In a text of 1822, Prospectus des travaux scientifiques nécessaires pour réorganiser la société, Comte sketches out the main lines of his philosophy of history, illustrating for the first time the «law of three stages». While criticizing both reactionary and revolutionary doctrines, Comte admits that the most mankind can do to effect its own progress is to modify the speed at which civilization advances, but not its basic nature. The theological roots of his theory are already evident in this "opuscule fondamental", but become more manifest in the Cours de philosophie positive, through his praise of Bossuet’s Discours sur l’Histoire universelle and in his last work, Système de politique positive, where he tries to establish a new religion, the Religion of Humanity.
Keywords: Progress, civilization, sociology, industrial society, Religion of Humanity