Transcriber’s Notes: Italicized text is enclosed in _underscores_. Narrow text within square brackets are sidenotes; numbers within square brackets refer to footnotes at the end of this eBook. “V^e” in Footnote 3 indicates that the “e” is a superscript. Other notes will be found at the end of this eBook. The New Universal Library A GENERAL VIEW OF POSITIVISM A GENERAL VIEW OF POSITIVISM Translated from the French of AUGUSTE COMTE By J. H. BRIDGES, M.B. _Late Fellow of Oriel College, Oxford_ A New Edition, with an Introduction (1908), by FREDERIC HARRISON And the Additional Notes in the last French Edition (Paris, 1907) [Illustration] LONDON GEORGE ROUTLEDGE & SONS LIMITED NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & CO. _Published by the kind consent of Mrs. Bridges and the Positivist Committee, to whom the copyright of this translation belongs._ Republic of the West Order and Progress A GENERAL VIEW OF POSITIVISM Or, _SUMMARY EXPOSITION OF THE SYSTEM OF THOUGHT AND LIFE_ Adapted to the Great Western Republic, formed of the Five Advanced Nations, the French, Italian, Spanish, British and German, which, since the time of Charlemagne, have always constituted a Political Whole Réorganiser, sans dieu ni roi, par le culte systématique de l’Humanité. Nul n’a droit qu’à faire son devoir. L’esprit doit toujours être le ministre du coeur, et jamais son esclave. Reorganisation, irrespectively of God or king, by the worship of Humanity, systematically adopted. Man’s only right is to do his duty. The Intellect should always be the servant of the Heart, and should never be its slave. By AUGUSTE COMTE _Author of_ ‘_System of Positive Philosophy_’ PARIS, 1848 INTRODUCTION By FREDERIC HARRISON Although Positivism has been pretty widely discussed of late, not only by those interested in philosophy and religion, but by the general reader and the public press, perhaps but few of them, whether readers or critics, have exactly grasped the full meaning of it as a system at once of thought and of life. The vast range of the ground it covers and the technical, allusive, and close style of Comte’s writings in the original have made it difficult to master the subject as a whole. It has accordingly been thought that the time has come to add to the ‘New Universal Library’ a translation of _The General View of Positivism_, i.e., the careful summary of the _Positive Polity_ which Auguste Comte prefixed to the four volumes of his principal work. The translation which was published by Dr. J. H. Bridges in 1865 is at the same time a most accurate version by one of Comte’s earliest followers, and also it is turned in an easy and simpler style, with the references and allusions explained, marginal headings to the paragraphs, and a complete analysis of the contents.