MAN AND NATURE. 255 



of human life on the globe, there may readily be found 

 such as will serve to vindicate any paradox whatsoever. 

 That propounded by Mr. Buckle has been adopted, in 

 terms even less qualified, by writers of later date. The 

 government of the world has been described as accom- 

 plished by immutable laws ; and the social conditions, 

 changes, and progress of man represented as not less 

 controlled by these laws than his bodily conformation 

 and growth. In the articles just referred to we showed 

 the various errors as to fact which have been used in 

 support of this theory, and the one-sided character of 

 the argument throughout. We have reason to believe 

 that Mr. Buckle himself, in the progress of his work, 

 grew distrustful of his own earlier views, and saw that 

 in seeking to make a science out of the history of man- 

 kind he had no solid foundation or materials for so 

 vast a superstructure. The building tottered under 

 his hands while he was yet at work upon it. 



The tendency of Mr. Buckle's work was to assert 

 the supremacy of the material conditions of existence 

 over human history and the mind of man ; that of Mr. 

 Marsh is to assert the supremacy of the mind of man 

 over the material elements of the globe. The theme 

 taken up by him, while regarding the relations of Man 

 to the natural world from an opposite point of view, 

 is more limited in its pretensions, and descriptive rather 

 than theoretical in kind. It has further the merit of 

 being well-defined in its general objects. The questions 

 put before us are for the most part simple and precise. 

 What has man done, what may man still do, with pur- 

 pose or without purpose, to change for better or worse 



