M. Comte's theory is liable to another objection, the force of which he seems, in some measure, although inadequately, to have felt and acknowledged. The three states or stages, which he describes as necessarily _successive_, are, in point of fact, _simultaneous_. They do not mark so many different eras in the course of human progress,--they denote the natural products of man's intelligence, the constituent elements of his knowledge in _all_ states of society. The Theological, the Metaphysical, and the Scientific elements have always coexisted. Diverse as they may be in other respects, they resemble each other in this,--they are all the natural and spontaneous products of man's intelligent activity. That they were, to a certain extent, _simultaneous_ at first, and that they are _simultaneous_ still, is actually admitted by M. Comte, while he conceives, nevertheless, that they are radically incompatible with each other;[86] and their coexistence hitherto is felt by him to be a serious objection to his fundamental law, which represents them not only as _necessarily successive_, but also as _mutually exclusive_. The fact is admitted, and that fact is fatal to his whole theory. For if the three methods have coexisted hitherto, why may they not equally coexist hereafter? And what ground is left for the reckless prediction that Theology is doomed, and _must_ fall before the onward march of Positive Science? If man was able from the beginning to observe, to compare, to abstract, and to generalize, and if the fundamental laws of human thought have been ever the same, it follows that there must have been a tendency, coeval with the origin of the race, towards Theological, Metaphysical, and Inductive Speculation, and that the same tendency must continue as long as his powers remain unchanged. It can only, therefore, be a _preponderance_, more or less complete, of one of the three methods over the other two, that we should be warranted in expecting, _even under the operation of M. Comte's favorite law_; and yet he boldly proclaims the utter exclusion of Metaphysics, and the entire and everlasting elimination of Theology, as branches of human knowledge!