Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 147 



to the works we have just mentioned, in attempt- 

 ing to discover the laws which regulate the prog- 

 ress of society ; and in many respects it surpasses 

 them all. Mr. Buckle, it is true, gives us no 

 new method of research, like Comte; nor does 

 he, as we shall see, discover any universal law, 

 like Spencer. Yet, in the boldness and com- 

 prehensiveness of his views, and in the fearless 

 candour with which they are stated ; in the 

 wealth of his erudition, and in the honesty with 

 which he applies his facts ; in the noble love of 

 liberty which pervades his work, and in the elo- 

 quence which invests all parts of it with an un- 

 dying charm, he has had few equals in any age. 

 Feeling that it is but just to pronounce our 

 opinion at the outset, we say this with the more 

 readiness, both because in the course of this crit- 

 icism we shall be compelled to differ from him on 

 many points of vital importance, and especially 

 because Mr. Buckle's work has been received 

 with a bitter and contemptuous hostility on the 

 part of many reviewers, which cannot have failed 

 to excite much groundless prejudice against the 

 author and his doctrines. Not only is it that the 

 merits of the work have been lost sight of, while 

 its defects have been exaggerated to an enormous 



