a formative and inorganic stage—in all cases preparatory and transitional—to arrive at"one
of completion and permanence. •
All finite things must go through this process of development or
formation, for nothing can pass at once from the germ to a fully organ
ized and developed state. It is a necessity, inherent in the nature of
things; and to change it, it would be requisite to annihilate time,
space and succession, and the property of matter.
A few examples in the sphere of the abstract and intangible will
show that this Law of Evolution is not limited to material things.
The Formative or Embryonic Stage in the Evolution of Christianity
embraced the period extending from Christ to the Emperor Constan
tine. The latter "in making Christianity the Religion of the State,
gave it its regular constitution, which marked the period of its birth.
During this phase, which lasted about three centuries, the elements of
the Religion—its Worship, Morality and Theology—were elaborated,
and regularly developed and organized. The state of full development
and .<of complete organization, was that of the great Catholic Church,
as inexisted between the 7th and 16th centuries.
The Formative stage in the development of the Greek Civilization
^Comprised the heroic ages prior to Solon. During these ages, the ele
ments of Grecian life were wrought out. The Laws established by that
remarkable man may be said to have brought the fluctuating, and (for
the Greek race) abnormal political state to a close. In the great
Egyptian Civilization, the Formative stage embraced the Theocratic
ages which preceded Menes, who established a Monarchy in the place
of the Theocracies that had previously ruled the country; and brought.
�236
TBE
CIVILIZATION
ON TNE
FUTURE.
Egypt under one government. The social life, industry, art, laws and
religion of that race were developed during the reign of the Theocracies.
The country was divided into nomes or districts with a theocratic ruler
at the head of each. When the elements of society were developed and
prepared, Menes established a unitary power, and organized one great"
State. This event took place not less than 4,000 B. 0. The Formative
phase, directed and controlled by the influence of Religion, must have
reached back at least twenty-five centuries.
The Formative—preparatory and preliminary—stage in the evo
lution of the Science of Astronomy extends from the observations of
the Egyptians and Chaldeans to the time of Copernicus, who, in 1543,
published his discovery of .the true constitution of the Solar system
This important discovery marked, we think, the birth of the science*®that is, placed it on a true or positive basis. From that time, the
Science was rapidly developed by Kepler, Galileo, Newton, and others.
Chemistry had a much shorter Formative phase in Alchemy. The labors
and speculations of the Alchemists created the materials or elementsj
of the science; its birth was determined in the last century by the dis
coveries of Stahl, Priestley, Lavoisier, and others. A great Science is
being developed at the present day—the' most important of all
branches of knowledge—namely, Social Science. Glimpses of it were
caught by Pythagoras and Plato; the latter, in his Republic, presents
a plan of social Organization. The Embryonic preludes, the Transi
tions to this Science, comprise, first, the Political and Economm theories
of the past and present, which are a mass of incoherent and conflict
ing speculations, based on no positive Laws; and, second, the special
theories of social Organization, such as are contained in the Republic
of Plato, the Utopia of Sir Thomas More, the City of the? Sun, and
the Icaria of Cabet, which are equally without any scientific founda
tion. Socialism, with its multiform doctrines, is the immediate pre
cursor of the new Science, that is to be developed; it holds about the
same relation to it that astrology held to astronomy, and alchemy^ to
chemistry. The basis of a positive Social Science has been laid in the
present age by Charles Fourier and Auguste Comte. The Science is
born, that is, is regularly constituted, and awaits its full elaboration.
Fourier has shown the true foundation on which the Organization of
Society must rest, namely, the Laws of Order and Harmony in crea
tion ; the Laws which underlie all Organization in Nature, and which
regulate the distribution, co-ordination, and classification of her
phenomena. Human Reason, he affirms, should not frame social
theories of its own; its true work is to discover these Laws of Organ
ization in Nature, and with their aid deduce the natural or scientific
social Organization destined for Man. In his Organization of Indus-S
try, his system of Education, his brilliant theory of “ Passional Har
mony ” (which implies the possibility of regulating in accord or
harmoniously the action of those mental and moral Forces in Man,
�TEE
Cl VILIZA TION
OF
THE
FUTURE.
237
called sentiments, passions<etc.) ;• and in the extension of the Law of
Attraction to the moral or passional world—all deduced from and
based upon the general Laws of Order in Nature—he furnishes the
special foundations of the first three branches of the social Organism.
Comte has "shown that a certain ascending Order or Hierarchy
exists in the Sciences, and that the lower sciences in the series point
to, and provAlearly, that at the apex a Science of Society must exist.
He thus demonstrates the possibility and the necessity of a Social
Science, in doing which he has rendered it an immense service.
With these remarks, we can enter upon the examination of the
course which the Evolution of human Society has taken, and the
Order that prevails in the succession of the different Systems of Soci
ety which hatBbeen established on the earth.
The evolution of human Society is subject to the Laws of proJgressiVfadevelopment which we pointed out. It must pass through a
preparatory hnd transitional stage—the Formative or Embryonic—in
order to arrive at a fully developed and organized state. Humanity is
the agenF that? effects this great Evolution. It constructs the social
Organisms und|r which it lives, and does so by successive stages as
Nature constructs a globe? The elaboration is so vast that the individuSts'Bngaged in it cannot oversee the field of operations, and do
not comprehend the work on which tlfoy are employed. This is true
at least of the Formative Societies, when Humanity is without So
cial Science to guide, it. These Societies, we will remark, are devel
oped by theEoUecilm^iinstinctsjioi Humanity without any clear.idea of
the results which are to follow. In the future, when the path shall be
KWmingted by a positive social Science,, it will labor at its great Social
Construction with a clear consciousness of its work.
It isrevident, without recurring £0 general Laws, that Society must
pass through the Formative and Preparatory stage of evolution de
scribed.! Humanit^cannot leap at once from a primitive or Savage
S^SyiiMmhwh it is without the elements of Society and without In
stitutions^ to a state, of perfected Social Organization. It must first
develop or prepare the elements of Society (Industry, the Arts, Sciences,
on others), and discover the Laws by which they should be co-ordinated;
and then mak^axperiments and acquire experience in applying such
‘ Laws^ It is as impossible for Humanity to construct its great Social
Edifice without passing through the preliminary stage of creating and'
putting to^Sher its parts, as for theS individual man to construct’an
■HM® without putting together the materials of which it is composed.
The Social Organisms which have existed and are to exist on the
earth, are to be divided into two great Classes. These Classes are
based on th”two distinct\Stages in Evolution which we have pointed
(mL^-th^Formative^ Preparatory and Inorganic; and the Formed,
Completed and\ Organic. The first division of Societies is, then, deter
mined by these two essential Stages in Evolution. The two Classes
�238
THE
CIVILIZATION
OE
THE
EUTUR'E.
differ from each other as much as Embryonic differs from Organic life,
as immature and incomplete organization from complete and mature
organization; or, choosing a concrete illustration, as the globe in its
geological phases of development differed from the globe in its present
condition; as an edifice in process of construction differs from the
edifice finished and fit for habitation.
The first Class of Societies comprises those that have existed from
the beginning of history to the present time,—from the Egyptian
Civilization, which was the earliest, to our modem Civilization. This
first Class (Inorganic and Transitional) still exists, and determines the
character of social phenomena, and the social condition of the races
living under it.
To exhibit clearly the important truth that human Society is still
in the formative and transitional stage, and that our modern Civiliza
tion is one of the inorganic Societies, would require an elaborate anal
ysis. We will content ourselves with a few indications.
1. The first branch of the present social Organism—Education—
is not only unorganized, but two of its sub-branches—the Industrial
and Social—are so rudimentary that they can scarcely be said to have
an existence. These two essential sub-branches must be developed, and
the three scientifically organized,.before the organic statesin this department will be reached.
2. The second branch—Industry—which is the most advanced of
any part of the social Organism, is still in an unorganized and in
coherent state. As proof we find that Labor is prosecuted in a rude
and repulsive manner in dirty workshops and lonely fields; that con- H H
flict and antagonism exist in all interests and operations; that Com- ■
merce is at war with Production, which it spoliates, and Capital with
Labor, which it oppresses; and that there is an entire absence of
method, order and unity in the industrial world. If the Economists
see in this unorganized field of operations justice, and even “ Har
monies,” as does Bastiat, the student of social Science sees in it dis
order, anarchy, strife, and servitude,—characteristics of Non-organization. When this important branch of Society shall be scientifically
organized, it will be prosecuted with all the resources which the genius
of man can invent, as War now is, .on principles of unity and co
operation, and in a thoroughly scientific manner; it will, through such '
organization, be dignified and rendered attractive, and will become the
most honorable, as Well as the most agreeable field for the exercise of
the physical activity of Humanity.
3. Of the’ four Institutions which compose the third branch of the
Social System, one only—that of Marriage—is regularly constituted.
We will not stop to inquire how scientifically, that is, bow fully in
accordance with the Sentiment to which it corresponds, and to which
it should be adapted. The other three exist only in germ; they a.re
wholly undeveloped, not to speak of being unorganized.
�THE
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OF
THE
FUTURE.
239
4. The political branch!-Government—is, so far as its elements
are developed, much more regularly constituted,—a consequence of the
necessity of establishing Order in Administrative affairs. But the
element^ of a complete Political system are. only partially developed,
and the conception of a scientific Government does not exist. The
Republican form, which is the least imperfect; is but a fragment of the
< integral and organic Government of the future. Strictly defined, it is
the transition from political despotism to liberty.
5. The fifth or.Religious branch is in a general state of disintegra: -tion and decay,—at least as regards its Theology and Worship. The
great Catholic .Unity jhas been broken into fragments—into sects—
which are in conflict with each other, each denying the other’s dogmas,
while thg progressive and scientific world attaches no importance to
any of their theological systems. The second sub-branch—the Aspira
tion for Unity with the spiritual universe and the desire for the reign of
justi.c"and right on the earth—are as vitally active at the present day,
we think,, as they have been in the past, but they cannot’ assume their
religious form without the aid of a Theology and a Worship,—the first
being the Intellect; the second, th® body of the Aspiration or Senti
ment. Before this fifth branch*can be scientifically organized, the
whole circle of the Sciences must be created, and the true Theory of
the Cosmos discovered and established.
6. The accessory branch, comprising the Fine Arts and the Sci
ences, is, as a whole, in an undeveloped state. There are, however,
two exceptions which are very important. One Aft—Music—and one
Science—Mathematics—are fully developed and organized. It would
Seem as if Nature wished to furnish Man some models of scientific
Organization as guides, and for this reason facilitated the creation of
these two. All the Arts, except music, are still in the formative stage.
Of the Scieiwes, a few of the Physical are placed on a positive basis,
though not fully elaborated and constituted, while the higher branches
of the Physical and the Psychological and Cosmological sciences are
in a speculative and conjectural state,—in the embryonic phase of
their development.
These facts disclose the important truth that the general Evolution
of human Society is still in its formative or embryonic phase, and that
our modern Civilization is one of the imperfect and transitional so
cieties, through which Humanity is passing in its onward march
towards its social Destiny.
The most general division of the great epochs in History shows, we
think, that there are three of these distinctive systems of Society.
They are the three great Civilizations which have been evolved and es
tablished by the progressive and historical Races, by the Egyptian and
the Chaldeo-Assyrian on the' one hand, and the Arian on the other.
The out-lying Societies and races are, in a. primary analysis, to be left
. aside, as they have exercised no direct influence on progressive history.
�240
THE
CIVILIZATION
OF
THE
FUTURE.
The earliest Civilization—the Egyptian and the Chaldeo-Assyrian—
was the creation of the first two races; its seat was the valleys of the ;
Nile, and the Tigris and Euphrates. In it was begun the regular de
velopment of the elements of society—industry, the arts, sciences, etc.,
—and the work of social construction; it governed the world of its
epoch, and was its active history. The second Civilization was that
developed by the black-eyed Arians—the Greeks and Romans; its seat *
was the shores of the Mediterranean. In it the elaboration, begun in the
first Civilization, was taken up and continued, and vastly extended.
The third was that developed by the blue-eyed Arians, and mainly by
the Germanic races; its seat was the whole continent of Europe. It
inherited of the two preceding all that was essential and valuable, and
continued the work of social evolution and construction, bringing it
down to the present day.
The Medes and Persians (Arians) founded great States, but effected
nothing essentially new in social elaboration. The Hindoo Civilization,
founded by the Brahminical Arians, was a failure, as Castes and other
false institutions were established to hold in subjection the indigenous
races that were conquered.
These three great Civilizations form the three Orders of the first
Class of Societies. We will present them in tabular form, to enable
the reader to embrace them at a glance.
FIRST CLASS OF SOCIETIES.
The Formative and Inorganic.
First Order : the Egyptian and ChaldeoAssyrian Civilization, with its branches—
the Hebrew, Phoenician, etc.
Second Order : the Greek and Roman Civ
ilization, with its branches.
Third Order : the Germanic, or the Catholico-Feudal Civilization, which still con
tinues, but modified, and in process of
dissolution and.transformation.
Whether the classifications we have given, and' the various details
into which we have entered, are strictly correct or not, is a matter of
secondary importance. The great Truth which we have wished to set
forth in a clear and distinct light is, first, that Humanity is still living
in the Formative, Preparatory and Inorganic Societies,—in Socie
ties which are not the true and final ones, are not its normal
social state, its social Destiny; and, second, that a Class of Organic
Societies—as radically different from the first Class as scientific Or
ganization is different from incomplete or false Organization—remains
to be discovered and established on the earth.
If this fundamental truth were clearly comprehended, it would
change entirely the views of Men on social questions,—on the true
character pf the present system of Society, and the social Destiny of
Humanity. It would unite the intellectual leaders of the world in a
general and concerted effort to effect a fundamental social Reconstruc
tion, and to organize Society on scientific principles.
�THIS
CIVILIZATION
OF
THE
FUTURE.
241
In a future article, we will explain the fundamental and distinctive
systems of; Society, which have existed up to the present time, show
the stages through which Humanity has passed to reach its present
F - social state, and indicate the4 nature of the constructive social labors
which lie before it in the immediate future.
In Connection with this subject of the progressive Evolution of
human Society^ and of the distinction between the Inorganic and 'the
' Organiclsocieties, we will present what we believe to be the simple so
lution of a problem that, from the beginning of history, has bewildered
the human mind, and led it to the framing of innumerable false theo
logical and metaphysical theories. The problem is the Cause of Evil.
EhBs a general or synthetic term, which sums up all the effects
resulting from the Non-organization, the incomplete, and the false Or- M
ganization of the six branches of the social Organism. Its reign takes
■ plac^inth^Inorganic Societies. Poverty, for example, which, with its
■' ' privations and sufferings, is the great physical Evil that oppresses man
hook, is caused by the false organization, of Industry; its product is,
in the first pl^^ scanty, and in the second place, this scanty product
Kisi*rvB.nequffably and unequally divided. Social or moral discords,
or the dissensibns, hatreds, antipathies, jealousies, disappointments, and
mental sufferings of human beings are caused by the false Organization
of ^Wal IiRtitutions.,’ These Institutions thwart, violate, and pervert
the social or moral Sentiments, and engender a class of effects which
■BonstitlnBivhat is called Moral Evil.j Political Evils, such- as war, op
pression, and thejreign of monopoly and privilege, are caused by the
false organization of political Institutions.
Thejreign of Evil will come to a close with that of the Inorganic
Br societies: the reign wdG-ood will begin with the inauguration of the
r
Organic, societies. Opposite phases of development produce opposite efS'fepts: this is a universal Law. It applies to all things—to the least as
to the grdjTWEB If a fruit, when ripe or fully organized, is destined to be
■ • ■ agreeablHin flavor and healthy, it must, when green and unripe, be to
a certain extent disagreeable in flavor and unhealthy. If order and
harmony, with the happiness and elevation of mankind, are effects of
Societies, scientifically and normally organized, disorder and dis
harmony! with suffering and degradation, must be effects of Societies
incomplerely and falsely organized^
Evil, as stated, is a general term. To be understood, it must be
analyzed, so that it can be clearly seen in what it consists. In the
analysis, of this general term we find’ three primary Classes of Evils.
1st Class : Evils in Man, comprising three Orders.
’ 2d lClass : Evils in Society,’comprising five Orders.
3dKJl1ss: Evils in Nature, or the material world around man,
comprising six Orders.
The Evils in Man are the result of the perversion of his nature by
•
the influence of incomplete or false social Institutions, causing a fq]se
31
K
�242
*
THE
CIVILISATION
ON THE
FUTURE.
development of the Senses, of the social Sentiments, and of the in
tellectual Faculties. This first Class contains three Orders
Order, comprising the effects of the false development of the
Senses,—which development gives rise to sensual excesses, coarseness,
brutality, selfishness, and vices and crimes of a material character.
2(Z Order, comprising the effects of the misdirection and perversion
of the social Sentiments, giving rise to antipathies, hq^reds, jealousies,
antagonisms and discords, and disorders of a moral character. Each
of the social Sentiments, when violated and outraged, takes a false de
velopment and produces effects exactly the opposite of its true nature.
Friendship and Love, for example, engender hatred, distrust, jealousy,
suspicion, coldness, etc., instead of the sympathy, confidence, devotion,
and other noble feelings which are natural to them. Benevolence
turns to malevolence, and philanthropy to misanthropy, under long
disappointment. These false or inverted developments of the social
Sentiments are the source of what are called, moral Evils.
3d Order, comprising the effects of the misdirection of the Intel
lectual Faculties, and of their ’subordination to the Senses and the
social Sentiments in their inverted development. In this state; they
engender craft, cunning, low intrigue, deception, hypocrisy, duplicity,
deceit, falseness, treachery, perfidy, and o.ther subversive effects- of an
intellectual character.
2d Class,—Social Evils. They include the various effects of an *
incomplete or false Organization of the five branches of the social Or
ganism :—Education, Industry, Social Institutions, Government, and
Religion. A few’ examples will explain this branch of the subject,
without entering into details.
Poverty and disease, the coarseness of the masses, and other Phys
ical Evils are caused by the false Organization of 'Industry, or the
second branch of the social Organism. The product of our ‘false In
dustry is, in the first place—comparatively to the wants ,of man—very
scanty; and in the next place, it is very inequitably divided. Here is
the true Cause of Poverty,—the explanation of the mystery of one. of
the Evils that afflicts man. Debility and disease—other Evils—have
their source, directly, in the prolonged and excessive! toil of our un
organized Industry ? indirectly, in the effect which its repulsiveness
produces of driving the rich from it, and causing them to lead a life
of idleness and inactivity.
The existence of antagonist and antipathetic classes in society, of
social inequality, the pride of caste, the subordination of Woman, the
tyranny of false and capricious customs, and other similar abuses are
caused by the false Organization of Social Institutions, or the third
branch bf the social Organism.
Tyranny, servitude, war, class privileges, monopoly, and abuses of a
political character are caused by the false Organization of Government,
or the fourth branch of the social Organism.
✓
�TSE
CIVILIZATION OF TEE
FUTURE.
243
Superstition,Ifana’ticisnT, intolerance, blind faith, persecution, and
religious abuses generally are engendered under the influence of false
Religious Ins&tutions, and especially of false Theologies.
3dEvils, in Nature. They comprise the disorders that re
sult from a derangement of the climate, the atmospheric system, and
other departments of Nature, and are caused by the neglect of cultiva
tion, falsmcultivation,. and ravage of the surface of the globe by man,
that is, by the false industrial action of Humanity on its planet. These
disorders (Evils in the physical world) consist in—1. The Derangement
ofxbtt^&n^ manifested in violent fluctuations of temperature, excess
of heat and cold, late and early frosts, draughts and prolonged rains,
and the uncertainty of the seasons. 2. The Derangement of the AtmoSfflkeric
manifested in violent storms, hurricanes, tornadoes,
Cyclone" and disturbance in the proportion of the elements of the
atmosphere. 3. Pervert
causing epidemic diseases, such
as the plague, cholera, and yellow and other fevers. 4. "Disorders in the
^egekablf-agx^^i/mal kingdoms, such as the oidium in the vine, potato
rot and onderpest, and the excessive spread of destructive insects and
vermin, and of weeds. 51 Perturbation of the electro-magnetic forces
of t^garth, peiwading the other departments, and giving rise to phenomena, now inexplicable! (possibly to earthquakes.) 6. False state of
the ^^P^ofulfflalobe. exhibited in the great deserts (looked upon as
the! natural and unchangeable condition of the planetary surface); in
theRwamps,.marshes, jungles, and arid steppes; the devastated and
ruined regions (like the Tigro-Euphrates basin); the treeless districts,
and the denuded mountain ranges. These great physical disorders or
evils! whichEn^belieyed to be natural and permanent, are in fact due
to thanon-cultivationf bafllcultivation, ravage and devastation of the
globe by manrj He exercises an immense influence for good or evil on
his planet, He can, for example, destroy the forests on ’the mountains of
a country, dryingmp the Streams, and rendering a region sterile that
beformwas Wtil^. The great'physical disorders that now exist in Na
ture will disappear under a system of universal and scientific cultiva
tion, and such a system will l>fput in execution when Industry shall
be scientifically organized, and dignified and rendered attractive, so as to
induce all mankind to engage voluntarily in it; when the Industrial
policy shall become entirely preponderant, as it will, over the military,
Iconm^^yll^^Mfirmncial policies; when the material resources of
Society shall be devotedgto industrial improvements; and when Humanity shall comprehend its collective function or destiny—that of
Overseer of the globe, and the creations upon it. When the labor,
treasures, and talent that have been devoted in the past to war, shall
be devoted to a systematic (cultivation and embellishment of the globe,
it will become in a few generationsEaBgarden. a scene of material har
mony and unity!
