510 PHILOSOPHICAL THOUGHT. 



forces at work in historical development and pro- 

 55. gress. This was that of H. T. Buckle in his Intro- 



Buckle. 



duction to the ' History of Civilisation in England ' 

 (2 vols., 1857-1867). Buckle does not stand so much 

 under the influence of Comte as under that of the 

 statistical school of which Quetelet in Belgium was the 

 most celebrated representative. This school had de- 

 veloped the conception of the Homme Moyen, the " mean 

 man," and the doctrine of the statistical regularity of 

 moral not less than natural phenomena. Progress ac- 

 cordingly does not depend so much upon individuals as 

 upon the average or collective mind. Buckle's special 

 theories, which attracted great but short-lived attention, 

 soon became antiquated for reasons which I shall 

 presently refer to. How little he foresaw the coming 

 developments and changes can be gathered, for instance, 

 from the fact that he considers that intellectual pro- 

 gress, by which he means the power of the human mind 

 over nature, is limited to Europe ; for, as he says, out- 

 side of Europe the human mind is in subjection to 

 nature. Buckle does not find any progress in the 

 moral ideas. These, he maintains, remain always the 

 same. Progress depends only upon knowledge, which 

 has enabled the European nations to enter upon a 

 progressive civilisation consisting mainly in combating 

 two great evils viz., War and Religious Persecution, 

 establishing Peace and Tolerance. The two great 

 tendencies which move the world are the desire for 

 wealth and the desire for knowledge, but he does not 

 enter into a detailed exposition of the first of these 

 two tendencies, but really limits himself merely to the 



