THE

LIFE AND WRITINGS

HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.

ALFEED HEJS T EY HUTH

'JTI7ERSI'

u I am dead ;

Thou livest; report me and my cause aright
To the unsatisfied."

NEW YORK :
D. APPLETON AND COMPANY,

1, 3, AND 5 BOND STREET.
1880.

PKEFACE.

DUTY and gratitude oblige me to acknowledge the
great and valuable assistance I have received from
nearly all of Buckles friends and acquaintances.
Two points, not valueless in^an estimate of Buckle's
character, have been brought out by this kindness to
me : The first, that, before he had published a line
of his work, those to whom he wrote invariably kept
even the most trivial of his notes ; and, secondly,
so great was the friendship which he inspired that
in nearly every case the mere mention of his name
after his death was sufficient introduction between
those of his friends who had not made each othW's
acquaintance during his lifetime. The alacrity and
kindness I have experienced, and the trouble many
I may say most of my correspondents have put
themselves to in the search for letters, is another in-
stance of friendship, which has lasted eighteen years
beyond the grave. I am particularly indebted to
Lord Kintore, Lord Kimberley, Lord Hatherley, and
Lady Keay ; to Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff ; to Ma-

4 PREFACE.

jor and Mrs. Woodliead ; to Mr. John Buckle ; to
Buckle's heirs, Dr. and Mrs. Allatt, Mr. and Mrs.
Clarke, and Mr. Hutchinson ; to Mr. Alex. Hill Gray ;
to Major Evans Bell ; to Miss Kogers ; to Miss Wheat-
stone ; to the heirs of Mr. Parker ; to Mr. Henriquez ;
and to the late Mrs. Grote who have all given me
the utmost assistance in their power, in letters, oral
communications, and in notes.

The previous sketches of Henry Thomas Buckle's
life have been few in number, and but sketches. The
most important of them are, an article in " Eraser's
Magazine ' ' for September, 1862 ; one in the ' ' Chess-
Player' s Magazine" for February, 1864 ; one in the
" Atlantic Monthly" for April, 1863; a letter in the
"Athenseum," by the Kev. J. A. Longmore ; and a
biographical notice by Miss Helen Taylor, prefixed to
Buckle's " Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works,"
of which an important part was contributed by Miss
Shirreff. To Miss Taylor all admirers of Buckle and
of learning owe a debt of gratitude. I have compared
the manuscript and print of Buckle's "Posthumous
Works" with some attention, and, though I have
been able to detect a few misprints, and doubt per-
haps the necessity of omitting some articles, I can
conscientiously say that the task is admirably done ;
the arrangement, short of entirely melting up sepa-
rate articles, could not have been better; while no
one who has not seen the MS. can fully appreciate
how great that labor was which she has so freely and
gratuitously bestowed, and by which she has accom-
plished so brilliant a success.

PREFACE. 5

There was yet another to whom I am indebted,
who now is but a memory on earth. A linguist, a
scholar, acquainted with every branch of knowledge,
and unrivaled in his own, Henry Huth took a par-
ticular pleasure in the society and speculations of
Buckle, while common sympathies and mutual re-
gard soon cemented a warm friendship between them.
It was natural that he should take an interest in the
biography of so great a friend, and in the work of a
son ; but only those who knew him could appreciate
what delicate and generous a help it was his pleasure
to supply. A premature death, when these pages
were almost ready for the press, has spoiled the
reader of the benefit of his revision, me of any plea-
sure in its publication.

ALFKED H. HUTH.

December, 1879.

CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER 1 9

Apology Ancestry Kesidence 111 Health in Youth First Books
Sent to School Mathematical Prize Precocity and Backwardness
Sent to a Private Tutor Office Experience Calvinism of Mrs. Buc-
kleDeath of Mr. Thomas Buckle The First Idea of the "History"
Tour in Belgium, Germany, Italy, and France Acquaintance with
Hallam Chess in Paris Draughts in Paris Music distasteful Hie-
rarchy of the Arts Change in Keligious Views First Entry in his
Diary Course of Study Skill in Chess Book Purchases Tour in
Germany, Italy, and Holland Color and Form A Ghost-Story
Illness Choice of a Profession House and Library Method of
Study Languages learned Ambition Composition Smoking
Charity Economy Practicality Thoughts on Education Disap-
pointments in Love The First of " My Book "Tour in Brittany-
Chess Tournament of 1851.

CHAPTER II 61

Early Scheme of the " History "111 Health of Mrs. Buckle Tour
in Ireland The Dublin Chess Club Love of Society Brilliancy
of Conversation Eeady Memory Visit to the Crystal Palace Mrs.
Buckle's Conversation Letters to Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff Se-
rious Illness of Mrs. Buckle Completion of Vol. I. of the " His-
tory " Difficulties of Publication Illness Increasing "Weakness of
Mrs. Buckle The Dedication Publication of the " History "Criti-
cism.

CHAPTER III 139

Carelessness of Critics Free "Will Greater Laws including Less-
erInfluence of Circumstances Mental Laws the Key of History
in Europe Comparative Influence of Intellectual and Moral Prog-
ressThe Claims of Eeligion, Literature, and Government as Civil-
izers The History of the World too vast to be undertaken at pres-
ent by One Man Why England is chosen Plan of the Body of the
" History "The Qualities needed by the Historian Mournful Fore-
bodings.

8 CONTENTS.

PAGE

CHAPTER IV , . 187

"-. .

Only Comparative Originality possible Cornte and Buckle Vito
Machiavelli Bodin Bossuet Montesquieu Kant Buckle His
place in History.

CHAPTER V 214

Election to the Athenaeum To the Political Economy Club
Lecture at the Eoyal Institution Success and Sorrow Letters
Volume II. Anticipation of Death Mill's "Liberty" The Eights
of Women Death of Mrs. Buckle Grief of her Son Pooley's Case
"Letter to a Gentleman "Illness Stay at Blackheath Kind-
ness to Children Utilitarianism and Morals Deatfi of his Nephew
Stay at Carshalton Further Illness.

CHAPTER VI * 299

Women and Knowledge What to read Fine Arts and Civiliza-
tion Immortality Suicide Stay at St. Leonards Dinner, 18th
April Volume II. approaching Conclusion Epochs in Literature
Further Illness Second Stay at Carshalton Conversation with Mrs.
Huth Tour in Wales In Scotland Successes of the "History"
Stay at Sutton Preparation for Egypt.

CHAPTER VII. 354

Eesponsibility Kindness Alexandria C airo The Nile Educa-
tion Thebes Talk with Mr. Longmore Nubia Love of Antiquities
Preparations for the Desert Stay hi Cairo Suez Major Mac-
donald Sinai Petra Jerusalem Dead Sea Mill on Buckle Na-
bulus Nazareth The Fatal Illness Visit from Mr. Gray Tiberias
Akka Tyre Sidon The Last Letter Beyrout Damascus Ill-
ness increasing Death.

APPENDIX 459

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY . . 483

INDEX . . . .497

THE LIFE AND WRITINGS

HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.

CHAPTER I.

Apology Ancestry Eesidcnce 111 Health in Youth First Books Sent to
School Mathematical Prize Precocity and Backwardness Sent to a Pri-
vate Tutor Office Experience Calvinism of Mrs. Buckle Death of Mr.
Thomas Buckle The First Idea of the " History "Tour in Belgium, Ger-
many, Italy, and France Acquaintance with Hallam Chess in Paris
Draughts in Paris Music distasteful Hierarchy of the Arts Change in
Eeligious Views First Entry in his Diary Course of Study Skill in
Chess Book Purchases Tour in Germany, Italy, and Holland Color and
Form A Ghost-Story Illness Choice of a Profession House and Li-
brary Method of Study Languages learned Ambition Composition
Smoking Charity Economy Practicality Thoughts on Education Dis-
appointments in Love The First of "My Book" Tour in Brittany
Chess Tournament of 1851.

IF biography be a form of literature of any worth,
then surely the story of the life of Henry Thomas Buckle
needs no apology. His works have been translated into
French, German, Spanish, Dutch, and Russian, and have,
in addition, been reprinted in America ; his first volume
went through three editions in a little over three years,
and yet before this he had never printed one line. There
is hardly another instance in history of so great a leap
from complete literary obscurity to the highest pinnacle
of literary fame. From the East and the "West poured

10 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

inquiries as to the antecedents of the gifted author, his
fame was noised abroad, and in a few years there was
hardly an educated man in the world who did not know
his name, and what he had done.

Nor was this, as is so often the case with those who
start forth suddenly into the full blaze of popularity, a
mere fleeting honor, due to a happy chance, and doomed
to wane and die in the course of a few years ; it was
a reputation as surely as it was slowly founded, owing
nothing to circumstances of the day, and only recognized
on a sudden, because Buckle possessed so high and rare
a pride that he would rather postpone his work twenty
years than endanger an otherwise certain fame by prema-
ture publication. So far from being due to a happy con-
junction of chances, it was founded on but a part of what
he was ready to do, and would have done in a few years
more, had he not been prevented by an early death ; while
so far was it from being ephemeral, that not only has it be-
come impossible to write any large historical work without
a reference to the " History of Civilization in England,"
but reviews and magazine articles on his works had not
ceased to appear fifteen years after he was in his grave,
while there is hardly a speech or newspaper article on
any large social subject which does not contain his name.
Nay, I have even seen it in the telegraphic news of the
" Times " more than once, and within the last few years.

Buckle's family had long resided in London. There
was an ancestor of his, a Sir Cuthbert Buckle, who was
Lord Mayor in 1593, and originally came from Bourgh,
in Westmoreland. His father was Mr. Thomas Henry
Buckle, a partner in the firm of Buckle, Bagster, and

KESIDENCE ILL HEALTH IN YOUTH. H

Buckle, large ship-owning merchants, who traded more
especially with the East Indies. In 1811 Mr. Thomas
Buckle married Jane Middleton, of the Yorkshire Middle-
tons, by whom he had three children, two daughters and
a son, Henry Thomas Buckle, who was born 24th Novem-
ber, 1821, 1 at Lee, in Kent, while his parents were on a
visit to his father's only brother and partner, Mr. John
William Buckle. They soon afterward returned to their
residence, which was then, according to a common custom
of merchants at that time, not far removed from the place
of business, in Mark Lane, and situated in a quiet part
of the city, a fine, large corner house, "No. 2 Hamrnett
Street. Shortly afterward the family removed to 35 Meck-
lenburg Square, a corner house also ; and here they re-
mained up to the death of Buckle's father.

Young Buckle was an exceedingly delicate and feeble
infant ; and, as a child, theugh always full of fun, cared
little for children's games or children's books. Doted on
by his mother, he returned her love with all the wealth
and ardor of his warm and affectionate heart. " His great
delight," says his sister, " was to sit for hours by the side
of his mother to hear the Scriptures read." But, although
his mother bought him books without end, he felt no
interest in any of them but Shakespeare, Bunyan, the

1 Curiously enough, Buckle has himself made a mistake as to the date of
his birth. In a letter to Mr. Theodore Parker he says he was born in 1822.
(See Weiss's " Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker," vol. i., p. 468,
London, 1863.) In a letter to Mr. Henry Huth, from Jerusalem, in 1862,
he correctly states his age. A writer in the " Atlantic Monthly " says that
in conversation, in February, 1862, "he spoke of his age as thirty-eight.
(See the "Atlantic Monthly" for April, 1863, "Personal Keminiscences of
the late Henry Thomas Buckle," p. 495, note.) The entry of his baptism
may be seen at St. Botolph's, Aldgate, May IT, 1822.

