238 COSMIC PHILOSOPHY. [pt. ii. 



amid the host of pregnant suggestions concerning Greek and 

 Eoman, and especially concerning mediaeval, history, the 

 great fact that there has been and is a determinate order 

 of sequence in human affairs is placed quite beyond cavil 

 on the highest plane of inductive demonstration. 



To achieve so much as this was to show that a science of 

 sociology is possible, and to prepare the way very thoroughly 

 for the creation of such a science. But Comte professed to 

 have done more than this. He regarded himself as the 

 founder of sociology, and is so regarded by his disciples. 

 It is part of our business to determine, if we can, whether 

 the claim is a valid one ; and in order to do this, we must 

 examine the theorems which Comte propounded as the 

 fundamental laws of progress. 



These theorems are two in number, — the first relating to 

 the intellectual, the second to what we may call the material, 

 development of mankind. The first is an old acquaintance, 

 being nothing else than the generalization that all human 

 conceptions must pass through three stages — the theological, 

 the metaphysical, and the positive. We have already (Part I. 

 chapter vii.) examined this theory upon its own merits. 

 Tried by a psychological analysis, we have found it to be 

 only partially true. We saw it to be correct in so far as it 

 asserts that the prevailing conception of the world becomes 

 less and less anthropomorphic from age to age ; but incorrect 

 in so far that it asserts that in this deanthropomorphizing 

 process there are three radically distinguishable stages, and 

 also, in so far as it asserts that the process must end in Posi- 

 tivism. We saw that, although without doubt men began by 

 seeing volition everywhere and must eud by seeing an in- 

 scrutable Power everywhere, nevertheless the mental process 

 has throughout been one and the same, and any appearance 

 of definite stages can be only superficial. Nevertheless, 

 between the primeval savage who prays to his fetish and the 

 modern philosopher who recognizes that he must shape his 



