OF SOCIETY. 



511 



intellectual factor which he considers the most import- 

 ant. This produces also what others may consider the 

 higher products of culture, including the Fine Arts.^ 



About the same time, and, as it appears, in entire 

 ignorance of the writings of Comte and of the English 

 school, two philosophers in Germany — Lazarus (1824- 56. 



^ ./ \ Lazarus and 



1903) and Steinthal (1823-1899) — started a new steinthai.. 

 departure by founding a Eeview, which, by its title 

 alone, indicates a new class and co-ordination of studies. 

 It is entitled a ' Eeview for Ethnology and Science 



^ If we have to uote in Comte a 

 certain dualism, that of the bio- 

 logical (animal, egoistic) and the 

 psychical (mental, altruistic) factors 

 in the progress of society, we find 

 in Buckle not one, but a great 

 many unreconciled contradictions. 

 In fact his work opens with em- 

 phatic statements which at the 

 time must have appeared start- 

 ling, but for that very reason at- 

 tractive also, to the general reader ; 

 they formed the subject of a whole 

 literature of criticism both in Eng- 

 land and abroad. Unduly impressed 

 by the progress of scientific ideas 

 and scientific methods, he desired 

 to initiate an entirely new method 

 of writing history. His vivid style 

 attracted the general public, and 

 the one - sided use he made of 

 certain scientific theories — notably 

 those of Quetelet — compelled phil- 

 osophers, frequently against their 

 will, to take notice of his imma- 

 ture speculations. Like Schopen- 

 hauer, he created a great ferment 

 among professional philosophers 

 and historians, putting forward a 

 number of startling theses which 

 required special examination. His 

 influence on German thought was 

 probably quite as great as on that 

 of his own country, and perhaps 

 not so soon forgotten. Robert 

 Flint, the greatest authority on 



philosophy of history in this coun- 

 try, has given a list of nine 

 ideas, more or less detached and 

 unreconciled, to be found in 

 Buckle's History. Thej' are : 1. 

 The want of a science of history ; 

 2. The statistical regularity of 

 moral actions ; 3. Influence of nat- 

 ural environment ; 4. Unique char- 

 acter of European civilisation, 

 owing to, 5. The increase of intel- 

 lectual control over natural forces ; 

 6. Use of the method of averages 

 in contradistinction to the older 

 metaphysical methods ; 7. Station- 

 ary nature of moral as compared 

 with intellectual agencies ; 8. De- 

 preciation of individual effort ; 9. 

 Tliat the things generallj- called cul- 

 ture (religion, literature, and gov- 

 ernment) are the product, and not 

 the causes, of civilisation (see 

 ' Encyclop. Brit.,' 9th ed., article 

 "Buckle"). All these points have 

 been much discussed and his the- 

 ories criticised, but they have fur- 

 nished endless material for thought, 

 and as a recent writer very truly 

 remarks : " His book has marked 

 an epoch in the life of readers all 

 over the world, and gave an im- 

 mense impetus to the sociological 

 investigation of the past" (G. P. 

 Gooch, ' History and Historians in 

 the Nineteenth Century,' 1913, p. 

 58.5). 



