172 Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. [ix. 



modern society, extending from the twelfth century 

 to the present time, that we see the sceptical spirit in 

 full operation. To this stage of human evolution Mr. 

 Buckle's proposition is applicable without any hmita- 

 tions. The application he has himself given us, with 

 great fulness and detail, in the case of England, France, 

 Spain, and Scotland. In the brief space to which we 

 are here restricted, it would be vain to attempt to add 

 to the profuse and happily chosen illustrations con- 

 tained in those instructive chapters which our author 

 has principally devoted to this portion of his subject. 

 Nowhere else has the revolutionary period of history 

 been so admirably portrayed. Nowhere else can we 

 find a truer, a juster, a profounder appreciation of the 

 workings of the sceptical spirit. Here we discover 

 no inconsistencies, no errors of statement, vitiating 

 the whole argument. Here Mr. Buckle reveals his 

 wonderful power. Here he draws sure conclusions 

 from well-ascertained data. For there can be no 

 shadow of doubt that in the twelfth century the 

 sceptical spirit had begun greatly to increase its power 

 and extend its influence ; that in the sixteenth it had 

 become a mighty civilising force ; and that in the 

 eighteenth it had penetrated all departments of 

 thought. It was this sceptical spirit which gave rise 

 to the conceptualism of Abelard, the infidelity of 



