236 
minded woman, and her case would help to support Mr. 
Buckle's theory ; but Henry VIII. was a man of capacious 
intellect and far less morality, yet he was equally a persecutor 
with his daughter. Francis I. was both sufficiently intellectual 
and immoral for Mr. Buckle's purpose, but neither of these 
qualities saved him from the guilt of ruthless persecution. 
I will place the issue of this part of the subject in one plain 
answer to a plain question, under the full assurance that, had 
Mr. Buckle been living, his answer must have been, even on 
his own principles, adverse to his own theory of the compara- 
tive nothingness of moral and religious influences compared 
with intellectual on the grand total of human affairs. The 
question which I am going to ask respects the great Author of 
Christianity himself. What has been the degree of influence 
which He has exerted ? Has it been an intellectual or a 
moral and spiritual one ? His great act of self-sacrificing 
love is beyond all question a moral and spiritual influence. 
Will Mr. Buckle deny that it has been a mighty one ? He 
may say that he does not believe in it, but that does not affect 
the mighty power which, whether it be true or false, it has 
exerted. Will Mr. Buckle find any intellectual influence 
equally mighty as this great moral and spiritual power, which 
has for nearly two thousand years mightily swayed the minds 
of men ? Mr. Buckle may. tell us that moral influences 
speedily perish, while intellectual ones endure. Will he point 
out any intellectual influence which has been equally powerful 
and enduring as the great moral and spiritual act of the self- 
surrender of His life, which has been exhibited by Jesus* 
Christ ? Mr. Buckle's theory is ground to powder by the 
terrific pressure of the falling upon it of the Head Stone of the 
Corner. 
One more reference, and I have finished. Mr. Buckle says 
at page 233 
“ Men of excellent intentions, and full of a fervent though mistaken zeal, 
have been, and still are, attempting to propagate their own religion among 
the inhabitants of barbarous countries. By strenuous and unremitting 
activity, and frequently by promises and even by actual gifts, they have in 
many cases persuaded savage communities to make a profession of the Chris- 
tian faith. But when we compare the triumphant reports of missionaries with 
the evidence supplied by competent travellers, we soon find that such pro- 
fession is only nominal. . . . After the careful study of history and the 
condition of barbarous nations, I do most confidently assert that there is no 
well-attested case of any people being permanently converted to Christianity, 
except in those very few instances where missionaries, being men of knowledge 
as well as men of piety, have familiarized the savage with habits of thought) 
and, by thus stimulating his intellect, have prepared him for the reception of 
