12 COMTE TO BENJAMIN KIDD PART i 



statics and kinetics. As for the name mechanics, it is 

 usually extruded by men of science from the field of 

 theory, and confined to practice. However, the words 

 dynamics and dynamical are so identified in sociological 

 usage with that half of the subject which deals with 

 motion, or, in other words, with historical change and 

 growth, that it does not seem wise to attempt to disturb 

 the inaccurate but well - established phraseology of 

 tradition. 



The later book, the Polity, not only has a fuller 

 discussion of sociology, but a greater number of topics 

 or heads or subdivisions. First, there is a general 

 sketch of Positivism. Secondly, there is an outline of 

 the principles to be fully developed in what follows. 

 Thirdly, there is an account of Social Statics, i.e. of 

 permanent conditions of social order ; very much fuller 

 than in the Positive Philosophy, and therefore not 

 merely naming or sketching in brief the Family, the 

 State, and the Church or Humanity, but treating the 

 last specially at greater length, and adding discussions 

 upon Language and upon Art. Fourthly, we have 

 Social Dynamics, Comte's Philosophy of History. This 

 had been given with disproportionate fulness in the 

 early treatise ; but its discussion is a good deal enlarged 

 in the later volume, though other points are still more 

 enlarged. Lastly, there is the Polity of the future, 

 dogmatically detailed upon Positivist lines. It is plain 

 that such a programme affords plenty of scope for 

 repetition and reiteration. Comte makes full use of his 

 opportunities. We must remember that Comte had 

 already in view the composition of the Polity when he 

 issued his Philosophy. It is characteristic of the man 

 to grind his few leading ideas round and round and 

 round again in his own and in his reader's mind. A 



