OF SOCIETY. 481 



and modern philosophy runs parallel with, and is in- 

 telligible through, the logical development of the abstract 

 ideas or categories of speculative thought. This has been 

 termed the dialectic of the world process as unfolded in 

 the dialectic of the philosophical system. 



About the time when Hegel's reputation and in- 41. 



, ^ Comtes 



fluence were at their height in Germany, an equally pMpsoi>iiy 

 comprehensive, but very differently constituted, mind 

 approached and dealt with the historical problem in 

 France. This was Auguste Comte, who began to publish 

 his original speculations with a Tract bearing upon the 

 reorganisation of Society.^ He was then twenty-six 

 years of age. 



In some respects the personal history of the two 

 philosophers shows a resemblance. Both Hegel and 

 Comte were early influenced by thinkers of great origin- 

 ality and considerable daring, but similarly deficient 

 in definiteness and consistency of thought. Both 

 philosophers, in their first independent publications, broke 

 away from the influence of their respective masters. 

 Both maintained from that moment a more or less un- 

 friendly attitude to the teaching which had at one time 

 stimulated and inspired them. Both had, what their 

 masters were deficient in, great powers of systematisa- 

 tion and the love of consistent and logical development 

 of thought. 



Hegel announced his opposition to Schelling in the 

 Introduction to his first great work, ' The Phenomenology 

 of the Mind,' where he promises to develop, patiently 



^ 'Plan des travaux scientifiques 

 necessaires pour reorganiser la 

 Societe ' (1824). Comte was tweuty- 



VOL. IV. 2 H 



four when this was first printed 

 (1822). See infra, p. 486 n. 



