comte, auguste - the positive philosophy vol III

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tion whether colonization on the whole advanced or retarded the evolution of modern society. On the one hand, it opened a new career to the military spirit by land and sea, and there was a revival of the religious spirit, from its suitability to the less civilized populations abroad; and thus the theological and military regime was protracted, and the time of reorganization was set further off. But again, the new extension of human relations improved the existing idea of the final regeneration, by showing how it was destined to include the whole human race, and thus condemning the policy, then very common, of systematically destroying the races of men, in despair of incorporating them. Again, by the stimulus which colonization imparted to industry, its social and political importance was so much enhanced that, on the whole. I have no doubt that the general progress was accelerated by this great new European event,— though by no means to the extent commonly supposed. It is a true remark of some of the most eminent of the Scotch philosophers, that some countries, which by their geographical position, or from other causes, have had least share in colonization, have benefited quite as much by it as the rest, and some even more. The main diversity in modes of colonization results from its being effected under Catholic and monarchical, or Protestant and aristocratic rule. Dutch colonization. with the regular destruction of products that it caused in the Indian Archipelago, is an example of the last mode, which encourages individual activity and rapacity and national selfishness. In the other case, the enterprise has more of a political than an industrial character. If we compare the colonial system of Spain, and even of Portugal, with that of Holland and England, we find in it, not only a systematic concentration, Catholic and monarchical, of the ruling, power, but a complement of the retrograde policy organized at home: for it opened a new sphere of personal advantage to the priesthood and nobility, and at the same time an outlet for the restless activity which imperilled the system in the mother country. So that I suspect, as several philosophers have done. that for Spain, at least, the colonial movement was a social retardation.

I cannot quit this part of my subject without entering my protest, together with that of all philosophy, against the rapacity by which the great colonizing movement has been everywhere disgraced. Three centuries after personal emancipation had been obtained in Europe, Catholicism, in its decay, not only sanctioned but instigated the extermination of whole races, and the institution of a slavery infinitely more dangerous than that which, in its better days, it had so nobly assisted to

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overthrow. I need not repeat my condemnation of the disgraceful anomaly of modern slavery, nor the grounds of that condemnation. As to the reaction of this monstrous crime on European civilization,—it indirectly favours the retrograde or stationary spirit, by preventing the true philosophical extension of the generous elementary principles of modern progress, since their most active defenders are apt to find themselves checked, in the midst of ostentatious philanthropic demonstrations, by their person interest in the maintenance of the most oppressive policy. In this particular respect, Protestant nations are at a disadvantage in comparison with Catholic; for, enfeebled as the power of the priests now is, it has mitigated, by a perpetual beneficent intervention, its own great original offense; whereas, the legalized spiritual anarchy of Protestantism leaves entire impunity to private oppression, except that it admits the inert restraint of a few temporal rules, generally framed and always s applied by the oppressors themselves. The excuse now commonly offered for slavery, that it promotes the civilization of the enslaved race, will not stand a moment’s examination, and is of a wholly injurious tendency to the cause of civilization itself. If the enslavement took place on the spot, under circumstances analogous to those of ancient times, it is conceivable that benefit might arise to both parties at that stage of barbarism: but when the slaves are transplanted to, as it were, a subsequent age, the natural progression of the people of Africa is fatally interfered with. It is fatally rash to attempt to hasten processes so slow and so vast, at the rise of introducing uncontrollable calamities, even if the method were as generous as it is odious. As it is, the promoters of this disastrous institution must at length accept, in their own social retardation and embarrassment, the just punishment prepared for them by all the fundamental laws of human society.

