Auguste Comte: Thinker and Lover

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CHAPTER PAGE

I THE CHILD AND HIS MOTHER - - - I

II UNDER THE BANYAN TREE i - - 12

CHAPTER I THE CHILD AND His MOTHER N 1797 there lived at Montpellier, in the South

of France, a young merchant, Louis Comte, who had lately had the good fortune to win a beautiful and loving hearted woman and to bring her home as his wife.

Rosalie Boyer, who had become Madame Comte before our narrative begins, was of a deeply religious nature, an ardent Catholic and Royalist. It was nine years after the fall of the Bastille and France was passing through a stage of re-action; the bright hopes of the dawn of a new era for mankind had deen dimmed by the outbreak of cruelty, torrents of blood had been shed as a result of the stimulation of the destructive instinct which so often takes place in times of excitement.

The hopes of the Catholics and Royalists were high that the moment was at hand when the altar and the throne would be re-established. The year before De Maistre had made his famous prophecy that there would either be a wonderful resusitation

I of Christianity or that a new religion would appear. ‘‘ We are approaching ’’, he said, ‘‘ the greatest of religious epochs ’’.

It may have been that echoes of this prophecy had reached Montpellier, that some of the preachers had tried to rouse the enthusiasm of their audiences and stimulate them to the:work needed. Louis Comte, however, kind husband, honest merchant, and faithful Catholic, as he was, was no enthusiast ; he was contented to do his work well and pray for the welfare of his Church and country, but the © heart of Rosalie was a shrine where pure thoughts and earnest hopes. were united and these were now concentrated on the child who was to be born; he would follow in the steps of the Catholic saints | and help to-restore the Church, and of the patriots who had redeemed their land from oppression. For Rosalie there could be no idea of a ‘‘ new religion ’’; for her there was, or could be, only one, the Holy Catholic Faith, and she had no doubt that her child would be a devout son of the Catholic Church.

The old legends in which the mothers of redeemers or demigods had visions before their birth of the - wonders their children were to perform may perhaps be explained by the effect upon the child of prenatal conditions. In truth, the soul of the mother is as surely creating the soul of the child as her body is creating its body, and thus the earnest religious soul of Rosalie was reflected in her son although his opinions differed so widely from her — own. 7

Her son was born on the 19th January, 1708.

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There is a picture at Rio de Janeiro in which she is shown presenting him before the Catholic altar and dedicating him as, it is said, in the old legend, Hannah did the prophet Samuel. This. picture is an idealisation of the artist but we know she did dedicate him in her heart and she named him after three saints of the Catholic Church: Isidore— Auguste—Francois Xavier, and after Mary the» Mother of God. For nine years the child grew up by his mother’s side, with a sister and brother who were born later,and under the care of the father, and these were the happiest years of Rosalie’s life. With all her beloved ones around her she was able to spend herself in their service; this was, as her life and letters clearly shew, her highest idea of happiness.

Isidore, as he was then called, or Auguste, as he is known to the world, was of an ardent affectionate nature and between him and his mother there was a harmony of temperament. From her he learnt to worship the Virgin, the Saints, and the Trinity. With all a child’s wondering veneration and unquestioning faith he knelt by her side and lavished upon that sweet and loving mother the treasure of his childish affection. Many years later, when a noble love had enlightened him as to the true values of life, he realised all that this early training had meant with its revelation of love and faith.

And she, watching over her child and appreciating his marvellous mental power, felt sure that her hopes for his future would be fulfilled, that he would be the chosen vessel who should raise the altar that had been cast down, and establish the throne in righteousness.

The father and mother consulting together were almost terrified at the intellectual development of the boy. Not feeling able to deal with it themselves they sought a tutor who prepared him for the Lycée. This tutor was old, and Auguste, in his eager desire for learning, often arrived with his books in the morning before the old man was up.

