1The establishment of this great principle is the most important result of my System of Positive Philosophy. This work was published 1830–1842, with the title of Course of Positive Philosophy, because it was based upon a course of lectures delivered 1826–1829. But since that time I have always given it the more appropriate name of System. Should the work reach a second edition, the correction will be made formally: meanwhile, this will, I hope, remove all misconception on the subject.

2[Comte afterwards added a seventh science, Ethics, (see vol. ii of System of Positive Polity).]

3[See Cabanis, Rapports du physique et du moral de l’homme, V^e memoire, where he speaks of ‘les restes de l’esprit de chevalerie, fruit ridicule de l’odieuse fÉodalitÉ.’]

4Philosophy—the love of wisdom.

5[Written in 1848.]

6On reconsideration, Comte saw fit to withdraw this proposal. See Positive Polity, vol. iv, ch. 5, p. 351.

7[Clotilde de Vaux, see Testament d’Auguste Comte, p. 550].

8This law was introduced by Royer-Collard. It forbids discussion of the private affairs of public men.

9[Testament d’Auguste Comte, p. 556].

10[This story Lucie is republished in Vol. i of System of Positive Polity.]

11Toute la suite des hommes, pendant le cours de tant de siÈcles, doit Être considÉrÉe comme un mÊme homme qui subsiste toujours et qui apprend continuellement.—Pascal, PensÉes, Part I, Art. I. [The whole succession of men during the course of so many centuries should be considered as one Man ever living and constantly learning.]

12[See The Positivist Calendar, edited by H.G. Jones (W. Reeves, 1905).]

13[Tableau Historique des progrÈs de l’Esprit Humain, Paris, 1900.]

14[The Republic of 1848.]

15[This report was republished in Revue Occidentale, July 1889; see also an article and a document published by M. Pierre Laffitte in the same review in January, 1890.]

16[This committee was formed in 1903.]

17This report was republished in Revue Occidentale, September, 1885.

18The relative position here assigned to England and Germany is reversed in the fourth volume of the Politique Positive.