POSITIVE SOCIETY 323 POSTAGE STAMPS matics (number, geometry, mechanics), astronomy, physics, chemistry, biology, and sociology. It relinquishes attempts to transcend the sphere of experience, and seeks to establish by observation and induction laws or constant relations, and resigns iself to ignorance of the agents. In the opinion of its founder it is cap- able of being developed into a religion and a polity. POSITIVE SOCIETY, a society found- ed in Paris in 1848, by Comte, in the hope that it might exert as powerful an influence over the revolution as the Ja- cobin Club had exerted in 1789. In this he was disappointed, but the disciples who gathered around him were the germ of the Positivist Church. POSITIVISM, the religion of Human- ity, developed from the positive philos- ophy, and claiming to be a synthesis of all human conceptions of the external order of the universe. Its professed aim, both in public and private life, is to se- cure the victory of social feeling over self-love, of altruism over egotism. POSSE COMITATUS, a force or body which the sheriff of a county is empow- ered to raise in case of riot, possession kept on forcible entry, rescue, or other attempt to oppose or obstruct the execu- tion of justice. POSSESSION, a word having several applications : 1. The act or state of pos- sessing or holding as owner or occu- pant; the state of owning or being mas- ter of anything; the state of being seized of anything; occupancy ; ownership, rightful or wrongful. 2. That which is possessed; property, land, estate, or goods owned. 3. A district, or extent over which a person or thing has pow- er or authority. 4. The state of being possessed or under the power of evil spirits, passions, or influences; madness, lunacy. 5. An idea, a prepossession, a presentiment. In civil law, the holding or having as owner or occupier, whether rightfully or wrongfully; actual seizing or occupancy. In international law, a country or terri- tory held by mere right of conquest. In Scriptures, the taking possession of the body or spirit by demons or devils. They produced bodily disease or defect as dumbness (Matt, ix: 32-34), blindness and dumbness (xii: 22-30) epilepsy with dumbness (Mark ix: 17-27); and a wo- man who had had a spirit of infirmity 18 years is described as bound that length of time by Satan (Luke xiii: 16). Mentally, the possession by an unclean spirit^ produced symptoms almost indis- tinguishable from those of madness (Mark v: 2-20). Jesus, when on earth, cast out demons (Matt, iv: 24). POSSIET, CONSTANTIN NICO- LA VICH, a Russian naval officer; born in 1819; early entered the navy; was Minister of Ways of Communication in 1874-1888. While holding this office he made extensive improvements in the har- bors and waterways of Russia; was president of the Russian Association for Saving Life, and established most of the life stations in Russia. From 1889 to 1899 he was a member of the Council of State. He died in St. Petersburg, May 8, 1899. POST, GEORGE BROWNE, an Amer- ican architect; born in New York City in 1837; studied with Richard M. Hunt; designed numerous private residences and public buildings; and became presi- dent of the American Institute of Archi- tects, the National Arts Club, and the American Society of Civil Engineers. He died in 1913. POSTAGE STAMPS, a term employed to indicate not really a stamp or impres- sion, but a printed label pasted on pack- ages and letters to show that the cost of carriage has been already paid. Such stamps may be issued by the govern- ment or by carrying companies. The term in the main is restricted to stamps issued by stable governments, and in such case the stamps have a recognized value in accordance with the amount indicated on their face. The two main divisions are adhesive stamps and stamps actually engraved in the envelope. The adhesives are placed on the matter to be delivered, and this has been the method in vogue since 1840, when Row- land Hill conceived his uniform Penny Postage plan and succeeded in having it established in Great Britain. Up to that time it had been the custom to charge for the transportation of letters and pack- ages in proportion to the distance cov- ered, and these charges often mounted to a considerable sum, such as "twelve pence" or 24 cents for a distance of 250 miles. The charges were also usu- ally not prepaid, and there was frequent loss to the carrying company in cases of refusal of payment on the part of the addressee. The great growth in cor- respondence which followed the innova- tion and the trifling cost involved in the production of stamps guaranteed its suc- cess from a financial point of view from the start. The use of the prepaid stamp speedily spread to other countries, and was gradu- ally taken up by the governments of the different nations with the assumption by these governments of the national
