1 66 Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. " [ix. 



first law confirms our rejection of his second, and 

 we see, more clearly than ever, that "the double 

 movement, moral and intellectual, is essential to the 

 very idea of civilisation," and that, without including 

 both elements, there can be no complete theory of 

 progress. 



It may likewise be well to remark that a discussion 

 of this sort has no immediate bearing on the subject 

 of Christianity. It has been supposed by some 

 persons that Mr. Buckle's entire argument is nothing 

 but a sinister attack upon the Christian religion. We 

 see nothing of the kind in it. Christianity is a system 

 of belief, in which both intellectual and moral forces 

 must co-operate ; and a person, while denying the 

 civilising agency of the moral element, may with 

 perfect consistency maintain the civilising agency of 

 that set of opinions in the formation of which the 

 moral element has had but a partial share. Our 

 author's argument, therefore, is not to be construed 

 into an assault upon Christianity, nor is our own 

 argument to be construed into a defence of it. Con- 

 fusion necessarily results from mixing questions 

 which should be kept separate. 



We come now to Mr. Buckle's third ^ law — that 



^ On the first page of his second volume, Mr. Buckle places this law 

 second in order, and the law just considered third. But as it is con- 



