But Comte says for the metaphysical spirit in France that with all its vices it was more disengaged from the prejudices of the old theological regime, and nearer to a true rational positivism than either the German mysticism or the English empiricism of the same period.

The Revolution was a necessity, to disclose the chronic decomposition of society from which it resulted, and to liberate the modern social elements from the grip of the ancient powers.  Comte has praise for the Convention, which he contrasts with the Constituent Assembly with its political fictions and inconsistencies.  He pointed out that the great vice in the “metaphysics” of the crisis—­that is, in the principles of the revolutionaries—­lay in conceiving society out of relation to the past, in ignoring the Middle Ages, and borrowing from Greek and Roman society retrograde and contradictory ideals.

Napoleon restored order, but he was more injurious to humanity than any other historical person.  His moral and intellectual nature was incompatible with the true direction of Progress, which involves the extinction of the theological and military regime of the past.  Thus his work, like Julian the Apostate’s, exhibits an instance of deflection from the line of Progress.  Then came the parliamentary system of the restored Bourbons which Comte designates as a political Utopia, destitute of social principles, a foolish attempt to combine political retrogression with a state of permanent peace.

4.

The critical doctrine has performed its historical function, and the time has come for man to enter upon the Positive stage of his career.  To enable him to take this step forward, it is necessary that the study of social phenomena should become a positive science.  As social science is the highest in the hierarchy of sciences, it could not develop until the two branches of knowledge which come next in the scale, biology and chemistry, assumed a scientific form.  This has recently been achieved, and it is now possible to found a scientific sociology.

This science, like mechanics and biology, has its statics and its dynamics.  The first studies the laws of co-existence, the second those of succession; the first contains the theory of order, the second that of progress.  The law of consensus or cohesion is the fundamental principle of social statics; the law of the three stages is that of social dynamics.  Comte’s survey of history, of which I have briefly indicated the general character, exhibits the application of these sociological laws.

The capital feature of the third period, which we are now approaching, will be the organisation of society by means of scientific sociology.  The world will be guided by a general theory, and this means that it must be controlled by those who understand the theory and will know how to apply it.  Therefore society will revive the principle which was realised in the great period of Monotheism, the distinction of a spiritual and a temporal order.  But the spiritual order will consist of savants who will direct social life not by theological fictions but by the positive truths of science.  They will administer a system of universal education and will draw up the final code of ethics.  They will be able, more effectively than the Church, to protect the interests of the lower classes.