182 Darwinism and Other Essays. 



doubting, absolutely denies. This might be called 

 negative philosophy, or negativism, in broad dis- 

 tinction from positive philosophy, which aims at 

 establishing from incontrovertible data a system 

 of results comprising all that it is in the power of 

 the human mind to know. Negativism and pos- 

 itivism, then, constitute two opposite phases of 

 human thought. As examples of negative think- 

 ers, we have Hobbes, Voltaire, Lessing, and 

 Rousseau ; while as instances of positive thinkers 

 we may cite Bacon, Leibnitz, Newton, and Spen- 

 cer. Scepticism is identical with neither of these 

 philosophies, though it has some points in com- 

 mon with both. Scepticism, indeed, is not a phi- 

 losophy at all; it is a no-philosophy, a transi- 

 tion state where, robbed of its belief, the mind 

 rests not, but stays unresting, in dreary incerti- 

 tude and distressful vacillation, until it finds refuge 

 in belief again. 



Bearing in mind this meaning of the word, 

 we can safely proceed to examine the proposition 

 before us. We do not think it altogether prob- 

 able that Mr. Buckle would, on mature reflection, 

 lay down this law about scepticism as a univer- 

 sal one, operative alike in all stages of progress ; 

 but, as he makes no limitations to it in the course 

 of his work, we must discuss it here in relation 