^Themgn of Evil is" o cease with the reign of the Inorganic So-
�244
THE CIVILI ZATIO 2V
OE THE
FUTURE.
cieties, it being the general expression of their disorders and discords.
The reign of Good is to begin with that of the Organic Societies.
Two classes of opposite social effects will be generated by opposite
social states.
Wealth and Health will be secured by a scientific Organization of
Industry. Social Concord and Harmony by a scientific Organization of Institutions, adapted to the social Sentiments. Political Justice, prac
tical Liberty, universal Peace, by the scientific Organization of political
Institutions. The full development of the Child, by the scientific
Organization of the three branches of Education. The real and prac
tical Sentiment of the Unity of the race, and its ideal association with
the cosmos, by a universal Science (a true theology) which will explain
to it its Destiny on the earth, and the plan and order of creation and
its place in it. ‘
The duration of the inorganic and transitional Societies is relatively
short, as is the inorganic (embryonic) phase in the career of the indi
vidual man. That of the organic and normal Societies ?is relatively
long, as is the period of organic development in man when compared
to that of gestation. In this organic and long period which lies before
Humanity in the future, the reign of Good will hold sway; and the
Order and Harmony (the result of Organization) which pervade all
spheres of the Universe where normal .Organization exists, will be
realized on the earth.
The formative and inorganic phase of development can, in no de
partment of creation—no more in the development of a social Organism
than of a human being or a globe—be avoided, unless finite creations
cease, and time and space, and succession and matter, are annihilated.
In this phase, effects are engendered and phenomena take place which
must, from a mathematical necessity, be different’from, and in many
cases exactly the opposite of,those of the1; organic state. It. is these
effects and phenomena—abnormal and transient—that constitute Evil.
From the earliest Civilization of Man—that on the banks of the
Nile—down through the Chaldeo-Assyrian, the Greek and Roman, and
the Oatholico-Feudal of the middle ages to our own, but one great Sys
tem of Society has existed and held its sway. There have been different,
stages in its progressive evolution, giving rise to the different Orders
pointed out, accompanied by different manifestations and phenomena
on the surface, but with Unity of Principles underneath. The ap
parently long duration of this System, with the reproduction of the
same effects—the^ same Evils—under different forms, has misled the
human mind, and caused it to frame the erroneous Induction that it
is the permanent and natural social state of mankind, destined, with
its discords and miseries, to last forever. This erroneous Induction,
this reasoning falsely from the known to the unknown, has -blinded
men on social questions; it has destroyed hope in the future, and faith
in 'human nature, and has paralyzed and still paralyzes all studies on
/
/
�THE
CIVILIZATION
OF
THE
FUTURE.
245
the part of the thinkers and. intellectual leaders of the world on the
vast problem of a Social Reconstruction, and of happier social destinies
for Man. A new Civilization is to come—the true and normal Civiliza
tion of Humanity, based on the full development of the elements of
the six branches of Society, and their scientific Organization. It will
come, accompanied by the reign of Good; that is, of that Order,
Harmony, and Unity which are the general Law of creation, and
which prevail wherever preparatory Development or Evolution is ac
complished, and scientific Organization has taken place.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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The civilization of the future: necessity of the organization of society on scientific principles
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Brisbane, A.
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Place of publication: New York
Collation: [225]-245 p. ; 26 cm.
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[American News Company]
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Society
Civilization
Conway Tracts
Social Reform
Society
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Title
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Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Self-contradictions of the Bible. 144 propositions, theological, moral, historical and speculative; each proved affirmatively and negatively by quotations from scripture, without comment; embodying the mot palpable and striking self-contradictions of the so-called inspired word of God
Description
An account of the resource
Edition: Rev. & Enl.
Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: 71, [1] p. ; 18 cm.
Notes: Publisher's advertisements on unnumbered page at the end. From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Author attribution from WorldCat.
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Burr, William Henry
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[American News Company]
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1872
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CT24
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Bible-Controversial literature
Bible-Criticism and Interpretation
Conway Tracts
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Text
THE SUBJECTION OF WOMEN.
*
BY AUGUSTE
COMTE.
< BOUT the close of the year 1841 a correspondence Began be/
tween Mr. John Stuart Mill and M. Auguste Comte. It be/ \ came at once very cordial and friendly and continued so for
some years. Mr. Mill accepted the method formulated by M.
Comte in the “ Cours de Philosophie positive.” This acceptance was
complete and remains so up to the present. Agreement on this point
is the first and most essential; without it nothing can be accom
plished ; with it, everything. But while such was his relation to the
method, it was wholly different as to the doctrine. Mr. Mill reserved
this for future contemplation. Very much of it reflection and more
extended observation have shown him to be well-founded, and to that
part of it he has given his most unqualified adhesion. We may cite,
among other things, M. Comte’s view of human evolution; of the
philosophical limits of the sciences; and of their concatenation into a
series, which are perhaps the most important of “ positive ” doctrines.
There were other points, however, on which the English philosopher
dissented—a dissent prolonged up to the present time. Such are the
study of economic conditions as a separate science—the present politi
cal economy; the study of the intellectual functions apart from their
cerebral organs—the present psychology ; and the social condition of
women.
Mr. Mill has very recently devoted an entire work, or rather pam
phlet, to the advocacy of his views on the relations of the sexes, with
reference both to the family and to the social organism. Very few (we
think) can read the letters, here for the first time presented to the
English speaking public, without perceiving that “ The Subjection-of
Women”! embodies, in great part, a substantial, if not an exact re
production of the opinions and arguments communicated so many
years ago to M. Comte. As far as the constitution of th'e positive
philosophy is concerned, this question is of wholly minor importance;
it can be decided either way without affecting its integrity. It is, how
ever, the fundamental question in social statics without which that
half of the science of sociology cannot be constituted; while the lively
* Discussion with Mr. J. S. Mill on the social condition of women,
f London, 1869 ; and New York, 1870.
22
�172
THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
sension about the condition and social destination of women, the more
suitable does it appear to me to characterize profoundly the deplorable
mental anarchy of our time, by showing the difficulty of a sufficient
present convergence even among the minds of the elite, between whom
there already exists, beside native sympathy, a logical harmony so pro
found as ours, and which, nevertheless, diverges, at least for the moment,
on one of the most fundamental questions which sociology can agitate;
upon the principal elementary base, to speak correctly, of all true so
cial hierarchy. Such a spectacle might even be enough to inspire a
kind of philosophical despair upon the final impossibility, as the relig
ious spirits pretend, of constituting a true intellectual concord upon
purely rational bases, if on the other hand a profound habitual estima
tion of our mental state, and even a sufficient personal experience, did
not tend to clearly convince me that the present position of your mind
constitutes in this respect only a necessarily temporary phase, the last
indirect reflection of the great negative transition. All thinkers who
seriously love women otherwise than as charming toys, have, in our
day, passed, I believe, through an analogous situation; on my own part,
I recollect very well the time when the strange work of Miss Mary
*
Wollstonecraft (before she espoused Godwin) produced a very strong
impression upon me. It was even chiefly by laboring to elucidate for
others the true elementary notions of domestic order, that I put my
mind, about twenty years, irrevocably beyond the pale of all similar
surprises of sentiment. I have no doubt that my special estimation of
this fundamental principle in the work which I am about commencing,
will suffice to dissipate, in this relation, all your uncertainties, if, before
this moment, your own meditations 'do not. essentially antedate this
important demonstration, on which we can prematurely talk a little in
our fraternal interview. In resuming summarily the indications of
your last letter, I hope that our spontaneous concert is less distant than
I at first feared. Although acknowledging the anatomical diversities
which more than anything else separate the feminine organism from
the great human type,f I think you have not allowed them a strong
enough physiological participation, while you have perhaps exaggerated
the possible influence of exercise, which, before everything, necessarily
supposes a suitable constitution. If, according to your hypothesis, our
cerebral apparatus never reached its adult state, all the exercise imag
inable would not render it susceptible of the high elaborations that it
ends by admitting of; and it is to this that I attribute the avortement,
too frequent in our day, of many unhappy youths who are exercised at
tasks repulsive to their age. Women are in the same category. In a
methodical discussion, I will have little to add to your judicious esti*“A Vindication of the Rights of Women, with strictures on political and moral
subjects.” London, 1792.
t As Littre remarks, this expression is not well chosen; “ human nature has no
human type which is independent of woman. The human ty pe can never, physically
or morally, be conceived but as double; it comprises two inseparable parts.”
�THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
173
naation of the normal limits of their faculties; but I find that you do
not attach sufficient importance to the real consequences of such native
inferiority. Their characteristic inaptitude for abstraction and construc
tion, the almost complete impossibility of rejecting emotional inspiration
in rational operations, though their passions are in general more gen
erous, must continue to indefinitely interdict them from all immediate
supreme direction of human affairs, not only in science or philosophy
as you allow, but also in esthetic life and even in practical life, as well
industrial as military, in which the spirit of consequence (de suite)
constitutes assuredly the principal condition of prolonged success. I
believe that women are as improper to direct any great commercial or
manufacturing enterprise as any important military operation; with
stronger reason are they radically incapable of all government, even
domestic, but only of secondary administration. In any case, neither
direction nor execution being suitable to them, they are essentially re
served for consultation and modification, in which their passive position
permits them to utilize very happily their sagacity and their character
istic * actuality.’ I have been able to observe very closely the feminine
organism, even in many eminent exceptions. I can further, on this
subject, mention my own wife, who, without having happily written
anything, at least up to the present, really possesses more mental force
than the greater number of the most justly praised persons of her sex.
I have everywhere found the essential characters of this type, a very
insufficient aptitude for the generalization of relations, and for persist
ence in deductions as well as in the preponderance of reason over pas
sion. All the cases of this kind are, in my eyes, too frequent and too
pronounced, to permit the imputation of difference of results chiefly
to diversity of education; for I have met with the same essential attri
butes where the whole surrounding influences had certainly tended to de
velop as far as possible an entirely different disposition. After all, is it
not otherwise in many respects a final advantage rather than a real incon
venience for women, to have been saved from this disastrous education
of words and entities which, during the great modem transition, has
replaced ancient military education ? As to the Fine Arts especially,
is it not evident that for two or three centuries, many women have
been very happily situated and trained for the cultivation, without ever
having been able, nevertheless, to produce anything truly great—no
more in music or painting than in poetry ? By a more profound es
timation of the whole field, one is, I think, led to recognize that this
social order so much execrated is radically arranged, on the contrary,
Sb as to essentially favor the proper scope of feminine qualities. Des
tined, beyond the maternal functions, to spontaneously constitute the
domestic auxilaries of all spiritual power, in supporting by sentiment
the practical influence of intelligence to modify morally the natural
reign of material force, women, are more and more placed in the condi
tions most proper for this important mission, by their isolation itself
�174
-THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
from active specialties which facilitates a judicious exercise of their
kind and moderating influence, at the same time that their own inter
ests are thus connected necessarily with the triumph of universal mo
rality. If it were possible that their position could change in this
respect and that they could become the equals of men instead of their
companions, I believe that the qualities which you justly attribute to
them would be much less developed. Their small instantaneous sagac
ity would become, for example, almost sterile, as soon as, ceasing to be
passive without being indifferent, they would have to conceive and di
rect, in place of regarding and counselling without serious responsi
bility. Besides, for truly positive philosophers, who know how, in all
cases, our systematic influence must be limited to wisely modify the ex
ercise of natural laws, without ever thinking of radically changing
their character and direction proper, the immense experience al
ready accomplished, in this respect, by the whole of humanity must
be, it seems to me, fully decisive; for we know the philosophical
worth of the theatrical declamations on the pretended abuse of force
on the part of the males. Although anatomical estimation has not
yet sufficiently established the explicit demonstration of the organic
superiority of our own species over the rest of animality, which has,
indeed, only very recently become possible, physiological research has
left no doubt upon the point, according to the single fact of the
progressive ascendancy obtained by man.
It is nearly the same in the question of sexes, though to a much less
degree; for how can the constant social subordination of the female sex
be otherwise explained ? The singular emaute organized in our day for
the benefit of women, but not by them, will certainly in the end only
add confirmation to this universal experience, although this grave in
cident of our anarchy may otherwise for the moment produce deplora
ble consequences, either private or public. The mass of our species
was for ages everywhere plunged in a social condition much inferior in
every way to that over which some now lament in women; but it has
been, since the beginning of the Middle Ages, gradually abandoned
among the most advanced peoples, because this collective subjection, a
temporary condition of ancient sociability, did not really belong to any
organic difference between the dominant and the dominated
*
But, .
on the contrary, the social subordination of women will be necessarily
indefinite, although progressively conformed to the normal universal
type, because it directly reposes upon a natural inferiority which
nothing can destroy, and which is even more pronounced among men
than among the other superior animals. By rendering women con
tinuously more suitable to their true general destination, I am con
vinced that the modern regeneration will more completely recall them
to their eminently domestic life, from which the disorder inseparable
See, on this illustration relative to the question of serfdom and slavery further
on in the third letter, p.
�THE
SUB JE C T T 0 N
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WOMEN.
175
from the great modern transition has, I think, momentarily turned
their attention in divers secondary respects. The natural movement
of our industry certainly tends to gradually turn over to men profes. sions for a long time carried on by women, and this spontaneous dispo
sition is, in my eyes, only one example of the growing tendency of our
sociability, to interdict women from all occupations which are not suf
ficiently reconcilable with their domestic destination, the importance
of which will become more and more preponderant. This is very far,
as you are aware, from interdicting them from a great and useful
indirect participation in the entire social movement, which could have
| never been conducted by them alone, even as to the essential scope of
opinions and manners which specially interest them. Every other
mode of conceiving their status and consequently their duties and
ours, will really be as contrary at the least to their own good as to uni
versal harmony. If from the attitude of woman’s protector, men enter
a situation of rivalry toward her, she will become, I believe, very un
happy through the necessary impossibility in which she will soon find
herself of sustaining such a competition, directly contrary to the con
ditions of her existence. I believe, therefore that those who sincerely
*
love her, who ardently desire the most complete evolution possible of
the faculties and functions properly belonging to her, must desire that
these anarchical utopias may never be tried?’
The third letter in this ensemble, and the last we shall give, is dated
Paris, November 14th, 1843. It is as follows: “Having now resumed
my daily occupations, I hasten to reply to your important letter of
October 30th before commencing my small work upon the ‘Ecole poly
technique,’ which, as it would take me a fortnight, would delay too
K long a response which I regard as the present termination of our great
biologico-sociological discussion. The general impression left upon
my mind by this letter, leads me, indeed, to think that this discussion
has now reached as far as it could with any utility be pushed; in
short, that there would at present be more inconvenience than advan
tage in further prolonging it, and it seems to me from your closing
words, that, at base, you are not far removed from the same opinion.
Without your divers arguments on this subject having in any way
shaken or even modified any of my previous convictions, they have
proved to me that the time has not yet come for seeing you arrive at
the fundamental truths upon this capital point which I have for a long
time received, but leave me, nevertheless, in all its fullness, the hope
that your further meditations may end by leading you also to the
same conclusion. In our present position we agree neither upon the
principles nor even the facts which must indispensably contribute
to the decision; and, consequently, it becomes proper not to finally
close the discussion, but to indefinitely suspend it, until such time as
on one side or the other the conditions of a useful resumption are found
effectively fulfilled. Still, I think I ought, for the last time, to take up
�176
THE
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OF
WOMEN.
summarily the principal articles of your letter, in order the better to
characterize as I have not hitherto been able to do so, the essential
points of opposition, at once logical and scientific, thus established
between us in this respect.
“ In the beginning, I share essentially your logical opinion as to the
superior difficulty now offered by questions of social statics as compared
with dynamical questions. However, although the positive elaboration
of the latter is now much more mature, at the same time that it is
happily more urgent, I believe it possible to demonstrate immediately
the principal bases of static Sociology, and I expect to give an example
of it in the methodical treatise which I will commence at the end of
the present winter. I even think that without this preliminary condi
tion the dynamical theory would not have sufficient rationality. I can
now feel bold, as, for my own mind, this preamble has been accom
plished for many years, although I have not hitherto been able to
sufficiently develop this order of convictions so as to have them prop
erly shared by other thinkers. Owing to the fact that the fundamental
laws of existence can never be really suspended, it is very difficult to
clearly distinguish their continuous influence in the study of the
phenomena of activity; but this is not, however, impossible, as we can
do so by properly .estimating what is common to all the essential cases
offered by them. Besides, I believe that the preliminary light shed by
pure Biology, and which then has, especially in the present question, a
superior importance, is. now much more advanced than you seem ready
to admit, despite the little satisfactory state of our biological studies.
Doubtless, as you say, in reacting against the philosophical aberrations
of the last century, contemporary thinkers have been at times led to
exaggerate in the opposite direction. Thus Gall, in worthily upholding
the preponderant influence of the primordial organism, has too much
neglected that of education so abusively extolled by Helvetius. But,
though the truth is assuredly between the two, it is far, in my opinion,
from consisting in the exact balance {juste milien), and is found much
nearer the present opinion than the preceding. It was very natural to
at first estimate the external influences as plainer, and thi§ is what
the eighteenth century has everywhere done on all biological subjects
in which the notions of the medium are always shown before that of
the organism. But this is surely not the normal state of biological ’
philosophy, in which the organic conditions must certainly prevail;
since it is the organism and not the medium that makes us men rather
than monkeys or dogs, and which even determines our special mode
of humanity to a degree much more circumscribed than is commonly
believed. Under the logical aspect, by applying the natural march
that your valuable treatise has so judiciously characterized as the
Method of Residues, we cannot, it seems to me, especially in such
*
* See “ Mill’s Logic,” Vol. Ill, chap. viii. 3d London Ed. (1851) Vol. I, pp. 404, 405.
�THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
177
complex subjects, regard as indifferent the order of partial subtractions
which ought always to be followed out as far as possible according to
the decreasing importance that a primary general estimation sponta
neously awards to the diverse determinable influences; in short, that in
biological researches we ought most frequently to reverse the order which
you believe always preferable, viz., from the external to the internal.
u I regret exceedingly that the grave defects of co-ordination inherent
in Gall’s work should have so shocked a mind as methodical as yours, thus
hindering you hitherto from appreciating the fundamental reality of
his essential demonstrations, abstraction made of all irrational or prema
ture localization. You may, perhaps, in this respect be less dissatisfied
with his great early work, (Analogicpt physiologie du systeme nerveux
en general et du cerveau en particulier, in 4to,) although it is probably
too anatomical for your purpose. But the same fundamental ideas
are presented in better logical form in the more systematic works of
Spurzheim, that is to say, Observations sur la phrenologie, Essai philosophique sur les facultes morales et intellectuelles, the work upon
Education, and even that relating to insanity, which constitute in all
only four thin octavo volumes, easily read in one or two weeks.
