Mr. Buckle s Fallacies. 177 



It is quite a relief, on emerging from this laby- 

 rinth of baseless assertion and ill-directed argu- 

 ment, to find that our author at last seems to re- 

 member his original object, as he sets himself to 

 work really to show the " superiority " of knowl- 

 edge over feeling as a civilizing agent. His rea- 

 soning is here very plausible, and his illustrations 

 drawn from the history of war and religious per- 

 secution are well chosen, and appear at first quite 

 convincing. He tells us that good intentions were 

 of no avail in stopping persecution, because perse- 

 cutors themselves have generally had the best in- 

 tentions. The heathen emperors of Rome, who tor- 

 tured Catholics, the Catholic Inquisitors of Spain, 

 who tortured Protestants, all meant well enough, 

 he argues, they were very often men of the pur- 

 est character ; but they did not know that it was 

 wrong for them to interfere with the religious con- 

 victions of others. So Mr. Buckle does perceive, 

 after all, that our knowledge of our moral obliga- 

 tions has increased somewhat! We are no bet- 

 ter, he says, than the Inquisitors of old, but we 

 know that religious persecution is wrong, wicked, 

 harmful; while they, in their mistaken zeal, 

 thought it to be right, holy, beneficial. This 

 point he argues admirably, but he does not suc- 

 ceed in absolving religious persecutors from all 



12 



