178 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



charge of selfish passion. Indeed, he elsewhere 

 expresses it as his own opinion that the clergy 

 have been strongly influenced, in their vindictive 

 attempts to destroy or injure those dissenting 

 from their views, by motives of ambitious policy. 

 We have no doubt that such motives have always 

 been of immense power among this class of men, 

 as well as among other classes. But we will not 

 urge this or any similar objection against Mr. 

 Buckle's grand argument. We will merely call 

 attention to the circumstance that a man's " moral 

 feeling," his " moral instinct," his " conscience," 

 or whatever any one chooses to call it, is a natural 

 faculty. In other words, ethical emotions, being 

 functions of the nervous system, are natural facul- 

 ties. And we have already shown that the nat- 

 ural faculties of mankind develop. The refuta- 

 tion of Mr. Buckle's first grand argument carries 

 with it the refutation of the second. 



III. It carries with it, likewise, the refutation 

 of the third. For the proposition that civilization 

 is regulated, not by the " stationary agent," but 

 by intellectual acquirement, can have no value, 

 unless it be proved that moral feeling is the " sta- 

 tionary agent." But this cannot be proved. On 

 the contrary, it has been shown that our powers, 

 both moral and intellectual, are continually devel- 



