THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



thought. They will certainly not learn from any phys- 

 icist how to correlate atoms of matter and thought. 



The first explicit attempt to treat history as a 

 science began with Buckle's History of Civilization 

 in England and, although his conclusions have mostly 

 been proved to be inadequate, his method of treat- 

 ment is still accepted as the basis of the science of 

 history. He is also the ancestor of Mr. H. G. Wells's 

 Outline of History in which the governments, the 

 habits, the customs of modern times are not only 

 traced back to the earliest records of human history 

 but are linked to the vast and dim life of our bestial 

 ancestry. Buckle introduces his subject by saying that 

 historians have collected much material, but they 

 have not combined it into a homogeneous science. 

 This narrow standard has been very prejudicial to the 

 progress of our knowledge, and history has not fol- 

 lowed other fields of inquiry in which the necessity of 

 generalization is universally admitted. The historian 

 should first acquire a broad knowledge of political 

 economy, of statistics, of ecclesiastical affairs, and of 

 the physical sciences. This is a large programme of 

 preparation in addition to the historical records which 

 must also be mastered. That he took this idea seriously 

 is shown by the fact that he lists some five hundred 

 and ninety-eight titles from which he quoted, and of 

 these comparatively few refer to works other than 

 purely historical. It is no wonder that he reluctantly 



C 310 J 