Without the subordination of . sexes being directly examined there,
we can, however, regard this doctrine as having already sufficiently
established, as far, at least, as Biology can do so, the fundamental
principle of the domestic hierarchy. Before philosophical Biology
had properly arisen under Vicq. d’Azyr and Bichat, and altogether
independently of cerebral physiology, an estimable work, though not
very eminent, still deserving to be read, had already attempted to
found this principle upon the single preponderant consideration of
physical destination; it is a small treatise of a Montpellier physician,
(Roussel), entitled Systemephysique et morale de la femme, published in
1775, under the scientific impulsion of the labors of Borden, the great
precursor of Bichat. Comparative Biology seems to me, further, to
leave no real doubt on this subject. In following, for instance, M. de
Blainville’s lectures, though he had in yiew no thesis whatsoever on
this question, one cannot fail, to perceive arise from the ensemble of
the studies on animals, the general law of the superiority of the mas
culine sex in all the higher part of the living hierarchy; we will have
to descend among the invertebrates in order to find, and still very
rarely, notable exceptions to this great organic rule, which presents
besides the diversity of the sexes as increasing with the degree of
organization. I am, therefore, far from agreeing to abandon biological
considerations, although I regard the sociological appreciation as being
able without other aid to directly establish this important hotion; but
biological inspirations must then serve to properly direct sociological
speculations, which, in this respect, as in all other elementary ones,
seem to me ought to offer only a sort of philosophical prolongation of
-the great biological theorems.
23
�178
THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
“ As to the sociological appreciation separately regarded, I cannot
agree with you that the English medium is more favorable to the
mental and moral development of women than the French. Ab
straction made of all national vanity, of which you know me certainly
to be very independent, I believe, on the contrary, that the ladies of
France should be more developed from this very cause, that they live
in, more oomplete society with men. This diversity between us is
otherwise only a consequence of another more general, consisting in
the fact that the social constitution appears to you to have been
hitherto unfavorable to feminine development, while it seems to me
very proper for cultivating the qualities proper for women. As to the
rest, I am nowise competent to contest your observation upon English
households. But I believe that in it you confound too much simple
domestic administration with the true general government of the
family. In all Occidental Europe, I believe that, as in England,
households are administered by the women; but everywhere also,
save individual anomalies, it is the men who govern the common
affairs of the family. .
“1 cannot at all accept your comparison of the condition of women
to that of any sort of slaves. I have indicated this analogy only to
prevent a natural enough objection, tending to indirectly invalidate my
conclusion upon the passage from fact to principle. But, on a direct
comparison of the two cases, it seems to me that, since the establish
ment of monogamy, and especially in modern sociability, the term ‘ser
vitude’ is extremely vicious when meant to characterize the social
state of our gentle partners, and consequently I can nowise accept the
historical parallelism upon the simultaneous variations of two situations
so radically heterogeneous. Sale and non-possession are the principal
characters of all slavery—they have certainly never been applicable to
the occidentals of the last five centuries.
*
“ As to the progress which, for a century, is gradually working for
feminine emancipation, I do not at all believe in it, either as a fact or
as a principle. Our female authors seem to me no way superior, in
reality, to Mme. de Sevigne, Mme. de la Fayette, ,Mme. de Motteville,
and other remarkable ladies of the seventeenth century. I cannot
decide, whether it is otherwise in England. The woman who, under
a man’s name, (George Sand,) has now become so celebrated among us,
appears to me, at base, very inferior, not only in propriety, but even in
feminine originality, to the greater number of these estimable types.
* See remarks above, p. 174, and also “The Subjection of Women,” 2d London
Ed., pp. 8, 9,18, ff., and 28. Mr. Mill here traces pathetically, nay, almost tragically,
the parallelistn mentioned by M. Comte. One thought suggested itself while
reading it: Why slave-masters who were apparently as much interested as hus
bands in having their slaves docile, etc., did not try the same means to accomplish
this end as Mr. Mill asserts husbands to have done? Should his genesis of the
present condition of women prove true, of which certain damaging omissions
make us afraid, we would recommend it to Mr. Darwin as the most long-continued
and successful piece of artificial “ selection ” to be anywhere found.—Tr.
�THE
SUBJECTION
OF
WOMEN.
179
I do not see, in reality, any other notable increase than that of the
number and material fecundity of these authoresses, as Moli&re prob
ably foresaw; but I am doubtful whether any true progress is shown in
it. This movement consists chiefly in a growing intemperance, which
appears to me a sad but very natural consequence (or rather face) of
our universal mental anarchy since the inevitable decay of the frail
bases that theology had provisionally supplied to the entirety of great
moral and social notions. Beside this part of the negative disturbance
having been found especially favored by energetic passions, it has had
only to contend against perhaps the weakest part of theological socia
bility; for what can. be more illusory than to found the, domestic
hierarchy upon Adam’s supernumerary rib ? Is it astonishing, that
principles so lightly constituted, have not been able to resist the shock
of impassioned anarchy? But their momentary discredit really proves
no more than the necessity for better establishing them. Under this
relation the deplorable discussions thus raised, although yet essentially
deprived of logical reasonableness, besides being unhappily inevitable,
are at least useful, in obliging us to more profoundly fathom the in
timate motives of this indispensable domestic co-ordination. The
present emeuts of women, or rather of some womejn, will in the end
have no other result than that of presenting experimentally the insur
mountable reality of the fundamental principle of such subordination,
which must then. react profoundly upon all the other parts of social
economy; but this useful conclusion will be found purchased at the
price of much public and private misery, which a more philosophical
advance would have shunned were such rationality now possible. If
this disastrous social equality of the two sexes were ever really at
tempted, it would immediately radically disturb the conditions of
existence of the sex that some desire thus to favor, and with regard to
which the present protection, that must alone be completed by regu
lating it, would then be converted into a competition impossible to
habitually sustain. Such an assimilation will otherwise tend morally
to destroy the principal charm which now draws us towards women,
and which resulting from a sufficient harmony between social diversity
and organic diversity, supposes women to be in an essentially passive
and speculative situation that can in no way hinder their just partici
pation in all great social sympathies. If such a principle of repulsion
could be pushed to its extreme natural limit, I venture to affirm that it
will appear directly opposed to the reproduction of our species, which
restores, in this respect, the biological point of view, more intimately
connected there than elsewhere with the sociological.
“ All this may perhaps appear to you very extended for a discussion
which I regarded as provisionally terminated ; but for this very reason
I undertook to better characterize our principal dissidences. For the
rest, although without present result, I am far from regretting that you
have begun it, for it will assist me considerably in properly feeling the
�180
THE
’
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WOMEN.
A
essential points to be especially insisted upon in my forthcoming
treatise, in my attempt at a static demonstration of a principle which,
despite its eminently elementary nature, is yet so profoundly misunder
stood by so superior and so well-prepared a mind. Permit me, how
ever, to hope, according to my own previous experience, that this
situation of your judgment constitutes really only a last transient
phase of the great negative transition belonging to our age.”*
° Mr. Mill has forcibly called attention (work cited, p. 99) to a fact which
deserves Careful study. After acknowledging that no woman had been a Homer,
an Aristotle, or a Michael Angelo, he remarks: “ It is a curious consideration, that
the only things which the existing law excludes women from doing, are the things
^fliich they have proved they are able to do. * * * Their vocation for govern
ment has made its way and become conspicuous through the very few opportunities
which have been given, while in the lines of distinction, which apparently were
freely open to them, they have by no means so eminently distinguished them
selves.” From the way Mr. Mill puts it, the distinction seems well founded, and
on further reflection, seems one of the most “ curious ” things in the world. That
exercise and freedom should in woman’s case act the very reverse of what they do
among men, seems to go far to substantiate M. Comte’s doctrine of fundamental
difference between the sexes. While it seems in the nature of a standing “ miracle”
to know how a state could have originated or how it could be kept up that inter
dicts beings from their real natural vocation. If I understand the English philoso
pher correctly, it might be wholesome for women to have an edict on our statute
books against writing poetry or painting; if it could act as political proscription
seemingly does, all should hope for the early arrival of the day.—Tr.
�
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The subjection of women
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Place of publication: New York
Collation: [169]-180 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870. "Discussion with Mr J.S. Mill on the social condition of women". Based on correspondence between Comte and Mill that began at the end of 1841. Includes bibliographical references. Printed on blue paper.
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Text
WHAT OF THE FUTURE.
BY D.
G.
CBOLY.
INTRODUCTORY.
N the chapters which follow this preface I shall try to forecast
something of the future. That the attempt is a presumptous
one, I am well aware; but l am certain it is quite time that some
one should lead the way in showing the advantages of studying
or at least speculating about our earthly hereafter. We are too apt to
animadvert upon the Chinese for their elaborate worship of ancestors;
but while we do not pay homage to our progenitors in a religious sense,
surely too much of the attention of our best and wisest scholars and
writers is given to the annals of the past. I insist that the only value
of history, apart from a natural curiosity as to what has taken place on
the earth before we came into conscious existence, is to give us data by
which we may forecast the future. So long as the race believed that
infinite Caprice in the form of supernatural and irresponsible wills gov
erned the universe, there could be no hope of a science of history.
This was impossible until the conception of universal law accounting
for all phenomena, the course of human events included, became cur
rent among the advanced thinkers of the race. We have had a good
deal, especially in modern times, of what is known as the philosophy
of history. Indeed all recent annalists have generalized more or less;
but' their theories of events are confined exclusively to the past, and
explain with greater or less accuracy what has already taken place, and
why it has come about. But the age demands something in advance
of this; the time has- come when the attempt at least should be made
to lay the foundations of what may be termed the science of human af
fairs. It is idle to speculate upon history and attempt to explain the
laws which govern the movements of human society, without endeavor
ing to apply the knowledge of the laws thus obtained in trying to realize
in thought what may occur hereafter. In the progress of this induction
I shall, of course, make many, very many, serious mistakes, but some
one must make the attempt; and it is inevitable that whoever does so
will help other inquirers in the same field by his very failures.
There is a very natural curiosity felt by every intelligent person
touching what will take place after he has passed from this earthly
sphere—what our children and our children’s children will do—what
T
�74
WHAT
OF
THE FUTURE.
they will probably believe—what form or forms of government will
control them—what will be the material condition of the masses of
mankind—what changes in the maps of the world—what inventions
to aid man’s control over the forces of nature, and what effect all Wiese
changes will have upon human conditions. The belief is becoming
general that man himself can very largely control his own future;
that the race can be, and in many respects even now is, a “ ruling prov-'
idence” to itself, and that the natural laws which govern human society
can be modified in their complex relations by the interposition of
human will—not arbitrary will, but intelligent human volition, having
definite objects in view, and itself controlled by necessary material con
ditions.
In the articles which are to follow I beg of my readers to give me
their indulgence. They must understand that the field is almost
wholly untrodden, and it is inevitable that some very wild guesses will
be made. This much, however, I can confidently predict, that the
most incredible statements I shall venture will really be the most trust
worthy, and that I shall be more apt to make mistakes in that depart
ment of inquiry in which I shall be least questioned ; that is to say, in
speculating upon the future of religion, of the movements of popula
tion, of the course of opinion, and of the social changes which will
take place, I shall very likely be most at fault, because the data for
these speculations have not as yet been formulated. The most aston
ishing results in the future will be brought about by the command to
be yet obtained by man over nature, by the discovery of mechanical
and chemical appliances which will add marvelously to the happiness
and comfort of the race. To illustrate: If at the beginning of this
century some theorizer should have set out upon the same inquiry upon
which I have dared to enter and should have speculated upon the
course of opinions, the fluctuations of religion, the social changes to
take place, he would probably have been heard with attention, and if
his reasoning was apparently sound, would have secured many assent
ing listeners; but if he had attempted to foretell the future of tele
graphy or the application of steam to transportation, he would have been
set down as a lunatic, a dreamer of fantastic dreams. Now, the most
marvelous changes in human conditions, in the future as in the past, will
be brought about by the discoveries of science as applied to the arts.
What some of these discoveries may be, I shall try to state in the'
papers which are to follow in this series; and just here, where I really
stand upon the most solid ground, I shall seem most wild in my vati
cinations. A simple invention may do more to alleviate certain forms
of human misery than the preachings of thousands of clergymen and
the wailings of as many poets. The “ Song of the Shirt ” stirred our
sympathies, but the sewing machine—what pen or tongue can tell the good it has accomplished for myriads of working women ? Could the
press and pulpit combined have had a tithe of the effect of this one
�WHAT
OF
THE
FUTURE.
75
beneficent invention ? But speculations as to the religious future, or
the social future, will necessarily be incomplete by reason of the com
plexity of the phenomena which will accompany them, and the as yet
unformalized science of society. In the present state of knowledge—
especially that which relates to the conditions of human society—the
ripest and most cultivated intellect would be at fault, not only by rea
son of the want of information, but because of his preconceived theories
and notions. It is very evident that in speculating upon the future,
men will be controlled very largely by their settled convictions and per
haps by the religious faith in which they have been nurtured. Suppose,
for instance, an intelligent Christian, a sceptic, and a scientist, were
each to give his views upon the future ; it is very clear, that although
each might mean to tell the truth, still each would give a different solu
tion of the problem before him—none of them could help being influ
enced by their preconceived impressions. From this cause of distrac
tion the writer is not of course free. Indeed any scheme of the future
—any hope of what is to come hereafter—must be based in great part
upon a religious theory; that is, a theory which embraces a conception
of the social and religious future as well as of man’s history.
The science of history was not possible so long as merely super
natural wills were understood to be the controlling powers in the uni
verse; but with the conception of invariable law, then a science of
human affairs becomes possible ; but that very conception is in itself
essentially a religious one.
There is still another element of uncertainty in endeavoring to fore
cast the hereafter, and that is the surprising results which sometimes
are brought about by accidental discoveries in science. The share
played by accident is as discreditable to man’s invention as it is morti
fying to his vanity. Bacon points this out in the 59th Aphorism of
his Novum Organum, in which, besides giving examples, he says:—
“ We may also derive some reason for hope from the circumstance of several
actual inventions being of such a nature, that scarcely any one could have formed a
conjecture about them previously to their discovery, but would rather have ridi
culed them as impossible. ********
We may therefore well hope that many excellent and useful matters are yet
treasured up in the bosom of nature, bearing no relation or analogy to our actual
discoveries, but out of the common track of the imagination, and still undiscovered,
and which will doubtless be brought to light in the course and lapse of years, as
others have been before them.”
*******
Conscious of his own deficiencies, the present writer cannot but
think that however poor his execution may be, such a work as this can
not but be suggestive, and may lead to the discovery of data by which
we may in a measure forecast the future. It is the first serious attempt
ever made to estimate accurately the forces at work in society, and to
point out what may result unless new agencies are brought into play.
Every existing human institution has a history which changes with
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the course of time. Now, in what direction do these changes tend?
This is the inquiry to which the papers that follow will be a partial
answer.
Those who are disposed to criticise the shortcomings of what is to
follow, would do well to bear in mind the acute remark of Herbert
Spencer, who says:
“ Not directly, but by successive approximations, do mankind reach correct con
clusions ; and those who first think in'the right direction—loose as may be their
reasonings, and wide of the mark as their inferences may be—yield indispensable
aid by framing provisional conceptions, and giving a bent to inquiry.”
CHAPTER I.
THE FUTURE OF MARRIAGE.
The relations of the sexes ; what will they be thirty, fifty, one hun
dred years hence ? Is it possible to estimate the force of the agencies
at work modifying the old ideal of the institution of marriage, and to
point out what will be the probable issue ? Any one who has observed
the course of modem history, cannot but have been impressed with
certain tendencies concerning which there can be no chance of mistake.
During the middle ages and down to the reformation, marriage was
a sacrament of the church. It was God, according to this view, who
brought people together, and his command was that whom he had
joined no man should put asunder. Children, also, under this general
theory, were a gift of God ; it was by his will and not by man’s agency
that they were brought into existence.
This, however, is not the modern theory of the relation of the sexes.
Protestant Christendom regards marriage as a purely human institu
tion, and each State now claims the authority to separate those whom
it has joined together in the event of certain infractions of the law
regulating the institution. Roman Catholicism still sternly adhères
to its historical traditions of the sacramental character and to the
indissolubility of marriage, but the modern theory has beaten the
old church on its own ground, and in communities composed almost
exclusively of its own members. Indeed, this “free love” movement
was a potent force in the original outbreak against the church of
Rome ; as witness Luther’s marriage with a nun, his subsequent
acknowledgment of the validity of the union of a German prince to a
second wife, the first being still alive ; and also the tremendous conse
quences of Pope Clement’s refusal to divorce Henry VIII from Queen
Catherine. In every modern nation the first victory over the sacerdotal
power of mother church is signalized by the substitution of the civil
�THE
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MARRIAGE.
Tt
for the sacramental marriage, and the passage of laws admitting of
divorce under certain contingencies. The recent enactment of a civil
marriage law in Austria was made the occasion of a national holiday ;
the Spanish revolution was signalized by the recognition of the legiti
macy of such unions ; and the highest courts in Italy, in spite of the
protests of the. church, have solemnly affirmed the legal validity of the
marriage of priests.
But the substitution of the civil for the sacerdotal marriage was
only one step in this social revolution. The personal theory or the
relation of the sexes is what now obtains the widest sanction. In this
view marriage is a mere contract between two persons ; living together
is a sufficient proof that the couple are man and wife. This is the
American idea of marriage, which needs the sanction of neither church
nor state—only the consent of the two persons directly interested to
insure the respectability of the connection and legitimatize the off
spring.
Nor is this all ; this theory of mere consent giving validity to the
relation involves the further consequence that a separation may ensue
when either party becomes dissatisfied. If .marriage is a mere matter
of human convenience or pleasure, then it can be dissolved at will ; the
same persons who made the contract for their mutual happiness should
have the power to dissolve it when their comfort is not enhanced by
complying with its conditions. And this is the exact view taken by
John Stuart Mill, who represents, probably more than any other living
writer, the most advanced view of the times on all topics of social
concern.
And as a consequence of this growing conception of marriage as a
mere personal matter between individuals, what do we see in society at
large ? Why a constant tendency to loosen the ties which bind the
sexes together ? The statement may be broadly made that since the
reformation all legislation in modern Christendom has been in thé
direction of the entire freedom of the affections. Not a single instance
can be furnished of legal enactment to bind still firmer the marriage
bonds, or to go back to a stricter law of divorce. On the contrary,
every change or amendment of the ordinances which society imposes
on the sexes for its protection and their happiness tends to make the
bonds lighter and separation more easy. In our own country, which
Booner than any other adopts all the so-called improvements in legisla
tion, divorce laws are notoriously lax and the number of separations
extraordinarily large. Even in so conservative, and in one sense reli
gious a State as Vermont, there is an average of one separation to every
eleven marriages, and in Connecticut (among Americans), one to nine.
Of course, in other States, especially those settled by emigrants from
New England, the proportion is still greater.
Nor do I see in any quarter a desire to go back to a more stringent
rule. There is occasionally a feeble protest from some old-fashioned
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THE
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divine, but the church as a body has taken no action, and seems quite
willing that the marriage laws should be practically abrogated in time.
And here it may be remarked that our present monogamic mar
riage is not a Christian institution.- The Bible was written by and for
a nation of polygamists. There is not a text of Scripture, from Genesis
to Revelation, which prescribes that the man shall have but one wife,
and the woman but one husband. It is true there was such a limita
tion so far as bishops were concerned in the early church, but this Very
exception proved the rule to have been otherwise. Luther recognized
this in an instance I have already mentioned. And here again it must
be borne in mind that the relation of the sexes is purely conventional;
there is no absolute rule governing all the nations. We must dis
criminate between a permanent and a transient morality. In all ages,
and among all people, it has been considered wrong to murder, lie, or
steal; but there has been no general rule recognized among men gov
erning the relation of the sexes. It has varied widely in every age and
clime. There was a time when men married their sisters, and the
priests blessed the union. The law,“ Thou shalt not commit adultery,”
was given to a polygamous people, and was understood very differently
from the way we regard it.
The brothel is deemed infamous in New York, but is a govern
ment institution in Paris; while the tea-gardens as they are called in
Japan are as respectable as the school-house or tfie temples, and are
supposed to be quite as useful in their way. Hence in discussing this
subject of marriage, we must bear in mind that our conventional
standards are not common to the entire race, but only to a small part
of it, and have not therefore the same sanction as those rules of con
duct which are recognized universally.
So far there have been the following variations of the sexual rela
tions recognized openly or tacitly by mankind:
1. Polyandry, or several men the husbands of one wife. This was
probably the prevalent institution when the race was in its infancy
and still in a very savage state—when man was the hunted rather than
the hunters of beasts of prey; and hence what was needed to fight the
wild beasts of the forest was the strong male rather than the child-bear
ing female. This accounts for the custom which still obtains in the
East of killing female infants at birth. Polyandry is still a custom in
Thibet, and in other parts of Asia.