When Auguste was nine years old this happy time came to an end, it was decided that he should go as a boarder to the Lycée at Montpellier, and from that day he never again lived at home for any length of time. There is no written record of these nine years but the strength of the attachment between | mother and son can be gathered from her letters and his later writings. He was her “‘ well beloved ’’, her ‘‘ adored son ’’;-to think of him out of health and far from her was ‘‘ heartbreaking ’’; ‘‘ must we be always separated ’’, she writes, ‘‘ What a painful existence!’’ And in his later writings Comte bitterly regrets that he was torn from her care so young. He had an extraordinary capacity for _tenderness and this was now repressed and stunted until middle life. This repression, as is so often the case, re-acted disastrously on his conduct. The bad effect on his development was very present to him and in his ideal of the education of the future, the young boy is not to be sent away to conventual establishments, but to share in domestic life while his education is carried on. He was of course also separated from the rest of his family, from the control of his father (now appointed cashier at the tax office) and the pleasant companionship of sister and brother. It is doubtful whether his sister Alix would ever have helped him much in later life, for, such record as we have of her shews her as of a narrow outlook and quite lacking the tenderness of her mother Rosalie, but Adolphe, the youngest of the three, must have been of a noble nature, he describes in a letter, written to his brother when he was eighteen years of age, how he had been carried away by the idea of military glory, but, on comparing the career of a soldier with that of a doctor, he says that ‘‘ one makes the misery of men and the other succours the unhappy.’’ Shortly after, Adolphe died, and more than twenty years later, Comte, in writing to John Stuart Mill, speaks of having unfortunately lost the brother on whom he counted for fraternal intercourse.

Auguste went to the Lycée and although he had received only a few lessons from the old tutor he rapidly advanced in the school, distinguishing himself in every subject. He was small, delicate and undersized, but of an extraordinary courage, both physical and moral. As a little boy at school his moral courage was shown when before the whole class he expressed his hopes that the Spaniards would be successful in expelling Bonaparte from their country, and later, his physical courage, by his heroic endurance of an operation for the removal of a tumour during which he neither moved nor uttered a sound.

Before he was thirteen ire had absorbed all the

5 * teaching which was given on the literary side in the schools of public instruction, and the Director persuaded his father to let him begin mathematics. In this study he made such progress that at sixteen he gained one of the first places in the examinations for admission to the Polytechnic School of Paris, but could not be admitted for a year as he was too young. |

His mathematical master was Daniel Encontre, for whose method of teaching, and social and philosophic outlook, he had the deepest veneration, expressed in the Dedication to his last work, ‘‘ The Subjective Synthesis ’’. Encontre was delicate, and on one occasion when he was ill Auguste took his place and lectured with great success to his fellow students, standing on a chair to do so because of ©

his short stature. | Thrown as Comte was on his own resources, so young and with his keen and powerful intellect, it was inevitable that he should lose faith in the religion his mother had taught him, and he tells us _ that when he was thirteen he had given up all faith in any outside power, had lost his royalist sympathies and become an ardent republican. Unfortunately, with the beliefs, which he was sure to lose, was bound up much of the moral training he had received and this resulted in unregulated conduct on his part. Most docile in learning, revering those who taught him, and with a friendly fraternal feeling for his fellow pupils, he was very rebellious when tyranny was shown, and was constantly in trouble because of his outspoken opposition to the powers that be.

His fellow pupils admired his great gifts and spoke of his prodigious memory; he could repeat a page which he had only read once.

We are not told at what moment his mother realised that he had fallen away from the belief which contained for her the only salvation, he was so candid and open hearted that it could not long have been concealed from her. We know how she wept and prayed for him through all the years of her life, wept and prayed and loved with no less fervour than Monica for her son Saint Augustine, but her fate was less happy because when Monica lived Catholicism was the force which was moving the west and attracting the vigorous intellects of the day, but when Rosalie strove for her son its power was passing, the new religion was about to dawn on the world. This was sad for her, but, for her son the consequent loss of belief in the moral sanctions was for a time disastrous, and very nearly wrecked his life and work.

Many youths were suffering from moral and mental scepticism, for the women were clinging to the old Catholic faith while the intellect of the time had cast it off and the mothers lost their = on their sons at an early age.

In October, 1814, when he was sixteen and a half, Comte went to the Polytechnic at Paris. This celebrated school had been founded by the National Convention and was carried on in an ancient monastery not far from the Panthéon by the most learned men of France. The revolutionary spirit, which was its tradition, was still strong in the school in spite of the military discipline Bonaparte had instituted. Comte and his fellows strenuously opposed this military discipline, especially their _ being subjected to barrack life. The boy had already judged Bonaparte; it has been told how at ten years of age he objected to his aggression in Spain. Now he saw how by his constant wars he had established tyranny within the Empire and had arrayed all Europe against it without. Such was the judgment of Comte the boy and in later years he speaks - of him as ‘‘ the one who organised in the most disastrous way the worst political retrogression under which Humanity had ever sighed ’’.

