THE ANARCHY OF MODERN POLITICS. 445 



of various vicious arts, " the first presumption in regard to an office- 

 bolder is, that he is unfit for the place. . . . These of course are not 

 the men to appreciate the scientific elements and aspects of govern- 

 mental affairs." 



As I read all this, I could not help thinking how closely the writer's 

 diagnosis of the conditions of modern political life resembled that 

 given by Auguste Comte in the first chapter of the fourth volume of 

 his " Philosophic Positive." But as Comte analyzes these conditions 

 in greater detail, and treats the whole subject from the point of view 

 of his own systematic philosophy, it occurred to me that something 

 like a paraphrase of his views might not be unwelcome to the readers 

 of the " Monthly," to whom the subject in its general bearings has 

 been so well opened up in the article from which the above quotations 

 are made. 



The main motif of the "Positive Philosophy" is the importance, 

 or rather the absolute necessity, if a stable and satisfactory condition 

 of society is ever to be attained, of applying to social and political 

 affairs those scientific principles and methods which have proved their 

 efficacy in the physical domain. The circle of the sciences, he holds, 

 can never be complete until there is a duly constituted science of 

 society. So long as there exists a region, the phenomena of which 

 are not recognized as subject to law, human thought can not assume 

 a really integral character ; while, in that outlying region, a more or 

 less hurtful confusion must prevail. Theology has in the past assumed 

 to rule human life, and has done so, according to a synthesis of its 

 own. The feudal and ecclesiastical organization of society in the 

 middle ages was the perfect exemplification of this rule. Now, how- 

 ever, the power of theology has been broken ; it has its spokesmen 

 still, who in its name issue mandates to the modern world ; but the 

 civilized nations have no mind to return to what would now be a 

 house of bondage though in its day it may have been, and in 

 Comte's opinion was, a house of shelter. But, meantime, what are the 

 civilized nations doing ? "What guidance, if any, are they now follow- 

 ing ? Comte recognizes, looking chiefly at the European nations, three 

 doctrines, or schools, as striving for the mastery in our day the re- 

 actionary, the revolutionary, and the stationary. The first, as its name 

 imports, would fain bring modern society back under the theological 

 regime, placing morality and government on a supernatural basis, and 

 using the lures and terrors of another world as a means (supplemented, 

 of course, by the hangman, in whom reactionists always have a fervent 

 and affectionate belief) of repressing disorders in this. On this con- 

 tinent we have, perhaps, no school which openly avows these aims ; 

 and yet there are movements visible from time to time which show 

 that Comte could at least find the rudiments of a reactionary party 

 even in this land of liberty and light. Governor Benjamin F. But- 

 ler's recent Fast-day proclamation was a singularly impudent at- 