12 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" Arabian Nights," and " Don Quixote " " books," says
Buckle, 2 " on which I literally feasted." Up to the age
of eight, indeed, he hardly knew his letters. He then
took up the " Arabian Nights " ; and Shakespeare he be-
gan at fifteen, and used to pass hours reading and crying
over it. - In after-life he spoke of these as all works of
genius, and remarked that it was curious no others seemed
to move him. They constituted almost the whole of his
reading up to the age of eighteen.

Under the advice of Dr. Birkbeck "that good and
wise man," as Buckle calls him in grateful memory he
received no education likely to tax his brain. His parents
sent him to school, indeed, as a change from home, to Dr.
James Thomas Holloway, Gordon House, Kentish Town,
but with instructions that he should learn nothing unless
he chose, and should on no account be whipped. It is
needless to say that young Buckle did not choose. In the
class in which he was placed he learned nothing beyond
what fell, as it were, into his head ; but, either from hav-
ing nothing else to do, as I presume, or owing to the spirit
which animates all clever boys to learn whatever is not
taught to them, he watched the geometrical and algebrai-
cal demonstrations on the blackboard, and after a time got
so interested that he went up to the master after the class
was over, and surprised him by asking an explanation of
one or two points which he had not been able to follow.
Upon this, it appears that he was allowed to join the
class, for he returned home with a first prize for mathe-
matics. So unexpected a distinction pleased his father so

2 Weiss's " Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker," vol. i., p.
469.

PKECOCITY AND BACKWARDNESS. 13

much that lie asked him what he would like best as a re-
ward. " To be taken away from school," was Buckle's
reply ; and his parents, probably as much frightened as
pleased at what he had done at school, granted his request.

He left school in his fourteenth year, with a very scan-
ty stock of knowledge, which he showed off at the request
of the servants in the kitchen. Standing on the table, he
recited in Latin the Lord's prayer, and creed, and then did
the same in French, translating afterward sentence by sen-
tence. He ran riot through the house, only two rooms,
occupied by his parents, being sacred from his assaults.
On one occasion, for instance, he turned every chair and
table in the kitchen over ; gave his nurse's daughter a pea-
shooter, and had shooting-matches with her; and on an-
other occasion, when he went to call on his old nurse,
turned everything there topsy-turvy, romped about, threw
the daughter's cat out of the window, and finally, walking
with them down the street, sang, and was generally up-
roarious, seizing fruit from the open shops, and behaving
so as to make them quite afraid that he would get into
trouble.

But though, physically, he was as naughty a boy as
ever a mother could wish, mentally he was kept as quiet
as was possible. His mother even taught him to knit, in
order that he might have some occupation which was not
mental, for, compared with other boys, Buckle was unable
to do anything with his hands. He never followed any of
those boyish hobbies, such as carpentering, boat-making,
etc., and cared nothing for boyish games. He even dis-
liked associating with boys ; but, on the other hand, talked
with grown-up people whenever he had a chance. His

14 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

chief game at that period was " Parson and Clerk," which
he used to play with a cousin of his, a boy of about his
own age, in which Buckle would always preach, and, ac-
cording to his mother, with extraordinary eloquence for a
child. Perhaps he learned this art from his attendance at
Exeter Hall, a place he used to frequent from the age of
fourteen with his mother, who, at one time, had been sur-
rounded with persons holding strict Calvinistic opinions,
and had been brought over to their views. Her son natu-
rally took great interest in what interested his mother.
" The natural docility of children," he remarks, 8 " renders
them for the most part ready to believe all that they are
told ; and to youth, just bursting into manhood and! igno-
rant of the wiles of the world, there is something singu-
larly captivating in the idea that they are espousing the
weaker side." Religion and politics were the boy's chief
topics of conversation ; in the latter, of course, siding with
his father, who was a strong Tory, but he went beyond
mere theory, and took a strong interest in the elections.
"With his father too he loved to talk, for he was a well-read
man, had been educated at Cambridge, as his father before
him, and was fond of reciting from Shakespeare to his
family of an evening.

After young Buckle had been home for some time, his
family made another attempt to send him away for educa-
tion. He went to a private tutor's, and there, though he
never seemed to learn his lessons, he was always foremost.
His health, however, failed, and again he had to be taken
home. As he grew older, he began to read the newspa-

8 " Fragments on Elizabeth," " Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works,"
vol. i., p. 417.

OFFICE EXPERIENCE. 15

pers, and, notwithstanding his early Tory bias, " his earli-
est efforts," says Miss Shirreff, " took the shape of specu-
lation on free trade, the principle of which he seemed to
have seized as soon as it was presented to him, in the dis-
cussions then rife in all the newspapers. . . . On one occa-
sion, he even grew so excited on the subject as to sit up at
night to write a letter to Sir Robert Peel, which, however,
he had not the courage to send."

As his health was now again restored, and he was sev-
enteen years of age, his father thought it high time he
should begin a profession, and placed him in his own office.
" Mrs. Buckle," says Miss Shirreff, " more than once de-
scribed to me her dismay when she found it impossible to
move her husband from this resolution." It was indeed a
wise one ; and one that only a mother, convinced of her
son's great capabilities, who implicitly believed that his
was a mind above the ordinary, and longed for the day
when she should be congratulated by all the world on be-
ing the mother of such a son, would have opposed. To
see him buried alive in an office was too dreadful, and
young Buckle himself went there with the greatest repug-
nance. Years afterward he looked back with disgust to
the time he had passed in that place ; nor is it wonderful
that it should have had no attraction for a boy already
nearly eighteen, accustomed to do very much as he liked,
and with so active a mind, considering that the first six
months is a period of punctual idleness or of a kind of
work which is simply mechanical. Nevertheless, referring
to this period in after-life, he did not think the time he
had passed there wasted. It had given him a certain idea
of business, which is better acquired by even a few months'

16 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

presence in an office than in any other way ; just as seeing
a few chemical experiments actually performed will teach
more than the most persistent reading without it can do.

His father was now sixty-one years old, and had been
suffering for some time from consumption. His disease,
his age, and, to a slight extent, the difference of views
held by himself and his wife on religious matters, made
him grow retired and absent-minded. There was no real
estrangement ; for the Calvinism of Mrs. Buckle, owing to
her charming and womanly nature, did not interfere with
her kindliness, gayety, and affection. She herself, indeed,
suffered much from her cold and rigid beliefs, so foreign
to her tender nature. " The intense suffering caused by
this, she could hardly look back upon with calmness, even
at the distance of half a lifetime. Yiews full of terror and
despair, with their wild visions of vengeance and condem-
nation, which have shattered the grace of many a noble
mind, wrought into hers a deep-seated misery which no
external circumstances could alleviate, and which only
passed away when she had conquered her own freedom
through years of thought and study." 4 He, on the other
hand, was a stanch Churchman. He would sit alone over
his port the whole evening, reading a good deal, but chiefly
theological works ; which, perhaps, helped Mrs. Buckle to
a juster appreciation of true Christianity. He used to
pass his nearest relations in the streets without noticing
them, so absent did he become. One day he slipped on
the curb outside his door and broke his arm. This acci-
dent, though not serious, took an extraordinary hold of his

4 Miss Shirreff, p. xxv. of Buckle's " Miscellaneous and Posthumous
Works," vol. i.

DEATH OF MB.

morbid imagination. It gave a shock to his already totter-
ing health, and he firmly believed that he would never
recover. Four weeks afterward he died, on January 24,
1840, his last words being addressed to his son when he
called him to his bedside a few minutes before his death,
"Be a good boy to your mother." Young Buckle was
immediately seized with a fainting-fit, and taken out of
the room. For some months after he had to be attended
by his physicians, and had frequent attacks of fainting,
with great prostration, and only recovered his strength
after a long stay in Brighton, whither the family went on
the death of Mr. Buckle. Soon after, Mrs. Buckle was
advised, both for herself and her son, to try entire change
of scene and climate, and in July, 1840, she, her son, and
her unmarried daughter, left England and remained a year
abroad.

Left in independent circumstances by his father's death,
and with no one to urge him to continue in business, he of
course never returned to the office. It was a great event
in his life, but for him it was no other change than this :
had he had a taste for and remained in the business, he
would probably have become as famous as he afterward
became in a higher line. For a man of genius, the work
in any profession will demand his highest industry and
highest powers. For the man of mediocrity, the work of
a merchant or of a scientific man is equally open ; and,
whether he takes up the one or the other, in neither will
he attain celebrity ahd in neither will he fail. If he has
interest, if his father be a scientific man, with scientific
connections, or if his father be in business, with business
connections, success is tolerably certain in either, the only
2

18 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

difference being that the merchant's is generally the most
paying profession. The description

" Hear him but reason in divinity,
And, all-admiring with an inward wish
You would desire the king were made a prelate :
Hear him debate of commonwealth affairs,
You would say it hath been all-in-all his study :
List his discourse of war, and you shall hear
A fearful battle rendered you in music :
Turn him to any course of policy,
The gordian knot of it he will unloose
Familiar as his garter ; that, when he speaks,
The air, a chartered libertine, is still,
And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears,
To steal his sweet and honeyed sentences "

is a eulogy which, though of course not applicable at this
period, was very applicable in later life. Practical men,
physicians, merchants, lawyers, all testified that he could
certainly attain high distinction in their own professions ;
while his power of oratory, of logical arrangement, and
warm and fervid eloquence has been manifest before the
public.

The idea of his history was already conceived, " dimly,
indeed, but still the plan was there," as he says himself in
a letter to Theodore Parker ; B and he now set about its
execution by ardently devoting himself to the study of the
literature and languages of the countries through which he
passed with his mother and sister. They left London for
Antwerp, and thence went traveling about to Brussels,
Liege, Bruges, etc. ; spent the summer at Baden-Baden,

6 Weiss's " Life," etc., vol. i., p. 469.

ACQUAINTANCE WITH HALLAM. 19

Wiesbaden, and other German towns. Then they went
on to Switzerland, and so down to Italy, visiting the lakes.
In November they spent a month at Florence, and thence
went on to Home, where they took lodgings and remained
up to the beginning of April, 1841. Wherever they
stopped Buckle engaged masters for the language ; but
soon found that he could teach himself the grammatical
part much more easily than he could learn from them, and
only required the services of his masters for practice in
conversation and for pronunciation. In this task, however,
he was never very successful, speaking foreign languages
with a strong English accent, though fluently and correct-
ly. Nor did he miss any opportunity of studying the
character and customs of the people in whose country he
traveled, and at the same time of improving himself in
conversation with them a habit which gained him the
valuable acquaintance of the historian Hallam, whom he
met while traveling on the Rhine. Mr. Hallam being in
some difficulty on account of his ignorance of the German
language, Buckle interpreted for him. They got into con-
versation, and the acquaintance soon ripened into an invi-
tation to the young man to call on his return to London.
At Rome, again, where he studied Italian with another
young Englishman, the latter was greatly astonished at his
powers; so much so that he wrote home an account of
him, and how, do what he could, it was impossible to keep
pace with him.