Owing, however, to the way in which the Allies had treated France after they had banished Bona- — parte to Elba, he was welcomed as a deliverer when he escaped, and his promises of reform believed. Comte and the other scholars prayed to be allowed to help in freeing their country, and they were drilled and prepared for this purpose. Bonaparte had no chance of carrying out his promises, of showing whether the leopard had indeed changed his spots, for he was quickly overthrown and Louis XVIII installed.

The Republican influence of the Polytechnic stimulated the philosophic and_ social ‘direction Comte’s genius had already taken. Here he met many eminent men, and youths who later became eminent; Poinsot was his mathematical master and under him he made rapid progress. The younges: in the school, and still childish looking and delicate, . his fellow students said of him that he had the mind ois of a mature man, they called him ‘‘ The Thinker ’’. He learnt so quickly that he had plenty of time for private reading. He studied the republican institutions of Europe and America, he compared modern and ancient times, striving to see the Jaw of development; for, already the desire for universal regeneration was strong in his soul, and his constructive genius was so vigorous that almost as soon as he had lost his belief in theology he strove to find the foundation of a new faith.

From his earliest youth he had noticed that the belief in one God, which men had hoped would unite all, had resulted in dividing the Western world between two opposing monotheisms, while the truths of science were gradually uniting all. He concluded that the vague unreality of the theological beliefs could not unite men and his hope turned to science, for he felt that if the scientific method, which gained universal assent and led to rational prevision in the lower sciences, could be applied to social and political questions, uncertainty and revolution would be at anend. Therefore, he strove earnestly to prepare himself by continuous study.

His career at the Polytechnic came to an abrupt end, for when on one occasion a master shewed disrespect to the pupils Comte wrote a letter to him, which all signed, requesting him to resign. The school was already ‘‘ suspect ’’ by the Government because of its republican sympathies, the opportunity was seized to close it for a time and the young Comte was sent back to Montpellier under police supervision.

The distress and the disappointment of his parents can be imagined. The Government appointments were generally given to the pupils of the Polytechnic ‘and Comte, as one of the ablest, would have stood a good chance of an excellent position. Now the prospect was lost and he was thrown back on his own resources. It was impossible for his parents to understand him or his aims. His.passion for spiritual liberty, as a necessary condition of social regeneration, must have seemed mere rebellion to them and must have wrung the devout and submissive heart of Rosalie. This passion was shewn in his delight in the promised freedom of the Press in 1815 and, in the same year, when his friend Valat, still a pupil at the Lycée of Montpellier, told him as a joke that they were given tickets to go to . confession he answered finely that, far from making him laugh, it filled him with indignation: |

‘Poor France!’’ he cries, ‘“‘ unhappy friends” of Liberty. The noble efforts you made, at the peril of your lives to give your fellow citizens the possession of their rights are rendered useless and perhaps you will die the victims of your devotion to the cause of reason and Humanity ’’ !

It is thus that the boy of seventeen writes to his schoolmate. We owe it to the faithful friendship of these two boys, whose correspondence was continued through many years, that much of the life of Comte is known to us.

He remained at home for a few months attending the lectures at the celebrated medical school of

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Montpellier. Once more Rosalie had this beloved son beneath her roof and this would have been happiness to her but it was dimmed by the fact that their outlook on life was different. |

He was bent on returning to Paris for he was already convinced of his mission. The suffering of the people and the disorder of society had touched his heart, he saw the need for reorganisation and felt that he must help in this supreme work. Paris was the centre of thought, there he could find the books he must study and could associate with the men who could inspire and help him. He must be about Humanity’s business, the sorrowing of his parents could not hold him back. They did sorrow, his father only saw that he wanted to go penniless to Paris and would be an expense to him, his mother felt that she would lose him, and also dreaded the temptations of Paris for one of his ardent temperament. All three had formed a correct judgment. Auguste was often an expense to his father and never, even in the best of times, made much more than a bare subsistence; his life and work did lead him far away from his mother’s hopes, and the result of the temptations of Paris nearly wrecked his career, but he did discover and put before the world the regenerating doctrine, and is widely recognised to-day as one of the greatest of the sons

of men.

CHAPTER II UNDER THE BANYAN TREE RRIVED in Paris, Comte began the concen

trated study and meditation which was necessary to attain the results he expected. Poinsot, the eminent geometer, had by no means forgotten his brilliant pupil and helped him to find work in teaching mathematics, which enabled him to live. Just to live was all he cared for, every moment that could be spared from the necessary lessons was given to © study and meditation. Hour after hour he would remain plunged in thought sometimes prolonged through the night. On one occasion, during the conception of the ‘‘ Philosophy ”’, his thought was maintained for eighty hours. This youth, not yet twenty, recalls the legend of the Buddha under the banyan tree, when he also was meditating how to regenerate the life of man.

