 This cosmic character of positive politics helps to understand what could appear as an inconsistency. After 1851, Comte proposed to divide France into nineteen ‘intendances’. Such a suggestion is quite puzzling since it is incompatible with the received view that he was a supporter of centralisation. However, the inconsistency disappears as soon as we take into account the distinction between temporal power and spiritual power. Centralisation applies only to spiritual power (Comte had clearly in mind the Papacy) and temporal power is by nature local. There are many passages where the correlation is clearly stated. This follows from the fact that the mind is not limited by boundaries; a spiritual power has no choice but to be catholic, that is, universal. Its domain is the planet Earth.