On society

Preface

At the close of a very long and busy life I now collect my last thoughts as a real testamentum in procinctu. Bidding farewell to history, biography, and letters, I wish to gather up some of the attempts to teach the people — which now for more than fifty years have been the serious purpose of my life. I am the only survivor of those at home or abroad that had personal interviews with Auguste Comte, whom I went to see in Paris in 1855. In books, such as my Autobiographic Memoirs, 1911, Creed of a Layman, 1908, and elsewhere, I have stated the very gradual steps by which the Positive Philosophy — and ultimately the Religion of Humanity — absorbed me ; and when a body of men and women who shared this belief began to form in England about 1870, I took part in the task of making these known to the public. From 1880 to 1905 I was chosen to lead the society which had its centre at Newton Hall. From that time my main business was engaged, by lectures there and by essays in the Positivist Review (1893-1918), to develop the moral, social, and religious meaning

vii viii ON SOCIETY

of the Positive system. This book is a summary of what we sought to popularise and to teach.

It will appear from these addresses that we had no idea of forming either a sect or a political 'party, nor even a Church in any narrow sense. From the first all those with whom I was associated, and myself as leader and guide, treated the scheme of Comte as an Ideal which the future might work out, but of which we could only form a School to influence opinion. Everything we did was open to the public, gratuitous, and informal. We made no terms for adhesion in any degree, no rules or pledges, no attempt at legislative action. We were simply a group of men who aimed at guiding public opinion — attacking none, never disturbing any genuine faith, not seeking any personal power or privilege. The Lectures I now issue were part of the Courses which I gave frequently at Newton Hall and elsewhere to several Positivist Societies in various cities. As there was nothing in them of exclusive dogma or formal sect, they were delivered or repeated to sundry Ethical or Free Thought Societies in England and in America, at which I had been invited to speak.

The second Part contains as specimens some of the Annual and Occasional discourses which I gave regularly at Newton Hall ; and these will show the scheme of education and the kind of propaganda which we sought to make known. Almost without exception, those who took part

PREFACE ix

in the movement had been bred in homes and in schools devoted to Gospel and Church. And the majori^ of those who lectured had been trained in Science as their profession. Our School has been maintained now for more than forty years on the same lines ; and when our younger men return from War service, it will no doubt be developed with fresh energy and experience.

This book, therefore, is the plain record of the practical work of a School for the People. It is not a systematic scheme of philosophy, much less does it pretend to literary art. The chapters are spoken lectures printed in the exact words in which they were uttered — always designed so as to be easily understood by the general public, at times using popular and unconventional %rm. As the audience was somewhat fluctuating, and those who came might not have heard preceding lectures and might not hear others, the course was purposely infused with not a little repetition. Reiteration of thought is a familiar instrument of the teacher of Ethics ; and it was not necessary to delete this altogether. It will be observed that the terms Humanism and Positivism are used as practically equivalent ; and Scientific or Demonstrative are taken as meaning Positivist.

I have thought it right to include my replies to the elaborate criticisms of Mr. Mill on Comte. For the earlier career of Auguste Comte, Mill was a whole-hearted supporter ; and to the last x ON SOCIETY

remained practically a Positivist with some very deeply opposed convictions of his own. These were specially marked in his famous book On Liberty — to which this book On Society is in some sense a rejoinder. I am well aware that the reputation and the influence of Mr. Mill are much less in 1918 than what they were in their highwater mark of 1868. But, as he had long known and studied Comte, had carried on constant discussions with him, and, above all, as he had supplied the literary and scientific critics of Comte with all the best of their materials ; and since Mr. Mill's objections to the religion and polity of Positivism still retain their hold on many minds, I have met his arguments as those which Positivism has to meet if it can win the attention of Liberal Thought and Religious Reform. I follow too the beautiful example of Mr. Mill, who associated the work of which he was most proud with her to whom he owed so much inspiration and guidance. I dedicate this, my last public utterance, to my Wife, who heard these words spoken and who lived and died in perfect sympathy with all that they maintain. They are hardly more my own thoughts and hopes than they are the thoughts and hopes of Her, who is to me ever while I yet live : —

Bath, August 191 8.

CONTENTS PART I

LECTURE I

The Ethic of Humanism .

PAGE

LECTURE II

LECTURE III

The Functions of the State . . . .56

LECTURE IV

LECTURE V Economic Duties . . . . . .111

LECTURE VI xi xii ON SOCIETY

LECTURE VII

The Future of the Working Classes . . .158

PAGE

LECTURE VIII

LECTURE IX

LECTURE X

LECTURE XI

LECTURE XII

The Morals of the Intellect . . . .276

NOTE On Newton Hall ...... 293