152 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



I. Mr. Buckle begins by denying that the nat- 

 ural faculties of man are in a course of develop- 

 ment. " Here, then, lies the gist of the whole 

 matter. The progress is one, not of internal 

 power, but of external advantage. The child born 

 in a civilized land is not likely, as such, to be su- 

 perior to one born among barbarians, and the dif- 

 ference which ensues between the acts of the two 

 children will be caused, so far as we know, solely 

 by the pressure of external circumstances; by 

 which I mean the surrounding opinions, knowl- 

 edge, associations, in a word, the entire mental 

 atmosphere in which the two children are re- 

 spectively nurtured." * 



This is only bringing up again the old dispute 

 about " the innate " and " the acquired," which 

 has raged for centuries among metaphysical 

 thinkers, but which we thought had been satis- 

 factorily settled by the physiologists some time 

 before Mr. Buckle penned the above passage. 

 After it had been proved that every organism is 

 constantly advancing in the vigour and complexity 

 of its functions in relation to the conditions which 

 surround it, nothing more was needed. But Mr. 

 Buckle appears to have forgotten this. He not 

 only ignores some of the late results of physiolog- 



i Vol. i. p. 162. 



