174 MR. BUCKLE'S FALLACIES. [ix. 



swept away the vilest of despotisms by the most 

 fearful of revolutions. It roused the Dutch to cast 

 off the yoke of Spain, sent the Puritans to Massa- 

 chusetts, inspired the Americans in their " Declara- 

 tion of Independence," and shaped the fabric of their 

 democratic government. What need of further ex- 

 amples ? It is the sceptical spirit, advocating liberty 

 in politics and toleration in religion, which has 

 been at the bottom of every change through which 

 humanity has passed in modern times. Mr. Buckle's 

 law is entirely applicable to the metaphysical period 

 of civilisation, and is the key to the explanation of 

 its phenomena. 



But the metaphysical state is not a permanent one. 

 It constitutes a transition from that primitive belief 

 which was the offspring of man's early endeavours to 

 compass and explain the Infinite about him, to that 

 new belief which is founded on a long and thorough 

 investigation into the laws of the natural world. 

 Giving up as hopeless all search for the undiscover- 

 able, all striving to know the unknowable, science 

 contents itself with finding out that which lies within 

 our reach. But it was not in the power of man, on 

 first perceiving the inadequacy and incongruity of 

 his old belief, to pass at once to the new. No one 

 can reject an old system of opinions, which has 



