192 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



ticism, and the period of science. Mr. Buckle's 

 law has this much of truth in it, that the scepti- 

 cal age is the necessary forerunner of the scien- 

 tific ; that in the race, no less than in the indi- 

 vidual, doubt must intervene between belief and 

 knowledge. 



We shall now briefly consider Mr. Buckle's 

 fourth fundamental law, that " the great enemy 

 of civilization is the protective spirit ; " or in other 

 words, "the notion that society cannot prosper, 

 unless the affairs of life are watched over and pro- 

 tected, at nearly every turn, by the state and the 

 church, the state teaching men what they are to 

 do, and the church teaching them what they are 

 to believe." 1 Here, as in the foregoing case, Mr. 

 Buckle errs only in stating his law without any 

 limitations, as if it were a universal one. It can- 

 not be questioned that for several centuries the 

 protective spirit has been extremely prejudicial to 

 progress. The notion that government ought to 

 control the actions and beliefs of men has, when 

 carried into politics, furnished a plea for despot- 

 ism, and when carried into theology it has been 

 productive of intolerance and persecution. Mr. 

 Buckle devotes a large portion of his work to the 

 establishment and elucidation of this fact. He 

 i Vol. ii. p. 1. 



