IX.] Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 157 



additions. It is not true, as Mr. Buckle says, that 

 " the sole essentials of morals have been known for 

 thousands of years, and not one jot or tittle has been 

 added to them by all the sermons, homilies, and text- 

 books which moralists have been able to produce." 

 It is not true, as Sir James Mackintosh says, that 

 "morality admits of no discoveries." It is not true, 

 as Condorcet says, that " la morale de toutes les nations 

 a ete la meme." It is not true, as Kant says, that " in 

 der Moralphilosophie sind wir nicJit weiter gekonimen 

 als die Alteti." For what is Moral Philosophy but the 

 science which is to determine the laws to which our 

 conduct should conform .? And if this is the case, we 

 need only to look into Mr. Buckle's work itself, to find 

 a system of morality containing truths which only 

 two centuries ago were not even dreamed of Take, 

 for example, the moral law that governments shall 

 not interfere with trade. This is as much a moral 

 law as that which forbids stealing : but we find Mr. 

 Buckle reckoning it among the merits of Voltaire, 

 that he was one of the first to perceive the justice of 

 a free system of trade. ^ Its justice is even now 

 denied by opponents of reform. This, then, is a case 

 of a " moral truth " which has not been known for 

 thousands of years. 



1 Vol. i. p. 741. 