2. Polygamy was the next form of marriage, and the one which has
always been held in the highest favor by the great mass of mankind
within the historic period. Probably three-fourths of the race to-day
practice or tolerate polygamy.
3. Monogamy. This is undoubtedly the very highest form of the
relation of the sexes so far instituted among men, and has given us the
noblest types of women, as wife and mother, of the race. Some form
of the monogamic marriage is always associated with an advanced
civilization.
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OF MARRIAGE.
79
4. Concubinage. This is a real institution of monogamic commu
nities, though in disrepute, and not recognized legally. Statistics
would show, if it were possible to collect them accurately, that in all
nations where the one-wife rule obtains legally, there are a certain defi
nite number of women who act as the temporary or permanent second
wives of married or unmarried men. Among the Jews the concubine
was but an inferior kind of wife, which is just what the kept mistress
is with us—only the position of the latter is disreputable, which was
not the case with the Jewish concubine.
5. Prostitution. This is also an institution almost exclusively pecu
liar to monogamic communities. Wherever the one-wife system pre
vails, whoredom is an inevitable accompaniment. In modern Europe
and America it is estimated that one woman in every sixty practically
ignores the conventional law 'of marriage either as a prostitute or as a
kept mistress, or by indulging in occasional liaisons. From the nature
of the case it is difficult to get at exact figures, but it is known that
each of these three classes bear a certain fixed proportion to the popu
*
lation in all single-wife communities.
6. Celibacy. It is perhaps a misnomer to class this state under the
head of the relation of the sexes, when in fact it signifies'an absence
of relation; but old maids form so large and growing a proportion of
'our population, that they must be considered in any discussion of the
general subject of marriage, especially the future of marriage. Celibacv
is probably the most cruel of all the institutions which control women;
it entails vastly more physical and mental suffering than prostitution,
apart, of course, from the contagion engendered by the latter, because
it affects such numbers of the sex. There are probably two hundred
* Since writing the above, further thought on the subject has led me to the
conclusion that prostitution is simply polyandry under another name. Both insti
tutions spring from the same real or fancied necessities of the race. In both a few
women are set apart for the satisfaction of the sexual passions of many men. Poly
andry, however, involves offspring, and is hence an honorable estate among the
savages who practice it: while prostitution has no aim beyond satisfying a sexual
appetite on the part of the male. The one is a permanent relation, and was and is
sanctified by habit and affection; the other is a transient flirtation, in nine cases out
of ten wholly animal. Concubinage also is simply the polygamy of monogamic
communities. It has been said that there was more polygamy in London than in
Constantinople, and this is probably true, only in the one case it is an honored in> stitution, and in the other a disreputable gratification, yet both satisfying pressing
social needs.
Hugh Miller, in combating the theories of progress rife in his time, attempted
to prove from geology that a process of degradation or retrogression was going on
as well as progression. What he did show was that upon the advent of a new race
of superior beings, the one which had before held the vantage ground fell back in
the scale of creation. Thus all living animal types were better represented on this
planet than they have been since the advent of man.
The same law seems to hold good with human institutions. Polyandry and
polygamy, which were once legal and honored institutions, have become degraded
in the presence of the highest form of the relation of the sexes as yet known to
large masses of men, viz., monogamy; yet it must not be forgotten that prostitu
tion and concubinage are real, permanent institutions in our present civilization,
which zoill exert themselves as social forces, and which cannot be ignored by the
sociologist.
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THE
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OF MARRIAGE.
unmated women for every one prostitute, and in some respects the
latter has an advantage over the former. Her instinct of sex is grati
fied to the uttermost, while every purely womanly passion in the old
maid, widow, or young maid unmated, is a matter of secret shame and
perpetual disappointment. To make matters worse, the whole past
education of women has been to train them for marriage, as their sole
business in life. That so large a proportion of women are permanently
unmated in our modern civilization is proof positive that the theories
which have heretofore obtained touching theii’ exclusive devotion to
domestic life do not meet all the wants of society. And then the num
ber of involuntary celibates tends constantly to increase. For this
there are many causes, among which are the higher standard of com
fort and luxury, the greater industrial activity of women, and especially
the emigrating tendencies of men caused by the cheapness and rapidity
of modern travel. In England it is estimated that of every one hun
dred grown women only fifty-five are married; the rest are unmated.
So much for the past and the present.
But now what of the future ? What changes or variations may we
expect in marriage before the year 2000 ? Let us apply Comte’s concep
tion of historical filiation or Herbert Spencer’s law of evolution to
this subject, and see whither we are tending.
Historically, then, it is evident that we are passing from a super
natural to a purely human conception of marriage. It is no longer a
mystic rite or sacrament; it is an institution designed to perpetuate
the race and add to human happiness. All existing criticisms on mar
riage are from a purely human standpoint. Hence the tendency is to
greater individual freedom of action. All legislation, without any ex
ception in modern Christendom, is in this direction. Individual con
sent is now the bond between the sexes, not sacerdotal authority. The
metaphysical and anarchical doctrine of human rights, now urged with
so much vehemence all over the Christian world, is disintegrating mar
riage.
So much for the historical tendency, as any one can see who keeps
his eyes open. And now what does the law of evolution lead us to
expect ? This law is that in human institutions as well as in the or
ganic world about us, the tendency is from the homogeneous to the
heterogeneous, from the simple to the complex ; that what are at first
apparently accidental variations, become at length permanent character
istics ; in short, that a process of differentiation is constantly going on.
Now, if this is true, it will lead to some consequences, in considering
marriage, which will startle conservative people. Yet it is very evident
that in comparing a savage with a civilized people, one of the marked
distinctions will be the simplicity of the marriage institution in the
one, and the complex character of the relation of the sexes in the other.
A rude, simple community will tolerate but one rule or practice, but a
score of variations from the conventional requirement is winked at in
�THE
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81
Rome, London, and Paris. As I have shown, monogamic communities
are forced to tolerate Polyandry and Pologamy in the form of Pfostitution and Concubinage, but there are many variations of the sexual re
lation that do not come under those heads which need not be par
ticularized here, and which are practised in all civilized communities.
This differentiation will, I think, go on until the scientific law or
laws governing the relation of the sexes has been discovered. What
these variations may be, it is now our business to try and point out.
One variation of marriage is that of the present Protestant theory
of the relation of the sexes carried to its logical conclusion. This in
volves marriage and divorce at will, without recognizing the authority
of any one or any organization outside of the couple most interested.
Practically we have almost reached that stage now. There is nothing
to hinder people separating and forming new unions, provided both
parties interested are willing. The embarrassment in the way is the
dependence of the woman, especially if she has children; but the equal
rights agitation is teaching her self-help, and the necessity of women
working and being pecuniarily independent of men. This general
form of marriage may be defined as the Protestant or individual sov
ereignty marriage, and has in itself many variations. So far it involves
an idea of faithfulness to each other while living together, but if there
is to be no check to individual freedom—if the man or woman is not
responsible to any one but him or herself, it is no one’s business but
their own with whom they consort, or how often they change partners.
Thus we come to absolute free love, and there is no logical stopping
place short of that on the prevalent individual rights theory. In a
greater or less degree this is the outcome of the marriage relation in
Protestant Christendom. The prevalent free-trade, no-government,
and every-man-for-himself notions which are generated by our political,
woman’s rights and social discussions, intensifies this tendency. Were
there no children to be considered, and were women as self-helpful as
men, there is no doubt that this form of the relation of the sexes
would soon be very common in Protestant and sceptical communities.
But the great bulk of women are not independent of men pecunia
rily, and children will be born, however undesirable they may be deemed
by those who wish to realize the theory of marriage which Protestant
communities are consciously or unconsciously working out.
The class of women workers, however, are constantly increasing,
and in a short time tens of thousands of the sex as artists, writers,
physicians, professors, teachers, and heads of establishments, will have
employment which they will not give up to fill the station of life in
volved in the old theory of marriage. Hence will come partial unions
which may be for a time or for life, which may involve absolute faith
fulness to each other or entire freedom of change. All this is certain
to come about whether we like it or not, and very probably in the next
generation. It is very likelv that for the next two generations the
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THE
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OF MARRIAGE.
monogamic form of marriage will obtain with the great mass of people,
but th«Tirregular unions I have pointed out will be not only tolerated—
they will not be under any social ban, for many worthy people will, in
all likelihood, deliberately rid themselves of the marriage fetters which
society now imposes. I expect very soon that among the large class of
professional women who will earn their own livelihood and whose oc
cupation do not admit of household cares, it will not be deemed dis
reputable to have children without any marriage formality. At first, of
course, this will create scandal, but if it is countenanced by a few women
of real character, standing, and professional reputation, it will soon be
tolerated, especially if it is done deliberately and in accordance with
some social and religious theory then prevailing, or which may be
promulgated to sanction such practices. An assumed noble motive or
religious conviction will give respectability to the wildest social aber
rations. A man or woman of recognized professional ability, who is
known to be honest, public-spirited and self-denying, could easily set a
fashion of this kind, which would be generally tolerated, though not
often imitated. A marriage contract for a limited time has been
seriously discussed in several of the Woman’s Rights and Spiritualist
journals. It is noticeable that it is the women who propose those
schemes. Here is a specimen and one very likely to be tried during
the coming years:
Ellen Storge sends a communication to the Woman’s Advocate, of Dayton, 0., •
in which she proposes the following social platform :
“ 1. Let the marriage contract be limited to from one to three years, at the coi
tion of the contracting parties.
“2. Discard the erroneous idea that this contract is divine; admit that this is
but a human transaction, intended to perpetuate the species and produce human
happiness.
“ 3. Make both parties equal; do not exact, special promises or terms from one
sex to its disadvantage and the advantage of the other. Exact pledges of mutual
fidelity and co-operation during continuance of the marital contract; but let love
alone. Love is a sensitive, spontaneous outgrowth of the heart, subject to the con
trol of treatment and circumstances rather than formal promises ; it is too tender,
too sacred, for the public gaze.
“ 4. Let the marriage contract embrace the contingency of issue, with full and
unequivocal provision therefor. If one child, let its custody devolve by written and
recorded agreement, void during coverture ; if two or more children, the same, or
division by such agreement, provided that the party refusing to renew the expired
contract, at the instance of the other party, or the offender in case of premature an
nulment, shall be compelled to maintain the offspring and be the custodian thereof,
at the option of the opposite party.
“ 5. Enact just laws for the determination of all such contingencies as might
arise under this new order of things : make them applicable only to those now un
married ; let there be no ex post facto taint about the matter. During coverture,
us also in the event of non-renewal of the contract., let each party control its own
finances ; of that they shall have together amassed, let there be an equal division.”
The complex marriage: ‘ this is what obtains at. present, in the
Oneida Community, and is simply organized free love. Wives and
w
�TEE
FUTURE
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83
husbands are alike common. To make this relation practicable, as
may be well understood, the very strongest social and religious influ
ence must be brought to bear, as the tendency would naturally be toward
pure- license, and a riot of the passions, with no care or even thought
of offspring. It could never be even tried except in a community
dominated by a strong will, or a stringent public opinion based upon a
definite social and religious creed. The complex marriage involves : A
non-recognition of preference between two persons of opposite sex, ex
cept for the time being. As a consequence, “ sweet love is slain,”—that
is to say, the romantic and sentimental side of that passion, which
invariably involves a conception of absolute possession as well as con
tinuance and perpetuity, is sternly reprohibited and stamped out. Love
in any of its so-called higher phases, involves exclusive possession of
the loved object, and this brings in jealousy, a feeling which'cannot be
tolerated in a community where all the men and women are common.
This necessary crucifixion of the sentimental side of love leaves merely
the animal passion to be gratified, and replaces the sense of personal
attachment by a conception of womanhood very different from that
which now obtains.
The Oneida Communists have practiced this complex marriage for
some twenty years. It is the most novel experiment in the relations of
the sexes ever tried, and deserves the most serious study from the
sociologist. This community is also testing some of the problems of
stirpiculture, or the scientific propagation of human beings. It is
needless to point out the very great value of the data they are collect
ing upon this most important of all the mysteries connected with the
life of the race upon this planet.
Nor is it unreasonable to suppose that the current theories with
regard to scientific breeding will have their effect in giving us several
new variations of the sexual relation. One well known writer has
seriously proposed that married men who are conscious of their own
unfitness for paternity, should introduce men of superior strains of
blood to their marriage bed. “Why,” he asks, “should not a man
desire splendid children in his home as well as carefully cultivated
flowers in his garden, or superior animals on his farm ?” So far this
has been urged privately ; but I have no doubt the writer will, in a
short time, make his views public. It will seem a monstrous proposi
tion to ninety-nine persons in a hundred, but here and there a few
crotchety people may make the experiment. If public opinion would
permit, there are to-day hundreds of well-to-do women who would have
children by men they admire, but whom they cannot or would not marry.
There is still another form of the sexual relation suggested by
Madame Clémence Royer, whicfy has been described as follows :
“ Her mode of mobilizing the family is to abolish the family. Woman, she
says, needs and must always have a permanent abode. She cannot rove, as man can
and must do ; therefore let her be no longer tied to any man in particular, or any
�»4
THE FUTURE
OF MARRIAGE.
man to her. ‘We must then/ she says, ‘ mobilize the family, destroy its indissolu
bility. This is the only way of saving it from shipwreck ; it is only in reforming
courageously that we can prevent its falling into complete desuetude.’ So she pro
poses that the marriage-contract should be dissolved on the simple request of either
of the parties, and that there should be instituted a kind of marriage correspond
ing to the confa/rreatio of the Romans, sufficient to legitimize the woman’s position
and the birth of her children, but not binding on her or her husband longer than
he or she pleases. The woman being the more permanent person, Madame Royer
proposes that she, and not the father, should give her name to the children and be
the legal head of the family, the father being relegated to a secondary position, and
constituting in domestic life a kind of shadowy auxiliary, of no moral influence or
weight, and not necessarily known to his children ; and the mother taking as many
husbands in succession as her fancy or circumstances suggested; the result being
perfect happiness, purity, and freedom for all concerned, and an end, total and com
plete, to the quarrelings, falsehood, and oppression of the present system. The
scheme is worked out with much ability, and its bearings on property and other
social arrangements are fairly considered.”
This may seem very chimerical now, yet it but needs a place in
some religious or social scheme to have it tried almost any day.
There will be other variations of the marriage relation which it is
impossible to forecast now, but we may be sure that great diversity will
result from the individualistic theories which now obtain. The future
is in this respect anything but reassuring to the social philosopher and
philanthropist; it is easy enough to write calmly and in cold blood of
these possible experiments on the social relations, but they will all in
volve much human misery and some terrible heart tragedies.
For myself I have no faith in the permanence of the Individual Sov
ereignty conceptions of the relation of the sexes. It may endure for a
generation or two, but because it is individual it is necessarily anti-social,
and therefore unscientific. Whatever is purely egoistic and selfish is an
archical and self-destructive. Hence, while all these theories of marriage
will be worked out,—indeed it is indispensable to the real progress of the
race that they should all be tested by actual experiment,—they cannot
endure after their unsoundness as solutions of the great problem have
been demonstrated. For there is really a most notable problem to
solve. Our present marriage relation is not what it should be; it is a
makeshift, and must be scientifically reconstructed. The woes, disease,
miseries, divorces and murders which are incidental to the present sys
tem, or rather want of system, must give place to something which
will work out better results, especially in the way of offspring. What
that future relation may be it would be premature to point out now;
it is, however, certain it will not take the form of free love, but will be
an institution purer, more chaste, more self-denying, more altruistic
than any form of marriage which has yet been established among men.
Until the problem is solved all true reformers will watch and wait,
and conform in their own lives to the noble ideal of the monogamic mar
riage propounded by Auguste Comte—a marriage which admits of no
divorce for anyjsause, and which decrees eternal widowhood to the sur
viving partner.'
�1» T E AM
AS
A
FA CTOR.
86
CHAPTER II.
STEAM AS A FACTOR IN SOCIOLOGY.
The use of steam and its application to transportation are so mod
em, that we as yet scarcely realize what wonders it has accomplished,
much less the marvels it has in store for us. We know in a general
way of the conveniences of railway and steam travel; but thus far no
one has apprehended all the consequences which will result from this
rapid method of intercommunication. We know that one of the first
effects of railway traffic was to develop and enrich the centers of popu
lation. Cities grew at the expense of the rural districts. This has
been true of all parts of the world into which railroads have been intro
duced. Another effect has been the rapid equalization of prices. The
inability of agriculturists to market their crops economically at the
centers of population, led in the past to great differences in prices.
During the last century, and up to the first third of the present, it was
a matter of frequent occurrence for all but bankrupt families in En
gland, to retire to some rural district on the continent to recruit their
fortunes, being able in that way to live on one-quarter or one-fifth of
their expense at home. In theory it was supposed that the building
of railroads would reduce prices at the centers of population ; but such
does not seem to have been the case. The converse fact, however, is
true, that it has largely enhanced prices in the rural districts.
Wherever railroads have run, the prices of agricultural products have
increased and have been equalized with the prices which formerly ob
tained in the large centers and controlling markets of the world. In
this country it is not so long since the cost of living away from the
large cities was very small. It is within the experience of us all that
as means of communication were established, country living became
more and more costly. This equalization of prices is having a most
important effect upon accumulation of wealth, and the relation of the
city to the country. Our farming class are becoming enriched. The
comparative poverty which characterized the agricultural community in
the past, has given way in these more recent years to comfort and in
some cases to affluence. The labor of the agriculturist is better paid
and the enjoyments of civilized life have been extended to an enlarged
and constantly enlarging class of people. What effect this will have
upon the education, the intelligence and the refinement of the farming
community, it is needless here to dwell upon.
Curiously enough, while the first effect of railroads has been to
build up great centers of population, it has had and is having a dispersing
effect upon these same centers. For instance, New York and London
have grown enormously since the general use of railroads, but, as an
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offset to this packing of population, the railroad is coming in as a dis
persive agency also. It has added hundreds of square miles to the
available area of very large cities. The street railways, the dummies,
and the swarm of local steam railroads, which spring up to accommo
date the traffic between large cities and their suburbs, are having the
effect of scattering dense populations. Travelers in Europe may have
noticed that all the old cities, such as Edinburgh, Paris, Berlin, Vienna
and others, are notable for the extreme height of the houses, many of
them having from ten to fourteen stories. The reason for this packing
of population upon a small area of ground, was manifestly the impos
sibility of living at any great distance from the actual place of busi
ness. There was a limit to the spread of population with the growth
of business, and hence the people who could not be accommodated by
a lateral extension, remedied the difficulty by piling story upon story
of their houses. This is the secret of the “ Paris Flats,” so called,
which some of our unthinking architects have been trying to intro
duce into our American cities. The plea of necessity for either tene
ment houses or flats no longer exists ; all that is needed is the proper
extension of railroad facilities, the complete systematizing of trans
portation of local passengers; and the ground to be occupied is practi
cably illimitable. This is a matter of supreme importance to the resi
dents of large citiqs, and it is one which has as yet been almost entirely
overlooked. The remedy for the overcrowding of cities, is not the
erection of model lodging-houses or improved tenement-houses, or
“ Paris flats,” or any contrivance for packing people together in dense
masses. It is to be found in the extension of our railroad system, so
that every city business or working man may have his own home—his
own vine and apple-tree.
There is a larger view to take of the application of steam to rail
way and ocean navigation, which also has been hardly thought out,
and that is its effect upon the distribution of population. We have
seen that one of the most palpable effects of railway extension is the
equalization of the prices of produce ; and that further along in their
history, the equalizing of the wages of labor between city and country.
It will also be noticed that there is a dispersing as well as concentrating
action in the development of railroad traffic. Applying this conception
to the whole civilized world, we can readily see what changes may yet be
made in the distribution of population. History shows us how unequal
the distribution of population has been in all countries, in some deiise,
in others very sparse, the cause always being the dearness and difficulty
of transportation between the densely populated parts of the earth’s sur
face and. the portions not populated at all. But steam navigation is just
beginning to change all this. Its cheapness and rapidity is bringing it
year by year more and more within the means of the poorer classes.
One of the most extraordinary phenomena of modern times is the
equalizing of populations by the emigration of vast numbers of people.
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Such voluntary-quovement of masses of men and women as have been
witnessed since the introduction of steam power for the purposes of
transportation, were never known or even dreamed of before. Travel
has increased a hundred, aye, a thousand fold. We are still in only the
beginning of these enormous movements of population from one part
of the earth’s surface to another. Indeed this mighty flux of nations is
to be one of the most conspicuous features of the travel of the future.
