146 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



ment of physical knowledge which ushered in the 

 present century was followed by the appearance 

 of the " Philosophic Positive" of Auguste Comte. 

 In this noble work, social as well as physical 

 changes are shown to conform to invariable laws. 

 Comte thus founded social science, and opened a 

 path for future discoverers. But he did not per- 

 ceive, any more than previous inquirers, the fun- 

 damental law of human evolution. It was re- 

 served for Herbert Spencer to discover this all- 

 comprehensive law, which is found to explain 

 alike all the phenomena of man's history and 

 all those of external nature. This sublime dis- 

 covery, that the Universe is in a continuous 

 process of evolution from the homogeneous to the 

 heterogeneous, with which only Newton's dis- 

 covery of the law of gravitation is at all worthy 

 to be compared, underlies not only physics, but 

 also history. It reveals the law to which social 

 changes conform. 



This preliminary glance is necessary, in order 

 to comprehend the relation of Mr. Buckle's work 

 to the treatises on social science which have pre- 

 ceded it. Mr. Buckle is one of that series of 

 philosophers who, from Plato downwards, have 

 studied human affairs. The Introduction to his 

 " History of Civilization in England " is similar 



