ENVIRONMENTAL SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGISTS 109 



In Chapter IV he uses the historical method to discover which 

 of the two mental factors is the more important, the intellectual 

 or the moral nature, and concludes that 



The leading countries have now, for some centuries, advanced sufficiently 

 far to shake off the influences of those physical agencies by which, in an 

 earher state their career might have been troubled; and that although 

 the moral agencies are still powerful, and still cause occasional disturbances, 

 these are but aberrations, which, if we compare long periods of time, 

 balance each other, and thus in the total amount entirely disappear. So 

 that, in a great and comprehensive view, the changes in every civilized 

 people are, in their aggregate, dependent solely on these things: first on the 

 amount of knowledge possessed by their ablest men; secondly, on the direc- 

 tion which that knowledge takes, that is to say, the sort of subjects to which 

 it refers; thirdly, and above all, on the extent to which the knowledge is 

 diffused, and the freedom with which it pervades all classes of society.^ 



Buckle is open to criticism along several lines: (i) He talks 

 much about progress without giving a definite standard.^ He 

 speaks of intellectual progress, progress of society, advance of 

 civilization, increase of general happiness but nowhere sets forth 

 a social goal. The dominant note, however, is the increase of 

 man's power over the material environment which we term active 

 material adaptation. 



(2) Knowledge is always considered as having dynamic quality 

 much as with Socrates, but this is not true of mere knowledge of 

 the laws of nature which is the conception dominant in his 

 thought. 



(3) He is not clear in his definition of the moral element. In 

 one place it would seem to be a matter of will, — " To be willing 

 to perform our duty is the moral part; to know how to perform it 

 is the intellectual part." ^ Again it would seem to consist largely 

 of emotional elements: " If the advance of civilization and the 

 general happiness of mankind depend more on their moidl feelings 

 than on their intellectual knowledge, we must of course measure 

 the progress of society by those feelings "; ^ but again, morality 

 appears to be a matter of conforming to standards of conduct 

 varying from country to country and from year to year,^ while 

 on the same page we find the statement made that " there is, 



^ History of Civilization, pp. 204, 205. * Ibid., pp. 158 f. 



* Ibid., p. 159. * Ibid., p. 159. •• Ibid,, pp. 162-163. 