When the post-horse system had reached its perfection in England
at the beginning of the present century, it ia estimated that there were
never more than eighty thousand persons per day traveling at any one
time. It is now estimated that in England alone, the railroads are
patronized by nearly one million persons per day. We have no figures
touching the rapid interchange of population by means of railroads in
this country, but from the general wealth of the community, and the
mental and bodily activity of the people, we know that the change
must have been far greater here, and it is not too much to say that five
hundred persons now travel by railway for every one person who trav
eled by stage-coach in the first years of the history of the Republic.
This easily generalized fact will show us that some of the problems of
modern society are to be solved by this ease of transit, in a way quite
unexpected to past writers upon political economy. Free travel will b$
found to be a mightier agency for elevating pauperized populations
than free trade. The common people of Ireland, of Germany, and of
England have begun to find out that there is an opening on other por
tions of the earth’s surface, and that there is no real necessity for them
to remain in their old homes, and starve, when they can go elsewhere
and live in abundance; and hence the armies, mightier than those com
manded by Timour, Genghis Khan or Attila, or led by Peter the Her
mit—armies not with weapons of war in their hands, but with instru
ments of labor, and willing and able to work, which are on the march
to attack the wild portions of the globe with the view of making them
the homes of civilized peoples. Hence the rush of population to our
Western Territories and the Pacific coast, the overflowing of New Zea
land, Australia, and the Islands of the Indian Ocean, and the rapid
extension of population even in South Africa. The streams, of emigra
tion from Southern Europe which have set in toward Brazil and other
parts of South America are indices of a mightier influx of population
in the future. The most portentous of these changes has already com
menced upon our Pacific coast. The Mongolians have discovered the
enormous riches of California, and are only waiting for proper facilities,
such as steam will yet afford, to overrun the whole of the Western
coast of the United States; and if not interrupted, millions of that
race will yet find their way into the Mississippi Valley, and even to the
North Atlantic coast.
*
This article was written in 1867.—Author.
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It is not so difficult, though the magnitude of the result may be
surprising, to forecast the effect of these changes of population upon
human conditions. All can be predicted with tolerable accuracy. The
agricultural poor of England are to-day the most debased of any class
in Europe—are the worst fed, worst used, and worst paid. This cheap
agricultural labor lies at the very basis of the aristocratic features of
English landed property, and of their whole tenant system Let the emi
gration fever once reach this lowest strata of English-Society—and it is
reaching it—and a heavy blow will have been dealt at the great tenant
farming interest of that country, and at the wealth of the large aristo
cratic landed establishments. A very small advance in the wages of
English agricultural laborers, will make the raising of wheat and of all
the cereals an unprofitable business in that country. It has already to
a great extent done so, and hence the attention which has been paid in
the last fifteen or twenty years to the growth and development of supe
rior cattle. But here again the equalizing tendencies of steam naviga
tion comes into play. While meat is extremely dear in England and
the west of Europe, owing to the density of the population and the
small amount of ground available for pasture, there are portions of the
earth’s surface where meat is worth scarcely anything. The problem is
¿o transport the meat from the place where it is very plenty to the
place where it is very scarce. Science is now at work upon the proper
method of preserving the meat; and it is believed that if this be not
as yet accomplished, it is on the very point of accomplishment. Steam
navigation will most certainly supply the necessary facilities for bring
ing the cheap meat and the dear meat countries into intimate relation;
and then another heavy blow will be dealt at the farming and aristo
cratic interests of Great Britain. Wages will be raised in that country
and food cheapened.
But the most important problem for us to solve in connection with
this coming flux of nations is, what shall we do with the millions of hea
thens willing to work for little more than a bare livelihood, who will be
swarming upon us from Eastern and Southern Asia ? What will become
of our working classes if this practically inexhaustible supply of laborers
be available for our industrial wants ? It is idle to talk of restrictive laws,
though they will undoubtedly be tried; indeed they have been tried.
The spirit of the age is all against this stoppage of emigration. We
may pile act of Congress upon act of Congress, and station war-ships
before every port in the Pacific, yet it would be impossible practically
to prevent this influx of Chinese and Hindoos upon our western coast.
Nothing will do it but the equalization of the prices of labor in Asia
and America. Undoubtedly there is trouble, a great deal of it, in the
future working of this question. We have already experienced some
of the effects of the influx of cheap labor from Europe ; but so far, our
mechanics have had such ready access to cheap lands, that the price of
labor has been upheld in the fact of a very large emigration. As the
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89
foreigners arrived and embarked in the various trades, the American
mechanics started for the West and secured homes of their own. But
this change of employment will soon reach its limit. It will not/ be
many years before all the public lands will be taken up, and then will
commence the enhancement of the price of all the lands of this coun
try. The solution of this labor problem, it will be found, is not a local
matter; it is not confined to any one country, and no one nation will
be able to pass laws or create any conditions by which its own poor
will be well used, well fed and properly educated, without also taking into
consideration the feeding and educating of all peoples upon the globe.
The trades-unions in England, despite of all that has been said against
them, have really had the effect of raising the rate of wages in that
country, but in all those occupations in which the unionists succeeded
in banding together, they found that the chief obstacle in the way of
the success of their strikes and demands for higher wages, was the
ability of the English manufacturers to import laborers from France
and Belgium. This has, in a measure, been prevented by the English
workmen through the forming of labor-unions in Belgium and France,
and by having an understanding that there should be no competition
between the workmen of either of the three nations. This furnishes a
hint as to the solution of this labor problem. Steam is bringing about
that dream of the French socialists, the solidarity of the nations. The
working classes will find out that to permanently better their condi
tion, they must take into consideration, not only the workmen in their
own locality, but the laboring class of every other population under the
sun, and in time they will realize that, with the extremely rapid and
cheap system of transportation which is about to obtain all over the
world, there can be no very great differences of condition between the
laboring population of different countries; and this fact may yet bring
about that dream of the past:
“ Men, my brothers, men the workers, ever reaping something new ;
That which they have done but earnest of the things that they shall do.”
This rapid interchange of populations will also have other and far
wider effects. What becomes of local patriotism in the face of a chang
ing fluctuating population ? The farmers in the country and the
bouseholders in the city may have sentiments of local attachment, but
the great trading community, the traveling and working population
who have no stake in the soil—what will they care for one country
more than another ? What attachment will then exist to bind them
to any particular spot of earth ? Is it not reasonable to suppose that
the extension of this agent of modern civilization, steam, may tend to
increase the number of cosmopolitans, people who care more for the
whole earth than for any particular part of it, for the race at large
rather than any of its natural divisions ?
Then again as to government, do we not already see that the ex
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tension of the railroad has had most important effects in changing the
map of the world. The “ shrieks of locality ” are no longer heeded;
state lines have no longer the sacredness formerly attributed to them.
The history of modern governments is the history of the growth of
centralization. All efforts of late years towards rebellion or secession
have miserably failed. The South could not escape from the grasp of
the North. Hungary was beaten in her attempt to separate from
Austria. Ireland failed, entirely in her moral agitation to effect a repeal
of the act of union with Great Britain. Not so with efforts to consoli
date nations. Prussia to-day represents some forty smaller nationalities
that existed but a few short years ago. Italy is one nation where but
yesterday were six or seven. The United States Government keeps
adding steadily to its possessions; Russia encroaches upon Central Asia;
England extends her dominions in Southern Asia; and so as the means
of intercommunication multiply, the smaller become merged in the
larger nations. Contemporaneously with this enlargement of the
boundaries of great states, we find another curious and hitherto unsus
pected effect of the influence of modern steam travel, which is the
extension of suffrage to larger and still larger classes of the community.
There is no doubt whatever that this rapid flux of population is really
at the bottom of this equalizing of men’s position as regards the gov
ernment. In England, in America, in France, in Germany, in Italy,
in Spain—in every civilized nation, we see that greater and still greater
concessions are being made to the laboring population in the way of
political power. But strangely enough, and yet naturally enough, if
we regard it in the right light, with the extension of the voting privi
lege to the laboring classes we see a greater concentration of power in
the central authority. This follows naturally from the obliteration of
localities. All can see that New York State at large, through its legis
lature at Albany, takes the power away from New York City; that
Washington absorbs much of the power formerly centering in Albany.
Berlin to-day represents twenty small capitals of ten years ago. Paris,
in the van of civilization, has.long been the virtual head of all France.
The reason for this change is obvious. When the doctrine of States
rights in this country was preached in its early vigor, Washington was
in point of fact at a greater distance from the city of New York than it
is to-day from the city of Delhi. In point of actual time, it took
over two weeks to reach Maine from the capital, and a still greater
length of time to reach New Orleans. There could be no wise govern
ment of provinces which were so distant in point of time, where infor
mation to head-quarters took so long to go, and commands therefrom
so long to come. And this has been the real force of the argument in
favor of the exclusive government of localities by the people thereof;
but human conditions have changed marvelously within the last few
years, and distance in relation to time is practically annihilated by the
use of the telegraph, while space has been greatly abridged by the
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91
application of steam to transportation. The telegraphic wires have
become the real nerves of the human race. They communicate sensa
tion from all parts of the body politic, and in the fullness of time there
must be, as in the human organism, one great brain to which this sen
sation will be transmitted, and which must act intelligently for all
parts of the corporate body. I do not see how statesmen, political
economists, and philosophers generally can avoid realizing that the
mighty change in human conditions created by the use of steam will
change radically (indeed is changing radically) the relations of locali
ties to the central authority; and that while the equality of human
conditions brought about by steam and electricity has had the effect to
extend the right of the choice of rulers to wider circles of population,
and may yet include even women, it has taken more and more power
from localities, and concentrated it in the central governments. In no
part of the world to-day do we see any powers taken away from the
central governments; in every part of the world, with the extension of
suffrage we see more and more power added to the central authority.
In fact, when the active intelligent and effective part of the population
are rapidly moving from place to place, locality to locality, they are no
longer any better judges of the interests of that locality than are people
who permanently live at a distance. If in the future, therefore, an agi
tation in favor of local rights and State authority should prove feebler
than in past times in the history of our government, it can be readily
understood that this change is made by the agency of steam in effect
ing rapid intercommunication between all parts of the country.
To sum up, then, the effects of the application of steam to transpor
tation—
1. It has built up the centers of population at the expense of the
rural districts, thus stimulating the growth of large cities.
2. In its fullest development it will have a dispersive effect upon
large cities, and prevent overcrowding by rendering available larger
areas of country for business purposes. Cheap steam travel is the real
and certain cure for the tenement-house horror, and most of the evils
of overcrowding. One cheap, swift road, reaching out into the country
from the heart of a great city, is a greater beneficence to the poor than
could be conferred upon them by a generation of Peabodys.
3. Steam travel is equalizing the price of all commodities as well as
the wages of labor. So far the effect has been to enhance prices when
they were low; the reverse effect has rarely taken place; the leveling
has been up, not down. This is a fact upon which depends conse
quences most momentous to the future of the working classes the
world over.
4. Steam is giving an immense impetus to emigration, and is solv
ing the problem of over-population, or perhaps it would be more pre
cise to say, is making that problem one upon which the whole race
must sit in judgment rather than any one people. Like water, wages.
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prices, and population will find their level. The most momentous fact
of the immediate future will be the “flux of nations,” the emigration
of the laboring poor from places where land is dear to where it is
cheap, and from crowded communities to sparsely inhabited settle
ments.
5. This vast emigration will make the social future of the working
class a cosmopolitan question, and will in effect bring about that dream
of the continental socialists, the “ solidarity of the peoples.”
6. The railroad and telegraph, in helping to conquer time and
space, is bringing about the reign of a centralized democracy all over
the world. They tend on the one hand to extend the privilege of the
ballot to every grown human being, and on the other to center more
power in the general government. Localities are constantly getting to
be of less account.
Note.—The three chapters above given will form part of a book upon “ The
Future,” should I ever find time to write it. One other chapter, “ By 1900, What ? ”
was published in Appleton's Journal. In addition I have the rough drafts of about
a dozen other chapters, the contents of which may be judged by their titles, as
follows:
1. The Future of Language.
2. Synthetic Chemistry, and what it will Accomplish.
3. The Future of Money and Prices.
4. Will the Coming Man Sleep ?
5. Can Human Life be Prolonged, and How ?
6. The Food of the Future, and its probable effect upon the Structure of the
Human Body.
7. On the Equalization of the Temperature of the Globe.
8. The Probable Governments of the Future.
9. The Tendency of Educational Changes.
Of course the range of topics is endless, and none of them in the present state of
Sociological Science can be discussed with the intelligence they demand to be made
profitable as objects of serious study. The test of science, as Comte pointed out, is
prevision, and the foundations of a science of human affairs canndt be said to have
been begun until we are able speculatively to anticipate the future. Now all I can
do is to try and point out the tendency or drift of things. I may be mistaken on
every point, but of one thing I am sure—that those who follow me will succeed
where I have failed. All the value I claim for my speculations is the attempt to
deliberately foreeast the future. Now I firmly believe this not only can be done,
but some time or other it will be done.
D. G. C.
�THE SEXUAL QUESTION.
*
T is to the conspicuous disgrace of the medical profession, that so
far it has not supplied the public with any standard work upon
the intimate relations of the sexes. Of all the subjects relating to
the7 life of man upon this planet, there is no one of such prime
importance as the generative act between the sexes. So far it has prac
tically been regarded as a brute instinct, and an indecent shame has
prevented the wise, pure and good of both sexes from fully under
standing all about the act, as well as all the consequences it entails.
The curiosity with regard’to the sexual organs and their uses, not
withstanding this conventional, indelicate reticence, in every one con
scious of sex is necessarily very great, but it has to be gratified illegiti
mately. Mothers do not instruct their daughters, nor fathers their
sons touching this most important of all the relations of their life, not
only because of the sinful shame they feel in conversing upon such
topics with their children, but because of their own amazing ignorance
of the antecedents to and consequences of the act by which the race is
continued.
It may be broadly stated that there as yet has never been written
or published in any language one comprehensive and exhaustive work
upon the generative organs, their uses and abuses. Science has not
yet occupied that field: it has been left to quackery and empiricism.
The works appended are useful as an indication that some few
physicians at least, are becoming aware that these matters must be
discussed from a scientific standpoint, and that the knowledge in the
possession of the medical profession must be given to the public. The
real difficulty in the way, however, is the singular unacquaintance of
the profession with all that relates to the sociological side of this dis
cussion. Comte complained that in his day physicians were little
better than horse doctors when they came to regard man sexually.
They looked upon the male as an animal, and paid no attention to the
enormous modifications brought about by society, and the course of his
tory upon the human family. And this fruitful field is even yet left
unoccupied. Now that women are getting into the medical profession
there is reason to hope for some intelligent discussion of the sexual
question; for it is remarkable to note that the women are far less
squeamish than the men when this topic is broached in the press or on
I
* The Preventive Obstacle.—Dr. Bergeyet.
den&r. Common Sense.—Dr. Foote.
Conjugal Sin A—Dr. Garr-
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QUESTION.
the platform. All pure women feel what all artists and poets have ever
felt, that there is no sin or shame in any of the legitimate gratifications
of the sense of sex. And in considering this subject women seem to
realize more truly than men the social aspects of the case. These are
now up for comment and settlement, especially so far as they relate to
the means to be used in limiting the size of families.
The different methods in use to keep down population or prevent
an undesirable increase in families in times past, may be summed up as
follows:
1. The killing of infants after they are horn.—This is the most
ancient practice, and obtains to this day in the East and in exceptional
cases among the very poor in so-called civilized communities. The
Spartans made a wise use of this practice to rid themselves of mal
formed children, as well as those who should not have been generated.
2. Abortion—the killing of the foetus in the womb.—This is done to
a fearful extent in all " civilized ” communities. It is a worse practice
than infanticide, as it entails far more physical and moral evil. It
generally injures the physical system of the mother and prevents the
birth of desirable as well as undesirable offspring. Then, in spite of
all efforts, a number of half-killed children are born, and live to add to
the sum of human misery. Our laws tacitly recognize the right of
mothers to kill their unborn offspring. Throughout Christendom
there is not a law on any statute-book forbidding or punishing a
woman for killing the unborn fruit of her womb. It is only those who
make a business of committing abortion upon women who are dis
countenanced by law; but all enactments on this subject are practically
null. In New York city abortion is an open and lucrative profession,
as witness the advertisements in the papers and Mad. Restell’s splendid
mansion on Fifth Avenue.
3. Preventative measures.—George Sand is reputed to have said,
apropos of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception, that the great
concern in the life of a Parisian woman was not “ how to conceive
without sin, but how to sin without conceiving.” Omitting all notion
of sin in the matter, this is the problem nearly all married couples in
modern civilization are compelled to try and solve. How is it possible to
nave sexual intercourse without resulting offspring ? That this is done
in myriads of cases every one is aware, but can these various practices be
kept up without peril to health ? As yet medical science has given no
decisive or satisfactory answer; but what little the profession does say
is against all attempts to interfere with the propagative act. Bergeret,
Gardener, Mayer, as well as nearly all who have written on the subject,
assert that all preventative measures are hurtful, and that the increase
of uterine diseases among women is due to them. But it is evident
from the loose popular way in which these books are written, that as
yet this problem is without a scientific solution which is likely to be
generally accepted. By commo’h consent it is considered desirable that
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95
men and women should marry in order to satisfy the most intense and
exacting of all human passions; but at the same time the foremost
minds of the age insist upon the necessity of married people control
ling the number of their offspring. John Stuart Mill, who represents
the most advanced wing of the political economists, never tires of bear
ing testimony to the criminality of bringing more children into the
world than the family can well take care of, and the common sense of
the community supports this view.
We are agreed as to the'what, but how ? asks the married men and
women most interested.
Science has as yet no answer; the medical profession so far as it
has spoken says, “ absolute continence except when you are willing to
assume the responsibilities of paternity.” Here, then, is the dilemma.
All the best social influences conspire to induce people to marry; when
married, every consideration of prudence -and common sense prompt
them to try and control propagation; but the physicians say this cannot
be done without peril to health, except by complete abstention, some
times extending over years; for, according to Bergeret and his medical
confreres, no intercourse is allowable during pregnancy and lactation,
nor after the woman’s “turn of life.” Yet, every one knows that these
canons of conduct in the sexual relation are universally disregarded.
The Oneida communists profess to have solved this problem by
what they call “ male continence.” The sexes have intercourse, but the
male stops short of the emission of semen. But this is one of the
practices which Bergeret declares is destructive of health. Per contra,
the communists insist that they are not injured but benefited in health
by this peculiar custom, which has been in vogue among them for over
a score of years, and they point to their exemption from disease and
longevity as compared with their neighbors, as a proof of the truth of
their claim.
The simple truth is, the relations of the' sexes have not yet been
put under scientific co-ordination. Marriage and propagation are not
subject to the “ higher law.” Hence prostitution, celibacy, polygamy,
free love, disease, the gratification of mere brute instincts in marriage
and out of it, and, as a consequence, the social disturbance, the propa
gation of faulty human beings as well as the generation of hideous
diseases. The work to be done is to collect all the verified facts rela
ting to the intercourse of the sexes, and generalize the laws which con
trol them. When we have discovered those laws, all there is to do is to
obey them. In the preliminary discussions, what is needed is pure
thinking and plain speaking. The tawdry sentimentalizing which dis
tinguishes Dr. Gardener’s book, for instance, is extremely offensive.
Things must be called by their right names; but it must never be for
gotten that, as the sexual act involves the highest interests of society,
it must be lifted out of the slough of mere animality and discussed
from a religious point of view.
�96
UNIVERSOL OGY.
TEPHEN PEARL ANDREWS’S «Primary Synopsis of Universology,” embraces his scheme of a scientific universal lan
guage. • It is a condensation of another work, covering the
whole field of philosophy, as yet unpublished. I do not
propose to pass any verdict upon this preliminary work. Its author
makes a most tremendous claim. He alleges that he has discovered
the Science of Sciences—that he has supplied the connecting link
between the body of all human knowledges. In other words, he has
not only discovered a new Method, but the Method of Methods. If
this claim can be established, America has at length produced a philos
opher of the very highest type—a greater than Aristotle, Bacon, Des
cartes, Spinoza, or Comte. The audacity of Mr. Andrews’s claim can
not but challenge attention from the scientific world. It is quite safe
to predict that, whether his work has any value or not, it will be re
ceived with a storm of derision from all the old schools of thought.
