132 Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. [ix. 



investigation. Machiavelli was one of the first to 

 subject social phenomena to a careful study ; but he 

 arrived at no broad generalisations, and " he suffered, 

 moreover, from the serious deficiency of being too 

 much occupied with the practical utility of his 

 subject."^ The Scienza Nuova of Vico contained 

 many new and startling views of history, and the 

 writings of Montesquieu presented a daring attempt 

 to constitute a social science ; but both these great 

 thinkers were crippled by a lack of materials, owing 

 to the imperfect condition of physical knowledge at 

 the time when they wrote. Condorcet, proceeding 

 from the suggestions of his friend Turgot, arrived at 

 the law that the whole human race is in a course of 

 evolution, from the less perfect to the more perfect ; 

 but his writings are encumbered with metaphysical 

 notions, and he had no idea of the true nature of 

 human development. Far above all his predecessors 

 stands Voltaire, whose Essai sur les Mceurs was an 

 immortal attempt to apply the principles of scientific 

 investigation to the entire history of our race. Nothing 

 more was done in this direction until the unprece- 

 dented development of physical knowledge which 

 ushered -in the present century was followed by the 

 appearance of the Philosophie Positive of Auguste 



1 Buckle, vol. i. p. 751, note 131. 



