136 LAY SERMONS, ESSAYS, AND REVIEWS. [vm. 



completely as others notably Mr. Herbert Spencer have done 

 before me. A critical examination of what M. Comte has to 

 say about the &quot;law of the three states&quot; brings out nothing 

 but a series of more or less contradictory statements of an 

 imperfectly apprehended truth ; and his &quot; classification of the 

 sciences,&quot; whether regarded historically or logically, is, in my 

 judgment, absolutely worthless. 



Let us consider the law of &quot; the three states &quot; as it is put 

 before us in the opening of the first Legon of the &quot; Philosophic 

 Positive : &quot; 



&quot; En etudiant ainsi le developpement total de Pintelligence humaine dans 

 ses diverses spheres d activite, depuis son premier essor le plus simple 

 jusqu a nos jours, je crois avoir decouvert une grande loi fondamentale, a 

 laquelle il est assujetti par une necessite invariable, et qui me semble 

 pouvoir etre solidement Stabile, soit sur les preuves rationelles fournies par 

 la connaissance de notre organisation, soit sur les verifications historiques 

 resultant d un examen attentif du passe. Cette loi consiste en ce qui 

 chacune de nos conceptions principales, chaque branche de nos connais- 

 sances, passe successivement par trois tats theoriques differents ; l tat 

 theologique, ou fictif ; 1 ^tat metaphysique, ou abstrait ; 1 etat scientifique, ou 

 positif. En d autres termes, Tesprit humain, par sa nature, emploie succes 

 sivement dans chacune de ses recherches trois me thodes de philosopher, dont 

 le caractere est essentiellement different et meme radicalement oppos6 ; d abord 

 la m^thode theologique, ensuite la methode metaphysique, et enfin la 

 in&amp;lt;$thode positive. De la, trois sortes de philosophic, ou de systemes 

 gdneraux de conceptions sur 1 ensemble des phenomenes qui s excluent 

 mutuellement ; la premiere est le point de depart necessaire de 1 intelligence 

 humaine ; la troisieme, son etat fixe et de&quot;finitif ; la seconde est uniquement 

 destinee a servir de transition.&quot; L 



Nothing can be more precise than these statements, which 

 may be put into the following propositions : 



(a) The human intellect is subjected to the law by an inva 

 riable necessity, which is demonstrable, a priori, from the nature 

 and constitution of the intellect ; while, as a matter of historical 

 fact, the human intellect has been subjected to the law. 



(b) Every branch of human knowledge passes through the 

 three states, necessarily beginning with the first stage. 



(c) The three stages mutually exclude one another, being 

 essentially different, and even radically opposed. 



1 &quot; Philosophic Positive,&quot; i. pp. 8, 9. 