The Modern Thinker, however, declines to pass a verdict until all the
testimony is in. Mr. Andrews is undoubtedly a man of unusual powers
of mind—he is an acute thinker, and has rare powers of persuasion
and exposition. We say this much because ordinary readers who take
up his book will be repelled by its terminology. Comte points out the
great value it would be to mankind if all phenomena could be referred
to some one law, such, for instance, as that of gravitation, but in the
same chaptei’ he denies that it is possible to formulate such a law.
Man is finite, and the universe is infinite, and therefore it is chimerical
to expect ever to discover the secret of the grand Unity, if indeed there
is a Unity. Now Mr. Andrews declares that what Comte pronounced
an eternally impossible feat he has accomplished. The very splendoi’
of the claim ought to command respect, at least; but I judge it will
not, and that for a long time to come he will have to submit to a good
deal of abuse and ridicule.
I am inclined to believe that Mr. Andrews has made a real discovery
in his universal language; at least, if he has not solved the problem
himself, he has pointed out how it may be done by some one else.
There are about sixty-four primary sounds in all languages. Every
one of these, Mr. Andrews alleges, is charged by nature with certain
meanings, which he prints in his new vocabulary. The instances Mr.
Andrews gives to prove his claim will carry a great deal of weight with
philologists who have made a study of phonetics. As there is a science
of harmony, which was not invented, but discovered, so, says our
author, there is a science of sound, expressing sense, which we must
find out by careful induction. When discovered, we will have the
Language of Man, which must, in time, be common to the whole planet.
It is possible that Mr. Andrews has been bedeviled by analogies; indeed
his universology is confessedly a science of analogies; but I believe he
has in this conception of a universal language hit upon something of
supreme importance to the race.—D. G.
S
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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What of the future
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Croly, David Goodman [1829-1889]
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Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [73]-96 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Croly was an American journalist. From 1870 to 1873, he published the journal Modern Thinker which served as a vehicle for the positivist and Spencerian positions of himself and a small circle of colleagues. Chapter headings: The Future of Marriage; Steam as a Factor of Sociology; The Sexual Question. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870.||(BND) Some uncut pages. Includes bibliographical references. Printed in red ink on cream paper.
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[American News Company]
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[1870]
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G5416
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Society
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (What of the future), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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English
Conway Tracts
Future Life
Industrialization
Marriage
Sexual Behavior
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LOVE-LIFE OF AUGUSTE COMTE.
BY JENNIE JUNE CKOLY.
T is said that no man is a hero to his wife or his valet de chambre;
and so inseparable, indeed, is some touch of weakness from poor
human nature, that we are rather apt to expect from the excep
tionally great in some respects, corresponding feebleness in
others, and charitably excuse, or else hold them up to the light, as the
excuse for our own shortcomings.
The private, or emotional life of Auguste Comte is but little known
in this country, and the impressions concerning it, derived mainly from
John ^tuart Mill, is , not’of a character to encourage strict investiga
tion. Even his disciples seem to consider his domestic relations as a
subject to be avoided, and the second part of his great life-work, the
“Politique Positive,” as more the result of the weakness of his heart
than the strength of his head.
* The aim of this brief and necessarily very imperfect sketch is sim
ply to state, facts, to show what justification existed for departure from
conventional standards, and who and what the remarkable woman was
whose brief acquaintance exercised so singular an influence upon the
mind of Comte, and inspired him with those ideas which form the
basis of his ultimate system.
Whatever the weakness or strength of its founder, there is little
doubt that the “ Religion of Humanity ” will live and continue to
attract, as heretofore, the respectful attention of the wisest and best
among us, and with its growth will spring up an interest in that epi
sode of the life of August Comte which unites his. name with that of
Clotilde de Vaux, and accepting her . as the representative of the noblest
attributes of humanity, will place her, toward its religion and its be
lievers, as Laura to Petrarch, as Beatrice to Dante,-as Heloise to Abe
lard, if not, with all reverence be it spoken, as the Virgin Mary to the
Christian Church.
“To-day,” Emerson says, “is king,” but we rarely recognize its
royalty. Laura and Beatrice may have been very ordinary persons to
their intimates, and it is possible that even Joseph saw nothing more
in his wife than many a man believes of the woman he loves. Yet who
would wish to lose the spiritual significance of the Virgin-Mother by
confronting it with the common-place fact of her daily life. Clotilde
T
�186
THE
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OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
de Vaux may have realized to no other person the remarkable qualities
with which Comte’s imagination invested her, but the evidence she has
left of high intellectual ability, united with singular purity and devo
tion, lifts her above the common-place, while, apart from any idealiza
tion by Comte, her personal history is clothed with a strange, sad, and
most romantic interest.
Born of a respectable but obscure family, beautiful, delicate, and
surrounded always by an air of touching sadness, which seemed a
prophecy of her future destiny, Madame de Vaux became early the wife
of a man who was subsequently convicted of a capital crime, impris
oned, and finally sent to the galleys, yet, by the laws of France, still
maintained his right and authority as her husband.
It was in this position that Comte met her.
Comte himself was born, as Robinet, his biographer, informs us, of
an admirable mother, Mme. Rosalie Boyer, a strict Catholic however,
who shared the monarchical tendencies of her husband. She is de
scribed as a woman of great heart, great character, and Comte ascribes
to her all his higher qualities. He admits also that it was through
Clotilde de Vaux that he learned to fully know and appreciate his
mother. His family were in moderate circumstances—his father being
cashier in the department of the Receiver-General. He was born in a
modest house, facing the church of Saint Eulalie, Montpellier; was
sent to school at the age of nine years, and was so precocious that at
ten he criticised with severity and judgment his teachers and their
methods of instruction.
In 1825, twenty years before he met Mme. de Vaux, he contracted a
marriage of convenience, which proved, as he afterwards declared, the
one “ serious ” fault of his life. His wife was a bookseller, an active,
capable woman of business, intelligent, but worldly, as most Parisian
women of the middle classes are, and utterly without sympathy in any
new systems of philosophy or their results. She was proud in her own
way of her husband’s ability, but wished it to be acknowledged by the
world, and she could not forgive in him the unconscious egotisms of a
powerful genius, or the loss of his material opportunities, by his obsti
nate adherence to unpopular opinions and principles.
For seventeen years they lived a life which must have been almost
unendurable to both, for Comte, released as he considered himself by
the greatness of his work from ordinary duties and obligations, was
probably one of the most exigent, exacting, and intolerable of hus
bands to a busy, ambitious, and practical wife, while she became to
him every day more an object of indifference, and even of dread.
Mahomet was happy in having for his first disciple his wife:
Madame Comte realized nothing but the obstinacy which deprived her
husband of honorable positions and material resources. She was quite
willing to assist in building up an honorable home, quite capable of
forming a sound, and even wise judgment on any of the ordinary affairs
�THE
LOVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
187
of every day; she had literary taste and talent of her own, but believed
thoroughly in putting them to practical use, in employing them to
achieve a recognized name, honor, position, money, and the good-will
of mankind, and she considered Comte’s splendid generalizations as the
chimeras of a distraught brain.
It was unfortunate for both that no children resulted from this illstarred union. The existence of these ties, and the knowledge, through
them, which they would have gained of each other, would undoubtedly
have softened their feelings, and contributed to a better mutual under
standing. But it was not to be. Day by day they drifted more and
more widely apart, until, upon April 5,1842, seventeen years after their
marriage, Mme. Comte left her husband never to return. 1
Although M. Comte had not at that time developed fully his social
theory, his natural instincts, heightened by the respect and veneration
with which his mother had always inspired him, would have compelled
him to endure to the end his self-imposed yoke, and forbidden any
sympathy with the anarchical ideas that were then becoming common
in France. The defection of his wife he accepted with the dignity
with which he had borne his matrimonial infelicity, and considered his
condition of domestic isolation as complete and final. His noble
nature, however, his truthful instincts, his affectionate disposition,
. made this severance of home ties very painful; he realized all the pos
sibilities of true marriage, all the difficulties resulting from a mistake
in this most important act of human life, and his pain was augmented
by the knowledge of the detrimental effect which his matrimonial
blunder would be likely to exert upon his public career. Believing
profoundly in the indissolubility of marriage, insisting with the whole
strength of his powerful intellect on the perfectness and perpetuity of
the marriage relation as the golden band which purifies and holds
society together, his own experience at once justified and illustrated
his theory in his own eyes, yet furnished to carping critics a choice
morsel of gossip, which they were undoubtedly willing to make the
most of.
“Behold the teacher!” “Who lives in glass houses should not
throw stones.” All this, and much more, must have made Comte feel
that a mistaken marriage was the most serious mistake of a man’s life,
and that the evils resulting from it must be borne by the individual,
not thrust upon society. Of course his situation, isolated and stigma
tized without direct act or fault of his own, enabled him more readily
to appreciate the peculiarity of the woman’s position whose name was
afterwards to be associated with his own—Madame Clotilde de Vaux.
His first meeting with this still young and gifted lady took place in
1845, three years after his wife had left him. It is admitted by all that
she possessed graces of person combined with remarkable purity, ten.derness, and dignity of character. The singular coincidence of their
position attracted them all the more powerfully toward each other,
�188
THE
L O \r E - L IFE
OF
AUGUSTE
COMTE.
and the admirable delicacy and consistency which had distinguished
her conduct in her peculiarly trying and unfortunate position, estab
lished at once a claim upon Auguste Comte’s sympathies.
Moreover, Madame de Vaux, notwithstanding that she possessed a
mind of the finest order, was as little, understood by her family circle
as Comte by the rest of the world—a fact which, united with Madame
de Vaux’s convictions in regard to the moral nature and duties of
women, so different from those of her best-known contemporaries, but
•in exact accordance with Comte’s predilections, created a new bond be
tween them. Under th^se circumstances, it is not surprising that,
Clotilde de Vaux became to Comte a revelation of the power, purity,
genius, and suffering of woman, or that, having worked out his theory
of Divine Humanity, he should recognize its highest development in
her noble, self-sacrificing life.
It is a fact worthy of particular remark that, notwithstanding the
exceptional nature of their mutual positions, no breath of suspicion,
even in France, ever attached to their relationship. Slander itself was
dumb before the purity of her character, the modesty, and dignity of
her life. Her intercourse with Comte was wholly that of master and
pupil; and although he fully acknowledges that to her he was indebted
for his entire knowledge and education of the heart, yet this was un
conscious on her part, and she hardly realized that the chivalrous and
reverential nature of his sentiments toward her, and all women, owed
their development and expression mainly to herself.
But with the real claims of Madame de Vaux to the moral and in
tellectual height to which Comte elevated her, we have little to do. To
Comte she gave the key to one half, and the diviner half, of the human
race, and became at once the motive and the inspiration to that part of
his work which had been left incomplete. His discovery of sociology,
of a new philosophy of life based upon the laws of exact science, placed
him upon a level with Aristotle and Bacon; his realization of the per
fectness of moral quality, through Clotilde de Vaux, of its high uses,
unfolded to him a new religion, a religion of Man, or Humanity, which
can only be expressed by the homage paid to the moral qualities as em
bodied in their acknowledged representative, Woman. What individ
uals, Laura, Clotilde, or Beatrice, were in themselves, matters, we re
peat it, very little. It is enough that they stand as the types of Woman,
as the ideals of Mother, Daughter, Wife, Sister, Friend, or all of these
—as the embodiment of the sentiments and qualities which men most
venerate and admire, and which act upon them as the strongest incen
tive to worthy deeds.
In the preface to his Positive Catechism, which consists bf a series
of imaginary questions and answers between himself and adopted
daughter, which relation he had intended to legalize with Madame de
Vaux, if she had lived. Comte says, in reference to her—
“Through her I have at length become for Humanity, in the strict
I
�THE LOYK-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
IS 9
est sense, a twofold organ, as may any one who has reaped the full
advantages of woman’s influence. My career had been that of Aris
totle, I should have wanted energy for that of St. Paul, but for her. I
had extracted sound philosophy from real science ;»I was enabled by
her to found on the basis of that philosophy the universal religion.”
If Clotilde de Vaux had left no other evidence than Comte’s com
memoration of her worthiness, she would still stand in the niche of the
Temple of Humanity as its first high-priestess—as the eternal mother
of that ideal Woman whose image is enshrined in all good men’s
hearts, and is dimly realized in the goodness, purity, and self-sacrific
ing love of some every-day sister, wife, or mother.
But young as Madame de Vaux was at the time of her death, un
fortunately suppressed as the most important work of her life was by
the interference of relatives, she still left enough behind to show that
she was a woman true to all a woman’s best instincts, to all a man’s
' noblest ideals of Womanhood. Like Comte, her nature remained unwarped by the sad issue of her own conjugal relations. Her little
work, “ Lucie,” written altogether from her own inspiration, and before
her acquaintance with Comte, reveals at once a charming tenderness,
allied with real strength. Individual unhappiness did not lead her, as
it would a weaker nature, to denounce marriage, or seek in license the
remedy for social ills. On the contrary, in this work she idealizes mar
riage, accepts motherhood as the natural function of the mass of
women, anticipates Comte’s theory of protection for women, and de
mands governmental institutions for the aid and guardianship of un
protected women. Moreover, her advocacy of a true home-life for
women had more force in France than in this country, because there
the doctrine of individualism in marriage had been to a certain extent
conceded, and the relationship already assumed a business aspect
almost unknown here. The women of the middle classes, it is well
known, nearly control the retail trade of Paris, and their mercantile
activity and preoccupation undoubtedly prevents the realization of the
comfort and domesticity which belongs to the English acceptation of
the word home ; and while it has developed shrewdness and business
tact, certainly detracts somewhat from the reserve and delicacy which
naturally belongs to women.
In Comte’s theory of marriage, individual rights are not allowed a
place. The institution he considered necessary to the happiness of in
dividuals and the well-being of society, but the former he subordinates
to the latter, and he exacts from all men and women who take upon
themselves the obligations of marriage, a stern fulfilment of its re
quirements. He quotes with great approval the remarks of Madame
de Vaux, that “great natures will not involve others in their own sor
rows and difficulties,” and insists that the mistake of an individual
should be confined as much as possible to him or herself, and not hung
as a load upon the back of society.
�190
THE
LOVE-LIFE
OF
AUGUSTE
COMTE.
It is for its singular truth, purity, and integrity, that Madame
Clotilde de Vaux’s contribution to the literature of her day deserves
preservation, and for this reason we reproduce it here. Her clear mind
was alike uninfluenced by custom or the sophistical ideas of anarchists
and so-called reformers. She did not give to woman all the scope that
she must claim for herself while she possesses ability, but she fully
recognized the fact that the home is the woman’s rightful domain, that
the employment of her strength, talent and energies in other directions,
and especially as a means of livelihood, should be exceptional; that
the woman cannot be the mother and also the provider, and that no
woman ever tries to fill the two positions without feeling that she is
constantly sacrificing the greater to the less.
A presentation of a theory of marriage which recognizes its full
value, its sacredness, and its indissolubility, seems particularly desir
able just now, and in this country, where individualism is making it
self strongly felt, and social evils are seeking a remedy in the easy dis
ruption of the marriage bond. The position which Comte assigns to
Woman is clearly stated in the following extract from the general View
of Positivism :
“ The social mission of Woman, in the Positive system, follows as a
natural consequence from the qualities peculiar to her nature. In
the most essential attribute of the human race, the tendency to place
social above personal feeling, she is undoubtedly superior to man.
Morally, therefore, and apart from all material considerations, she
merits always our loving veneration, as the purest and simplest im
personation of Humanity who can never be adequately represented in
any masculine form. But these qualities do not involve the possession
of political power, which is sometimes claimed for women, with or
without their own consent. In that which is the great object of life
they are superior to men, but in the various means of obtaining that
object they are undoubtedly inferior. In all kinds of force, whether
physical, intellectual, or practical, it is certain than Man surpasses
Woman in accordance with a general law which prevails throughout
the animal kingdom. Now, practical life is necessarily governed by
force rather than by affection, because it requires unremitting and
laborious activity. If there were nothing else to do but to love, as in
the Christian Utopia of a future life in which there are no material
wants, Woman would be supreme. But life is surrounded with diffi
culties, which it needs all our thoughts and energies to avoid; therefore
Man takes the command notwithstanding his inferiority in goodness.
Success in all great efforts depends more upon energy and talent than
upon moral excellence, although this condition reacts strongly upon the
others. Thus the three elements of our moral constitution do not act
in perfect harmony. Force is naturally supreme, and all that women
can do is to modify it by affection. Justly conscious of their superior
ity in strength of feeling, they endeavor to assert their influence in a
�THE
LOPE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
191
way which is often attributed by superficial observers to the mere love
of power. But experience always teaches them that in a world where
the simplest necessaries of life are scarce and difficult to procure, power
must belong to the strongest, though the latter may deserve it best.
With all their efforts, they never can do more than modify the harsh
ness with which men exercise their authority. And' men submit more
readily to this modifying influence from feeling that in the highest at
tributes of humanity women are their superiors. They see that their
own supremacy is due principally to the material necessities of life,
provision for which calls into play the self-regarding rather than the
social instincts; hence we find it the case in every phase of human so
ciety, that women’s life is essentially domestic, public life being prin
cipally confined to men. Civilization, so far from effacing this natural
distinction, tends, as I shall afterwards show, to develop it, while rem
edying its abuses.”
The following “ Complement of the Dedication ” to Mad. Clotilde
de Vaux is from the pen of Auguste Comte, and will be found in his
last great work. It is followed by her novelette of “ Lucie ” and her
poem, “ Thoughts of the Flowers,” which Comte repeated every morn
ing for the nine years preceding his death.
COMPLEMENT OF THE DEDICATION.
Paris, 12th Dante, 62.
Saturday, July 27th, 1850.
In order to complete this exceptional dedication, I think I should add to it the
only composition published by my sacred colleague. This touching novel, of which
the principal situation essentially characterizes the conjugal destiny of the unhappy
Clotilde, was inserted in the columns of the “National ” on the 20th and 21st of
June, 1845. In reproducing it here, I hope to furnish competent judges with a
direct proof of the exalted nature, intellectual and moral, of the unknown angel
who presides over my second life.
Following this characteristic production, I publish my unedited letter on the
social commemoration, which would have appeared with “ Lucie,” but for the ma
levolence of a well-known journalist, who has proved himself unworthy of confi
dence. This little composition offers a certain historical interest to all those who
understand the Religion of Humanity. They -will see in it the first direct and dis
tinct germs of an immense moral and social synthesis, spontaneously arrived at
through a pure, private effusion. My normal reaction of the heart, on the mind,
was thus manifested several years before I had constructed its definitive theory.
I end this natural complement of my dedication with an unedited canzone, that
Madame de Vaux wished to place in her “ Willelmine,” although she had composed
it in 1843. These graceful strophes, of which Petrarch could have perhaps envied
the sweetness, can indicate the facility and the versatility of a talent worthy of the
highest commendation. The poetical tendency of this exalted soul showed itself
involuntarily, in her most trifling inspirations. IKwould be, for example, suffi
ciently characterized by this melancholy inscription, secretly written at the age of
twenty-two, in an old “ Journal of a Christian,” which I preserve religiously.
“ Precious souvenir of my youth, companion and guide of the holy hours which
have lived for me, and which always recall to my heart the ceremonies, grand and
sweet, of the convent chapel.”
�192
THE
LOVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
’‘LUCIE.”
A Novelette, by Clotilde De Vaux.
A few years since, the little town of----- was stupefied by the commission of a
crime complicated with extraordinary circumstances.
A young man, belonging to a distinguished family, had disappeared under a
terrible suspicion. He was accused of having assassinated a banker, his partner,
and stolen from him a considerable amount of valuables. This double crime was
attributed to the fatal passion for gaming. The culprit abandoned, after a few
months of marriage, a young wife endowed with great beauty and the most emi
nent qualities. An orphan, she remained, at twenty years of age, condemned to
isolation, misery, and a position without hope.
The laws granted her spontaneously the separation of person and wealth ; that
is to say, of all that which she had already lost. Her husband’s family lent her a
shelter and a pair of shoes. Rich men who admired her, added to her anguish of
heart insulting offers of protection as disgraceful as they were humiliating.
