General View of Positivism — Chapter 6 Conclusion. The Religion Of Humanity Part 3

Comparisons, too, may be instituted, in which the poet, without specially attacking the old religion, will indicate the superiority of the new.

The attributes of the new Great Being may be forcibly illustrated, especially during the time of transition, by contrast with the inferiority of her various predecessors.

All theological types are absolute, indefinite, and immutable; consequently in none of them has it been possible to combine to a satisfactory extent the attributes of goodness, wisdom, and power.

Nor can we conceive of their combination, except in a Being whose existence is a matter of certainty, and who is subject to invariable laws.

The gods of Polytheism were endowed with energy and sympathy, but possessed neither dignity nor morality.

They were superseded by the sublime deity of Monotheism, who was sometimes represented as inert and passionless, sometimes as impenetrable and inflexible.

But the new Supreme Being, having a real existence, an existence relative and modifiable, admits of being more distinctly conceived than the old; and the influence of the conception will be equally strong and far more elevating.

Each one of us will recognize in it a power superior to his own, a power on which the whole destiny of his life depends, since the life of the individual is in every respect subordinate to the evolution of the race.

But the knowledge of this power has not the crushing effect of the old conception of omnipotence.

For every great or good man will feel that his own life is an indispensable element in the great organism.

The supremacy of Humanity is but the result of individual co-operation; her power is not supreme, it is only superior to that of all beings whom we know.

Our love for her is tainted by no degrading fears, yet it is always coupled with the most sincere reverence.

Perfection is in no wise claimed for her; we study her natural defects with care in order to remedy them as far as possible.

The love we bear to her is a feeling as noble as it is strong; it calls for no degrading expressions of adulation, but it inspires us with unremitting zeal for moral improvement.

But these and other advantages of the new religion, though they can be indicated by the philosopher, need the poet to display them in their full light.

The moral grandeur of man when freed from the chimeras that oppress him, was foreseen by Goethe, and still more clearly by Byron.

But the work of these men was one of destruction; and their types could only embody the spirit of revolt.

Poetry must rise above the negative stage in which, owing to the circumstances of the time, their genius was arrested, and must embrace in the Positive spirit the system of sociological and other laws to which human development is subject, before it can adequately portray the new Man in his relation to the new God.

[Organization of festivals, representing statical and dynamical aspects of humanity] There is yet another way in which Art may serve the cause of religion;

that is, in organizing the festivals, whether private or public, of which, to a great extent, the worship of Humanity will consist.

For this purpose esthetic talent is far more required than scientific, the object in view being to reveal the nature of the great Organism more clearly, by presenting all aspects of its existence, static or dynamic, in idealized forms.

These festivals, then, should be of two kinds, corresponding to the two essential aspects of Humanity; the first illustrating her existence, the second her action.

Thus we shall stimulate both the elements of true social feeling; the love of Order, namely, and the love of Progress.

In our static festivals social Order and the feeling of Solidarity, will be illustrated; the dynamic festivals will explain social Progress, and inspire the sense of historical Continuity.

Taken together, their periodic recurrence will form a continuation of Positive education.

They will develop and confirm the principles instilled in youth.

But there will be nothing didactic in their form;

since it is of the essence of Art not to instruct otherwise than by giving pleasure.

Of course the regular recurrence of these festivals will not prevent any modifications which may be judged necessary to adapt them to special incidents that may from time to time arise.

The festivals representing Order will necessarily take more abstract and austere forms than those of Progress.

It will be their object to represent the statical relations by which the great Organism preserves its unity, and the various aspects of its animating principle, Love.

The most universal and the most solemn of these festivals will be the feast of Humanity, which will be held throughout the West at the beginning of the new year, thus consecrating the only custom which still remains in general use to relieve the prosaic dullness of modern life.

In this feast, which celebrates the most comprehensiveness of all unions, every branch of the human race will at some future time participate.

In the same month there might be three festivals of a secondary order, representing the minor degrees of association, the Nation, the Province, and the Town.

Giving this first month to the direct celebration of the social tie, we might devote the first days of the four succeeding months to the four principal domestic relations, Connubial, Parental, Filial, and Fraternal.

In the sixth month, the honourable position of domestic service would receive its due measure of respect.

These would be the static festivals; taken together they would form a representation of the true theory of our individual and social nature, together with the principles of moral duty to which that theory gives rise.

No direct mention is made of the personal instincts, notwithstanding their preponderance, because it is the main object of Positive worship to bring them under the control of the social instincts.

Personal virtues are by no means neglected in Positive education; but to make them the objects of any special celebration, would only stimulate egotistic feeling.

Indirectly their value is recognized in every part of our religious system, in the reaction which they exercise upon our generous sympathies.

Their omission, therefore, implies no real deficiency in this ideal portraiture of human faculties and duties.

Again, no special announcement of the subordination of Humanity to the laws of the External World is needed.

The consciousness of this external power pervades every part of the Positive system; it controls our desires, directs our speculations, stimulates our actions.