From Italy they posted back to France, and took up
their quarters for about six weeks in a flat in the Rue de
Rivoli. Here, besides studying, Buckle used frequently
to play at chess, a game in which he already showed very

BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

considerable power and depth of combination. He played
Kieseritzki at the Cafe de la Regence, and even the re-
doubted St. Amant himself. Each of these masters gave
him a pawn ; but each was beaten. Later, when he again
visited Paris in 1848, he again engaged Kieseritzki equal :
and, taking these games with former ones, beat him. Buc-
kle was proud of his skill in all games not dependent on
manual dexterity. It was in Paris that, while watching a
game of draughts outside a cafe, he told the players who
had just drawn it, that it might be won by white in three
moves. They, who knew nothing of him, would not be-
lieve him ; upon which Buckle made a bet, and won it.
The exact position I do not know, but it was something
of the same kind as given in the annexed woodcut." At

Boulogne they stopped again for a few weeks on their
way home ; and, not satisfied with the languages he was
already studying, here he began to learn Russian.

6 White 12 to 16 ; Black 20 to 11* ; White 9 to 14 ; Black 10 to 17*, or
18 to 9* ; when White wins.

MUSIC DISTASTEFUL. 21

During these travels, his sister observed that he
seemed to care very little for the various galleries, and
not at all for music; indeed, he never accompanied his
mother and sister to the opera. Once only in his life
did he enjoy it, and that was when Franz Liszt played, a
performer of whose influence Heine gives some account,
and by whom he is put before all others with the single
exception of Chopin : " "With this single exception," says
Heine, "all other performers whom we have heard in
countless concerts this year are only performers brilliant
merely in their power of manipulation over the wood and
wire. But when Liszt plays the piano fades utterly from
our thoughts, we no longer think on difficulties overcome
our souls are bathed in music." 7 That Buckle should
have enjoyed music on this occasion may induce us to
pause a little before we put down a want of sensibility to
the influence of this art entirely to a deficiency of musi-
cal feeling. Is it not more probable that in such cases it
is due to the imperfection of interpretation ? A man of
fine feeling will always feel shocked at a coarse daub of
a picture, even if he had no artistic education. In the
same way, many a man will feel the beauty of a Raphael,
a Titian, or a Hubens, who utterly fails to interpret the
ill-drawn forms of an early master. There is, moreover,
no doubt that music is the most unnatural of all the arts.
Music, painting, sculpture, and poetry, are unnatural in
proportion as they are idealized ; and of this the first is
most, the last is least so. Hence it is that though in lit-
erature all the world is one, in poetry they are less united,
and so on in an increasing series until we get to music,

7 H. Heine, " Sammtliche Werke," Hamburg, 1862, vol. xi., p. 329.

22 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

which is entirely different. "We can follow the philoso-
phy of the Chinese, but their music we would rather be
without ; we admire the poetry of the Arabs, but shrink
from what they most admire in music ; and they too read
our books as we read theirs, and fly from what we call
music, as we fly theirs. In our own society there are
twenty men who admire a picture to one who really en-
joys music ; more who admire fine sculpture than a pic-
ture, and more, again, who enjoy literature than any art ;
and, were any further proof necessary of this order of
development in the arts, we should find it in their his-
tory in the various nations. Who can tell but that Drew,
Watt, and Hunter, Scott, Niebuhr, and Arnold, Johnson
and Dryden, Burke, Pitt, Fox, Lord Holland, and many
others, who all disliked the music of their day, and, in-
deed, could hardly tell one note from another, might not
have enjoyed music if better interpreted ; or, at all events,
if they had lived in a later age when music Avill be fur-
ther advanced? As a rule, music was mere noise to
Buckle, and he could not tell one tune from another.
Once he thought he did recognize an air for " God save
the Queen " ; but it turned out to be " Rule Britannia."
There are several notes on the subject in his " Common-
place Book," e such as : " Some idiots will whistle tunes
correctly. Georget mentions an idiot seven years old who
had an extraordinary facility for learning the airs of songs.
. . . Luther tells us that the devil -can not bear music."
And again, in the note on the life of Arnold, he has
" Lord Brougham says of Fox and Lord Holland, ' Music
was positively disagreeable to them both; a remarkable

6 For example, Arts, 277, 2211.

CHANGE IN KELIGIOUS VIEWS. 33

instance of Shakespeare's extravagant error in a well-
known passage of his plays.' ' : And when this passage
of Shakespeare was quoted against him. by Mrs. Wood-
head, he retorted, " Yes, but see in whose mouth Shake-
speare puts it, the mouth of a silly youth."

From this journey he returned very much altered.
From a somewhat narrow low-churchman and Tory, he
had become a freethinker and a radical the first change
probably produced in Germany ; and the latter, possibly,
by his reading, his view of foreign interference and des-
potism, and his residence in Paris. He had begun his
education thus by himself, and had full confidence in his
self-educating powers. He might have gone to the uni-
versity, but certainly an English university at that time
was the last place he would have thought of going to. In
his History 9 he observes : " What a war Locke would
wage against our great universities and public schools,
where innumerable things are still taught which no one
is concerned to understand, and which few will take the
trouble to remember ! . . . We often find what are called
highly educated men, the progress of whose knowledge
has been actually retarded by an education by which their
reading has deepened their prejudices instead of dissipat-
ing them."

We might have had a much fuller account of this most
important period of his life had he not destroyed the let-
ters he wrote to his mother. For in his diary is the entry
under January 23, 1855, " Eead and destroyed some old
letters of mine, written fifteen years ago." Captain Ken-
nedy, who made his acquaintance in Jun"e, 1841, says: U I

9 Vol. L, p. 246. See note 30, p. 44.

24: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

remember, in that early time of our acquaintance, being
struck by the bold originality and grasp of thought, the
variety and extent of general knowledge possessed by the
pale, delicate-looking stripling, who might have passed for
a year or two younger than he really was. He was an
omnivorous reader, no book of any kind seeming to come
amiss to him ; and he had the power, accorded to few, of
plucking out, as it were, the heart of a book by doing
little more than turning over the pages, with here and
there an occasional halt. I remember his borrowing of
me Burder's " Oriental Literature," a two- volume octavo,
of anything but light reading. He brought it back next
day, whereon I remarked that I supposed it did not inter-
est him. He said he had read it, and began to expatiate
on its contents in a way which satisfied me that he, at any
rate, knew more about them than I did." 10

The first entry that we have in his diary is on the 15th
October, 1842, as follows : " Being this day settled in my
new lodgings, No. 1 Norfolk Street, I determined to keep
a journal of my actions principally, for the sake of being
able to review what I have read, and consequently to esti-
mate my own progress. My reading has, unfortunately,
been hitherto, though extensive, both desultory and ir-
regular. I am, however, determined from this day to
devote all the energies I may have, solely to the study
of the history and literature of the middle ages. I am
led to adopt this course, not so much on account of the
interest of the subject though that is a great inducement
but because there has been, comparatively speaking, so

10 " Mr. Buckle as a Chess-Player." In the " Westminster Papers," vol.
Ti., p. 24. No. 62, for 2d June, 1873.

FIRST ENTRY IN HIS DIARY. 25

little known and published upon it. And Ambition whis-
pers to me the flattering hope that a prolonged series of
industrious efforts, aided by talents certainly above medioc-
rity, may at last meet with success. To return, however,
to my journal. I rose this morning at half -past seven,
and from eight till nine was occupied in unpacking and
arranging my books, clothes, etc. At nine I breakfasted,
and after that commenced this journal which, what with
writing a letter to Mr. S , and doing other little mat-
ters, occupied my time until half-past ten. From half-
past ten till half -past twelve I read f The History of the
Middle Ages,' published in Lardner's c Cyclopaedia,' two
volumes, first to thirteenth page referring at same time
to Hallam, as also to Hawkins's little work on Germany
for verification of dates. This brings me from the inva-
sion of Clovis in 496 to the murder of Sigebert by Frede-
gonde in 5T5. I have at the same time made copious
abstracts of the times alluded to. In Lardner's ' History '
Clotaire is called the second son of Clovis (see p. 11, vol.
ii.) and Hallam says he was the youngest (p. 3, vol. i.).
Hallam is doubtless accurate, as, besides his high reputa-
tion, the ' History ' published by Lardner show signs of
great carelessness in such small things as a vowel cut off
from a name, as Fredegund, instead of Fredegonde, etc.,
and another great blemish is that the authorities are rarely
or never given at the bottom of the page in support of an
alleged fact and, besides all this, his style is heavy and
apparently labored."

This entry is very interesting, as it fixes the date of
the plan mentioned in a note in his chapter on Spain. 11

11 " History of Civilization in England," vol. ii., p. 137, note 337.

26 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

" At one time I had purposed tracing the history of the
municipal and representative elements during the fif-
teenth century, and the materials which I then collected
convinced me that the spirit of freedom never really
existed in Spain." It is very possible, indeed, that we
may here trace the influence of Mr. Hallam (with whom
and his promising son Buckle became very intimate) in
fixing his wavering purpose on a particular point. But it
is very evident from the entry in the diary that this his-
tory would have had a strong smack of the " History of
Civilization," nay, that it included germs which must
inevitably grow until he saw with despair the horizon
receding as he advanced, and was compelled, unwillingly
and sick at heart, to restrict himself within limits which
could but feebly express his bold views and wide sweep of
generalization. Even now, however, he could not restrict
himself to the period upon which he had made up his
mind to write. Ten days after the above entry was made
he looks back on what he has done : " The sketch, then,
of the history of France during the middle ages has occu-
' pied me just ten days but, then, on one of those days I
did not read at all [on account of a thick fog] and, be-
sides that, I am now in better train for reading than I
was at first. So that I think, on an average, I may say
eight days will suffice in future for each history. It is
my intention to go first in this hasty and superficial way
through European history of the middle ages, and then,
reading the more elaborate works, make myself as much a
master of the subject as is possible, considering the meager
information we at present possess." The works he had been
reading on the subject were, besides those already men-

COURSE OF STUDY. 27

tioned, Gibbon and Lingard upon these times. The " more
elaborate works " were doubtlessly such books as state
papers, plays, privy-purse expenses, ballads, or, in a word,
the usual authorities used by such writers as Hallam and
Macaulay, and absolutely necessary to any one who intended
to write on the manners of the people, the state of science,
and the state of the country, so as to place a sort of living
picture before his readers of Europe during the middle ages.
As soon as he had finished with France, he went on to
Germany. Wednesday, 26th October, 1$42. Did not
breakfast till ten. From half -past ten to half-past eleven
finished my chronological abridgment of French history,
and from half -past eleven till a quarter to one looked super-
ficially through the histories of Italy and Germany during
the middle ages, to determine which would be the most
advisable to read first. I have determined upon Ger-
many." But two days afterward he began the study of
Italian history conjointly with that of Germany. On Oc-
tober 31st we find him taking up Kussian again, which
he had begun at Boulogne. "At present," he says, "I
know of the Russian language absolutely nothing." He
had a lesson on the Tuesday, " entirely confined to read-
ing. In pronunciation I find greater difficulties than I
could have believed possible to have existed in any lan-
guage I am, however, determined to conquer them."
He studied every day to November 12th, soon after which
date he went to Boulogne to stop with his mother, who
had taken a house there. Here he continued his Russian by
himself, and took lessons in German conversation ; bought,
besides, a Spanish and a Portuguese grammar, tried to get
a Dutch grammar, but in vain ; played whist nearly every

28 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

evening, and returned to London at the beginning of De-
cember. During this absence he had apparently given up
his lodgings, for on his return he went to stay with his mar-
ried sister, Mrs. Hutchinson, in Albany Street, where he
had a room fitted up with book-shelves for his private use.

