229 
we drop one in inadvertently, a powerful action of our indi- 
viduality usually takes place as soon as we have discovered it, 
and we do not quietly resign ourselves to the necessary action 
of a set of antecedents. One thing, however, Mr. Buckle 
consistently persists in forgetting — that to give his arguments 
the smallest efficacy to prove his conclusions, the ratios 
must not be nearly similar, but invariably the same. At 
any rate I must put in a claim on behalf of free-will for the 
difference. 
But Mr. Buckle by no means confines himself to the use of 
statistics. He considers that man’s physical position in this 
or that particular country exerts a nearly inevitable influence 
in determining his condition for weal or woe, and that the in- 
dividuality, or what we call the will, of man is powerless to 
resist the external influences in the midst of which he is 
placed. He has endeavoured to prove this by a large induc- 
tion ; but it should be observed that, like multitudes of persons 
who are blinded by theory, whether theologians or philo- 
sophers, he has forgotten to take account of those which make 
against him. 
Mr. Buckle is of opinion that man’s local position has exerted 
an overwhelming influence over his early civilization, and that 
it has made him what he is. If we knew the precise nature 
of the one, we could invariably determine that of the other. 
He has nowhere defined the term civilization ; but it is evident 
that he includes under it, not only what we commonly mean 
by it, but the whole of man’s intellectual, moral, and religious 
developments, which I shall designate by one single word, his 
idealization. Mr. Buckle has explained, at great length, his 
views of the influence exerted on civilization by the natural 
products of the soil, the heat of the climate, and the physical 
phenomena to which each particular country is subject. These 
influences impress themselves on the character of the inha- 
bitants with a force which no act of their individuality is able 
to control. Each great race of the ancient world was made by 
them what it was. The climate has determined the kind of 
food, and the latter has left an indelible impression on the 
national character. 
The early civilizations originated in regions whence food was 
* easily attainable. In proportion to the ease with which it 
could be procured, has been the rapid development of the 
particular form of its civilization, and its subsequently stunted 
growth. Exuberant fertility of the soil has been far from a 
blessing to man. To causes of this description he traces the 
civilization of Babylonia, Assyria, Egypt, India, Mexico, and 
1 eru. But he forgets that, in accordance with his theories, 