She was, happily, one of those noble women who accept misfortune more easily
than disgrace. Her clear mind fully unveiled to her the position she was in ; she
comprehended that she owed to her beauty the interest she excited in men ; she
foresaw the dangers that professions of sympathy hide, and wished to draw from
herself alone all mitigation of her fate. This courageous resolution having been
taken, the young wife thought only of executing it. Possessing a remarkable talent,
she proceeded to Paris to make use of it. After several trials, she was admitted as
a teacher into the house of the Abbaye-awe-Bois, where she found an honorable
asylum.
During this time, justice took its course ; active steps sought everywhere for
traces of the fugitive. Already the irritated creditors had divided the property of
the unhappy wife, whose clothing and jewels, even to the little treasures of her
girlhood, had been sold at auction. The interest she inspired was so great, that
strangers voluntarily redeemed these pledges and returned them to her.
One young girl purchased a medallion which contained her portrait, and wore
it like that of her patron saint, and the priest of the place bought her weddingdress to decorate the altar of the Virgin.
These details sensibly affected the unfortunate one. A noble pride became
joined in her heart to a profound sensibility: she felt herself sustained by these
proofs of interest that reached her from so many sources. Filled with terror at the
remembrance of her first love, she considered her chain as a barrier that she had
voluntarily placed between herself and men. The horror and peril of her position
thus escaped her mind, and she accepted without a complaint the unjust decree of
the laws.
An indestructible sentiment, a sweet and holy friendship of childhood, at first
saved this noble heart from the bitter griefs of solitude. Philosophy, so pitiful and
so arid in egotistical souls, developed its magnificent proportions in that of the
young woman. Poor, she found the means of doing good : if she rarely went into
the churches, where frivolity sits side by side with sanctity, she was often met in
the garrets of the poor, where, misfortune hides itself like shame.
Two years slipped by without any event transpiring to change this strange and
unhappy position. Time, which can only increase great sorrows, had impaired,
little by little, the admirable organization of the orphan. To her heroic courage,
to her persevering efforts to tread'the rough path marked out for her, there suc
ceeded a profound dejection. Thirteen letters which have fallen into my hands
paint better than I can the griefs of the weary heart. I ask permission to reproduce
them, and thus finish this history.
�TSE
L OVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
193
FIRST LETTER.
LUCIE TO MADAM M.
I write to thee from Malzéville, where I intend to pass several months, my
beloved. My lungs had need of country air, and country milk ; and our worthy
friends have seized this pretext to invite me to share their pleasant solitude. How
much I love these excellent people ! May I not resemble them, or at least allow
my heart to share in the peace which reigns in the depths of theirs ? Meanwhile I
feel better here : nothing is so healthy as the sight of beautiful nature, and of this
laborious and uniform life which forces the mind to rule itself.
The General awaits the near arrival of his neighbor, who is reputed the bene
factor of all this little region. He is a young man of twenty-six, the possessor of a
handsome fortune, and a sincere disciple of liberal ideas. He has with him his
mother, whom he adores, and of whom they tell a great deal of good.
Thou dost advise me to cultivate flowers so as to wean me from music and
reading. Alas 1 my beloved, are not these the only pleasures that remain to me ?
When I have paid my feeble tribute to friendship, when I have read to the General
some passages in his memoirs, when we have together evoked great and sacred
recollections, or when I have shared with my friend her little domestic cares, I
resign myself to tins absorbing faculty of thinking and feeling, which has become
the resource of my existence ; and yet, no woman loves a peaceful and simple life
more than I. What brilliant pleasures would I not have sacrificed with joy to the
duties and happiness of the family circle ! What successes would not have appeared
silly compared with the caresses of my children ! 0. my friend, maternity, that is
the sentiment whose phantom rises so strong and so impetuous in my heart. This
love, which survives all others, is it not given to woman to purify and mitigate her
her sorrows ?
SECOND LETTER.
MAURICE TO
BOGER.
Roger, I have at last seen this woman, so grand, and so unhappy, of whom thou
didst speak to me with pride. Do not say that “ the die is cast,” if I avow to thee
the deep impression that I have felt at the sight of this young and beautiful martyr
to social injustice. The touching virtues of Lucie, her mind, her unconscious atti
tudes, everything about her bears forever the imprint of a profound grief. One
feels, in seeing her, that she will have need of generosity in order to love. How
ever, is she not free in all honor and reason ? By what astonishing lack of .fore
sight in the laws, may the pure and respected woman find herself chained by
society to the branded being whom it casts from its bosom ?
What do we call civil death ? Is it a phantom ? To what end does society
bind a wife to a man who can no longer give birth but to outcasts ? By what right
does it impose isolation and celibacy on one of its members ? From what motive
does it force a living death, or irregularities which it condemns ?
But I speak as if before judges. Roger, my blood is ready to boil when I see
how the apathy of men produces and seems to sanction misfortune and oppression.
I have just had a belvedere built in sight of Malzéville ; from there, with a tele
scope, I see the whole of thé General’s pretty house. Yesterday, I perceived Lucie,
who was seated on the edge of a small stream of water; her attitude was dejected.
Shall I say it to thee, her looks seemed to me to be often directed toward the south.
Alas ! in seeing her so graceful and so broken, I asked myself with disgust the
secret of certain influences over our hearts. Why do we see vulgar women fasci
nate superior intellects and become the objects of a true worship? How does it
happen that the generosity and nobleness of certain women are seen so often in the
�194
THE
LOVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
power Ol selfishness and grossness? We must give up the explanation of this
enigma.
As thou dost wish a new description of Oneil, I shall tell you, my dear Roger,
that, I have made of it one of the prettiest places in the department. They described
to me lately a recent dispute on my account between the inhabitants of the neigh
boring corporation and an old, decayed gentleman. They excited themselves with
nothing less than a discussion as to whether they owed the title of Chateau to Oneil,
and the first piece of consecrated bread to its proprietor. I have settled the ques
tion by not going to mass, and by calling the whole country my valley.
THIRD LETTER.
MAURICE TO
ROGER.
Never, Roger, never will another woman excite in me the powerful and elevated
sentiments with which the mere sight of Lucie inspires me. Friend, thou hast
spoken truth ; it is in vain that the laws, opinion, and the world raise their triple
barrier between us ; love will reunite us, I feel it. Who knows better than thou
the needs of my heart and its insurmountable repugnance to vulgar joys ? Alas !
before meeting Lucie, I have often felt that it is dangerous to refine its sensations.
A little while ago my mother made her visit to Malzeville. I was curious, I
avow it to thee, to know the impression Lucie would produce upon her. On arriving
before the grating of the little park, we saw her grafting a rose-tree. She was
dressed in white ; a large garden-hat carelessly covered her head, a simple green
ribbon defined her small and elegant waist. One would say, on seeing her, the
sweetest ideal of Galatia.
I was surprised to perceive no emotion on my mother’s face, she. ordinarily so
kind, and who finds so much pleasure in admiring ; she was dignified and cold during
our visit; the words duty and honor found a place in all her phrases. For the first
time I had a glimpse of what is bitter and implacable in feminine rivalries. Guided
by the delicate tact, that the habit of suffering gives, Lucie withdrew before we did,
under some slight pretext. Would that I had dared to follow her, and throw my
self at her feet to protest against my mother’s words.
Roger, this moment settles my fate forever ! I comprehend that it is my duty
to snatch this sweet victim from misfortune. Perish the chimeras that rise up
between us ! I feel myself strong against the false faith of opinion and the blame
of the envious ; may I also be so against the self-abnegation and grandeur of Lucie 1
FOURTH LETTER.
MAURICE
TO ROGER
One could willingly curse civilization and enlightenment, when one sees the
small number of just minds and upright hearts that there are in the world. I could
not tell thee how many pitiful and odious insinuations I have to submit to every
day on Lucie’s account. But, what is not the least shocking, all the honor rests
with these corrupters of morality who stand proudly on their small proprieties as
on a rock of impregnable virtue. It seems, in truth, that success only accompanies
hypocrisy and deceit.
I have just had a painful conversation with my mother, which has only more
strongly confirmed my loyalty and devotion. The latter is a magnificent virtue : it
lives, however, much more willingly on enjoyments than on sacrifices. I have
lately met in the world the young Countess of -------- , whose husband is in the
galleys. She was twenty-four years of age when this fatality overtook her; she
was remarkably pretty and amiable. The worthy L-------- fell in love with her,
and they are united. Well! she told me that what she has had to suffer from her
�TH£
LOVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
195
own family is incalculable. When I expressed to her my astonishment, seeing
their advanced ideas in everything, she answered me, “ Are you still in your cate
chism in regard to men ? They authorize me to be an atheist, but not to do with
out the sacraments.”
So it is, my worthy Roger, that this admirable humanity is not yet well rid of
its debt toward the monkeys, from whom several doctors insist that it is directly
descended.
FIFTH LETTER.
MAURICE TO LUCIE.
What have you done, Lucie ? What fatal thought have you obeyed in remov
ing yourself from me ? Alas! it is in vain that I seek to justify your silence; it
weighs on my heart like an icy burden. And meanwhile, only yesterday you made
me cherish my life. Your soul seemed to open itself to hope. When a trifling
danger menaced me on the border of the lake, you came to my assistance without
appearing to fear the presence of those around us. How beautiful you were at that
instant, and how womanly in your devotion ! Have you not read in every glance
the enthusiasm of which you were the object? 0 Lucie, when it was only neces
sary, perhaps, for you to show yourself as you are to soften my mother’s heart, by
what inconceivable misfortune do we find ourselves separated ? But perhaps you
are not the angelic woman that I thought I had discovered; perhaps a generous
love is beyond your powers ? Perhaps !—But of what use are these doubts ? You
alone can restore the peace that you have taken away ; I await a line from you, a
word that may teach me what are your future plans. Think of it! I will not
answer for myself if you continue to overwhelm me with your silence. Manuel is
going post-haste to Paris : in ten hours I may have your reply.
SIXTH LETTER.
MAURICE TO ROGER.
Must it then be so ? Roger, to have been acquainted with her, to know that
which contains this exalted heart, this delicate mind, and perhaps, in a few hours,
to have to deplore her loss! May my misery fall again on those who caused it!
Alas! when 1 accused her with what I have suffered, she was struck down with the
violence of her struggles and her love. I wander like a fool around the General’s
house, interrogating his people unceasingly, and receiving from them only vague
and unsatisfactory answers. Happily, the physician is ignorant of who I am, and
three times a day he forces the truth on my heart. I have this moment quitted
him ; he looked so sad, he seemed so overwhelmed that I conjured him not to hide
the worst from me. He assured me that she still exists ; but he expects a terrible
and inevitable crisis.
P.S.-jShe is saved! One should love as I love to comprehend the magic of
such news. I threw myself at the feet of the physician ; I asked him for his
friendship. In vain he preserved a serious manner; I felt ready to perform any
folly in his presence. He is a distinguished man ; he spoke of Lucie with an enthu
siasm almost equal to my own. But, one thing struck me: he observed me often
with thoughtfulness, and seemed ready to confide a secret to me. I have vainly
endeavored several times to make him speak his mind. He always ends our con
versations about Lucie with this phrase : Society is very culpable.
I have often remarked that prudence is the vice of men in this profession, whose
profound knowledge renders so capable of assisting the social movement. What
important modifications could be produced in the laws by the sole authority of cer
tain scientific facts which remain eternally hidden from the vulgar ! I wish that a
great physician would publish his memoirs ; it would be, in my opinion, a very
useful book to humanity.
�196
THE LOVE-LIFE OF
AUGUSTE
COMTE
SEVENTH LETTER.
MAURICE TO ROGER.
x
Friend, I have seen her again ! Alas ! one dares not think that she still belongs
to earth, so much is her beauty invested with an ideal and celestial character. She
has consented to take her first walk leaning on my arm, and I was astonished at.
the simplicity with which she described to me her sufferings. If I do not deceive
myself, a gleam of hope has crept into her heart; but I have not been able to
explain to myself the meaning of several of her words. As we rested in the shade,
of a little ruined chapel, a villager’s wedding party passed before us. There was
so much happiness and freedom from care on their open countenances, that I could
not suppress a bitter reflection in comparing our destinies. Lucie trembled as she
heard me.
“ 0, my friend I” she exclaimed, “ they are happy ; but it is because their good
fortune neither afflicts nor offends any one.”
I looked at her with surprise ; her face was slightly flushed; she placed my
hand on her heart; then she resumed in a voice serious and moved : “ Maurice, it
is in vain that our misfortune forees us to set ourselves against society ; its institu
tions are great and venerable as the work of ages ; it is unworthy of great natures
to inflict upon others the sorrows that they feel.”
I would have answered her, but she made me a sign with her hand to indicate
that she felt very feeble. It began to grow late. The worthy doctor, who was
already anxious at not seeing Lucie return, came to meet us, and he assisted me in
supporting her as far as the entrance to the park of Malzeville, where it was neces
sary for us to separate.
Roger, all the obstacles that surround me frighten me less than Lucie’s natural
greatness. It is not to false prejudices, I feel it, that such a woman has been able
thus far to immolate the sweetest desires of her heart
EIGHTH LETTER.
LUCIE TO MADAM M.
My Cherished Friend:—Hope has overtaken me on my return to health; Maurice
consents to raise his powerful voice in a protest against the terrible abuse that
separates us. His mother has pressed me to her heart; I shall never forget the
delicious sensations that were mingled at that moment with the bitterness of my
recollections.
O my beloved 1 the love of a pure and good man is a sentiment full of power.
How much do I need courage and strength to resist it! But Maurice’s interests
and honor are dearer to me than my own happiness can be ; and I am also sustained
by the pride of seeing him attempt a noble enterprise ; for it seems to me, that in
it I also shall have accomplished something for humanity.
It was only yesterday that our fate was decided. We had spent the evening
with the worthy physician, whose sentiments are at the same time so gentle and
so elevated. Hardly had we left him, when Maurice impetuously seized my hand ;
and, pressing it to his heart, he swore to protect me in spite of the world, and no
longer permit me to forsake him. I collected my strength to struggle against
these sweet yet terrible emotions. I represented to him that duty commanded him
to endeavor to free me from my bonds, in claiming a wise and just law. I employed
to affect him the arguments which have the most influence on his great heart. I
described with ardor the advantages that society would receive from this courageous
attempt. For him, it was not difficult to interest him in the fate of those beings,
young, feeble, and defenceless, whom an odious bond consigns to despair. He
agreed that the injurious effects of the laws result mainly from the apathy of men,
and that it is always honorable and useful to struggle against oppression.
�THE LOVE-LIFE
OF AUGUSTE
COMTE.
197
We considered then our position from all points of view. Maurice agreed that
a tie like that which he was advising me to contract would suffice for happiness,
and that he would renounce, without the least regret, a world which sacrifices true
happiness to prejudices arrogantly adorned with the title of propriety. I confessed
to him that I did not feel myself high enough or low enough to brave opinion, and
that it would be sweet to me to be able to surround our love with the respect of
honest families.
He gently combated my ideas ; but the thought of his mother was joined in his
heart with all the elevated sentiments that belong to him. He finished by prom
ising me to address a petition to the Chamber of Deputies, and to await patiently
the result.
I threw myself at the feet of this man so dear, shedding tears of gratitude and
love. The efforts that I had made to control myself had so exhausted my strength
that it seemed to me that life was going to abandon me. I never felt its value so
much as at that moment.
O, my friend I thou who dost live calm and happy with the man of thy choice,
thou wilt comprehend all that passes in my heart. Thou knowest if I share the
ridicule poured upon those women who wish to be deputies, or who ride on horse
back to demonstrate that they could be at need excellent colonels of dragoons. But
thou knowest that I feel sensibly oppression where it is real. It is in striking a
blow at the true and modest happiness of woman, that the laws force her out of her
sphere, and make her at times forget her sublime destiny. Henrietta, what pleas
ures can exceed those of devotion ? To surround with comfort the man whom we
love, to be good and simple in the family, worthy and self-forgetting outside of it,
is not this our sweetest office and the one which suits us best ? It seems to me
that from the family circle radiates communities and the world, and is it not woman
who is the inspiration of them ?
NINTH LETTER.
MAUBICE TO
ROGER.
. A new grief has just burst upon her ; the monster who chains her to himself
lias been arrested on the frontier and conducted to the galleys at Toulon, where he
goes to suffer his penalty.
This event, which gives such great force to our demands, seems meanwhile to
have weakened Lucie’s courage. This heart so tender has fainted with terror
before the horrible denotement with which the laws associate her. The name that
she still bears echoes within her, loaded with infamy, and re-awakens all her
gloomy recollections. Her imperishable goodness has just added compassion to all
her wrongs. May her strength not be exhausted in this cruel struggle I No, I feel
it, laws cannot be voluntarily immoral and absurd. Evidence strikes men ; they
will break this odious bond which chains the purest being to a galley-slave.
Lucie will still suffer much ; but various circumstances have enlightened me on
all her sentiments, and I shall not sacrifice one of them to love. This noble woman
shall be a proud wife and mother, pure, true, and loving friend. The sacrifices that
she would valiantly accept for herself, she cannot bear the thought of bequeathing
to her children. May she find at last the reward of these sweet virtues ! I shall
rally my strength and my courage to subdue my impatience. 0 Roger! life has
hard trials. I send thee a copy of my petition to the Chamber.
“ Gentlemen Deputies :—There exists in the bosom of the. laws an abuse of
which the extent is frightful; permit me to signalize it by a striking example.
"A woman of twenty-two years, whose heart is pure and full of honor, finds
herself chained by marriage to a galley-slave. Fifteen years of imprisonment,
infamy, scorn, all that which separates virtue from vice, materially annuls this
odious bond.
�198
th/:
L(> rn-i.rPK
o f
augusth
comte.
" The man is civilly (lead; the woman, declared free by the tribunals, regains
possession of his fortune, which she already manages. All her rights are evident;
yet she must renounce the most precious of them, that of using the liberty of her
heart. By an inconceivable lack of foresight in the laws, this woman finds herself
" expelled from their protection, and placed by them between two abysses, misfor
tune and immorality. Which choice dare we assign her ? To adorn herself with
a barren heroism, shall she renounce love and motherhood, those beautiful and
noble rights of the wife ?
“ If isolation weighs like a sentence of death on her heart, and forces her to
contract a tie hostile to society, who will protect her against the evil testimony of
opinion, and against all the dangers attached to a false position ?
“ Between these two, there is a third, into which falls many oppressed and fee
ble natures—it is baseness.
“ Gentlemen deputies, I call your attention to this question of high morals, and
I solicit a law which establishes divorce for a single act of an infamous and criminal
character.”
TENTH LETTER.
MAURICE TO
ROGER.
Our hearts are calmer. Lucie seems happy in seeing me submissive to the laws
which govern society. May she reap the fruit of my patience !
Perhaps I have truly performed a duty. I have suffered so much for some time,
that I can no longer be a very good’judge on matters of wisdom. Abuses shock
me, and oppression inspires me with such horror that I would willingly flee before
it instead of contending with it. It may be that Lucie, in her heroism, is much
nearer than I to simple justice and morality. Few women unite as she does pene
tration and sensibility ; she is eminently loyal and spiritual. The better I under
stand this heart so tender, the more I feel that I could not too well repay her love.
How slowly each day brings the moment that unites us ! I love to surprise her
in the midst of the occupations which she invents for herself, while expecting me,,
she tells me. Yesterday I found her very busy copying a large boo’k of insignifi
cant music designed for schools. As I evinced my astonishment with much per
sistency, she ended by confessing that this work was one of her means of living. I
could not tell thee, Roger, the painful impression that this discovery made upon
me. The true duty of woman, is it not to surround man with the joys and affections
of the domestic hearth, and receive from him in exchange all the means of exist
ence that labor procures ? I would rather see the mother of a poor family washing
hei children s CiOthes, than see her earning a livelihood by her talents away from
home. I except, let it be understood, the eminent woman whose genius forces her
out of the family sphere. Such an one should find in society her free develop
ment ; for other minds are kindled by the exhibition of their powers.
I would not only that women might find in their fathers, their brothers, and
their husbands natural support; but that these supports failing them, they should
be sustained by governments. Institutions should be founded in which to unite
them and make use ot their various talents. There are many kinds of work that
can only be done by women. These labors could be performed in these establish
ments, where feeble and desolate women would at least be assured of a resource
against the wrongs which menace them in a struggle with the world without.
Our- towns would then have vast bazars where wealthy women would go to
choose their attire. We should no longer see poor girls attenuated by forced labor,
often obliged to walk all day to dispose of their work. These means, or others
analogous, would establish a slight proportion between the strength and the duties
of women, which are often so little in harmony.