He saw how the luminous ideas which had inspired the French revolution had apparently passed away, and how its later phases, and the wars of the Empire, had alienated Europe and turned men back to retrograde beliefs.

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He carefully studied the writers of the 18th century; Fontenelle who helped him to his discovery of relativity, Maupertuis whose works on the progress of science and origin of language were of deep interest, Montesquieu whose conception of law and a social organism approached very near to his own, Adam Smith whose masterly use of the historic method in his enquiries into economic and moral questions won his admiration, Fréret who used the scientific method in his historic research, Duclos, the witty writer, whose observations on character are material for positive morals, and who defines virtue as ‘‘ an effort over self in favour of others ’’. Turgot, who vaguely foresaw the ‘‘ Law of the Three Stages ’’ and whose wise administration and enlightened philanthropy almost prevented the Revolution, Diderot, the encyclopedic thinker who, had the time been ripe, might have been the founder of the Positive Philosophy, and Hume who was indeed largely its founder.

Comte also studied De Maistre, whose work on the Pope enabled him to avoid the error of the eighteenth century thinkers and to appreciate the Middle Ages. |

Had he needed more inspiration he would have found it in the condition of Paris at this time. In a letter to Valat he speaks of the misery of the people who were starving, and with indignation of the luxurious life of others, the dances, the extravagance and the ostentation. How greatly the social regeneration was needed !

He “‘ plunged in thought again ’

> and soon made his first important discovery. The space in which we see abstract forms and which had been considered the most distant objective existence, was not objective at all, but subjective, created by the mind of man. This conception, which Condorcet had not reached but which Kant had foreshadowed, was intimately connected with his second discovery of relativity.

The statement of this truth: ‘‘ Tout est relatif; viola la seule chose absolue ”’ is found in a publication called ‘‘ L’ Industrie ’’, which appeared at the end of September, 1817, and marked the complete revolution in the human outlook: the absolute truth was no more to be looked for, all had to be considered in relation to time and place. This was a necessary condition of bringing scientific observation to bear on history and was the preparation for the science of sociology of which Comte was to become the founder. The important work of Einstein, a hundred years later, was an illustration in science of this philosophic truth. Comte had pointed out that the ‘‘Law of gravitation’’ might be superseded by further knowledge. Yet how slow the world has been in comprehending all the bearings of Comte’s discovery.

About this time Comte came into contact with St. Simon in whom he thought he had found the successor of the 18th century thinkers and, won by the charm and apparent sincerity of this popular idol, he devoted himself to .him with enthusiastic veneration. It was an unfortunate acquaintance, for it drew his attention away, for a time, from the construction of positive philosophy to political action, it led him into premature writing and, for the moment, stimulated the desire of immediate fame and prosperity.

Comte has himself selected from his writings of this period the sentences which were of permanent value. One was the truth quoted above; another : ‘‘ The liberty of the press gives a consultative authority to all citizens’’. This connection with ~S$t. Simon could not last long for the disciple was so much greater than the master that, as his thought developed, he found out the fallacies and shallowness of the man he had regarded as a great thinker. The reputation of St. Simon gradually declined while that of Comte became one of the

“Immortal lights That rise up slowly in the sky And shine there everlastingly.”

By 1824 all connection between them had ceased.

At this period of Comte’s life, his neglect of his mother is much to be regretted, she was wearing her heart out in anxiety for him at Montpellier. He wrote seldom and in the letters from home there is a constant cry for more frequent news. . The father tells him how his mother, suffering from nervous fever, recovered at once on receiving a letter from him, and she speaks of her suffering while waiting for letters. Probably the cause was not only his _ concentration on his work but the difficulty of telling her of his life; the work that absorbed him, had she understood it, would have filled her with grief, and in his private life, as we shall see presently, he knew he was neglecting the precepts of his childhood.

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How could he write to her of these things! They had no mutual acquaintances about whom he could have told her details; it was not possible for his sincere nature to make anything up. The utmost he could do was to conceal, and his letters to Valat shew his anxiety that his parents shall not hear things that would hurt them, such as his relationship with St. Simon. Like so many men in early youth he was not fully alive to the meaning of a mother’s love and suffering, and in his lonely life there were none of the daily acts of kindness which develop tenderness and consideration for others.

