OF SOCIETY. 463 



what is now specifically termed the Social question, and 

 we have also, as a result brought about by the influence of 

 both sides, the distinct enunciation of a new and special 

 science with a special name, that of Sociology ; further, 

 we have the first distinct declaration that it deals with 

 the central and most important problem in philosophy. 



The first of the two schools referred to may be termed 33. 



■^ Renction- 



the Eeactionary school. It was the school which was fi^go,','""^^ 

 favoured by the Restoration. Its philosophical ex- M^s^e. 

 ponents were de Bonald (1754-1840) and de Maistre 

 (1754-1821). Both belonged to the aristocracy of 

 France. The title of de Bonald's principal work, 

 ' Theorie du pouvoir politique et religieux dans la 

 societe civilisee' [1796], indicates clearly the subject 

 he is dealing with. For de Bonald the Order of Society 

 is not a thing created by men, but is of Divine origin, 

 not simply composed of individual units added together, 

 but an association instituted by the Creator and organ- 

 ised by His law. This stands in direct opposition to the 

 theory of the natural rights of man as proclaimed by the 

 Eevolution in 1789.^ The general conception, which has 



^ And it also stands in direct 1 doing so ' is led by an invisible 



opposition to that prominent phase ] hand' to promote the public good, 



in modern thought represented by which was no jiart of his intention ; 



such very different thinkers as | human institutions, by interfering 



Rousseau on the one side and Adam | with the action of this principle in 



Smith on the other ; the belief in the name of the public interest, 



the natural goodness of man and 

 the assumption, not clearly brought 

 out but implied, in Adam Smith's 

 ethical and economic theories, of 



defeat their own end ; but when all 

 systems of preference or restraint 

 are taken away, ' the obvious and 

 simple system of natural liberty 



a natural justice, a jus natura;. i establishes itself of its own accord.' 



" In his view nature has made pro- I This theory is not explicitly pre- 



vision for social wellbeing by the ' sented by Smith as a foundation of 



principleof the human constitution, : his economic doctrines, but it is 



which proaipts every man to better really the secret substratum ou 



his position ; the individual aims ' which they rest." (Ingram, loc. 



only at his private gain, but in ' cit., p. 91). 



