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these causes ought not only to exert a general operation, but 
to produce an absolute uniformity of result, not only in their 
great outlines, but in the minutest details. In proportion as 
the supply of food is large, and attained by a small amount of 
labour, in the opinion of Mr. Buckle, national degradation is 
the inevitable consequence. He introduces the state of 
Ireland in the days of plentiful potatoes as a striking illustra- 
tion. It seems, however, never to have occurred to him that 
some of the great peculiarities of the Irish race, which still 
exist with no inconsiderable force, were certainly as ancient 
as the days of Caesar, and how much higher is their antiquity 
we have no certain testimony of history to determine. It is 
impossible, therefore, to account for these peculiar traits either 
from the influence of potatoes or that of the Boman Catholic 
religion, whatever both these causes may have done to aggra- 
vate them in the case of the Irish people. Perhaps, however, 
Mr. Buckle will say that the Caucasian race was cursed with a 
superabundant supply of food before they left their original 
abode in Asia. But as there is no evidence of this as an 
historical fact, this would be to prove one theory to be correct 
by inventing another. If that were conceded as legitimate, 
Mr. Buckle would have to show why these causes have not 
produced similar results on the Herman race. 
Mr. Buckle ascribes the moral and political evils of India 
to the ease of the production of rice and raki : those of Egypt 
to the date. They stand to one another in the relation of 
cause and effect. “ In India,” says he, “ abject, eternal 
slavery was the natural state of the great body of the people. 
It was the state to which they were doomed by physical laws 
utterly impossible to resist. The energy of those laws is in 
truth so invariable, that whenever they have come into play 
they have kept the productive classes in perpetual subjection ” 
( P . 73 ). 
Mr. Buckle, however, admits that the case of Brazil is against 
him, and numerous other examples which would greatly 
modify his theory he passes over in silence. Brazil, notwith- 
standing its apparent advantages, has always remained 
uncivilized. His explanation is curious. It may be a piece 
of very fine writing, but, to my mind, it entirely misses the 
mark. “ Amidst the pomp and splendour of nature,” says he,* 
no place is left for man ; he is reduced to insignificance by 
the majesty by which he is surrounded” (p. 95). I reply, 
Brazil is an immense country. Is everything in it majestic ? 
Is it all pomp and splendour ? At least some portions of it 
exactly fulfil Mr. Buckle's conditions for the presence of an 
early civilization. 
