AUGUSTE COMTE 25 



Thus government is to rest on the free consent of the governed 

 and be a spontaneous expression of social demands based on moral 

 considerations which place the good of all above that of the 

 individual. 



There is to be a separation of spiritual and temporal authority 

 yet the two are expected to work in harmony. The spiritual 

 authority will be supreme in matters of education but consulta- 

 tive in what concerns action, while the temporal authority will be 

 supreme in matters of action with consultative power in matters 

 of education. Comte's educational ideal is modern with emphasis 

 on the studies that make for active adaptation, i. e., power over 

 the forces of nature and such development of the moral instincts 

 as shall make for social well-being. " The direct effect of a 

 universal education is to place every one in the situation best 

 adapted to his abilities, whatever his birth may have been." * 



Comte recognizes the historic value of religion as a factor in 

 social progress, holding that, though an illusion, it is indispens- 

 able to active adaptation. 2 He values also its function in social 

 organization and its place in providing a permanent speculative 

 class. " It is a radical property of the theological philosophy to be 

 the sole support of man's moral courage, as well as the awakener 

 and director of his intellectual activity. . . . Feeble as are the 

 intellectual organs, relatively considered, the attractive moral 

 perspective of an unbounded power of modifying the universe, by 

 the aid of supernatural protectors, must have been most impor- 

 tant in exciting mental action. In our advanced state of scientific 

 progress, we can conceive of the perpetual pursuit of knowledge 

 for the sake of the satisfaction of intellectual activity, joined to 

 the tranquil pleasure which arises from the discovery of truth; 

 yet it is doubtful whether such natural stimulus as this would 

 always suffice without collateral instigations of glory, of ambition, 

 or of love and stronger passions, except in the case of a very few 

 lofty minds. ... In the working out of such speculation, the 

 mental activity can be sustained by nothing short of the fictions 

 of the theological philosophy about the supremacy of man and 



1 Positive Philosophy, ii, p. 485. Cf. A General View, pp. 91, 189, 192-194. 



2 Positive Philosophy, i, p. 4. 



