Postscript on Mr. Buckle. 215 



tuseness to subtle distinctions, but even more con- 

 spicuously in his utter failure to seize upon any 

 deeply significant but previously hidden relations 

 among facts, in the work which he put forth as 

 the " Novum Organum " of historical science. 



If we contrast his book with some of the really 

 great books which were contemporary with it, 

 such as Mr. Darwin's " Origin of Species," Mr. 

 Spencer's " Principles of Psychology," or Sir 

 Henry Maine's "Ancient Law," the difference is 

 striking enough. Each of these works set forth 

 old facts in new and hitherto unsuspected connec- 

 tions, and in so doing enunciated thoughts which 

 have quite changed the aspect of the questions 

 with which they deal. There is not a naturalist 

 in either continent to-day whose most specific in- 

 quiries do not bear some more or less conscious 

 reference to what is known as " the Darwinian 

 theory." The time-honoured contest represented 

 by Locke and Leibnitz, or by Hume and Kant, 

 is beginning to take a new point of departure, 

 owing to Mr. Spencer's suggestion of the acquire- 

 ment of mental faculties through inheritance and 

 slow variation ; and Sir Henry Maine's lucid ex- 

 position of early ideas regarding contract, prop- 

 erty, and family relationship obliges us to look at 

 all the phenomena of society from an altered 



