X.] Postscript on Mr. Buckle. 201 



of quite limited value or applicability, such as the 

 statements that scepticism is favourable to progress, 

 or that over-legislation is detrimental to society. No 

 doubt such commonplaces might be so treated as to 

 acquire the practical value of new contributions to 

 history. But to treat them so requires subtle analysis 

 of the facts generalised, and all that Mr. Buckle did 

 was to collect miscellaneous evidences for the state- 

 ments in their rough, ready-made form. Of general- 

 isations that go below the surface of things, such as 

 Comte's suggestive though indefensible Law of the 

 Three Stages, we find none in Mr. Buckle. The only 

 attempt at such an analytic theory is the generahsa- 

 tion concerning the moral and intellectual factors in 

 social progress, wherein Mr. Buckle's looseness and 

 futile vagueness of thought is shown perhaps more 

 forcibly than anywhere else in his writings. It is not 

 of such stuff as this that a science of historic pheno- 

 mena can be wrought. 



In Mr, Stuart-Glennie's reminiscences, which seem 

 to be most carefully and honestly reported, these 

 characteristics of Mr, Buckle— his warm, impatient 

 temperament and his lack of mental subtlety or deep 

 penetration — are continually brought to our notice ; 

 and all the more forcibly because of the absence of 



