[Footnote 48: Auguste Comte et la philosophic positive. 8vo. 1863.]
I extract from different parts of these volumes the passages in which the fundamental doctrine is most clearly expressed:
"Positive philosophy is the whole body of human knowledge. Human knowledge is the result of the study of the forces belonging to matter, and of the conditions or laws governing those forces." [Footnote 49]
[Footnote 49: Ibid., p. 42.]
"The fundamental character of positive philosophy is, that it regards all phenomena as subjected to invariable natural laws, and considers as absolutely inaccessible to us, and as having no sense for us, every inquiry into what is termed either primary or final causes." [Footnote 50]
[Footnote 50: Cours de philosophic positive, by M. Auguste Comte, vol. i, p. 14.]
"The scientific path, in which I have, ever since I began to think, continued to walk, the labors that I obstinately pursue to elevate social theories to the rank of physical science are evidently, radically, and absolutely opposed to everything that has a religious or metaphysical tendency." [Footnote 51]
[Footnote 51: Auguste Comte et la philosophic positive, by M. Littré, p. 194.]
"My positive philosophy is incompatible with every theological or metaphysical philosophy, and consequently equally so with every corresponding system of policy." [Footnote 52]