194 Postscript on Mr. Buckle. [x. 



however 'well adapted it may be for various religious 

 uses, it possesses hardly more defining value than such 

 a word as " philosophical ; " and whether a given set 

 of opinions can be grouped under such rubric or not 

 has become a point hardly worth arguing. 



While mainly a personal narrative, this book of 

 Pilgrim Memories keeps certain ulterior ends in view. 

 The author has projected, and in part executed, an 

 extensive series of works to be entitled The Modern 

 Revolution, in which nothing less is aimed at than the 

 establishment of a new law of histoiy, a new specu- 

 lative basis for religion, and a new point of departure 

 for dramatic art. The new law of history, and the 

 new speculative basis for religion, we are to seek in 

 the conception of historic development as " a certain 

 Change, and Process of Change, in men's notions of 

 the Causes of Change." One object of the present 

 volume is to show how this conception took shape in 

 the author's mind in the course of his journeyings 

 and discussions with Mr. Buckle. By the Gulf of 

 Ezion-Gebir, " walking or riding along a shell- and 

 coral-covered strand, — on our right the sea, red with 

 the coralline forests of its depths, and with a margin 

 so bright and clear that, as we rode, we saw all its 

 gem-like pavement ; on our left sandstone precipices 

 of the most magnificently-varied hues," — amid this 



