OF SOCIETY. 485 



physical or abstract state ; lastly, the Scientific or 

 positive state." And the correctness of this enunciation 

 he proves by reference to the four fundamental sciences 

 which had already at that time entered upon the 

 last stage — viz., Astronomy, Physics, Chemistry, and 

 Physiology. 



Turning, then, to Morals and Politics, he proceeds to 

 show how the former " are conceived by some as the 

 result of a continuous supernatural action ; by others 

 as incomprehensible results of the action of an abstract 

 entity ; and lastly, by others as connected with organic 

 conditions susceptible of demonstration, and beyond 

 which it is impossible to go." And so far as politics as 

 a science is concerned, he looks upon the supernatural 

 idea of Divine right as belonging to the Theological 

 state of politics ; the doctrine of the sovereignty of 

 the People as expressing the Metaphysical condition of 

 politics ; while, lastly, the Scientific doctrine of politics 

 " considers the social state in which the human race has 

 always been found by observers as the necessary effect 

 of its organisation." The aim of practical politics accord- 

 ingly consists in facilitating natural tendencies when these 

 have been sufficiently ascertained. And the main natural 

 tendency of man he considers to be " to act upon nature 

 in order to modify it for his own advantage." 



Comte considers that politics could not before his age 

 become a positive science for two reasons. First, because 

 the science of politics, or what he later on termed 

 Sociology, being the highest and most complex science, 

 could not enter upon the last, i.e., the positive stage, 

 before the other sciences had attained that position ; 