Our third period extends from the expulsion of the Huguenots from France, and the political triumph of the English aristocracy, to the beginning of the French revolution. It is the same which, in the former connection, I called the Deistical period; and here again we find the positive and the negative progression coinciding. In the last period we saw that extending industry was regarded as the necessary basis of military superiority, which was still the chief consideration with governments. But during the period we now have to examine, a remarkable inversion gradually took place; an inversion which must be regarded as the greatest advance which it is possible for society to make during the existence of the old regime, and beyond which it is impossible to pro-

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ceed but by entering upon a total reorganization. Here begins the last phase of warfare,—that series of commercial wars in which, at first spontaneously and then systematically, the military spirit retires behind the industrial, and strives to retain its place in the social economy by Conquering advantageous settlements for each nation, or by destroying the resources of foreign competition. Lamentable as have been some of the conflicts of this kind, the policy must be regarded as progress, inasmuch as it announces the decay of military activity, and the preponderance of industry, which is thus established, in a temporal sense, as the principle and the aim of modern civilization. The change was evident enough in the strifes about monarchy and aristocracy, and in other features of the second period; but it was not till the eighteenth century that the subordination of military to industrial action was decisively settled throughout Western Europe,—the Colonial system, founded under the preceding phase, having been the main cause of this kind of conflict.

As to the other points of view of the relations of industry,—it advanced mole rapidly during the last period in England than on the Continent, because the Protestant spirit, and the close connection between the aristocratic and the mercantile classes, are favourable both to the self-reliance and the selfishness which have hitherto belonged to industrial life; whereas, the lingering influence of Catholicism in continental countries, the greater sociality of temper and manners, the cosmopolitan character of the negative philosophy, and the want of affinity between kings and the industrial classes, have wrought together to leave the superiority to England. That provisional superiority may be no advantage; for it protracts the military and theological system, which was incorporated in their case with the industrial; and it tends to the encouragement of an insatiable cupidity, and the repression of generous national sympathy; and thus there is a risk of future retribution for the provisional industrial prosperity of England.

The interior organization of industry has been largely affected by its peculiarity of offering interest and scope to a variety of minds; so that the most active and energetic men have entered it more and more eagerly, as it grew in social importance, while military life became the refuge of men of inferior ability or perseverance,—especially among the lower classes. The flood of cupidity which desolated France when Law’s scheme was afloat proved that it was from no intellectual and moral superiority that the proud upper classes despised industrial life, but only from an aversion to work. The spectacle was not so openly

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shameful in Protestant countries, though the same temper might exist. The alliance between aristocracy and industry must disguise the alienation of spirit: but not the less was the energy of the national mind investing itself in industry, and its indolence, incapacity, and pride in war. Another interior element of progress was the expansion of the system of public credit, which began, as we have seen, in the Italian and Hanse towns, but which could not fulfil its function completely till industrial interests had become incorporated, —first as a means and then as an end,—with the whole European polity. Its most decisive extension was woolen, out of the great financial companies, arose the class of bankers, to be the head of the industrial interest, through the superior generality of their habitual views: and from the moment when they became actually a part of the commercial body, instead of being outside of it as at first, they formed a bond between all the other parts, which aided their organization. At this time, again, genuine relations began to be established between science and industry. The opposite elements, the abstract and the practical, had long been approximating, and Colbert had shown the power of their junction. But it was in the eighteenth century that they showed what they would do by their union. Before, there had been scarcely any arts, but navigation and medicine, in which any great scientific progress had been made: now it was not only the whole so stem of geometrical and mechanical arts, but the more complex and imperfect physical and chemical arts, that rapidly advanced. And now arose in consequence that remarkable intermediate class, small but rapidly augmenting, of engineers, whose business it is, as I pointed out in my folder volume, to regulate the relations of science and industry. Their action in England and France has been characteristic of the social and political differences of the two countries:—the English showing the wonderful resources of free private instinct, backed by voluntary associations; and the French prepare the way for a genuine final reorganization of labour of every kind. Again; during this period, modern industry began to manifest its philosophical character,—till then discernible only by careful historical analysis. The time was come for it to appear as the systematic action of Man upon the external world, guided in the knowledge of natural laws. The two great inventions, of the steamengine and the balloon, spread the true conception,—the one by its actual operation, and the other by the bold but fairly grounded hopes which it awakened. If theology had before disclosed its anti-industrial tendencies, industry now clearly revealed its anti-theological character. Under

