Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 203 



enormous influence of feeling in leading to belief 

 and action. After labouring to show that perse- 

 cutors are actuated only by mistaken benevolence, 

 he here declares that the tyrannical and intolerant 

 acts of the Scotch clergy were dictated by cun- 

 ning selfishness and long-sighted craft. We think 

 that he here commits almost as great an error 

 as before, though in the opposite direction, by at- 

 tributing too much to the selfish desires of these 

 men, and by taking too little account of their 

 good, but mistaken, intentions. There is glaring 

 inconsistency in this : but when a man lays down 

 a " law " so incredibly absurd as the one in ques- 

 tion, we must expect to find him inconsistent in 

 its application. 



But Mr. Buckle devotes by far the largest por- 

 tion of his work, thus far, to the illustration of his 

 third and fourth laws. As he treats only of the 

 revolutionary period, his illustrations are all ap- 

 propriate and forcible. We lack words to express 

 our admiration of these profound and instructive 

 chapters. The inquiry into the history of the 

 intellect in England, France, Spain, and Scotland 

 shows an extent of learning and a depth of thought 

 unsurpassed, so far as we know, in historical liter- 

 ature. Our author traces the rise of scepticism 

 and the decline of the royal power in England, 



