IX.]. Mr. Buckle's Fallacies. 185 



functions to perform, and the more carefully we study 

 history the more deeply shall we be convinced that 

 it performs it in the best possible manner. But after 

 these beliefs and institutions have done their work 

 and are no longer needed — after they have been 

 stereotyped in lifeless forms — then it is that they 

 become productive of evil and are prejudicial to the 

 interests of mankind. 



With the help of these considerations, we can 

 more completely understand Mr. Buckle's two pro- 

 positions. With the restrictions here placed upon 

 them, they might be stated thus : in the revolutionary 

 period of modern society, scepticism has been uni- 

 formly essential to progress, and the protective spirit 

 has been uniformly detrimental to it. This is strictly 

 true, and needs no qualification. 



In his second volume our author develops another 

 fundamental law, which we have not time to con- 

 sider here. It may be stated thus : in a country 

 where the deductive method of investigation prevails, 

 there will be a much greater difference in the intel- 

 lectual and social condition of the upper and lower 

 classes than in a country where the inductive method 

 is the prevalent one. This may be illustrated by 

 comparing Greece, Germany, and Scotland, on the 

 one hand, with England and the United States on 