His chief relaxation was chess, to which he gave the
greater part of his afternoons, and he also played whiat
very frequently. Indeed, he was a first-rate player of all
games of mental skill. Captain Kennedy says that al-
ready, in 1841, his chess-play was exceedingly strong ; and
Buckle considered his whist-play even better than his
chess. The following extracts from his diary will give
some idea of what he did : " "Went then (four o'clock) to
the club, and played three games with Mr. Fonblanque,
of which I won two. Dined at a coffee-house, and after-
ward played a match game with Mr. Tuckett, giving him
the pawn and move, which was drawn. He is nine to my
seven." 12 And again : " Feeling unwell, went to club,
where I played five games with Mr. Thrupp, all of which I
won ; and one with Mr. Dennis, which I also won. Dined at
coffee-house, and went to divan, where I played two games
with Mr. Rogers," to whom he gave odds, and by whom he
was beaten. 13 It was here that he generally played, when
he was in town, going there nearly every evening.

Captain Kennedy, of all his friends the one most capa-
ble of giving an account of Buckle's play, says : " Nature
had gifted him with a superlative aptitude for the game
of chess, and he brought the powers of a rare intellect
clear, penetrating, and sagacious beyond that of most men
to bear upon it. His imagination was that of the poet,

12 "Diary," 16th December, 1842. 13 "Diary," 28th January, 1843.

SKILL IN CHESS. 29

' all compact/ but subservient to the dictates of a logical
judgment. His combinations accordingly, under such
guidance, seldom, if ever, exhibited a flaw, and were char-
acterized by exactitude of calculation and brilliant device.
He excelled in pawn-play, which he conducted with an
ingenuity and deadly accuracy worthy of the renowned
pawn general, Szen. He gave large odds, such as Rook
and Knight, with wonderful skill and success, appearing
to have a sort of intuitive knowledge of a strange oppo-
nent's chess idiosyncrasy, which enabled him precisely to
gauge the kind of risks he might venture to run. The
rendering of heavy odds, as every experienced chess-player
knows, necessitates hazardous and unsound play on the
part of the giver. These contests of his at odds were al-
ways full of interest and entertainment to lookers-on, and
a gallery two or three deep often surrounded his board in
the Strand Divan, where it was his ' custom in the after-
noon ' to recreate himself with his favorite game. I have
occasionally seen roars of laughter elicited from the spec-
tators by the crestfallen aspect of some poor, discomfited
Rook-player, who, with much care and solicitude, having
obtained, as he fondly believed, an impregnable position,
had suddenly found his defenses scattered like chaff, and
himself accommodated with a mate, after the sacrifice, by
his keen-witted opponent, of two or three pieces in succes-
sion. Whether winning or losing, Mr. Buckle was a cour-
teous and pleasant adversary, and sat quietly before the
board, smoking his cigar, and pursuing his game with in-
flexible steadiness."

It must be acknowledged, however, that, if Buckle's
temper in chess was so perfect, he avoided giving it too

30 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WHITINGS.

severe a trial. " On one occasion," says Captain Kennedy,
" when lie was asked the ground for his refusal to play with
an extremely slow player, whose tediousness had obtained
him the cognomen of * the Telegraph,' Mr. Buckle, in his
own peculiar sententious manner, gave utterance to the
following reply : ' "Well, sir, the slowness of genius is dif-
ficult to bear, but the slowness of mediocrity is intolerable.'
It is said, but with how much truth we know not, that from
the time when this speech was reported to c the Telegraph '
he was notable for fitful and hurried play." 14

Although there are about a hundred and fifty of his
games in print, it would be unfair to Buckle's powers
to judge them by these ; for, as Captain Kennedy justly
points out, " besides the fact that his best games did not
get into print, chess was only a recreation to him, and, un-
willing to occupy his valuable time with the study of new
variations in openings or printed games, he almost invaria-
bly opens in his later published games with the safe Giuoco
Piano, when he has the move, and irregularly as second
player." " At one time," continues the Captain, " I have
reason to think that he did not even possess a chess-board.
I had been dining with him at his house at Oxford Ter-
race, and asked him, after dinner, to look at a position in
some game which interested me. After searching awhile,
to my surprise and amusement he produced an ancient
little backgammon-board, on which we set up a tall, shaky
family of red and white bone chess-men, much too large
for the board." 10

14 " Westminster Papers," vol. vi., pp. 23, 24; No. 62, for July 2, 1873;
and vol. i., p. 10, No. 1, for April, 1868.

15 " Westminster Papers," vol. vi., pp. 23, 24.

BOOK PURCHASES. 31

Much time was besides given to reading catalogues,
and in walking all over London, searching for and buying
books, which, though cheap, cost him a considerable part
of his income. As an instance I give the following:
"Bought Caird's 'Life of Charlemagne,' whole bound,
very neat, 1 vol., 2s. 6d. ; Crabb's { History of Common
Law,' 1 vol., 8vo, bds., As. ; ' Barrington on More's An-
cient Statutes,' 1 vol., 8vo 3 calf, 2s. Qd. ; Mills's ' Travels
of Theodore Ducas,' 2 vols., 8vo, in boards, only 2s. ; also
Johnson's c Memoirs of John Selden,' one vol., 8vo, new
bds., uncut, portrait, only 2s. These last two books were
bought at Stocklers', who, when he has anything to sell,
is extremely cheap." " Again : " Went to Bohn's, in
York Street, Covent Garden, where I purchased "Watts's
c Bibliotheca Britannica,' a rather scarce work, for which
I paid seven guineas." " " To Holywell Street, to look
among the bookstalls there, but only bought a copy of
6 [The] History of Helvetia,' two vols., 8vo, for which I
paid Is. 6d. ! ! ! " He was not content with going about
the bookstalls, but made comparative lists of the books
he wanted from booksellers' catalogues, with the prices, 19
and bought also at Sotheby's. 30

In this way he went on steadily reading on the history
of the middle ages, buying books, and playing chess.

On the 7th March, 1843, he writes : " Began my Life
of Charles I.," which he worked at daily up to 3d April
with but three days' intermission. It is probable that this
paper has been destroyed or incorporated with the " Frag-

16 " Diary," 16th January, 1842. 17 " Diary," 7th December, 1842.

18 "Diary," 17th December, 1842. 19 "Diary," llth January, 1843.

20 E. g., 26th January, 1843, ib.

32 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

merits " ; for though there is an article on Charles I.
extant, for several reasons I can not think with Miss
Taylor that this may be the article in question. 21

He was thus engaged when his mother and sister came
up to town, the latter being about to be married, and on
April 4:th suddenly determined to accompany the former,
who was going on to Boulogne, and afterward travel on
through Holland. He first bought a Dutch grammar and
dictionary, and then informed his mother he would ac-
company her, "at which she was, of course, much sur-
prised." Though but a few years ago, the description
of their journey will give us some idea of the advance
we have made in locomotion since that day. They started
from London Bridge, and arrived at Ashford in two hours
and a half, from which place they posted to Dover, and
arrived at six, after another three hours and a half on the

81 Buckle's " Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works," p. xv. My reasons
are as follows :

1. The book in which the extant Life of Charles I. is written is dated
"Boulogne, July, 1849."

2. It consists of a series of disjointed notes from Edward VI. down to
Anne, in which there is no indication of any interpolation, or of the Life of
Charles having been written before the previous articles.

3. It refers back to " my Life of James I." But there is no indication
in his diary of 1842-1848 of this work.

4. It refers to Jacob's " Precious Metals," which he only read eight years
later.

6. It took twenty -four days to write ; but the extant article consists of
but three small folio pages.

6. The extant article is nothing in the nature of a narrative, and does
not mention Buckingham's death. But his diary has the entry, "Con-
tinued Charles I., which I have now finished down to the death of Bucking-
ham in 1628, the first epoch."

7. The fragment on the reign of Elizabeth is quite different from the
notes on the reign of Elizabeth which occur in this volume. Hence we may
infer that the Life of Charles I. was of the same kind.

PRESENTED AT COURT. 33

road. They were there told that the steamer would leave
next morning at 11.30, but were woke up early and told that
the steamer having arrived earlier than was expected that
morning, it would start again at nine o'clock. Tne tide
being out, they had to put off in small boats, and only
arrived in Boulogne "after a stormy and miserable pas-
sage of five hours." "With characteristic energy, however,
Buckle found a Dutch master the very next day, though
he had not yet recovered from the effects of the voyage ;
but a day or two after he fell ill, and remained so for
some weeks. Here his journal unfortunately breaks off,
but we learn from other sources that he returned to Lon-
don soon after he recovered, as he had made up his mind
to travel on the Continent, and knew that it was almost
necessary, if he wished to be received in society, that he
should have been presented at court.

On 17th May, 1843, he was presented by Lord Eoden
at a levee held by Prince Albert at St. James's Palace ;
and the following June he landed at Hamburg with one
traveling companion. There he chanced to put up at
the same hotel as Lord Kimberley, who was journeying
through Hamburg at the time, and they soon became
acquainted. The latter's first opinion of Buckle was,
that he was terribly conceited ; but he soon began to see
that there was much justification for the unbounded
confidence he showed in his own powers. His old Tory
views had entirely disappeared, and he was a thorough
radical, which he long afterward remained, even going
so far as to dislike the Whigs. His old religious views
had also been thoroughly changed, and he was now read-
ing Strauss. And, finally, the plan of his "History of

34: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Civilization " was already more than " dimly perceived,"
it was fully sketched out. His habit was to sit up late at
night reading ; he used to smoke much, and was a great
talker, eager to discuss anything and everything. The
two parties joined and traveled on together. To Berlin
Buckle had brought a warm letter of introduction from
Staunton, whom he had beaten in a match of three games,
in which that great player had given him the odds of
pawn and move ; and there he engaged and beat Bessel,
Scherpe, Kossak, Hausler, Yon Carisien, and Hanstein.
The greatest players of Berlin, Bledow and Heydebrant,
only just succeeded in beating him, and they both ac-
knowledged his extraordinary powers. 22 From Berlin
they went on to Magdeburg and Dresden, at which place
Lord Kimberley left him after they had been there two
months.

Wherever Buckle traveled, he used to go about and
mix with the people as much as possible. At Dresden,
after watching some chess-players at a cafe, he was in-
vited by one of them to play. The man played carelessly
at first, but soon paid more and more attention to the
game. At last he was beaten. He got up, and made a
profound bow. " Whoever you are," he said, " you should
only play with our best players." Buckle did, and soon
won quite : a reputation there. He even created some
jealousy, and heard that one of the well-known players
had gone about saying that Buckle was too inferior a
player for him to engage with. Buckle immediately post-
ed up a large placard challenging that gentleman to a

22 See the " Schachzeitung," Berlin, 1846, pp. 87, 88 ; 1848, pp. 305, 306 ;
1862, pp. 194, 195.

TOUR IN GERMANY

game for five hundred dollars. The man never appeared
in public again while Buckle was at Dresden.

