This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1908. Excerpt: ... CHAPTER II Comte's First Phase For a very short time Comte classed himself, along with others who aimed at continuing the work of the revolutionists against the reaction, simply as a political liberal. This youthful stage is just perceptible in his earliest correspondence; but it was not long before another side of his mind responded to the influences of the counterrevolution. As in the case of Hegel, personal circumstances had little or nothing to do with this. The conservative element in Hegel's mind is clearly marked in his first great work, written before he occupied any official position. So Comte, making the transition with more precocity from his early revolutionary enthusiasm, expressed to his friend Valat his sense of the relative justification of the party that was content if it could preserve order against anarchy. The revolutionary party, he found, had no constructive plan. The destructive work of the eighteenth century had now been sufficiently accomplished. A new synthesis must be thought out before any further direct action ought to be undertaken. When this was adequately developed, it would be found to supersede mere 'negativism, ' or revolutionary liberalism and free thought, as well as the old theology, by a programme whicli the conservative party or its dictators, no longer fearing social dissolution, would see the wisdom of accepting at the hands of' positive' thinkers. In his quest of constructive ideas Comte thought at first that he had found what he desired in the social projects of Henri de SaintSimon (1760-1825), with whom he came into contact in 1818. Saint-Simon is a characteristic figure of the transition from the eighteenth century to the nineteenth. A noble of reforming aspirations, he had with varied success devoted himself t...