PT. ii. Mr. Darwin and Mr. Buckle. 105 



not involve any assent to his opinions, or conversion 

 to the doctrines which he so boldly enunciated. 

 Mr. Buckle's genius was essentially speculative ; he 

 delighted in inventing new theories, and was more 

 ambitious of originality than careful of soundness. 

 He did not, like Mr. Darwin, push his inquiries 

 beyond the very existence of Man ; he was satisfied 

 with carrying them into the darkness of the pre- 

 historic times. Still to a certain degree these two 

 philosophers treated of the same subjects ; and I 

 cannot leave Mr. Darwin without a few remarks on 

 Mr. Buckle's system. 



In one material respect they contradict each 

 other, and Mr. Darwin's positions and Mr. Darwin's 

 conclusions are totally subversive of one of Mr. 

 Buckle's main principles. The latter declares, with- 

 out stopping altogether to prove it, that the primi- 

 tive state of Man was one of absolute equality ; that 

 every member of the human family came into the 

 world the equal of every other ; and that all the 

 differences, whether of nation or of race, are the 

 results of external circumstances influencing their 

 subsequent condition. Now Mr. Darwin maintains 

 a totally different doctrine. In his chapter on the 

 'Eaces of Man' he distinctly states that they pre- 