He traveled thence through Austria on his way to
Italy, but met with an adventure on the frontier. The
cautious and enlightened customs oificer whose business it
was to examine his luggage paid special attention to his
books, among which they came upon Copernicus's "De
Revolutionibus Orbium Coelestium." This dangerous work
was promptly confiscated, in spite of Buckle's protests and
explanations. They did not care where the revolution
was ; they had their orders, and their orders were to con-
fiscate all books of a revolutionary tendency, whether
political works or not. He much enjoyed telling this
story, and was amply repaid by it for the loss of his book.

Of his second stay in Italy we have no record beyond
an anecdote which shows how his name was already well
known to European chess-players. He was watching a
game outside a cafe at Rome, as was his wont, when one
of the players on the conclusion of the game asked him to
play. This man, seeing that he was an Englishman and
very young, proposed a scudo as the stake. Buckle as-
sented. " Or perhaps a couple of scudi ? " he added.
Buckle agreed. " Well, perhaps it would make a better
game if we were to play for five scudi ? " Upon this
Buckle began to get angry, and said, " I'll play you for a
hundred scudi if -you like." The man was quite taken
aback, and asked him his name. " Buckle." " How do
you spell it ? " He was told. " Ah, Booclay ! " he said,
"then I won't play with you." We know, also, that he
went as far south as Naples ; for he used to relate that,
when he went inside the Blue Grotto at Capri, the boat-

36 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

men refused to take him out unless lie paid them more
than he had bargained for. He handed them his purse ;
but, when he got back to Naples, he took the trouble to
prosecute the men, and got them punished a result they
had hardly counted upon.

During the whole of his travels he diligently studied
the language and literature of the countries in which he
happened to be. At Munich, where he stopped longest
on his return from Italy, he besides studied Hebrew, with
a rabbi. The picture-gallery was one of his great resorts,
and here he used to take his luncheon and pass hours
gazing at the pictures and trying to think himself into the
whole idea of the master. "We may be sure that the gal-
leries of Italy had not been unvisited, for he owned that,
despite the beauty of coloring in the pictures, he preferred
form to color, and this opinion he never altered till he
traveled through Egypt and the desert. There, watching
the glorious tints of the distant mountains of Arabia,
across the Gulf of Akaba, the intense blue of the water,
the yellow sands, and perhaps the coral, and many beauti-
ful shelis strewed along the shore, the memories of the
treasures of sculpture in Italy were vanquished, and he
bowed to the superior power of color. It was his habit
to sit up late at night, reading, with a wet towel round his
head ; and on one of these occasions he was frightened for
the first and only time in his life. It was about two
o'clock in the morning, and he had been reading for sev-
eral hours wholly absorbed in his book. The room was
dark but for the two candles which burned on the table
before him. Suddenly he became aware of something on
the opposite side of the table, and, looking up in that

ILLNESS CHOICE OF A PROFESSION". 37

hesitating, doubtful way one does when absorbed in some-
thing else, he saw a figure all robed in white gazing full
in his face. Before he had time to think he shrieked
aloud, and thus woke the landlady, whose somnambulic
figure it was that had just frightened him.

At last he fell ill of rheumatic fever and his mother
came out to nurse him, and on his recovery they traveled
home together by way of Holland. On the journey,
Buckle, who was always eager to improve himself and to
talk, entered into conversation with a Dutch fellow trav-
eler. The man at first explained that he did not know
English, but afterward found out that Buckle was speak-
ing Dutch, the pronunciation of which he had hardly yet
mastered, although he knew the language perfectly well.
He kindly explained to Buckle where his faults lay, and
they then got on better together.

The question of a profession naturally presented itself
to Buckle as soon as he arrived home ; the first considera-
tion being that it should not absorb the whole of his time,
but should give him sufficient opportunity to prosecute his
studies in history. This was not an easy thing to find, for
he well knew that, once thoroughly engaged in a profession,
very little time is ever left for studies on other subjects.
However, he at last decided in favor of the bar, for, even
in the full swing and hurry of practice, he hoped in the
long vacation to find time for further study ; and, more-
over, the preparation for the law would be a preparation
for his other work. He accordingly consulted his cousin,
Mr. John Buckle, in whose ability and judgment he had
throughout his life the greatest confidence ; but he strongly
dissuaded him from taking this step on the score of his

38 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

delicate constitution ; pointing out to him that, with such
bad health, he would be certain to break down just when
he had achieved success in his profession ; and, so cogent
did his arguments seem to Buckle, that he gave up all idea
of it, and devoted himself entirely to his reading. He also
frequently played chess ; but, symptoms of overwork show-
ing themselves, his cousin again persuaded him to give
chess up, with the exception of occasional games for relax-
ation; and again Buckle followed his advice, though it
did not prevent him from taking this form of relaxation
almost every evening.

His second sister having married about this time, his
mother took a house in London, in order that she might
live with her son ; though London never agreed with her,
and, year after year, she was confined to her room the
greater part of the winter with bronchitis and asthma.
The house was No. 59 Oxford Terrace; not very large
indeed, but having a room built out at the back about
thirty feet square, which suited Buckle excellently well
for a library. This room was shut off from the rest of the
house by a small passage-room and four doors, and being
lighted only by one window, in addition to the skylight,
gave plenty of wall-space for bookcases. Little by little
every available space was covered ; the cases had a piece
added on all round, which made them reach from floor to
ceiling, even the space over the door was covered, and the
books overflowed until there was not a room in the house,
from the bedrooms to the butler's pantry, that had them
not.

He calculated that 22,000 volumes had been in his li-
brary ; but, as he used to sell those he did not want, there

METHOD OF STUDY. 39

were only about 11,000 in his library when he died. His
table was fitted up with shelves all round, so that he could
have all the books he wanted around him when he was
adding references to his "History." Every book, more-
over, was numbered and catalogued, so that not only could
he find any work he wanted at once, but he could send his
servant for it.

For fourteen years he worked here unknown to the
literary world ; and, unfortunately, we have no record of
his life until the year 1850, when his " History " was al-
ready partly written, beyond the few chess-games which
have been printed. That they were no idle years, we may
infer from the " History " itself ; but, still more from the
fact that he read nearly all the books he had that is,
about three volumes daily besides writing in every im-
portant book an epitome of its contents, learning more
languages, and practicing style. He always read pencil in
hand, and, when he had finished the book, wrote out in
ink from his pencil-notes what he wished to remember.
These, again, when they were notes on a book that he
wished to "master," as he called it, he used to read fre-
quently. Sometimes he read and reread a book twice or
thrice, though his memory was so excellent and his in-
dustry in note-taking so great that he had not to do this
very often. His system in reading was not to follow the
book, but the subject. He would, for instance, in read-
ing the history of England, not read a single work right
through, but an important period like the age of the Re-
naissance in one work, say Hallam, then in Lingard, then
in another, then go on to read the dispatches of ambassa-
dors, then the lives of the great men of that age in various

40 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

biographical dictionaries, until having viewed the subject
from every standpoint, and turned it over in his mind,
he was "saturated," as he called it, with that period, and
would go on to the next. At the same time he might
have another subject in hand, such as physiology, which
he would study in the same manner ; and, perhaps a couple
or so of languages.

By the year 1850 the total number of languages he
knew was nineteen ; namely

1. English, Y. Dutch, 14. Maorian,

2. French, 8. Danish, 15. Kussian,

3. German. 9. "Walloon, 16. Anglo-Saxon,

4. Italian, 10. Flemish, 1Y. Hebrew,

5. Spanish, 11. Swedish, 18. Greek,

6. Portuguese, 12. Icelandic, 19. Latin.

13. Frisiac,

All of them distinct languages, as he observed, though
some of them are similar to each other. The first seven
he knew well, and could converse in them or write them
with ease. With the rest he had a sufficient acquaintance
to be able to read them without trouble ; and, indeed, he
never cared for a knowledge of any language excepting as
a key to its literature. Their real value was this ; for, as
to talking them, one might travel through Europe with
only a knowledge of French. " The vanity of people is
so great that they will always talk to you in your own
language, if they have but a smattering of it," he said.
Of a man, who was pointed out to him at Cairo as very
learned, because he knew eight languages, Buckle asked,
" Has he done anything ? " " No." " Then he is only fit

AMBITION. 41

to be a courier." 24 And this same carelessness of knowl-
edge of languages, excepting as a means of knowledge,
induced him to read foreign works, when possible, in trans-
lations ; because it could be done quicker, and, in the case
of German, with its horrible type, saved the eyes work,
while the original could easily be referred to when it was
necessary.

But, though he accumulated such vast stores of knowl-
edge during these few years, his ambition was too great
to allow him to write anything for immediate publication.
Ambition, burning ambition, was his chief characteristic ;
and no idle vanity would induce him to write anything his
maturer age might condemn, as so many great writers
have done and repented in vain. " I made up my mind
when I was a boy," he said, " that, whatever I took up, I
should be first in. I would rather be first as a shoe-black,
than second in anything else." Dr. Johnson said : " A
man should write soon ; for, if he waits till his judgment
is matured, his inability, through want of practice, to ex-
press his conceptions, will make the disproportion so great
between what he sees and what he can attain, that he
will probably be discouraged from writing at all." "
But Buckle guarded against this by his greater industry.
Though naturally gifted with a clear and logical style, he
would not trust to nature on so important a point. With-
out ^ good style he thought no book of any value, because
no book written in a bad style will find many readers, and
until new truths are popularized they are of no value. He
accordingly studied it daily for four hours a day during a

94 " Atlantic Monthly " for April, 1863, pp. 494, 495.
25 Boswell's " Life," Croker, London, 1848, p. 658.

42 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

considerable part of this period ; reading a few pages of
Hallam, or Burke, or any other master, and then he would
sit down to write the same thing in his own words. He
would then compare the two, and find out " where it was
that I wrote worse than they." 26 He read besides the
best French authors for the same purpose ; and, so great
was his industry that, although the regular study occupied
him only a few years, he never considered that he had
attained perfection, but continually studied how to write
better. Even after the publication of his first volume we
find the following entries in his diary : " Read Burke for
the style " ; " made notes on style from Whately and H.
Spencer " ; " began to read Johnson's English dictionary
to enlarge my vocabulary " ; and " read Milton's prose
works for the style especially for the vocabulary." " " It
was a valuable lesson," says Miss Shirreff, who knew him
a few years later, " to hear him dissect an ill-constructed
sentence, and point out how the meaning could have been
brought out with full clearness by such and such changes."
And the result of all this was, that he formed a style so
perfectly clear and flowing that the reader is irresistibly
carried along with the writer.

He composed always in the forenoon, " walking about
the room, sometimes excitedly, his mind engrossed in the
subject, until he had composed an entire paragraph, when
he sat down and wrote it, never retouching, nor com-
posing sentence by sentence, which he considered had a
tendency to give an abrupt, jerky effect to what is writ-

26 "Atlantic Monthly " for April, 1863, p. 494.

