partial and inadequate is Mr. Buckle's
historic sketch. The fundamental idea of his system, that human progress
depends on the success with which the laws of phenomena are investigated
and the extent to which a knowledge of them is diffused, overlooks the
essential element of _movement,_ which is not abstract knowledge, but
vital force. Men and nations move in virtue of their passionate, moral,
and spiritual forces, and these determine the character of their
intellectual development and expression. A nation which knew all the
laws of phenomena, but which was utterly lacking in moral force, would
not only not be civilized, but would hardly be alive. Mr. Buckle insists
that moral truths being relatively stationary, while intellectual truths
are constantly advancing and multiplying, civilization cannot depend
upon them. But even admitting that moral truths are stationary, still
moral life, the conversion of these truths into character, is capable of
indefinite advancement. There are moral truths more universal than any
scientific truths, and it is owing to the fact that these truths have so
imperfectly passed from abstractions into conduct, that civilization
is yet so imperfect, and the achievements of the intellect still so
limited. Out of the heart, and not out of the head, are the issues of
life; and how a mere knowledge of "the laws of phenomena" can regenerate
men from selfishness, ferocity, and malignity, can purify and invigorate
the will, can even of itself stimulate the intellect to a further
investigation of those laws, Mr. Buckle has not shown. Even the
theological abuses of which he gives so exaggerated a representation are
expressions of the passions and character of the people to which the
theology was accommodated, and not of the sense and spirit of the New
Testament, which the theology violated, so far as it was false in its
ideas or inhuman in its teachings.

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