The simple fact of the recurrence of our ceremonies at fixed periods, determined by the Earth’s motion, is enough to remind us of our inevitable subjection to the fatalities of the External World.

As the static festivals represent Morality, so the dynamic festivals, those of Progress, will represent History.

In these the worship of Humanity assumes a more concrete and animated form; as it will consist principally in rendering honour to the noblest types of each phase of human development.

It is desirable, however, that each of the more important phases should be represented in itself, independently of the greatness of any individual belonging to it.

Of the months unoccupied by static festivals, three might be given to the principal phases of the Past, Fetichism, Polytheism, and Monotheism; and a fourth to the celebration of the Future, the normal state to which all these phases have been tending.

Forming thus the chain of historical succession, we may consecrate each month to some one of the types who best represent the various stages.

I omit, however, some explanations of detail given in the first edition of this General View, written at the time when I had not made the distinction between the abstract and concrete worship sufficiently clear.

A few months after its publication, in 1848, the circumstances of the time induced me to frame a complete system of commemoration applicable to Western Europe, under the title of _Positivist Calendar_[12].

Of this I shall speak more at length in the fourth volume of the present treatise.

Its success has fully justified me in anticipating this part of my subject.

To it I now refer the reader, recommending him to familiarize himself with the provisional arrangement of the new Western year then put forward and already adopted by most Positivists.

[Worship of the dead.

Commemoration of their service] But the practice need not be restricted to names of European importance.

It is applicable in its degree to each separate province, and even to private life.

Catholicism offers two institutions in which the religion of the family connects itself with public worship in its most comprehensive sense.

There is a day appointed in Catholic countries in which all are in the habit of visiting the tombs of those dear to them; finding consolation for their grief by sharing it with others.

To this custom Positivists devote the last day of the year.

The working classes of Paris give every year a noble proof that complete freedom of thought is in no respect compatible with worship of the dead, which in their case is unconnected with any system.

Again there is the institution of baptismal names, which though little thought of at present, will be maintained and improved by Positivism.

It is an admirable mode of impressing on men the connexion of private with public life, by furnishing every one with a type for his own personal imitation.

Here the superiority of the new religion is very apparent;

since the choice of a name will not be limited to any time or country.

In this, as in other cases, the absolute spirit of Catholicism proved fatal to its prospects of becoming universal.

These brief remarks will be enough to illustrate the two classes of festivals instituted by Positivism.

In every week of the year some new aspect of Order or of Progress will be held up to public veneration;

and in each the link connecting public and private worship will be found in the adoration of Woman.

In this esthetic side of Positive religion everything tends to strengthen its fundamental principle of Love.

All the resources of Poetry, and of the other arts of sound and form, will be invoked to give full and regular expression to it.

The dominant feeling is always that of deep reverence proceeding from sincere acknowledgment of benefits received.

Our worship will be alike free from mysticism and from affectation.

While striving to surpass our ancestors, we shall yet render due honour to all their services, and look with respect upon their systems of life.

Influenced no longer by chimeras which though comforting to former times are now degrading, we have now no obstacle to becoming as far as possible incorporate with the Great Being whom we worship.

By commemoration of past services we strengthen the desire inherent in all of us to prolong our existence in the only way which is really in our power.

The fact that all human affairs are subject to one fundamental law, as soon as it becomes familiarly known, enables and encourages each one of us to live in a true sense in the Past and even in the Future; as those cannot do who attribute the events of life to the agency of an arbitrary and impenetrable Will.

The praise given to our predecessors will stimulate a noble rivalry; inspiring all with the desire to become themselves incorporate into this mighty Being whose life endures through all time, and who is formed of the dead far more than the living.

When the system of commemoration is fully developed, no worthy co-operator will be excluded, however humble his sphere; whether limited to his family or town, or extending to his country or to the whole West.

The education of Positivists will soon convince them that such recompense for honourable conduct is ample compensation for the imaginary hopes which inspired their predecessors.

To live in others is, in the truest sense of the word, life.

Indeed the best part of our own life is passed thus.

As yet this truth has not been grasped firmly, because the social point of view has never yet been brought systematically before us.

But the religion of Humanity, by giving an esthetic form to the Positivist synthesis, will make it intelligible to minds of every class: and will enable us to enjoy the untold charm springing from the sympathies of union and of continuity when allowed free play.

To prolong our life indefinitely in the Past and Future, so as to make it more perfect in the Present, is abundant compensation for the illusions of our youth which have now passed away for ever.

Science which deprived us of these imaginary comforts, itself in its maturity supplies the solid basis for consolation of a kind unknown before; the hope of becoming incorporate into the Great Being whose static and dynamic laws it has revealed.

On this firm foundation Poetry raises the structure of public and private worship; and thus all are made active partakers of this universal life, which minds still fettered by theology cannot understand.

Thus imagination, while accepting the guidance of reason, will exercise a far more efficient and extensive influence than in the days of Polytheism.

For the priests of Humanity the sole purpose of Science is to prepare the field for Art, whether esthetic or industrial.

