Mr. Buckle s Fallacies. 191 



no room for difference of opinion. So with all 

 demonstrated facts and laws. A truth once estab- 

 lished remains forever a truth. We cannot choose 

 but accept it. And science, as a body of estab- 

 lished truths, cannot admit of scepticism. 



The past history of science confirms, and its 

 future progress must also confirm, this conclusion, 

 which might be drawn at once from the very na- 

 ture of thought. When we know as much about 

 the most complex subjects as we now know about 

 the most simple ones, there can be no such thing 

 as doubt at all. " The mystic drama will be 

 sunny clear, and all Nature's processes will be 

 visible to man, as a divine Effluence and Life." J 



We have seen that in the theological stage of 

 human development scepticism did not exist ; 

 that in the metaphysical stage it arose and ex- 

 tended its sway over every department of thought ; 

 but that in the positive stage it is destined to 

 decrease, until it exercises no perceptible influ- 

 ence. Corresponding to these three stages of evo- 

 lution are the three predominant mental states of 

 belief, doubt, and knowledge. The three great 

 periods into which Comte has divided the history 

 of civilization might be named with perfect accu- 

 racy the period of credulity, the period of scep- 



1 Lewes' Seaside Studies, p. 219. 



