The  old  system  practised  these  moralities  in  its  best  days ;  but  they
are  now  maintained  only  by  the  revolutionary  doctrine,  which  it
would  be  fatal  to  part  with  till  we  have  some  substitute  in  these
particular  respects ;   for  the  effect  would  be  that  we  should  be
delivered  over  to  the  dark  despotism  of  the  old  system ; — to  the
restorers  of  religions,  for  instance,  who,  if  proselytism  failed,  would
have  recourse  to  tyranny  to'  compel  unity,  if  once  the  principle  of
free  inquiry  were  lost  from  among  us.
It  is  useless  to  declaim  against  the  critical  philosopliy,  and  to
deplore,  in  the  name  of  social  order,  the  dissolving  energy  of  the
spirit  of  analysis  and  inquiry.  It  is_only  by  their  use  that  we  can
obtain  materials  for  reorganization ;  ^iterials  which  shall  have
been  thoroughly  testedTTTy  free  discussion,  carried  on  till  general
conviction  is  secured.  The  philosophy  which  will  arise  out  of  this
satisfaction  oT"the  .public  reason  will  then  assign  the  rational  limits
which  must  obviate  the  abuse  of.  the  analytical  spirit,  by  establish
ing  that  distinction  in  social  matters,  between  the  field  of  reasoning
and  that  of  pure  observation,  which  we  have  found  already  marked
out  in  regard  to  every  other  kind  of  science.
Though  consigned,  by  the  course  of  events,  to  a  negative  doctrine
for  awhile,  society  has  never  renounced  the  laws  of  human  reason  :
and  when  the  proper  time  arrives,  society  ^il^  use  the  rights  of  this

27


418  POSITIVE  PHILOSOPHY.
