200 Postscript on Mr. Buckle. ' [x. 



he put forth as the Novum Organum of historical 

 science. 



If we contrast his book with some of the really 

 great books which were contemporary with it, such 

 as Mr. Darwin's Origin of Species, Mr. Spencer's 

 Principles of Psychology, or Sir Henry Maine's 

 Ancient Law, the difference is striking enough. Each 

 of these works set forth old facts in new and hitherto 

 unsuspected connections, and in so doing enunciated 

 thoughts which have quite changed the aspect of the 

 questions with which they deal. There is not a 

 naturalist in either continent to-day whose most 

 specific inquiries do not bear some more or less con- 

 scious reference to what is known as " the Darwinian 

 theory." The time-honoured contest represented by 

 Locke and Leibnitz, or by Hume and Kant, is be- 

 ginning to take a new point of departure, owing to 

 Mr. Spencer's suggestion of the acquirement of 

 mental faculties through inheritance and slow varia- 

 tion ; and Sir Henry Maine's lucid exposition of 

 early ideas regarding contract, property, and family 

 relationship, obliges us to look at all the phenomena 

 of society from an altered standpoint. But, in 

 marked contrast with works of this kind, we find in 

 Mr. Buckle's book sundry commonplace reflections 