This object once attained, poetic study or composition will form the chief occupation of our speculative faculties.

The poet is now called to his true mission, which is to give beauty and grandeur to human life, by inspiring a deeper sense of our relation to Humanity.

Poetry will form the basis of the ceremonies in which the new priesthood will solemnise more efficiently than the old, the most important events of private life: especially Birth, Marriage, and Death; so as to impress the family as well as the state with the sense of this relation.

Forced as we are henceforth to concentrate all our hopes and efforts upon the real life around us, we shall feel more strongly than ever that all the powers of Imagination as well as those of Reason, Feeling, and Activity, are required in its service.

[All the arts may co-operate in the service of religion] Poetry once raised to its proper place, the arts of sound and form, which render in a more vivid way the subjects which Poetry has suggested, will soon follow.

Their sphere, like that of Poetry, will be the celebration of Humanity; an exhaustless field, leaving no cause to regret the chimeras which, in the present empirical condition of these arts, are still considered indispensable.

Music in modern times has been limited almost entirely to the expression of individual emotions.

Its full power has never been felt in public life, except in the solitary instance of the _Marseillaise_, in which the whole spirit of our great Revolution stands recorded.

But in the worship of Humanity, based as it is on Positive education, and animated by the spirit of Poetry, Music, as the most social of the special arts, will aid in the representation of the attributes and destinies of Humanity, and in the glorification of great historical types.

Painting and Sculpture will have the same object; they will enable us to realize the conception of Humanity with greater clearness and precision than would be possible for Poetry, even with the aid of Music.

The beautiful attempts of the artists of the sixteenth century, men who had very little theological belief, to embody the Christian ideal of Woman, may be regarded as an unconscious prelude to the representation of Humanity, in the form which of all others is most suitable.

Under the impulse of these feelings, the sculptor will overcome the technical difficulties of representing figures in groups, and will adopt such subjects by preference.

Hitherto this has only been effected in bas-reliefs, works which stand midway between painting and sculpture.

There are, however, some splendid exceptions from which we can imagine the scope and grandeur of the latter art, when raised to its true position.

Statuesque groups, whether the figures are joined or, as is preferable, separate, will enable the sculptor to undertake many great subjects from which he has been hitherto debarred.

In Architecture the influence of Positivism will be felt less rapidly;

but ultimately this art like the rest will be made available for the new religion.

The buildings erected for the service of God may for a time suffice for the worship of Humanity, in the same way that Christian worship was carried on at first in Pagan temples as they were gradually vacated.

But ultimately buildings will be required more specially adapted to a religion in which all the functions connected with education and worship are so entirely different.

What these buildings will be it would be useless at present to inquire.

It is less easy to foresee the Positivist ideal in Architecture than in any other arts.

And it must remain uncertain until the new principles of education have been generally spread, and until the Positivist religion, having received all the aid that Poetry, Music, and the arts of Form can give, has become the accepted faith of Western Europe.

When the more advanced nations are heartily engaged in the cause, the true temples of Humanity will soon arise.

By that time mental and moral regeneration will have advanced far enough to commence the reconstruction of all political institutions.

Until then the new religion will avail itself of Christian churches as these gradually become vacant.

[Positivism is the successor of Christianity, and surpasses it] Art then, as well as Science, partakes in the regenerating influence which Positivism derives from its synthetic principle of Love.

Both are called to their proper functions, the one to contemplate, the other to glorify Humanity, in order that we may love and serve her more perfectly.

Yet while the intellect is thus made the servant of the heart, far from being weakened by this subordinate position, it finds in it an exhaustless field, in which the value of its labours is amply recognized.

Each of its faculties is called directly into play, and is supplied with its appropriate employment.

Poetry institutes the forms of the worship of Humanity; Science supplies the principles on which those forms are framed, by connecting them with the laws of the external world.

Imagination, while ceasing to usurp the place of Reason, yet enhances rather than diminishes its original influence, which the new philosophy shows to be as beneficial as it is natural.

And thus human life at last attains that state of perfect harmony which has been so long sought for in vain, and which consists in the direction of all our faculties to one common purpose under the supremacy of Affection.

At the same time all former efforts of Imagination and Reason, even when they clashed with each other, are fully appreciated; because we see that they developed our powers, that they taught us the conditions of their equilibrium, and made it manifest that nothing but that equilibrium was wanting to allow them to work together for our welfare.

Above all do we recognize the immense value of the mediaeval attempt to form a complete synthesis, although, notwithstanding all the results of Greek and Roman civilization, the time was not yet ripe for it.

To renew that attempt upon a sounder basis, and with surer prospects of success, is the object of those who found the religion of Humanity.

Widely different as are their circumstances and the means they employ, they desire to regard themselves as the successors of the great men who conducted the progressive movement of Catholicism.

For those alone are worthy to be called successors, who continue or carry into effect the undertakings which former times have left unfinished; the title is utterly unmerited by blind followers of obsolete dogmas, which have long ceased to bear any relation to their original purpose, and which their very authors, if now living, would disavow.