27 " Diary," 1859, March 16th ; September 9th and 12th ; October 25th ;
November 22d.

COMPOSITIOK 43

ten. Traces of this, lie thought, might be found in Ma-
caulay's style." 28 "When dissatisfied with what he had
done, he would rather rewrite it altogether than attempt
to alter the text as it stood ; and great parts of his history,
more especially the brilliant perorations to the various
chapters, were written more than once before they took
their final shape. Hence it is that in his writings there is
not a labored passage, and none of that mannerism which,
though it may charm, is apt to tire the reader. It pro-
duces the exact effect required and no more. Here and
there it rises, indeed, to fervid eloquence, seemingly with-
out effort, by contrast with its ordinary plain and unorna-
mented form, like a first-rate actor who reserves his voice
until required for the passion of the piece, and always
rather by the choice of apt words and suitable imagery,
than by the rhythm and cadence of long and foreign words.
Is there a finer passage in the English language than his
peroration to the chapter on Spain, where he contrasts her
torpor and self-satisfaction with the progress and compe-
tition in other states ? We are led up in a few words to a
view of the hurry and bustle, the dazzle of new discov-
eries, the restlessness and noise of the greater part of Eu-
rope, when he suddenly breaks off just at the summit of
our excitement to point at sleeping Spain. Could any-
thing, again, be more tender than his passages on Burke,
or (to turn to his essay) on death ? Anything more sad
than his apology to the reader at the end of Chapter IY.
of his second volume ? Anything more severe than his
denunciation of the Scotch clergy, and of Mr. Justice Cole-
ridge ? It was this that made his attacks so galling, and

28 " Atlantic Monthly" for April, 1863, p. 495.

44 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

gave him the power to punish. What he said of Mr.
Coleridge, for instance, was not new ; it had all been said
before in Mr. Holyoake's pamphlet. 29 But the one having
' fulfilled its office is forgotten, while the other will live for
ever, a monument to liberty and to his power of style.

Hard as he worked during all these years, they were
the happiest of his life. Then he could indulge the
"hopes that belong to that joyous and sanguine period
of life, when alone we are really happy ; when the emo-
tions are more active than the judgment; when expe-
rience has not yet hardened our nature ; when the affec-
tions are not yet blighted and nipped to the core; and
when, the bitterness of disappointment not having yet been
felt, difficulties are unheeded, obstacles are unseen, ambi-
tion is a pleasure instead of a pang, and, the blood cours-
ing swiftly through the veins, the pulse beats high, while
the heart throbs at the prospect of the future." 30 His
chief enjoyment in life was reading, although he did not
despise sensual enjoyments, which should never be left
out altogether, as he points out in his " History," 31 but
only subordinated to the general weal, and, if possible, to
intellectual enjoyment which is so much more exquisite
to those who can appreciate it, albeit they are few com-
pared to the immense number of those who can live hap-
pily with mere sensual enjoyments. "There are two

29 Though Buckle did not obtain his facts from that pamphlet, and in-
deed did not see it until some time after his essay was published.

30 "History of Civilization," etc., vol. ii., p. 328. London, 1861.
Throughout this work I shall quote from this edition of the second vol-
ume, as the only one its author revised ; and from the 1858 edition of vol. i.
as the last the author revised.

31 Vol. ii., p. 400.

SMOKING. 45

things,' ' he said, "for which I never grudge money
books and cigars." And on the former he spent about
300 a year, only buying them for the subject, since he
did not care to spend money on mere luxury when there
were so many calls on his limited income necessitated by
his delicate state of health. On cigars he could not have
spent very much ; for in later life he used to smoke very
little, and when he was a young man he used to smoke
pipes as well as cigars. In Germany he smoked their
national pipe, of which he had a large collection ; and in
March, 1843, he notes in his diary that he went to a shop
in Cromer Street, " where I saw the process of pipe-mak-
ing and ordered a gross of clay pipes. 5 ' He afterward
found, however, that he could no longer smoke pipes ; and
it was only when he traveled in Egypt and tried the long
chibouk with mild latakieh, that he again took to them.
"Those who delight in the exquisite flavor of tobacco,"
he writes in his " Commonplace-Book," sa " and above all
those who have experienced its soothing influence over an
irritated brain, may form some idea of the enthusiasm
with which it was welcomed by all classes." And this
"soothing influence" was so necessary to him that he
never would accept an invitation to any house where he
might not smoke. One cigar after breakfast, one before
dinner, and one in bed, when he used to read some light
book to compose his thoughts and prevent an exciting
train of speculation, was his usual allowance ; and he said
that he could neither read, write, nor talk, if forced to fore-
go his smoke ; or, Miss Shirreff adds, if he was forced to
overpass by much his usual hour for indulging in it.

32 " Posthumous Works," vol. iii., p. 529, Art. 64.

46 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

But though he never denied himself a book that he
wanted, or a good -cigar, he was exceedingly careful (some
charitable people say, miserly) with his money. He him-
self points out in his notes on Queen Elizabeth the differ-
ence between avariciousness and parsimony. " It has been
a common charge against Elizabeth that she was avaricious.
But those who bring that charge confound parsimony with
avarice. She was parsimonious, and in this she only did
her duty in saving the money of her subjects, a duty which
it would be well if sovereigns of the present day would
imitate, instead of squandering a large part of the re-
sources of the country in petty amusements not fit to
occupy the leisure of a girl who has just emerged from
the nursery. Camden truly says, c The truth is, she was
provident and frugal to a great degree, and scarce spent
anything but in the necessary support of her royal charac-
ter, the defense of her kingdom, or the relief of her neigh-
bors.' " 33 And we may say of him : the truth is, he was
provident and frugal to a great degree, and scarce spent
anything but in the necessary support of his literary char-
acter, the defense of his health, or the relief of his neigh-
bors. To accuse a man of not dealing properly with his
money, is not only an impertinence, because it is no busi-
ness of the accuser to decide how another man's money
should be spent ; but it is a blunder, since the accuser can
never know what the man's expenditures and charities are.
Hard indeed must be the heart that, seeing the miseries in
this world, will not attempt to relieve them ; and, though
most men of sense know that charity does harm except in
special cases, yet few men of ordinary sensibility can do

33 " Posthumous Works," vol. iii., p. 619.

CHARITY ECONOMY. 47

such violence to their feelings as thoroughly to act up to
their knowledge. It was in talking on this subject that a
friend of his accidentally heard of some of his charities.
When he was accosted by a beggar in the streets, he said,
" I ask his name and address ; in nine cases out of ten it
was a false one; but though the slums and narrow streets
I had to visit were very disagreeable, yet the pleasure of
giving bread to a starving family in the tenth case repaid
me many times over for all my trouble." These charities
took nothing from his time, for he made it a rule to walk
seven miles in the course of the day, whatever the weather
might be, and therefore had plenty of opportunity for this
and for other business.

His income was not large, and perhaps never exceeded
1,500 a year. He was therefore obliged, if he wished to
live comfortably, to live economically. No one understood
the real value of wealth better than he ; it " is a real and
substantial thing, which ministers to our pleasures, in-
creases our comfort, multiplies our resources, and not un-
frequently alleviates our pains. . . . We constantly hear
of the sinfulness of loving money ; although it is certain
that, after the love of knowledge, there is no one passion
which has done so much good to mankind as the love of
money." : He was very accurate in his accounts ; and
not only invested his own money, but gave his friends
good and, as they found, valuable advice on the subject.
To one friend, for instance, who has kindly sent me some
reminiscences, he explained the necessity for persons with
fixed incomes to be saving. For the value of money is
constantly diminishing, while the cost of living as con-

34 "History of Civilization," etc., vol. ii., pp. 311, 404.

48 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

stantly increases; and hence the necessary expenses in-
crease as the power to meet them decreases. Every pru-
dent person should, therefore, lay by so much of his
income as will suffice to maintain its purchasing power.
He himself paid cash for everything he bought, and was
careful to get discount. Once, indeed, when he had
bought a new carpet from a man who had promised him
discount for cash, and then asked for the whole sum,
Buckle quietly returned the unpaid bill to his pocket, and
told him to call for payment that day two years. At one
time he used to go to the butcher himself to select his
meat, and see his steaks cut. He said he had " cultivated"
an attention to cookery, and, certainly, was a first-rate
judge of good and bad, though a moderate eater. He
only ate toast on Mondays, because on that day the bread
was more than one day old ; but his servant had to bring
up the toasting-fork into the dining-room and make the
toast as required. No woman, he said, could make tea
until he had taught her ; the great thing was to have it
very hot ; the cups and even the spoons should be warmed.
The tea was to stand a little longer when the tea-caddy
was rather full, to allow time for the leaves to unroll ; but
at the bottom of the caddy there were more broken leaves,
and hence so much time need not be allowed. " It's the
only time my servants are afraid of me," he said, " when I
am at my meals." And he might have added, "before
my meals, when they are unpunctual." Indeed, he prided
himself on the cultivation of his senses as well as his in-
tellect ; and on his practicality as well as his speculative
powers; though he despised those "whose knowledge is
almost confined to what passes around them, and who, on

PRACTICALITY. 49

account of their ignorance, are termed practical men." 36
Yet still more did he grieve that " genius " should always
be associated in the minds of men with a want of knowl-
edge of the world. " As yet," he says, in his " Review "
on Mill's " Liberty " " as yet, and in the present early and
unformed state of society, literary men are, notwithstand-
ing a few exceptions, more prone to improvidence than
the members of any other profession; and, being also
more deficient in practical knowledge, it too often hap-
pens that they are regarded as clever visionaries, fit to
amuse the world, but unfit to guide it." He looked upon
the profession of letters as so high, that it was disgraced
by this too common failing and lost the power that was
due to it, and good for the world, provided that failing
was amended. Hence his admiration for Mill, who not
only was a great thinker, but a practical man. Much
more does he say on this subject, both here and in the
" History of Civilization," but most of all does he inveigh
against the complacency with which men of genius, " the
salt of the earth," run into debt and accept pensions. The
very existence of Hterary pensions is an insult to literature.
" In a merchant, or a tradesman, such a confession of reck-
lessness [as Comte's] would have been considered disgrace-
ful ; and why are men of genius to have a lower code than
merchants or tradesmen? ... To break stones on the
highway is far more honorable than to receive such alms."
And he practiced what he preached. But, on the other
hand, no charge could be more untenable than avarice in
his case, when he might have made several thousand a
year by writing essays like Macaulay (he had actual offers

35 "History of Civilization," etc., vol. ii., p. 810.
4

50 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

of five pounds a page for anything he chose to write), or
those ephemeral articles which are written by men whom
necessity or desire of gain compels to write regardless of
their reputation.

