IX.] Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 163 



does not improve, he would, if consistent, arrive at 

 the singular result that there has been no improvement 

 at all in the actions of men. 



It is quite a relief, on emerging from this labyrinth 

 of baseless assertion and ill-directed argument, to 

 find that our author at last seems to remember his 

 original object, as he sets himself to work really to 

 show the " superiority " of knowledge over feeling 

 as a civilising agent. His reasoning is here very 

 plausible, and his illustrations drawn from the history 

 of war and religious persecution are well chosen, and 

 appear at first quite convincing. He tells us that 

 good intentions were of no avail in stopping perse- 

 cution, because persecutors themselves have generally 

 had the 'best intentions. The heathen emperors of 

 Rome, who tortured Catholics, the Catholic Inquisi- 

 tors of Spain, who tortured Protestants, all meant 

 well enough, he argues — they were very often men of 

 the purest character ; but they did not know that it 

 was wrong for them to interfere with the religious 

 convictions of others. So Mr. Buckle does perceive, 

 after all, that our knowledge of our moral obligations 

 has increased somewhat ! We are no better, he 

 says, than the Inquisitors of old — but we know that 

 religious persecution is wrong, wicked, harmful ; while 

 they, in their mistaken zeal, thought it to be right, 



M 2 



