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PREFACE.

Had it not been from the fear of causing pain to a relation, I should have felt it my duty to put my name to this work; in order that any censure passed upon it, should fall upon myself alone.

I feel deeply indebted to Mr. TRUELOVE for the service he has done me in its publication; and the more so that he has been actuated, by no means by a full acquiescence in its opinions, but by a generous desire to promote the free discussion, and earnest investigation, of the most important, though unfortunately most neglected, subjects. In particular, he is desirous to afford expression to whatever may throw light upon the great social difficulties, and the condition and prospects of the poor and oppressed classes. He wishes to give to the author the opportunity of advocating his views, and to the reader that of examining them, and forming his own conclusions.

I earnestly hope that the time is not far distant, when each individual shall be enabled freely to bring forward his conscientious beliefs, without incurring the intolerance of others; and when the subjects of the following pages shall be generally understood, and openly discussed.

December, 1854.

PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION.

In the present edition of this work, a fourth part, on Social Science, has been added, in which I have endeavoured to present in a somewhat more systematic form the views advocated in the earlier parts, and have also given a short outline of the chief laws of political economy. Most of the additional matter has already appeared in a small periodical, the Political Economist and Journal of Social Science, which was discontinued some time ago.

In giving to the work the title of the Elements of Social Science, instead of its original one of Physical, Sexual, and Natural Religion, it need scarcely be said that I do not make the slightest pretension to have offered any comprehensive or adequate exposition of this great science. My chief reason for changing the title was, that the Malthusian Principle and the laws of nature involved in it, are in my opinion incomparably the most important elements of social science; so much so, that, while they enable us readily to comprehend the chief social phenomena, the theory of society without them is in reality a mere chaos. I was very desirous also, as far as lay in my power, to direct attention to that science, whose name has of late years been gradually becoming more familiar to the public, and whose character and method have been so admirably described by Mr. Mill in his Logic, and by M. Auguste Comte in his Positive Philosophy. Although differing entirely from the latter writer on many of the most vital points of moral and social doctrine, (and especially in regard to the principle of population, the truth and importance of the sciences of political economy, logic, psychology, and metaphysics, properly so

called, the sphere of woman, the marriage question, &c.,) I cannot here refrain from expressing the profoundest admiration of the manner in which he has carried out the leading idea of his great and noble work. No single work has ever done so much to emancipate the human mind from the fatal errors of supernaturalism in any form, or to prepare the way for the great intellectual regeneration, when mankind shall be united in a purely natural faith, and when human life shall again be governed by sincere and openly expressed convictions.

The characteristic principles of positive philosophy, as shown by M. Comte, are in the first place, to regard all phenomena as determined by invariable natural laws; and secondly, in the inquiry into the laws of phenomena, rigorously to exclude, as unreal and unfit for consideration, all causes which are not themselves susceptible, either of demonstration by means of evidence, or of direct perception by our consciousness. Positive philosophy therefore excludes all supernatural or theological causes, whether first or final, together with those fictitious, or, to use M. Comte's expression, metaphysical entities, such as gravity, attraction, vital essence, &c., which have been so often supposed to account for phenomena, especially in the earlier periods of philosophy. M. Comte classifies the abstract sciences in six great departments, gradually ascending in their order of complexity and dependence, namely, mathematics, astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and social science. He shows that each of these sciences has, in the course of its development, passed through the theological and metaphysical stages; and that all of them have been gradually emancipated from these erroneous methods of philosophizing, and have attained more or less completely the positive stage, with the exception of social science, the last and the most important of all. "This branch of science," he says, "has not hitherto entered into the domain of positive philosophy. Theological and metaphysicai methods, exploded in other departments, are as yet exclusively applied, both in the way of inquiry and discussion, in all treatment of social subjects, though the best minds are heartily weary of eternal disputes about divine right and the sovereignty of the people. This is the great, while it is evidently the only gap which has to be filled,

to constitute, solid and entire, the Positive Philosophy. Now that the human mind has grasped celestial and terrestrial physicsmechanical and chemical; organic physics, both vegetable and animal, -there remains one science, to fill up the series of sciences of observation-Social physics. This is what men have now most need of; and this it is the principal aim of the present work to establish."

I believe that a very large proportion of thinkers in this and other countries, thoroughly agree with the following opinion expressed by Miss Martineau in the preface to her admirable translation of M. Comte's work:-"The only field of progress is now that of Positive Philosophy, under whatever name it may be known to the real students of every sect."

November, 1859.