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individual influences, the motives, and tlie action of the rational 
will. The law in conformity with which society has deve- 
loped itself, must include the action both of motives and of 
volition. The law of development is nothing but a generalized 
statement of the complicated action of these conjoint but 
wholly distinct powers. The mode in which Mr. Buckle 
places it is as destructive of the principles of morality and 
responsibility as the theories of the mad doctors. 
I must now briefly allude to the manner in which Mr. 
Buckle endeavours to confirm his theories by the aid of the 
science of statistics. 
Here, again, let it be clearly understood that I am not 
going to utter one word for the purpose of lessening our esti- 
mate of that science. Statistics are of the greatest value when 
they correctly exhibit the results of well- arranged facts, and 
when they are kept in their proper place and in due subor- 
dination. What I protest against is the growing tendency 
with writers of a certain class to represent them as the only road 
to the temple of Truth; or, to use the language of Isaiah, to 
make of them a god and worship them ; to make them into a 
graven image, and to bow down thereto. The way to the 
temple of Truth is so arduous that we want to have the aid of 
every possible help to conduct us thither. 
Mr. Buckle tells us that we are taught by the science of 
statistics that the number of murders which take place in any 
particular country is pretty much the same year by year, in 
proportion to the population. This may be true, and yet prove 
nothing for Mr. Buckle. On his principles it ought to be, not 
pretty much the same, but always and invariably the same; 
otherwise, the antecedents act only for the most part. But 
Mr. Bucklers theory is, that they act necessarily and indepen- 
dently of the will of the individual. It is singular that a man 
of such acuteness should have overlooked the fact that the 
statistics are the combined result of what he designates the 
antecedents, and of the will itself, and do not represent the 
results of the independent action of either one of them : — 
“ So uniform (says Mr. Buckle) is the production of crime, that it is more 
certain in its results than the progress of physical disease and death. Thus, 
for instance, the number of persons accused of crime in France between 
1826 and 1846 was by a singular coincidence about equal to the male deaths 
which took place in Paris during the same period, the difference being that 
the fluctuations in the amount of crime were actually smaller than the 
fluctuations in the mortality ; while a similar regularity was observed in 
each separate offence, all of which obeyed the same law of uniform and 
periodical repetition.” 