At a time when he taught his servant to bind his tat-
tered books for him in brown paper, he made repeated
offers of money to some friends, which, though never ac-
cepted, were none the less earnestly reiterated. "I do
most earnestly hope," he says, " that no inducement will
make your husband go home too soon, and would you and
he, my dear friends, pardon me if I remind you that the
offer which I made to him last summer still remains open,
and always will do so ? Your husband must be amused
and have all his home comforts in traveling, or else he
will not reap the full benefit of the change. I know, I
feel, that he will get quite well and strong, and that you
will be as happy as heretofore, but for this expense which
is inevitable, and you have no brothers or father to apply
to. Why, then, will you not let me do what will be not the
least inconvenience to me, and only cost me the signing of
the paper? Let me pay 100 to your bankers, and, to
show that it is a mere matter of business, and to prevent
your husband feeling under any obligation to me, I will
take his written promise to repay me in five years from
this date. I should have proposed this before, but I felt
a delicacy in repeating my former offer. But now that

Dr. has given this new and, I firmly believe, sound

opinion, I can not avoid suggesting what will add to your
comfort and not diminish mine. Even if you both deter-
mine again to refuse it for the moment, will you clearly
understand that, if it is likely to be useful, you are to write

THOUGHTS OK EDUCATION. 51

to me, and you will give me a pleasure far greater than
any you have ever yet conferred on me ? "

One of the chief causes of his careful economy, in
later life at all events, was the resolve not to marry before
be had 3,000 a year. " I expect so much in my wife,"
he once said, " that I can not look for money too " ; and
with his ideas on education he considered he would not be
justified in marrying on less. He would not have sent his
children to school except for the benefit of association with
their fellows ; he would have taught them himself by word
of mouth. In the words of Recha

" Mein Vater liebt

Die kalte Buchgelehrsamkeit, die sich
Mit todten Zeichen ins Gehirn mir driickt,
Zu wenig."

And thought as Sittah :

"So hangt

Sich freilich alles besser an. So lernt
Mit eins die ganze Seele." 36

As was exemplified in the case of the two boys whom he
took with him to the East. His sons should learn to swim
and to fence ; either might save their life. But, above all, t , ,
they should travel. Traveling was the greatest educator,
as it was also the most expensive.

But, although he was right in this, as far as his future
sons were concerned, it was as regards himself the great
mistake of his life. Already, at the early age of seven-
teen, he had fallen in love with a cousin, but found that
she was unluckily engaged to another cousin. The for-
tunate rival was challenged to a personal combat, but,

36 Lessing, " Nathan der Weise," Act v., Sc. vi.

52 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

however it resulted, the lady's destiny does not appear to
have been altered thereby. About this time he fell in love
with another cousin, a noble-hearted, generous girl, above
the common in understanding, with a very large fortune,
and with a liking for him. It is truly sad to think that
this marriage, BO suitable to both parties, and so impor-
tant for him, should have been prevented by the gross
folly and superstition of the world ; a superstition that he
also was probably imbued with at the time, or he would
never have submitted to it. The two cousins had been
thrown much together, but as soon as their respective
mothers noticed their growing affection, inspired by the
false and immoral idea that marriages between cousins
are harmful, everything was done to discourage it. It is
not my business here to point out what a world of mis-
chief such opposition, as every other opposition to the due
exercise of harmless personal liberty, has caused ; that I
have done elsewhere ; 37 but the result in this case was that
his mother's death left him alone, unaccustomed to lone-
liness, with no one by his side able to alleviate so terrible
a loss.

His diary only begins again with the 21st March,
1850. 88 His book was begun before this date, for we have
the entry, " From 9.30 to 12 wrote my BOOK " ; and he

37 " The Marriage of Near Kin," London, 1875.

38 But in such a manner that it is almost impossible to believe but that
some of it, at least, has been lost. It opens without a word of introduc-
tion, and just as subsequent volumes begin. If other volumes of the diary
existed, we have lost with them all account of the course of his reading,
and of his movements at a period concerning which there is no supple-
mentary information by letters, the only correspondent who has letters in
his possession written during this period, that I know of, having refused to
allow me to see them.

TOUR IN BKITTASTY. 53

was hard at work studying physiology and botany. He
bought a microscope, and went to Kew with Dr. Lewis
(whose lectures he attended) " to botanize " ; and also at-
tended the lectures on the physiology of animals and vege-
tables, by Mr. Brande, at the Apothecaries' Hall. At this
time his mother appears already to have been a real invalid ;
for, during a tour in Brittany, he writes, " Walked from
2.45 to 3.45, Jenny and I together so that she can now
walk famously." They had gone on this tour alone ; and
a few extracts from his diary will show what chiefly inter-
ested him. He began, as he always did when about to
travel, by reading up on the subject a quantity of guide-
books, tourists' books, and historical and archaeological
works. They started from Paris to Orleans, where he
" walked about that curious old town," and saw the muse-
um, " which contains a very curious collection of anti-
quities found in Orleans among these things two very
singular forks." Thence they went to Blois, where he
saw the castle, " which is very interesting." Through
Tours to Saumur, whence he " walked about one and a half
mile and saw a Druidical dolmen. It is curious and sin-
gularly complete, being in this latter respect much supe-
rior to Stonehenge, though not so large. On our return
we went to see the museum in the Hotel de Ville, where
there are some flint knives (supposed to be Druidical),
found near the dolmens. They reminded me of the de-
scription given by Prescott of the knives with which the
Mexicans cut up their victims." To Angers, Nantes, Au-
ray, whence they drove to Carnac, " where we saw high
mass, and walked to the famous Druidical remains. The
stones are said to be twelve thousand, but none exceed

54: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

eighteen feet in height, and the coup-$wil is very inferior
to that of Stonehenge." The next day they went " in a
sailing and rowing boat down the river Auray, and saw
the Druidical remains at Lemariakes. They are curious,
and one of them a menhir before it was broken, was
from eighty to ninety feet in height." There are no more
remarks till he came to St. Malo, where he went to Mount
Michel, "with which we were delighted." At Bayeux,
" Jenny and I went to see the tapestry which is at the
library," and they also visited the cathedral ; while in the
evening he went to a cafe, and played chess " with a very
bad player."

Short and dry as this journal is, it confirms, as far as
it goes, the little interest he took in scenery as compared
with man, and, as an illustration of the way in which he
worked, I give a list of books he read during this tour :
Montesquieu, " Esprit des Lois," " Lettres Persanes," and
" Temple de Gnide " ; Corneille's " Plays " ; Shakespeare ;
Cousin, " Litterature " and " Philosophic Moderne " ; Cape-
figue, " La Kef orme et la Ligue " ; Yoltaire's " Louis XI V." ;
Schiller, " Geschichte des Abfalls der vereinigten Nieder-
lande von der spanischen Regierung " ; Todd's " Life of
Cranmer " ; Blackstone's " Commentaries on the English
Law " ; Keeve's " History of English Law " ; Tremenville,
"Antiquites de la Bretagne"; Caumont, "Architecture
Eeligieuse au Moyen Age " ; Knight, " Architectural Tour
in Normandy " ; Dawson Turner, " Tour in Normandy " ;
and Murray's " Handbook." This was what he thought
necessary for a month's tour. At home, of course, he read
more ; his hours of work being about seven to eight hours
a day, and to gain more time he began to eat only bread

GREAT CHESS TOURNAMENT. 55

and fruit for lunch, " to keep the digestion and the brains
clear," and often ate this as he walked.

For a man who valued his time so highly, it was a con-
siderable sacrifice to consent to act on the committee of
the Great Chess Tournament which was to be held in
conjunction with the Exhibition of 1851. The mem-
bers, as described by the " Illustrated London News," 39
were:

" His Grace the Duke of Marlborough, representing
the chess-players of Oxfordshire and the central coun-
ties.

" The Right Hon. Lord Cremorne, representing the
chess-players of Ireland.

" The Right Hon. Lord A. Hay, representing the chess-
players of Scotland.

" The Hon. H. T. Liddell, M. P., representing the
chess-players of Northumberland and the north of Eng-
land.

" J. M. Gaskell, Esq., M. P., and M. Wy vill, Esq., M. P.,
representing the chess-players of Yorkshire and the York-
shire Chess Association.

" C. R. M. Talbot, Esq., M. P., representing the chess-
players of Wales.

" Captain Kennedy, M. P., representing the chess-
players of Brighton and the south of England.

" Sir Charles Marshall, B. Smith, Esq., A. Fonblanque,
Esq., and H. G. Catley, Esq., representing the chess-players
of the metropolis.

" H. T. Buckle, Esq., the winner of the Chess Tourna-
ment at the Strand Divan, in 1849.

39 Vol. xviii., No. 471, p. 163, February 22, 1851.

56 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" W. Lewis, Esq., the' eminent chess-writer, the tutor
of McDonnell, and the rival of Deschapelles.

"H. Staunton, Esq., the present holder of the chess
scepter.

" The three last-named may be fairly taken to represent
chess-players generally, without reference to locality or
country, having won more than European fame."

This Chess Tournament, which was to be associated
with the Exhibition, and help to inaugurate an era of uni-
versal peace and goodwill, began, continued, and ended in
quarrel. First, the London Chess Club began a quarrel
with the St. George's Chess Club, a far more numerous
and powerful body and the founder of the movement, and
the chess papers were full of bitter personalities. After
the Chess Tournament, disappointed players charged each
other with every kind of treachery, and disputes resounded
from all parts of Europe. The Tournament began with
eight matches, the opponents in each chosen by lot, but
Buckle, though he paid his entrance fee, could not give
the necessary time, and did not play. This was perhaps
fortunate, since in these first eight matches each pair of
players played a rubber of only three games, by far too
little to exclude the element of chance, and, being paired
by lot, some of the best players were pitted against each
other, and hence superior men were thrown out of all
further competition, while inferior and quite second-rate
players were allowed to continue in the Tournament. The
eight winners then again drew lots for opponents, but,
wiser by experience, each pair was to play for the best out
of seven games, and after these the winners were again
paired, until the results were declared as follows : First,

GKEAT CHESS TOURNAMENT. 57

Anderssen ; second, Wyvill ; third, Williams ; fourth,
Staunton ; fifth, Szen ; sixth, Captain Kennedy ; seventh,
Horwitz; eighth, Mucklow. This absurd result, partly
due to the causes already mentioned, and partly to the
fact that Mr. Staunton was suffering from illness at the
time, led to the more sensible arrangement of a series of
picked matches. " The arrival of the celebrated Russian
amateur, Major Jaenisch," says Mr. Staunton, " and the
unexpected appearance in the lists of Mr. Buckle, one of
our most accomplished players, gave increased importance
and interest to these contests. The first match on the
tapis was played between Mr. Buckle and Mr. Loewenthal.
It had been previously agreed by the committee that each
of these combats should be determined by one of the
players winning seven games, but, as Mr. Buckle's engage-
ments would not permit him to undertake so long a match,
an exception was made in this case, and victory was to be
his who first scored four games." 40 The first game was
played in the rooms of the St. George's Chess Club, Caven-
dish Square, on the 26th July, and Loewenthal beat him.
Buckle won the second, lost the third, and, at the fourth,
after playing from two o'clock to eight, Loewenthal de-
clared he could hold out no longer, and they adjourned.
" I have much the best position," says Buckle in his diary,
" and I think a won game." The next day he did win it,
and again won the following game after a five hours' con-
test. Loewenthal declined playing the two following days,
and on the third, Buckle, after waiting some time, received
a message that his adversary had " a bad headache and
could not come." But the next day they met, and after a

40 " Staunton's Chess Tournament," London, 1873, p. Ixxii., etc.

