It is then towards the idea of humanity as their centre that the scientific, social and religious ideas of Auguste Comte converge. If this convergence be perfect, his work is accomplished. Henceforth mental and moral anarchy is cured; political and religious anarchy is about to disappear. Unity will be everywhere re-established. This is already done in the understanding, since henceforth all our conceptions are homogenous, that is to say positive, since the same method is made use of in all our researches, since finally the whole sum of the sciences is regulated from the social point of view. Unity is also accomplished in the whole soul, since the intellect, henceforth conscious of its laws and of its essential functions, subjects itself to the heart, to be directed by love. Finally, unity will be brought about in society, since a new spiritual power, possessed of universally admitted principles, will give to all men and women a common education, will teach them all the same morality, and will rally them all within a same religion of love and goodness. The harmony which is realised in the individual soul is the symbol and, as it were, the guarantee of the harmony which will be established in the social body. Undoubtedly, obstacles remain to be overcome. The positive spirit must still struggle to become altogether universal. The old mental _régime_ will not disappear without struggles which, Comte foresees, will be both formidable and bloody. But these crises, however acute they may be, cannot prevent the human evolution from taking place in accordance with its law. FOOTNOTES: [354] Lettres à Valat, p. 54, (15 mai 1818). [355] Cours, III, 232 sq. [356] Cours, IV, 810-11; Pol. pos. I, 363-5. [357] Cours, IV, 365. [358] Pol. pos. I, 221. [359] Cours, IV, 351. [360] Pol. pos., II, 59. [361] Pol. pos., I, 341. [362] Pol. pos., I, 411. [363] Catéchisme positiviste, p. 30-31. [364] Pol. pos., I, 411. [365] Discours sur l’esprit positif, 75-6. [366] Pol. pos., I, 346-7. [367] Pol. pos. II, 60-62. [368] Pol. pos., 262. [369] Pol. pos., IV, 36. CONCLUSION