Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 201 



one else. In his delineations of wars, civil revolu- 

 tions, and especially of religious persecutions, he 

 seems to believe in spite of himself that " moral 

 feelings " do exercise as much power over men as 

 "intellectual acquisitions;" and that the effects 

 produced by the former are quite as lasting as 

 those produced by the latter. He repeatedly rec- 

 ognizes the fact that our desires and impulses in- 

 fluence us strongly in the acceptance and defence 

 of opinions. In speaking of the Scotch clergy, 

 he attributes their tyrannical enforcement of su- 

 perstitious notions to an inordinate desire for 

 power, not to a mistaken interest in the welfare 

 of others. After noticing the profound reverence 

 of the Scotch people for their clergy, he observes : 

 " It is not surprising that the clergy, who at no 

 period and in no nation have been remarkable 

 for their meekness, or for a want of confidence in 

 themselves, should, under circumstances so emi- 

 nently favourable to their pretensions, have been 

 somewhat elated, and should have claimed an 

 authority even greater than that which was con- 

 ceded to them. ... It was generally believed that 

 whoever gainsaid the clergy would be visited, not 

 only with temporal penalties, but also with spir- 

 itual ones. For such a crime, there was punish- 

 ment here, and there was punishment hereafter. 



