Mr. Buckle s Fallacies. 201 



one else. In his delineations of wars, civil revolu 

 tions, and especially of religious persecutions, he 

 seems to believe in spite of himself that &quot; moral 

 feelings &quot; do exercise as much power over men as 

 &quot; intellectual acquisitions ; &quot; and that the effects 

 produced by the former are quite as lasting as 

 those produced by the latter. He repeatedly rec 

 ognizes the fact that our desires and impulses in 

 fluence us strongly in the acceptance and defence 

 of opinions. In speaking of the Scotch clergy, 

 he attributes their tyrannical enforcement of su 

 perstitious notions to an inordinate desire for 

 power, not to a mistaken interest in the welfare 

 of others. After noticing the profound reverence 

 of the Scotch people for their clergy, he observes : 

 &quot; It is not surprising that the clergy, who at no 

 period and in no nation have been remarkable 

 for their meekness, or for a want of confidence in 

 themselves, should, under circumstances so emi 

 nently favourable to their pretensions, have been 

 somewhat elated, and should have claimed an 

 authority even greater than that which was con 

 ceded to them. ... It was generally believed that 

 whoever gainsaid the clergy would be visited, not 

 only with temporal penalties, but also with spir 

 itual ones. For such a crime, there was punish 

 ment here, and there was punishment hereafter 



