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tions differ from those in necessary matter, the one being true 
always and under all circumstances ; the other, only for the 
most part. That the angles of every triangle are equal to 
two right angles is a proposition invariably true under all 
circumstances. That motives will produce similar results 
under similar circumstances is true for the most part only. In 
other words, it is subject to the laws regulating moral cause 
and effect, and not to the antecedents and consequents of the 
material world. 
Mr. Buckle calls the belief in free-will a dogma. I cannot 
understand how it can be correctly designated a dogma. The 
belief in a predetermined order of events, unless we arrive at 
it by a course of induction, which is impossible, is a dogma. 
But my belief in my own freedom is no more a dogma than 
my belief in the existence of light, or that I am now reading 
and not speaking. To place both under the same category is 
illogical. 
The previous remarks almost render it unnecessary that I 
should make any further observations on Mr. Buckle's theories 
respecting the virtuous and vicious actions of mankind. If 
his premises are granted, each advancing stage follows as a 
necessary consequence. I am far from wishing to contradict 
the position that the great mass of mankind are affected, for 
weal or for woe, by the moral, religious, and intellectual 
atmosphere in which they have been born, and in the midst of 
which they have been educated. The influence exerted by it 
over our whole being is immense. The man who is born a 
Bengalee, for the most part gets engrafted into his moral 
nature the vices of that character ; and, if I may be allowed to 
humour our self-love, a man who is born an Englishman 
acquires the magnificent virtues of our race. But this is a 
moral truth only, not a universal or inevitable one. In the 
words of Aristotle, it is true wg s7ri to tto\v, and no more. 
We know, to our own cost, that there are multitudes in this 
metropolis who are slenderly endowed with English vir- 
tues, and are -following a lamentable and consistent law of 
degradation. 
But it is no inevitable consequence arising from the laws of 
the moral world, that every individual of these degraded 
classes must follow this course of degradation. No doubt 
the aggregate of society follows certain general laws ; but I 
must protest against the assertion that “ this is without any 
regard to the volition of those particular men of whom society 
is composed." How Mr. Buckle could have overlooked the 
fallacy of his reasoning is inconceivable ; for it is evident that 
the aggregate results produced on society must include all the 
