164 Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. [ix. 



holy, beneficial. This point he argues admirably, 

 but he does not succeed in absolving religious perse- 

 cutors from all charge of selfish passion. Indeed, he 

 elsewhere expresses it as his own opinion, that the 

 clergy have been strongly influenced, in their vindic- 

 tive attempts to destroy or injure those dissenting 

 from their views, by motives of ambitious policy. 

 We have no doubt that such motives have always been 

 of immense power among this class of men, as well 

 as among other classes. But we will not urge this or 

 any similar objection against Mr. Buckle's grand 

 argument. We will merely call attention to the cir- 

 cumstance that a man's " moral feeling," his " moral in- 

 stinct," his " conscience," or whatever any one chooses 

 to call it, is a natural faculty. In other words, ethical 

 emotions, being functions of the nervous system, are 

 natural faculties. And we have already shown that 

 the natural faculties of mankind develop. The refu- 

 tation of Mr. Buckle's first grand argument carries 

 with it the refutation of the second. 



III. It carries with it, likewise, the refutation of 

 the third. For the proposition that civilisation is 

 regulated, not by the " stationary agent," but by in- 

 tellectual acquirement, can have no value, unless it be 

 proved that moral feeling is the "stationary agent." 

 But this cannot be proved. On the contrary, it has 