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polytheism, the antagonism between the supposed divine order of the universe and Man’s power to interfere with that economy for his own advantage, could be evaded: but monotheism placed the question in the from rank by its hypothesis of providential optimism. The admirable organization of Catholicism deferred the settlement of the question by avoiding collision with industry as long as possible; but when the theological system was in decay; and industry was rising from day to day the final conflict could not but be destructive to the religious view. That view had become totally incompatible with the extension of Man’s action upon nature: and thus was the industrial element brought into radical and permanent hostility to the theological and military powers, under whose shadow it had grown up. And thus was the most popular mental action of all brought into alliance with the other forces which were engaged in the destruction of the theological philosophy.

We have now traced the industrial movement through its three peri- ods:—its spontaneous rise, under Catholic and feudal guardianship,—

its systematic encouragement by governments, as a means of political supremacy,—and its establishment as a permanent end of European policy, with the subjection of war to its service. It is evident that nothing remains to be looked for but the advent of a corresponding political system; of which I shall have more to say hereafter. We must now proceed to survey the intellectual movement, aesthetic, scientific, and philosophical, which was going on at the same time. This review may be very brief in comparison with that which we have just concluded, for tin intellectual evolution is less complex than the industrial, less subject to historical misrepresentation, and less important in regard to the constitution of modern society, being restricted to a small class, and capable of a merely modifying action thus far, however active and eminent its Alteration is destined to be at a future time. It is not compatible with my object to notice any but the social properties of the three intellectual elements, and I shall not therefore enter on the special history of any of them, but merely sketch their rise, character, and development,—begin- ning with the aesthetic.

The function of the aesthetic faculties is to afford an ideal and sympathetic representation of human sentiment,—personal, domestic, and social; and their condition therefore can never be any sufficient test of the corresponding civilization. This is the only element of those which I have to consider in this chapter that is common to the military and theological, and the industrial and positive systems. The best way therefore

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of ascertaining its state at any particular time is, not by regarding it by itself, lout by looking at those characteristics of modern civilization with which it is incorporated, to ascertain its share in them, and observe what new properties it may have disclosed. Considering the strong human interests which abounded in the medieval period, it is evident that the Fine Arts must have been favoured by it. The sense of personal independence was then energetic; domestic life had a strength and beauty in it unknown in ancient times; and the defensive wars of the period stimulated social activity. The Catholic and feudal system was undoubtedly more favourable to the Fine Arts than any preceding regime, if only it had had more stability. The cathedrals, which were in fact museums of music, painting, sculpture, and architecture, were one evidence of this; and another was the organization which permitted an unequalled encouragement of individual genius. But, on the other hand, the vague, abstract, inflexible character of monotheistic articles of belief was incompatible with aesthetic development, arid it was the social condition of the period. and not its philosophy, that was favourable to the Fine Arts; the ease being an inversion of the polytheistic, in which it was the doctrine and not the corresponding regime, that so largely developed aesthetic genius. Under the feudal encouragement of that order off genius, we see it assuming the forth of an ideal faith in the old polytheism, Greek, Roman, Scandinavian, or Arab. It appears to me that we here find the cause of the supposed opposition to the Fine Arts and decline of their influence, which Play well be ascribed to the neutralizing effect of this logical inconsistency. Depending thus on social influences in that age, the aesthetic action must begin to show itself as soon as the Catholic and feudal constitution was sufficiently mature; and its opening period is marked by the institution of chivalry, while its main development was occasioned, for two centuries onward, by the Crusades, in which the whole moral energy of Europe was concentrated. All historical testimony agrees in asserting the extreme eagerness of all the classes of European society for that kind of mental action, which suited all capacities, affording, excitement for the feeble in intellect and diversion for the strong. And this was happening in the age which moderns have thought proper to call dark, and in the two countries, England and France, where the system of that age existed in its most perfect state. The admiration excited by the fine Arts, then and there, was far more energetic and universal than any ardour felt by some few ancient peoples for the works of their time. Italy was soon to eclipse every other country, but we have

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Dante’s assurance that the Italian inspiration was derived from southern France, where the feudal system was stronger and the Catholic feebler than in Italy.

