258 J. W. SLATEE; ESQ. J ON 



stage, w'hicli abandons the search for causes, and contents itself 

 witli the phenomenal. To each of these stages a certain social 

 structure is appropriate. Now this theory contains two great 

 troths — First, that all societies are based on religious belief, and, 

 second, that certain forms of belief imply a certain social 

 structure. Polytlieist states are founded on the cult of the family 

 and tribe — Christianity and Mahomedanism are founded on indi- 

 vidual belief. The individual obviously has an importance under 

 the universal religions which he cannot have under the tribal 

 ones. Neither of these propositions, however, is peculiar to Corate. 

 A third proposition more esj)ecially his own is the impossibility of 

 isolating any single set of social phenomena and constructing a 

 special science out of them in independence of the whole. The 

 author has pointed this out with much force in his remarks on 

 Comte's view of political economy — a view which I am glad to 

 believe now finds a pretty general acceptance. 



But these propositions are subordinated to Comte's famous 

 " law of the three stages " — a law which has at first sight a 

 certain air of plausibility and fascinating simplicity about it. It 

 purports to show a systematic sequence in the intellectual and 

 practical evolution of mankind. The theological and militant 

 societies are the earliest : the scientific and industrial the latest 

 stages. Science aids invention and industry — while the wars of 

 antiquity are all classified as religious wars. But science aids 

 war as much as industry : commercial wars are common ; and 

 although every act of a Polytheist state was in a certain sense 

 religious, and so were its wars of conquest — yet they were not 

 undertaken from a religious motive, and the conquerors often 

 adopted the gods of the vanquished. The great mass of mankind 

 from the beginning of the world has been engaged in industrial 

 pursuits ; and if industry was chiefly the work at one time of the 

 lower classes and of slaves, the elevation of the masses can 

 nowhere be deduced from Comte's laws, although he assumes it. 

 It is vei'y largely due to the influence of (yhristianity. His account 

 of the intellectual development of humanity is equally untenable. 

 According to Comte the savage imagines everything to be 

 animated ; learning better by experience he explpans everything 

 by hidden essences and abstract qualities ; at length he abandons 

 the search for causes and confines himself to the observation of 

 phenomena. In proof of this Comte appeals partly to history, 



