196 COMTE the school divided ; Enfantin, Bazard, Augus- tin Thierry, Chevalier, and others, proceeding to organize a system of propagation for the opinions of their master, and Comte taking to his own course. In 1826 he was arrested in his speculations by what he denominates " a cerebral crisis," but which his physicians de- scribed as a brain fever, terminating in insanity. He soon recovered, and devoted the rest of his life to teaching mathematics, at first as a pro- fessor in the polytechnic school, and to the gestation of his new schemes of thought. In 1830 he began the publication of his chief work, the Cours de philosophic positive, in six large volumes, which was not completed till 1842. It was filled with novel speculations, but at- tracted little or no attention, and it was not till 16 years after the publication of the first volume that it was noticed in any leading re- view. In 1843 Comte published a Traite ele- mentaire de geometrie analytique, and in 1854 a Traite d'astronomie populaire, both works of a strictly scientific cast. Meanwhile he had quarrelled with his brother professors, the re- sult of which was that he lost his official em- ployment. He then supported himself by pri- vate teaching, by Sunday lectures to a small audience, and by the voluntary contributions of a little knot of disciples. In 1848 a Dis- cours sur Tememble du positimsme appeared, recapitulating his doctrine as a whole, and giv- ing a brief outline of what it proposed for the future. But it was only a prelude to a work printed in 1851-'4, called the Systeme de poli- tique positive (4 vols.), which gave the final view of his doctrine. A short Oatechisme positiviste, published in 1852, is a mere sum- mary exposition of the teachings of the larger work. In the interval between the publica- tion of the Cours and the Systeme he fell in love with a married woman ; and his affection for her, intensified by her sudden death, con- vinced him that the old criticism of Saint-Simon was true, and that the religious or sentimental side of human nature was not to be despised. He died of hypertrophy of the heart, and was buried in the cemetery of Pere la Chaise. Comte's scheme of thought is so immense that no attempt to describe it in an abridgment can do justice to it ; yet a few words in regard to it are necessary. His first position is that the human mind, in its progress historically and individually, passes through three stages of development : 1, the theological, in which all the phenomena of nature are imputed to the active agency of the gods ; 2, the metaphysical, in which the gods are made to give place to certain abstract entities and quiddities called "nature," "harmony," "number," &c. ; and 3, the positive or scientific, in which it is dis- cerned that man can know nothing of causes, and is only able to refer phenomena to their general laws of existence or succession. Ar- rived at this stage, science is born, and knowl- edge, no longer baffled by the inscrutable or misled by the imaginary, advances, through one generalization after another, to a comprehen- sive perception of the universe as a whole. His second position is, that in this advance it pro- ceeds in a regular hierarchical order, from the simple to the complex, or from the most ele- mentary relations of numbers to the highest and deepest complications of society and life. This order of the sciences he arranges as fol- lows: 1, mathematics, the most general and simple of all, dealing only with numbers and magnitudes; 2, astronomy, the application of the principles of mathematics to the phenom- ena of the celestial sphere ; 3, the application of mathematics and astronomy to the phenom- ena of the terrestrial sphere, or general physics, including heat, light, optics, electricity, &c. ; 4, chemistry, the science of the phenomena of the interior of bodies or of molecular changes; 5, biology, the science of the phenomena of in- dividually organized being, or vegetable and animal life ; 6, sociology, the science of the phenomena of corporate or social life, which, presupposing and containing all the former, is the queen of all the sciences. Having finally reached his goal, or sociology, he undertakes, as his third position, a demonstration of the statics and the dynamics of social life, or of the fundamental principles of order and liberty. The first element of order is the family ; the second, the community, composed not of in- dividuals but of families, and cooperating to a certain extent in their employment ; and the third, the government or state. Liberty is the effect of this harmonious organization, and progress the development of it, by means of the conquest 1, of material nature ; 2, of the lower propensities by the higher intellectual faculties ; and lastly, of the selfish passions by the social affections. To this point, the mere superiority of the social affections, Comte had gone in his first work ; but after his love ex- perience, and upon a maturer consideration of the nature and objects of life, he saw that a deeper question remained untouched. It was that of religion, which he conceived to be the complete harmony of human existence, indi- vidual and collective, or the universal unity of all existences in one Great Being, whom he calls Humanity. Keligion, at first spontaneous, dissipates itself in fetishism and polytheism; next, inspired, it lifts its thoughts to the vague abstract unity of God ; and finally, revealed or demonstrated, it finds its object in a true, living, and ever active being, which is human- ity. This alone is the genuine end and object of all worship, and to this every effort of the good man should converge. But, as eminent individuals, Moses, Socrates, Mohammed, &c., are manifestations of the Grand Being, it is not improper to pay to them a high yet quali- fied respect. Accordingly, Comte arranged the formula of a worship of humanity by means of homages and festivals to its most illustrious representatives. He even reformed the cal- endar in view of it, and called the months after the names of illustrious benefactors, and the ATI-
