CHAP. II COMTE'S LIFE AND TEACHING 1 5 



contradictory. Certainly it is hard to reconcile the 

 view that the heart is to be master of the intellect, 

 and its result, the sentimental worship of Humanity, 

 with the appeal to mere phenomenal fact. Yet 

 Cerate and the Comtist elect are conscious of no 

 self-contradiction. Both demands are merged in 

 the blessed and magical word Positive. 



What is it to be Positive ? In French, the word 

 may have a special history, giving it a richer connota- 

 tion. In English it has no such distinctive position ; 

 it is merely the opposite of negative, or sometimes of 

 natural, as when we contrast positive law with the 

 obligations of natural law. Perhaps a combination 

 of these two senses may suggest the Comtist view, 

 especially if we can light up the result with an un- 

 speakable glamour of love and complacency. Comte 

 prefers positive historical institutions to what he 

 regards as metaphysical dreams of natural law or 

 natural rights. He prefers real facts to fictitious or 

 ideal fancies. Yet the fictions had their use. They 

 helped to clear away the mediaeval system, in doc- 

 trine and polity, when it had grown obsolete. More 

 than that the spirit of the Revolution or, as Comte 

 would say, the spirit of the Reformation and of the 

 Revolution could not possibly accomplish. But 

 more is now demanded. That negative service has 

 been done. We must be positive. Back then to the 

 facts ; if we appeal to the right facts, in the right 

 spirit, we shall positively save society ; positively, we 

 shall ! 



The old authorities, whose defeat Comte usually 

 takes for granted, were at least three or four in 

 number. There was religion ; supernatural religion ; 



