598 LOGIC OF THE MORAL SCIENCES. 



to disappear almost entirely; as for example between 

 Western Europe and Eastern Asia, of which the 

 various general states of society appear to have been 

 hitherto almost independent of one another. " 



M. Comte proceeds to illustrate, with his usual 

 sagacity and discrimination, one of the most impor- 

 tant, and until lately, most neglected, of the great 

 principles which, in this division of the social science, 

 may be considered as established ; namely, the neces- 

 sary correlation between the form of government 

 existing in any society, and the contemporaneous state 

 of civilization : a natural law, which stamps the endless 

 discussions and innumerable theories respecting forms 

 of government in the abstract, as fruitless and worthless, 

 save only (in some few of the more remarkable cases) 

 as a preparatory treatment of some small portion of 

 what may be afterwards used as material for a better 

 philosophy. 



As already remarked, one of the main results of 

 the science of social statics would be to ascertain the 

 requisites of stable political union. There are some 

 circumstances which, being found in all societies with- 

 out exception, and in the greatest degree where the 

 social union is most complete^ may be considered 

 (when psychological and ethological laws confirm the 

 indication) as conditions of the existence of society. 

 For example, no society has ever been held together 

 without laws, or usages equivalent to them; without 

 tribunals, and an organized force of some sort to 

 execute their decisions. There have always been a 

 chief, or chiefs, whom, with more or less strictness 

 and in cases more or less accurately defined, the rest 

 of the community obeyed, or according to general 

 opinion were bound to obey. By following out this 

 course of inquiry, we should find a number of requi- 



