164 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



tending our view from separate nations to the 

 whole race, we perceive the law in still greater 

 generality. While some nations have been devel- 

 oping in some faculties, others have been develop- 

 ing in others, and the total movement has been 

 ever onward. Each generation has inherited the 

 faculties of the preceding, still further improved 

 by constant employment. Phoenicians have thus 

 spread commerce through unknown seas ; Greeks 

 have educated the world ; Romans have legislated 

 for it ; Hindus, Jews, and Arabs have given it re- 

 ligions; Germans have deluged it with systems 

 of philosophy ; Frenchmen and Englishmen have 

 given it positive knowledge ; Americans have, 

 by inventive genius, furnished material comforts ; 

 Italians have added the glorious embodiments of 

 beauty, grace, and charm ; and the consensus of 

 the whole is civilization. Retrogression nowhere 

 meets us ; progress meets us everywhere ; and, 

 from the considerations above adduced, we are 

 obliged to conclude that this advance has been 

 one as well of " internal power " as of " external 

 advantage." Mr. Buckle's assertion is, therefore, 

 seen to be not only inconsistent, but also un- 

 founded. 



II. Having now proved, as he thinks, that we 

 must look for progress in " external advantage " 



