A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and LifeComte, Auguste
Philosophy
A General View of Positivism: Or, Summary exposition of the System of Thought and Life
Comte, Auguste
Positivism
before him in life; the struggle to bring the selfish instincts more
and more completely under the control of his higher sympathies. In
these respects the best tutor, however sympathetic his nature, will be
always far inferior to a good mother. A mother may often not be able to
explain the reason of the principle on which she acts, but the wisdom
of her plans will generally show itself in the end. Without formal
teaching, she will take every opportunity of showing her children, as
no other instructor could show them, the joy that springs from generous
feelings, and the misery of yielding to selfishness.
From the relation of mother we return by a natural transition to
Woman’s position as a wife. The mother, though her authority of course
tends to decrease, continues to superintend the growth of character
until the ordinary age of marriage. Up to that time feminine influence
over Man has been involuntary on his part. By marriage he enters into
a voluntary engagement of subordination to Woman for the rest of his
life. Thus he completes his moral education. Destined himself for
action, he finds his highest happiness in honourable submission to one
in whom the dominant principle is affection.
Positivism holds out to woman a most important sphere of public and
private duty. This sphere, as we may now see, is nothing but a larger
and more systematic development of the qualities by which she is
characterized. Her mission is so uniform in its nature and so clearly
defined, that there seems hardly room for much uncertainty as to her
proper social position. It is a striking instance of the rule which
applies universally to all human effort; namely, that the order of
things instituted by man ought to be simply a consolidation and
improvement of the natural order.
[Modern sophisms about
Women’s rights. The
domesticity of her life
follows from the principle
of Separation of Powers]
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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