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. He values also its function in social 
organization and its place in providing a permanent speculative 
class. ‘ Itis 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. 