We must remember the delay and difficulty that were occasioned by the state of language in that age. There might be little apparent result from this long stage of preparation for the full development of the Fine Arts, but it was not the less true that earnest labour, and much power of an aesthetic kind, were absorbed by this task. Languages, and especially modern languages, are the result of a slow popular elaboration, in which the corresponding civilization is reflected: but the work must be taken up and carried out by the higher order of intellect: and the aesthetic order particularly,—both because it is the most naturally active. and because it is concerned with expression, and therefore, in an eminent degree with language. This is particularly the case when the thing to, be done is not to create all original language. but to transform an existing one, as a necessary consequence of a new social state. The aesthetic faculties having to represent, in the strength of nature, the ideas and feelings inherent in actual common life, could never speak a dead or a foreign language, except by artificial habit; and we see how they must have been occupied, long and sedulously, in the Middle Ages, in aiding and directing the spontaneous formation of the modern languages, though it is the fashion to suppose them lying idle at the very time that they were laying the foundations of the great social monuments of European civilization. It was poetry chiefly that was thus kept back, and music, in an accessory way; but the other three arts were more or less hindered, through their connection with the chief and most universal.

The chief feature of the intellect of that age is its originality and popular character, testifying to its being derived from the corresponding social state. Amidst all the reproaches about the abandonment of ancient worlds, we well know that the reading class of that time, who spoke Latin, must have read the Latin authors very diligently. But there was a growing feeling of the incompatibility between the rising aesthetical spirit and an exclusive admiration of works that related to a state of society now extinct. Besides this, it was insisted by Catholicism that the new social state was better than the old, insomuch that when the socalled restoration of letters took place, and the worlds of the ancients were brought up again, it was mainly owing to the reaction against the Catholic spirit which set in when it ceased to be progressive. Meantime, the spontaneous character of the new development required its perfect

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separation from one which belonged to a wholly different social state. For instance. Italy the old Roman monuments; and therefore. while superior to all the rest of the world in other branches of the fine arts, she fell behind in architecture, because Catholicism and feudalism were erecting edifices more adapted to the civilization which they were thus to immortalize in the memory of mankind. We find the same originality in every branch of the arts. In poetry especially we find it in its expression of the manners of chivalry; and again in its disclosures of the new importance of domestic life in the scheme of modern existence. A new order of compositions hence arose, such as the ancients could not have conceived of because it relates to that private life of which they knew so little, and treats of public life only in so far as it reacts upon the private. This order of worlds, since so expanded as to have become the exponent of modern civilization must be referred to the age under our notice, though a servile admiration of ancient literature has caused too great a neglect of the first worlds in what is significantly called the vulgar tongue,—a term which, however inappropriate now, I accept as historically true.

We have here found the origin of the aesthetic development of modern society: but it is not possible to dwell upon it to any purpose. Not only must the social state be very marked, but it must also be permanent, to favour the effect of the fine arts; because that effect requires a close and established harmony of ideas and feelings between the interpreter and the spectator. These conditions were fulfilled in antiquity; but they have never been so since, in any adequate degree, nor can be till we attain a fully positive state. It is because the intervening, period has been a transition stage, that the permanent results of the aesthetic movement have been so disproportioned, to the energy of its rise. The anomaly is not explained be any suppositions of the decay of the aesthetic faculties in Man, nor by any complaints of his devotion to the works of antiquity: but it is explained by the instability of Man’s social condition, which has been undergoing successive transitions, such as could not lout neutralize the necessary universality of art,—strong, and original, and popular as was its first evolution in the Middle Ages. Each social phase was dissolved before its spirit hail penetrated the general mind and heart, so as to make it an immortal theme for the poet or the artist. The spirit of the Crusades, for instance, favourable to the loftiest poetry, was lost before the modern languages were formed which should have idealized then for ever: whereas every social condition among the

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ancients was so durable that. from age to age, Art found the popular passions and affections identical with those which it had to refer to a yet remoter time. The fine arts will never recover their full social efficacy till a perfect reorganization places Man once more in a condition of social stability.

