470 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



have lost the sense of religion, at least among the laity 

 who are passionately in earnest regarding the welfare of 

 their fellow-men." -^ 



There is no doubt that Saint-Simon acted as a great 

 ferment, pushing the main social problem, the organisa- 

 tion of society, into the foreground, and treating it from 

 many points of view, anticipating prophetically but 

 frequently unconsciously much that has happened in 

 social theory and practice since his time. Hardly any 

 of the innumerable problems which now agitate social 

 reformers over the whole world escaped his notice. Ac- 

 cordingly we find among his followers men of very 

 different stamp and occupation all interested in the 

 social problem, and concentrating their labours upon it. 

 Under their influence the doctrine of the master, un- 

 stable, fragmentary, and inconclusive as it always was, 

 underwent many changes, the most important of which 

 were in the direction of an extreme Socialism or Com- 

 munism, in which Saint-Simon himself certainly was 

 not a believer. Thus we must distinguish between the 

 doctrine of Saint-Simon himself and that of the Saint- 

 Simonians. 



Quite apart from this extreme development, one of his 

 disciples became pre-eminent as having given systematic 

 coherence and an important elaboration to some of the 

 brilliant ideas which in Saint- Simon's writings are buried 

 among a mass of collateral, disturbing, and frequently 

 contradictory reflections. The disciple I refer to is 

 36. Auguste Comte, who worked into a system two con- 

 comte°" ° ceptions which were familiar to Saint- Simon and which 



^ Loc. cit., p. 24. 



