Mr. Buckle 8 Fallacies. 157 



in the human species, no less than in the animal 

 tribes. Even though the European is born with 

 the structural peculiarities of the savage, he loses 

 them almost immediately after birth ; and his 

 possessing them at birth no more proves that his 

 matured faculties are on the same level with those 

 of the savage than his possessing the character- 

 istics of a fish some months before birth proves 

 that his matured faculties are on the same level 

 with those of a fish. Unless, therefore, Mr. 

 Buckle is prepared to deny that development in 

 structure is necessarily attended by development 

 in function, he cannot logically avoid the conclu- 

 sion that the human species is in a course of evo- 

 lution from the less perfect to the more perfect, 

 or, to use his own expressions, that the progress 

 of mankind is one of " internal power,' as well as 

 of "external advantage." 



We have seen that Mr. Buckle accepts the law 

 of development ; that it is illogical to assert that 

 man forms an exception to such a universal law ; 

 that this law, moreover, explains the facts of hu- 

 man variation, as well as those of animal varia- 

 tion ; and that, consequently, Mr. Buckle's asser- 

 tion that human faculties do not develop is totally 

 inconsistent with the very theory held by himself 

 respecting organic development in general. We 