Taking the Middle Ages, as hitherto as comprehending the nine centuries between the fifth and the fourteenth, we shall find the condition of the fine arts during that period to correspond with the contemporary condition of industry. When serfage succeeded to slavery; the new social state afforded materials for a beginning in art, and an excitement of its; faculties: when the town populations were personally emancipated, art was occupied in the preparation of the modern languages: and when the industrial policy of towns was originated, and the rural population finally freed the arts obtained a direct development, according to the nature of the corresponding civilization. The reign of Charlemagne, occurring about, the middle of the period may be taken as the date of the effectual stimulation of the elements of modern civilization. We have seen what were the characteristics of the nascent art of the period; and we have now to learn what were its characteristics, and what its relation to the pre-existing powers, from the beginning of the fourteenth century onwards; in other words to observe the influence of industrial civilization on Catholic and feudal Art.

The first influence was in awakening mental activity, and in affording ease and security, without which Art could be neither understood nor enjoyed. Mental stimulus is first afforded by gross and urgent wants; and no great enjoyment can attend that sort of activity: and, at the other end of the scale of mental operations, the exercise of the scientific and philosophical faculties is attended with fatigue, which becomes insupportable, except in rare cases of organizations peculiarly fitted for abstract contemplation. Between these two extremes, we find the exercise of the aesthetic faculties, affording the pleasure of moderate activity and of an agreeable mingling of thought and emotion, such as the generality of men are capable of enjoying. Thus it appears that Art affords a suitable transition from the active to the speculative life. There can be no doubt that the relation of the arts to practical life became closer in proportion to the substitution of the industrial for military pursuit. While slavery and war made up the social economy, it is clear that the fine arts could not be popular, nor indeed enjoyed at all beyond the limits of the highest class of free men,—except in a partial and circumscribed way,

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in a portion of Greece. Every where else the popular recreation consisted in bloody sports, in imitation of their favourite mode of activity. When Industry became a true social element, the Catholic and feudal manners, penetrating the whole of society, prepared its humblest households for more or less enjoyment of Art, which from that time forward was destined to spread among the multitude, and become also a social element, which it had never been, in the slightest degree in ancient times. In its inverse action, it counteracted the lamentable restriction, mental and moral, which is the attendant danger of industrial activity. Aesthetic education thus begins what scientific and philosophical education must finally achieve; so as to furnish a means of filling up the chasm which is provisionally occasioned by the disuse of religious observances,—highly needful formerly as intellectual relaxation from industrial labour. Throughout Europe, the aesthetic movement followed close upon the industrial, tempering its dangers by inciting a more general and disinterested mental activity than was required by daily tasks, and awakening the benevolent affections by means of enjoyments which were vivid in proportion as they were unanimous. In individual cases too exclusive a devotion to the fine arts may have occasioned mental and moral deterioration; but in a general way, they have prevented too strong a preponderance of the material life, and have sustained a degree of speculative ardour which will hereafter be instrumental to the highest objects. In a more special way, we may regard the development of the fine arts as being, connected with the technical improvement of industrial operations, which can never be perfected among nations untrained to the pursuit of ideal perfection. This is particularly the case with regard to the numerous arts relating to external form, and thus connected with architecture, sculpture and even painting, through so long a gradation of minute differences that it is sometimes impossible to draw the line between the artistical and the industrial. The technical superiority of populations familiar with art is so evident, that it is the ground of the efforts of modern governments to propagate aesthetic education as a security for industrial success amidst the commercial competition of the European nations.

Notwithstanding its natural advantages, Art could be only negative in its character and indecisive in its influence, during the critical period of the last five centuries. If it took for its subject the ancient faith and manners which alone had comprehended universal ideas and sympa- thies,—the Catholic faith was dying out, and the feudal manners were