THE DOGMA OF EVOLUTION 



and feelings dominant in this."^ This may be true, 

 but to me it is mere words, and it leaves history for- 

 ever as the great unattainable science. What is the 

 sum total of ideas and feelings of a generation^ If I 

 examine myself, I am bewildered by the complexity 

 and fugitiveness of my own ideas and feelings; those 

 of my own generation are beyond my apprehension ; 

 and those of past generations fade into vacuity. 

 Would it not be utter folly to predict what the next 

 generation will attempt to do in any one field of 

 thought*? If such is to be the basis of history, it may 

 be a science, but if so, science is not the rational and 

 exact guide we fondly hoped it might be. 



Buckle next finds that there are two classes of laws 

 which govern society; the laws of mind, and the laws 

 of matter : history is therefore the result of the actions 

 of external phenomena upon the mind and of mind on 

 external phenomena. This is a maxim tremendous 

 but trite if the two are believed to be separate; it be- 

 comes even more tremendous since we now are asked 

 to combine mind and external phenomena into a sin- 

 gle category. His proof of the utility of this law is 

 seen in the fact that statistics show that the number 

 of suicides, murders, missent letters, and other phe- 

 nomena, are not subject to chance or to what would 

 seem to be individual idiosyncrasies. The discovery 

 of such regularity in the averages of human actions is 

 undoubtedly interesting and has value. In any 



7 Cosmic Philosophy, vol. Ill, p. 348. 



