148 Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. [ix. 



of the nervous system, that is, of thought, feel- 

 ing, and the like. In other words, there must be 

 cases not only of hereditary madness and hereditary 

 disease, but also of hereditary vices and hereditary 

 virtues, so long as disease and madness, virtue and 

 vice, co-exist with peculiar structural states. And, 

 as before, unless Mr. Buckle is prepared to deny the 

 inseparable connection of structure and function, he 

 cannot escape this conclusion. 



As we have already observed, it is passing strange 

 that Mr. Buckle, while embracing the law of develop- 

 ment, should spurn that of hereditary transmission, to 

 which it is so intimately related, and on which it, in 

 .some degree, depends for its proofs. But Mr. Buckle 

 has a theory of his own to maintain. He wishes to 

 show that the faculties of men do not improve. It is 

 in order to do this that he rejects the law of trans- 

 mission. But it has been shown that his rejection of 

 it is illogical, and that the law of transmission is as 

 universal as any other, since, were it not so, there 

 could be no such thing Us a species at all. With the 

 help of this law, it is easy to demonstrate that, in the 

 very nature of things, the faculties of men must 

 impirove. 



Among that " highest class of biological truths," 

 which apply to all organisms whatever, is the law that, 



