Page:History of Modern Philosophy (Falckenberg).djvu/583

 COMTE. 561 religion, and the first, the positivistic period, although the major part of the qualities pointed out as characteristic of the former are only intensifications of some which may be shown to have been present in the latter. Beneath the surface of the most sober inquiry mystical and dic- tatorial tendencies pulsate in Comte from the beginning, and science was for him simply a means to human hap- piness. But now he no longer demands the independent pursuit of science in order to the attainment of this end, but only the believing acceptance of its results. The intellect is to be placed under the dominion of the heart, and only such use made of it as promises a direct advan- tage for humanity ; the determination of what problems are most important at a given time belongs to the priesthood. The systematic unity or harmony of the mind demands this dominion of the feelings over thought. The religion of positivism, which has " love for its principle, order for its basis, and progress for its end," is a religion without God, and without any other immortality than a continuance of existence in the grateful memory of posterity. The dog- mas of the positivist religion are scientific principles. Its public culius, with nine sacraments and a large number of annual festivals, is paid to the Grand Etre ^' Humanity " (which is not omnipotent, but, on account of its compos- ite character, most dependent, yet infinitely superior to any of its parts); and, besides this, space, the earth, the universe, and great men of the past are objects of rever- ence. Private devotion consists in the adoration of living or dead women as our guardian angels. The ethics of the future declares the good of others to be the sole moral motive to action (altruism). Comte's last work, the Philos- ophy of Mathematics, 1856, indulges in a most remarkable numerical mysticism. The historical influence exercised by Comte through his later writings is extremely small in com- parison with that of his chief work. Besides Bligni^res and Robinet, E. Littre, the well-known author of the Dictionnaire de la Langue Franqaise (1863 seq^, who was the most eminent of Comte's disciples and the editor of his Col- lected Works (1867 seq^, has written on the life and work of the master. Comte's school divided into two groups —