If  we  contemplate  the  positive  spirit  in  its  relation  to  ^^^^^^
scientific  conception,  rather  than  the  mode  of  procedure  pers^dingtheab-
we  shall  find  that  this  philosophy  is  distinguished  from  °°'""''
the  theologico-metaphysical  by  its  tendency  to  render  relative  the
ideas  which  were  at  first  absolute.  This  inevitable  passage  from
the  absolute  to  the  relative  is  one  of  the  most  important  philosophical
results  of  each  of  the  intellectual  revolutions  which  has  carried  on
every  kind  of  speculation  from  the  theological  or  metaphysical  to
the  scientific  state.  In  a  scientific  view,  this  contrast  between  the
relative  and  the  absolute  may  be  regarded  as  the  most  decisive
manifestation  of  the  antipathy  between  the  modern  philosophy  and
the  ancient.  All  investigation  into  the  nature  of  beings,  and  their
first  and  final  causes,  must  always  be  absolute ;  whereas  the  study
of  the  laws  of  phenomena  must  be  relative,  since  it  supposes  a  con-
tinuous progress  of  speculation  subject  to  the  gradual  improvement
of  observation,  without  the  precise  reality  being  ever  fully  dis-
closed :  so  that  the  relative  character  of  scientific  conceptions  is
inseparable  from  the  true  idea  of  natural  laws,  just  as  the  chimeri-
cal inclination  for  absolute  knowledge  accompanies  every  use  of  the-
ological fictions  and  metaphysical  entities.  Now,  it  is  obvious  that
(he  absolute  spirit  characterizes  social  speculation  now,  wherever  it
exists,  as  the  different  schools  are  all  agreed  in  looking  for  an  im-
mutable political  type,  which  makes  no  allowance  for  the  regular
modification  of  political  conceptions  according  to  the  variable  state
of  civilization.  This  absolute  spirit,  having  prevailed  through  all
social  changes,  and  their  corresponding  philosophical  divergences,
is  now  so  inherent  in  existing  political  science  that  it  affords  amid
all  its  enormous  evils,  the  only  means  of  restraining  individual  ec-
centricities, and  excluding'the  influx  of  arbitrarily  variable  opinions.