�ELEVENTH LETTER.
MAURICE
TO ROGER.
Where to find a remnant of zeal in this weary, money-loving society ? Money !
that is the key to their dictionary, the word which we must absolutely grasp to
comprehend them.
I had confided to Count J--------our present position and my proceeding with
the Chamber. He thought he would benefit me by introducing me to several of the
men whom they call wise, no doubt because they have sacrificed the heart for the
good of the head. I did not believe that bluntness could go so far. The conversa
tion of these men resembled a veritable operation in stocks. It was a curious thing
to see their efforts to convert an unworldly person.
The obliging manner in which Count J----- — had introduced me to his circle
made me, in spite of myself, give my evidence. Forced to speak of my sentiments
and my opinions, I became at once the target for the whole assembly. They
defeated me in philosophy and morals. They were going to declare me sublime in
order to get rid of me, when one of the most influential men of the period took
me aside.
“ You resemble,” said he to me, “ a crow which pulls down walnuts. Do not
err thus. You have just offended men who were able and willing to serve you.
Arrange your affairs quickly ; and believe that a hero with fifteen thousand livres
rental is not strong enough to walk alone.”
This language astonished me so much that I remained silent.
“ You come,” he continued, “ to demand divorce; you are authorized by an
example striking enough. Truly, justice and reason are with you. A law restricted
like that which you demand, would pass without the least difficulty, and would be
a real benefit. Very well ! nevertheless, this law, it is a hundred to one, that you
will not obtain it.”
“ It is my conviction,” added he, while I repressed with difficulty a painful im
patience, “ the fault is yours, entirely yours. Wishing to play giant, foolishly
despising the hierarchy, refusing it deference, and exploring for all support the
arsenal of old words, is it not voluntarily taking the role of a dupe, and running,
dagger in hand, into the midst of a pigeon match ? Listen,” said he, “ if you were
not so young, you would be a fool. But that infirmity excuses everything. I offer
you, then, my influence with the ambassador of-------- . You have some position,
a noble figure ; you can advance yourself with him. You love a remarkable
woman, you will give her a station worthy of her; and believe me, love does very
well without marriage.”
Finishing his period, my worthy mentor threw me a significant glance and left,
me. I went to shake hands with Count J—
, so superior to the men by whom
he is surrounded, and I returned to Oneil with rage in my heart.
Roger, I shall promptly investigate what this man has said to me, and see if
there is no longer any trace of justice and honor in humanity. Lucie is too grand
and too pure to stoop before it.
TWELFTH LETTER.
LUCIE TO
MAURICE.
Maurice, you are noble and good. What heart can be more capable than yours
of comprehending justice and reason? 0 best and most generous of men, you to
whom I could have sacrificed with joy the peace of my whole life, could you but
know to what extent yours has been dear and sacred to me ! My beloved, it is in
vain that we attempt to struggle any longer against destiny. My soul is completely
broken under its blows. Alas ! when I gave myself up to the happiness of loving
�200
THE
LOVE-LIFE
OF
AUGUSTE
COMTE.
you, I thought to be able, in my turn, to add a charm to your life. Let me collect
my last powers in one consoling thought, hoping you will restore again to society
and your mother that which they have lost by your devotion to me. How often
have I seen your great soul incensed at the sight of the afflictions that fill the
world ! 0 Maurice! it is delicious to experience all generous emotions. What
destiny is at the same time greater and sweeter than that of the useful man ! Do
you not remember having often envied poor artisans the glory of a trifling dis
covery ? You who can do so much more than they, would you remain inactive ?
Dear, very dear friend, live to imprint on the earth your noble steps. When a man
like you appears in the midst of society, he should either bring to it his tribute of
light and virtue, or condemn himself to the silence and coldness of selfishness. I
know your soul; it is rich, and glowing as the clouds in a beautiful sky; never
would you have found happiness in isolation. Do not renounce family joys ; chil
dren will create great interests in your existence. You will find pleasure in devel
oping in them the noble germs that they will inherit from you. You will make
of their young hearts so many hearths in which the flame of yours will be diffused.
They will surround you with respect and love. O Maurice 1 are not all the felici
ties of life summed up in this single word ?
.
LAST LETTER.
DR.
L--------
TO
DR.
B--------.
My old friend, I approve the means you take in caring for yourself in turn. For
us. who believe in good, it is a painful spectacle that of society in disorder, where
nothing that is noble and great can succeed any longer. I have just witnessed
again one of those sacrifices which shock the heart and the reason. The unfortu
nate young woman whose history I have written to you, expired yesterday in my
arms, broken by sorrows that I refrain from describing to you. The man whom
she loved survived her but a few moments ; it seems as if he could comprehend
only his despair. In vain I tried to lead him to reason and calmness ; he blew out
his brains beside the death-bed. before I was able to prevent his fatal design.
Those who have known the interesting and unhappy woman whose loss I deplore, .
will comprehend the fatal passion that she inspired. She had one of those rare
organizations in which the heart and mind are equally balanced. No woman felt
more than she the possibilities of her position. She might have been an accom
plished mother and wife. Alas ! in seeing her die in my arms at the age when one
should live, I have painfully appreciated how little power is given to man to
repair the evil that he causes.
�
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Victorian Blogging
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A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
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2018
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
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Love-life of Auguste Comte
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Croly, Jennie June [1829-1901]
Description
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Place of publication: New York
Collation: [185]-201 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870. Printed in red on pale yellow paper. The pseudonym of Jane Cunningham Croly, an English-born American journalist and clubwoman whose popular writings and socially conscious advocacy reflected her belief that equal rights and economic independence for women would allow them to become fully responsible, productive citizens. Includes a letter from Auguste Comte to Clothilde de Vaux, 'Lucie' a novelette by Vaux and her poem 'The Thoughts of a Flower'.
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[American News Company]
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[1890]
Identifier
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G5423
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<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Love-life of Auguste Comte), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Subject
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Philosophy
Auguste Comte
Clothilde de Vaux
Conway Tracts
-
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4d7fc74261fd397a434a570cb1038c4a
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REBUILDING THE TEMPLE.
BY SALEM DUTCHER.
T is proposed to offer some suggestions for the better government
of these United States.
I
The Money Power.—I. Under the present system the Senate
consists of 74 members and the House of 243. A majority in
either body, or 38 in the Senate and 122 in the House, constitute a
quorum; and a majority of a quorum, or 20 in the Senate and 62 in
the House, can pass any appropriation bill. It is suggested that the
rule should be a two-thirds vote, or, as the figures now stand, 50 in the
Senate and 162 in the House. This would forbid the slipping through
of appropriations “ on a thin house,” and impede, if not prevent, appro
priations for party purposes.
e .
II. The President has no option as to the items of an appropriation;
he must approve all or reject all, and to remedy the evil growing out
of this—called “sandwiching,” or the insertion of corrupt items in a
bill otherwise fair and right—it is suggested that he should have the
power to approve any appropriation and disapprove any other appro
priation in the same bill, returning the disapproved items as in the
case of any other veto.
.
III. A practice has grown up in Congress of appropriating the pub
lic lands, money, and credit to private railway companies, which com
panies while constructing their roads out of the property of the people
of the United States, yet charge said people for the use of said roads as
fully as if they had been built with the companies’ own private means.
The corruptions superinduced by this practice are even more signal
than the injustice it embodies of charging the people for the use of
their own property; and it is suggested that Congress should be strictly
inhibited from any loan or gift of the lands, money, or credit of the
United States to any person, association, or corporation for the pur
poses of internal improvement.
New States.—The Senate consists of two representatives—aptly
termed ambassadors—from each State, and by reason of this equality
all the States are governmentally upon a par. On any given bill the
one member in the House from Nevada may vote no, and the thirty-one
members from New York vote aye, thus— supposing the vote of the
House otherwise to be equally divided—carrying the measure by thirty
majority; but on reaching the Senate the two Nevada senators are
�182
REBUILDING
THE
TEMPLE.
equal in their votes to the two from New York, and so far as any
measure turns on the States in question, Nevada puts New York at a
dead-lock. The chain being no stronger than its weakest link, it thus
appears that the political superiority of a large State to a small one is
more fanciful than real, and in this view the immense importance of
admitting a State may be perceived. And yet, just as twenty-five per
cent of Congress may appropriate millions, the same small proportion
can bring in new States. The temptation so to do for the purpose of
retaining or enlarging party power is one that these few years past haye
shown to be irresistible, and it is therefore suggested that no new States
should be admitted save by a two-thirds vote of both houses, the Senate
voting by States.
The Presidency.—Under the present system the President is eligible
indefinitely, and experience has proven that no sooner is a man chosen
to the chief magistracy than he uses the powers of that office to secure
a re-election. It is suggested, therefore, that the President be not
re-eligible.
Office.—The practice of putting up the public employments of the
United States as a prize for the victorious party at each presidential
election is too notorious an evil to need exposition. An efficient, faith
ful, and necessary public officer should not be removed so long as his
services are necessary, trustworthy and competent, always excepting
members of the Cabinet and persons in the diplomatic service, the
nature of whose employ renders it proper that the executive should
have the power to remove them at pleasure. Saving these, it is sug
gested that all public officers should be removable by the appointing
power when their services are unnecessary, or for misconduct or ineffi
ciency, and not otherwise. On this as a basis a civil service, which is.
an institution of slow growth, might be reared.
The Treaty Power.—Under the present system, it is the preroga
tive of the President, “by and with the advice and consent of the
Senate, to make treaties, provided two-thirds of the senators present
concur.” As this latter clause puts it in the power of two-thirds of a
quorum, or but a fraction over one-third of the whole number of sena
tors, to concur in the making of any treaty proposed by the executive,
it follows, as the law now stands, that the President and any 26 out of
the 74 senators may conclude a treaty which shall be as binding upon
the United States as the Constitution itself. By such treaty, further
more, the faith of the United States may be pledged to the payment of
any large amount of money—as witness the $7,000,000 in gold coin for
Alaska—without any consultation with, or consent by, the House,
which is supposed to be so peculiarly the guardian of the public wealth
that all bills for raising revenue must originate therein, and on such
pledge the House is reduced to the alternative either of repudiating
the same and thus staining the credit of the republic, or acceding to an
appropriation which it may not approve either in object or amount.
�REBUILDING
THE
183
TEMPLE.
To do away with the evils of so anomalous a disposition of powers, it is
suggested that in case a proposed treaty calls for money, the concur
rence of the House by a two-thirds vote thereof should be obtained as
to so much of said treaty as regards the contemplated expenditure, and
then that two-thirds of all the senators elected to the Senate concur in
the treaty as a whole; all treaties not calling for money beyond a cer
tain merely ministerial amount, say $50,000, to be concurred in by a
majority of all the senators elected.
Representation.—Coming to the House, which is supposed to repre
sent population, it appears that though the popular vote at the presi
dential election of 1868 was 2,985,031 Republicans to 2,648,830 Demo
crats, the representatives stand 164 Republicans to 70 Democrats, instead
of 129 Republicans to 114 Democrats, as it should have been on the
ratio of the popular vote. This disproportion is due much less to a
defect in, than to an interference with, the electoral system. But for
extraneous violence the elections of 1868 would have given the compo
sition of the House as 124 Republicans to 119 Democrats, which would
fairly enough have represented the popular vote as above given. As
regards the general result, therefore, it does not appear but that the
present electoral system, if respected, would give a representation in
the House consonant with the political ‘ complexion of the republic at
large; but, on coming to particulars, it is evident that the representa
tion of the several States is not always a fair reflex of party strength
within them. Thus, the actual and proportionate representation
respectively of Massachusetts and Kentucky as compared with the
strength of parties within those States, is as follows :
VOTE.
REPRESENTATIVES.
Proportionate.
Actual.
Hep.
Massachusetts, . . .
Kentucky, . . . .
Dem.
R.
D.
R.
D.
132,000
40,000
63,000
116,000
7
2
3
7
10
0
0
9
To provide against such nullification of the minority as this is the
aim of minority, or proportional, representation, of which, as the elec
tion of Representatives is purely a State matter and this paper regards
the Federal polity alone, nothing will be said save so far as respects the
effect of minority representation on the House. It is carefully to be
borne in mind that, while proportional representation may give the
minority more voice, it by no means follows that it necessarily gives
that minority more power. Somewheres the majority must rule, and
that place is the representative body. On the subject of representation,
it is suggested that, whatever good results may enure to particular
States from proportional representation, a correct reflex in the House of
the whole country can be best obtained by a removal of all present re
straints upon the electoral system set forth in the Federal Constitution
and a relegation of the people of the United States to their original un
fettered right of selecting as their representatives whom they please.
�184
REBUILDING
THE TEMPLE.
The best practical manner of carrying into effect the suggestions of
this paper need not now be touched. For the present it is sufficient to
commend them on their abstract merits to the public attention.
REMARKS BY EDITOR.
In giving place to Mr. Dutcher’s paper, I wish to say, that while I
heartily approve of all the suggestions he makes, I do not believe their
adoption would restore health to the body politic. The disease is moral,
not political ; the difficulty is not so much with the machinery as with
the driving power. All our legislative bodies, municipal, state and
national, are corrupt because the moral sense of the American people
has been debauched by a series of unfavorable influences. Among
these may be mentioned :
1. The decay of theology. The Protestant sects in their days of
vigor and virulence did supply a sort of moral sense to the community
which has been gradually weakening with the growth of liberalism and
the accumulation of proofs of the unsoundness, historically and scien
tifically, of the current theological dogmas. The belief in a hell was a
low motive to influence conduct, but it had its effect when men had a
real fear of eternal torments.
2. The anti-social and individualistic character of the philosophy
which underlies American institutions is beginning to bear its bitter
fruit. In the American conception, the individual is everything—he
is the centre of the universe; hence egotism, selfishness, the pursuit of
individual good without regard to the general welfare, The Human
Rights dogma, carried out logically, can have no other result than
social and political anarchy. The Transcendental Philosophy, so-called,
Liberal Christianity; the writings of Channing, Parker, Emerson,
Beecher and Frothingham, all help in this movement toward chaos and
the moral death of the nation.
3. The ease with which wealth is acquired in this age of invention
and machinery, and the universal belief in that most damnable of all
the doctrines of the political economists, that property is a personal
appendage and not an institution to satisfy social needs, is turning the
whole nation, women as well as men, into mere selfish money grubbers.
All Americans are on the “ make.”
The only hope is in the growth of a religion and a philosophy more
in accord with the higher instincts of humanity. These in time will
indicate a polity which will restore health and soundness to the state.
The outlook to the political philosopher is very gloomy, so far as the
immediate future is concerned. We have entered upon an era of cor-'
ruption; of public and private dishonesty appalling to contemplate.
Fraud will abound and violence, I fear, will accompany it. Let the
reader cut this out and paste in his common-place book to read ten
years from now.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
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Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
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2018
Publisher
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Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
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Original Format
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Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
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Rebuilding the temple
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Dutcher, Salem
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [183]-184 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. Printed on blue paper. The article concludes with a page of editorial comment on the content from D. Goodman, the editor of Modern Thinker. From Modern Thinker, no. 1 1870.
Publisher
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[American News Company]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1870]
Identifier
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G5428
Subject
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Government
USA
Rights
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<a href="http://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/mark/1.0/"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /></a><span> </span><br /><span>This work (Rebuilding the temple), identified by </span><a href="https://conwayhallcollections.omeka.net/items/show/www.conwayhall.org.uk"><span>Humanist Library and Archives</span></a><span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</span>
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application/pdf
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Text
Language
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English
Conway Tracts
United States-Politics and Government
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ac96bb432dc5570fbfc8c92275f1eb10
PDF Text
Text
SUB LI MATED.
BY FRANCIS 'GERRY FAIRFIELD.
A
HALO round his head,
Like one who is transfigured
He was. “ Still Man, I am God-man,” he said.
He spake. His voice, at will,
It had strange power to soothe or thrill—
Music to recreate a soul, or kill.
I did not seem to hear
His voice with merely sensuous ear:
It thrilled within me: heart stood still with fear.
From him did presence well:
About him glory visible'
I saw. Upon my face in fear I fell.
“A thing of limits—laws—
Long ages since,” quoth he, “ I was—
Mistaking what was mere effect for cause.
“Upon the ultimate
I could but dream and speculate;
Then sit me sadly down—or work and wait.
“ Oft feverishly I wrought,
Quarrying out in deeds my thought;
But found a phantom in the good I sought.
“ To be—I knew not why—
To think I was, and then to die:
What after that came next ? That knew not I.
“ Through all my thought there ran
The feverish fantasy—I can
Be more than this: there’s more than this in Man.
“ So, human history—
My toil and struggle to be free!—
Thus dimly self-expression unto me.
�S UDLIMA TED.
“ As one who hath been sent,
Though, blindly to and fro I went—
Knowing not even what my message meant.
“ Would _ decipher it
And read—it was to me but fit
ful, vague, and uninterpretable writ.
“ I am,” quoth he. “ Is won
The goal. The work is ended—done:
Jehovah, God who spake, and Man are one.
4‘As if I were its soul,
Matter doth feel my weird control—
Thrills, blossoms, lives. I animate the whole.
“All things phenomenal
In quick ephemera I call. .
I will they shall be, merely: that is all
“ I need no tools—no skill—
No travail. With immediate thrill,
All stirs and palpitates: I merely will
“ I toil not, neither plod
To compass what I will or would:
Repeating in myself the self of God.
“ Yet I am Man, as when
Jehovah walked and talked with men
In dim, prismatic symbols—Man as then.
“No nation-prejudice
Have I. Broad as himself Man is;
And Earth, a single proud Cosmopolis.”
A halo round his head,
Like one who is transfigured
He was—or one who speaketh from the dead.
He ceased—was gone. Since then
Have I more faith and joy in men,
And things beyond mere philosophic ken.
For though the mist be dense,
Faith giveth me this recompense:
To see beyond as with an inner sense.
To know that, though mere clod
Or serf under the master’s rod,
There comes a Man- Historic, who is God.
�
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Victorian Blogging
Description
An account of the resource
A collection of digitised nineteenth-century pamphlets from Conway Hall Library & Archives. This includes the Conway Tracts, Moncure Conway's personal pamphlet library; the Morris Tracts, donated to the library by Miss Morris in 1904; the National Secular Society's pamphlet library and others. The Conway Tracts were bound with additional ephemera, such as lecture programmes and handwritten notes.<br /><br />Please note that these digitised pamphlets have been edited to maximise the accuracy of the OCR, ensuring they are text searchable. If you would like to view un-edited, full-colour versions of any of our pamphlets, please email librarian@conwayhall.org.uk.<br /><br /><span><img src="http://www.heritagefund.org.uk/sites/default/files/media/attachments/TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" width="238" height="91" alt="TNLHLF_Colour_Logo_English_RGB_0_0.jpg" /></span>
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Conway Hall Library & Archives
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
2018
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
Conway Hall Ethical Society
Text
A resource consisting primarily of words for reading. Examples include books, letters, dissertations, poems, newspapers, articles, archives of mailing lists. Note that facsimiles or images of texts are still of the genre Text.
Original Format
The type of object, such as painting, sculpture, paper, photo, and additional data
Pamphlet
Dublin Core
The Dublin Core metadata element set is common to all Omeka records, including items, files, and collections. For more information see, http://dublincore.org/documents/dces/.
Title
A name given to the resource
Sublimated
Creator
An entity primarily responsible for making the resource
Fairfield, Francis Gerry
Description
An account of the resource
Place of publication: [New York]
Collation: [151]-152 p. ; 26 cm.
Notes: From the library of Dr Moncure Conway. From Modern Thinker, no. 1, 1870. A poem. Francis Gerry Fairfield was a spiritualist and one of the earliest researchers into psychic phenomena.
Publisher
An entity responsible for making the resource available
[American News Company]
Date
A point or period of time associated with an event in the lifecycle of the resource
[1870]
Identifier
An unambiguous reference to the resource within a given context
G5420
Rights
Information about rights held in and over the resource
<p class="western"><img src="http://i.creativecommons.org/p/mark/1.0/88x31.png" alt="Public Domain Mark" /><br />This work (Sublimated), identified by <span style="color:#0000ff;"><span lang="zxx"><u>Humanist Library and Archives</u></span></span>, is free of known copyright restrictions.</p>
Format
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application/pdf
Type
The nature or genre of the resource
Text
Language
A language of the resource
English
Subject
The topic of the resource
Poetry
Conway Tracts
Poetry in English