But his absorption in the social purpose of his ~ life never failed, and in 1818, in a letter to Valat, speaking of standing armies, he says:

‘* The thorough examination that I have so far been able to give to politics has convinced me that this institution is, to-day, the only obstacle to social organisation from whatever point of view it be regarded.”’

He points out that a standing army is not suitable for defence, and instances the wars in America, Spain, Germany and France, which were all won by the armed citizens under the names of Guerillas, Landwehr, Landsturm and Carmagnoles. The perpetual peace proposed by Henri IV and Sully cannot be brought about by kings, for ‘‘ Royalty ’’, he says, ‘‘ has been from the beginning an essentially military affair’’, and even in England has lost it very incompletely; for peace to come about, the people must have a voice in the State.

In 1819 there are expressions of the deep social feeling by which he was inspired and of the clear thought which he brought to bear upon social life. Valat had written that he wished to live in the country, Comte answers that he also hoped some day to do so and, if he consulted his own taste only, should agree with him entirely, but he asks whether there was not some selfishness in the thought and points out that to live for men is also necessary for happiness. He writes:

‘** My friend, this hard-working open-hearted and worthy class of men that we both love is oppressed, it is basely robbed by its superiors who nevertheless profit entirely by the fruit of its labours. That it may no longer minister to the infamous luxury and base idleness of its masters, that the social order organised to-day. for the benefit of useless people may become organised for the useful, there my friend is a duty for us, for us who have come from the oppressed classes and may by our education and our gifts do something to bring about this great change. A number of capable men,

allowing themselves to be led away by the temptations of wealth and power, place themselves under the banner of the oppressors, others, more honest, who will not do this, are yet content to be peaceable spectators of the struggle. But who then will be on the side of the weak? You my friend you will join, we will join, a small number of enlightened men who will work openly to free the many from the tyranny and pillage of the few, you will not be content to be neutral you will give your help to the general cause. In times less fortunate than ours those who had clearly seen the sad lot of the working classes might limit themselves to declining to share the plunder, being persuaded of the impossibility of making the slightest effort for the workers against the idle, but to-day it is not so, thanks to the progress of knowledge and of civilisation that which was formerly but a dream can begin to be realised, — war, luxury, poverty, legal and organised } plunder can disappear gradually. It is possible by gentle and easy methods to establish peace firmly and to bring comfort to the mass of the people ”’

In an essay ‘‘ The Separation of Opinions and

Aspirations ’’ he points out that the mass of the people have the aspirations, they know the need and must say what they would have, it is for the rulers to carry out their wishes. But between the two there must be the skilled men who will say how this is to be done. Special knowledge and skill is needed here even more than in physical, chemical, or medical sciences where the need of skilled men is considered unquestionable. _ These men would form the Spiritual Power, which _he wanted to see established, with philosophic outlook above the specialist men of science of whatever department of knowledge.

It has been said, by many who were deeply interested in Comte’s method of dealing with science but had no wish to see it carried on to the reorganisation of society, that the latter part of his life and work were out of harmony with the earlier part, but his earliest inspiration was concerned with the reorganisation of life and the replacing of the old by the new Spiritual Power, in fact his first idea was that this could be brought about directly, was only after further consideration that he saw that the whole knowledge of the past must be understood and science carried into social matters before this could be accomplished; his devoted labours of more than twelve years were deliberately undertaken as foundation for the supreme task of his life.

In 1820 he wrote the essay, ‘‘ A Brief Estimate of Modern History ’’, in which he traced the double movement, the gradual decline of the theologico-military system and the growth of the positive or pacific-industrial state. He also shewed the contrast between France and England as the central or local power prevailed.

The appointment of Poinsot, as a member of the Committee of Instruction, gave Comte hope that he would get some public post as teacher of mathematics which would make his livelihood less precarious. Whilst preparing himself for the scientific work he -hoped to do he attended a course of lectures on astronomy by. Delambre. They were mutually attracted and the old man took the youth to his home to continue his instruction.

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In 1822, when he was in his 25th year, Comte wrote the essay, ‘‘ Plan of the Scientific Operations Necessary for Re-organising Society ’’, which was a remarkable forecast of the whole of his life’s work and shews an almost incredible width of view and intellectual power in so young a man.

Only in two points it did not attain the reality and completeness of his mature work; he had not yet disentangled the science of morals from sociology, and he attributed to intellectual energy the advance which further experience convinced him was the result of social feeling.