58 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

game of nine hours' duration Buckle was beaten. They
were now three to three, and the next must decide the
victory, which was gained by Buckle in a six hours' game.
During these days he worked on as usual up to about one
o'clock, then played his match, and afterward, if there was
time, went on to the Divan. The only exception he made
was after the nine hours' game, when he writes, " In bed
at 11.30, but was too tired to read."

He afterward played a series of fifteen games with the
winner of the Chess Tournament, M. Anderssen, who was
then at the height of his strength, and won by a majority
of one. 41 And, of the remaining winners in the Chess
Tournament, Buckle had played in 1843 with Wyvill,
and this game, the only one recorded between these play-
ers, he lost. 43 Of the recorded games between Buckle
and the third winner, Williams, Buckle won three out of
six. 43

With Staunton, I understand, Buckle had a match by
telegraph between London and Dover, after the tourna-
ment, 44 and beat him ; but there do not seem to be any
recorded games since the year 1842, when Buckle took
the odds of pawn and move, and won two out of three
games. 45

41 " Encyclopaedia Britannica," ninth Edition, Article " Chess," by W. N.
P. One game only, so far as I know, has been published ; see the " Chess
Player," edited by Kling and Horwitz, p. 112, No. 14, for October 18,
1851, London.

42 " Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. xii., p. 6. London, 1851.

43 Williams, "Horae Divanianje," pp. 116-119, London, 1852; and the
" Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. x., 1.849, pp. 113, 115.

44 " Chess Player's Magazine," p. 40, February, 1864.

45 The "Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. iv., pp. 195, 198, 201. London,
1843.

EXTRACT FROM "LA REGENCE." 59

Eleven games are recorded with. Captain Kennedy ; of
which. Buckle won four, lost three, and drew four. 48

"With Horwitz only one game is recorded, which
Buckle won. 47

"With Szen and Mucklow he never played.

Of the players in the first match who were beaten,
Buckle had played Kieseritzki, Loewenthal, and Bird;
and, on the whole, proved superior to each. 48

Two years before " La Kegence " had written : " II y a
deja quelques annees que nous avons fait la connaissance
de M. Buckle. Tout jeune encore alors, cet amateur an-
nongait deja par la severite de ces combinaisons une puis-
sance de calcul et d'imagination qui devait s'elever bien-
tot aux sommites de la science, et c'est peut-etre aujour-
d'hui le plus redoutable adversaire que Londres puisse
presenter a M. Staunton. Quelques efforts encore, et
cette jeune intelligence pourra revendiquer sa part de la
couronne." 49 And certainly Buckle was in 1851 entitled
to the championship not only of all England but of the

46 " Illustrated London News," vol. vi., p. 144, No. 148, for March 1,
1845; vol. vii., p. 267. No. 182, for October 25, 1845. The "Chess Play-
er's Chronicle," vol. vi., pp. 331-336, 360-363; vol. vii., pp. 46, 47; vol.
viii., p. 353. London, 1846 and 1847.

47 The " Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. ix., p. 46. London, 1849.

48 With Kieseritzki there are eleven recorded games, of which Buckle
won five, and drew two ; but in the first he took the odds of queen's bishop.
(See "Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. iv., 1843, p. 196; vol. ix., 1849, p.
260; "La Regence," No. 1 for January, 1849, p. 28; No. 2, for February,
pp. 60-53 ; No. 3, for March, pp. 80-84 ; No. 4, for April, pp. 109-111 ; No.
8, for August, 1851, pp. 241-246.) With Bird, Buckle won one out of four
recorded games, and drew one ; but in the two he lost gave the odds of
pawn and move. See the " Chess Player's Chronicle," vol. xi., 1850, pp. 76,
174 ; and the " Field," vol. i., p. 61, No. 4, for January 22, 1853 ; and p. 77,
No. 5, for January 29th.

49 " La Regence," pp. 44, 45, No. 2, for February, 1849.

BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

whole world. Such, a case has probably never occurred
before of an amateur who was so thoroughly an amateur
as only to play for his amusement, and devote no time to
the mere study of the game, obtaining so great a victory.
But these victories took more Out of him, as he said, than
he was willing to give to any such " frivolous triumph "
again ; and, much as he loved the game, he never played
in a public match in London again, although he visited
the Divan at least twice a week.

CHAPTER II.

Early Scheme of the " History "Ill-health of Mrs. Buckle Tour in Ireland
The Dublin Chess Club Love of Society Brilliancy of Conversation
Ready Memory Visit to the Crystal Palace Mrs. Buckle's Conversation
Letters to Mrs. Grey and Miss Shirreff Serious Illness of Mrs. Buckle
Completion of Vol. I. of the " History "Difficulties of Publication Ill-
ness Increasing Weakness of Mrs. Buckle The Dedication Publication
of the " History "Criticism.

So early as the year 1852 Buckle hoped to be able to
publish the first volume of his " History " ; and even
talked to a publisher about it. But, as he went on, his
horizon enlarged, and he never seemed to be able to get
any nearer completion. And yet he had already restricted
himself to the history of English, civilization. The main
lines of the history as we have it were already laid down
in an account furnished to Lord Kintore l at his request in
February, 1853.

" You wish me to write a few words upon the object
and tendency of that ' History of English Civilization,' on
which I have been now for some years engaged. It is very
difficult to give in two or three lines a clear idea of so ex-
tensive a subject. But I may say generally that I have
been long convinced that the progress of every people is
regulated by principles or, as they are called, laws as

1 Of which Lord Kintore has very kindly given me a copy, and for which
I here take the opportunity of thanking him.

62 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

regular and as certain as those which govern the physical
1 world. To discover those laws is the object of my work.
With a view to this, I propose to take a general survey of
the moral, intellectual, and legislative peculiarities of the
great countries of Europe ; and I hope to point out the
circumstances under which those peculiarities have arisen.
This will lead to a perception of certain relations between
the various stages through which each people have pro-
gressively passed. Of these general relations, I intend to
make a particular application ; and, by a careful analysis
of the history of England, show how they have regulated
our civilization, and how the successive and apparently the
arbitrary forms of our opinions, our literature, our laws,
and our manners, have naturally grown out of their ante-
cedents.

"This is the general scheme of my work; and its
merits, if it has any, will depend on the fidelity with
which I carry that scheme into execution, and on the suc-
cess of my attempt to rescue history from the hands of
annalists, chroniclers, and antiquaries."

But though the scheme was there, and we can detect
no alteration in it as published in the " History," there was
a vast increase in illustration and in proof. Again and
again he went back to subjects which had already been
carefully studied, as the course of his work brought them
forward in turn ; and, at the same time, he supplemented
and added to his old authorities a host of new ones. On
August 31, 1851, for instance, there is the entry in his
diary : " Read the remarks on inflammation in Carpenter's
{' Physiology,' and began to read the elaborate discussions
of the same subject in "Williams's ' Principles of Medi-

ILL-HEALTH OF MRS. BUCKLE. 63

cine.' This is to prepare me for fully understanding the
views put forward by Hunter and Cullen." Yet he had
read both these works before. And again, on January
27, 1852, " Finished Combe's ' Cerebellum,' and read the
arguments against phrenology in Carpenter's ' Human
Physiology.' I intend now to begin the study of phre-
nology to determine its bearings upon the philosophy of
history"; and, on February 11: "Read Combe's ' Ele-
ments of Phrenology,' which I compared with a phreno-
logical bust I bought to-day." 2

But now the first warning frost of the winter of his
happiness was felt. In June, 1852, his mother was ill,
and he himself began to show signs of overwork. In
November she got worse, and even his sanguine nature
began to be alarmed: "December 11, 1852. . . . From
10.20 to 2, wrote my book, but could do 'little, being de-
tained by a long conversation with F , and thinking

about dearest Jenny, who, I fear, is very poorly." But
by January she was out of danger for the present ; the
doctors "said their former apprehensions had subsided,
and that Jenny would now certainly get well." : In the
summer of 1853, Mrs. Buckle was moved from Brighton,
where she had been so ill, to Tunbridge "Wells ; whence her
son writes, as follows (Tunbridge Wells, May 18) : " Since
I have been here, I have been extremely busy, and my
book goes on famously. Indeed, when one is in the coun-
try there is nothing to do but to look inward, for neither

2 It is interesting to note that, while Comte continually speaks of phre-
nology as an incontestable truth, Buckle patiently studies both sides of the
question, and finally discards its claims; for it is not mentioned in his
" History."

3 January 23, 1853.

64 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

the brogue of the peasants nor the bleating of the sheep
is sufficiently suggestive to direct the mind without. I
read a good deal, and, what is more to the purpose, I have
thought much since I have been here. However, I won't
tell you of this, but what I am happy to say is that my
mother is certainly better. She sends her kind love to
you, and is sorry you did not make up your mind to come
down here. I shall not say Zam sorry, because you might
think me hypocritical, and I have a moral character to
keep up you say as much about yourself as you care for
yourself and that is nothing, so that I have no idea if
you are better, but suppose you are in this glorious weath-
er. If it remains as fine, I shall think less harshly of
nature than formerly. I am indeed glad that you have
been so industrious. You are laying up permanent pleas-
ure a pleasure that often survives all others for, if any-
thing is immortal, I am sure it is knowledge."

Though Mrs. Buckle considered her health so critical
that she made her will, her son seemed to think that she
had almost recovered, and made a tour in 'Ireland. He
had found a change necessary for his health, and, after
hesitating for a little whether he should go to Hanover or
to Ireland, he decided on the latter. The same character-
istics as before are observable in the remarks he makes in
his diary on this tour; there is hardly any nlention of
scenery excepting that he says he went in a boat " round
the magnificent cove and harbor " of Queenstown, while
he continually notices the doings of man : " Took a car to
the round tower at Clondalkin ; very perfect and curious ;
the first round tower I have seen." " Walked about four
miles on the road to Bray, and saw near Kithney Hill the

THE DUBLIN CHESS CLUB. 65

ruins of an extremely curious church, about sixth century,"
" saw the remarkable ruins on < the Rock of Cashel.' " At
Dublin he saw the exhibition, and poked about in the
book-shops. At one of these he entered into conversation
with the owner, who described the Dublin Chess Club, of
which he was a member, as consisting of wonderful play-
ers, " far superior to the Saxon " ; and added all sorts of
praise, making out that their best players could beat
Staunton. Finally he took Buckle to the club, and he sat
down with the best. The player gave him the odds of
pawn and move, and Buckle saw at once that the man was
no match for him. However, he would not beat him at
onse, but played with him as a cat with a mouse, doubling
him up into positions from which he could not move with-
out a wof ul amount of disaster. Buckle, of course, won ;
and his adversary, thinking that he must by some accident
have opened his game badly and blocked himself up, tried
again, and again he was beaten even more speedily than be-
fore. Buckle then suggested that perhaps they had better
play equal. But again his adversary was treated in the
same way. Finally he gave the odds of rook and pawn,
and beat him thoroughly again. As he left, the secretary
politely asked him who he was. They had never been
treated so before. And Buckle, who wished to take the
conceit out of his friend, explained that he was only
known as an amateur in London.

Although, as yet, entirely unknown to fame, Buckle
had already made many friends through his great conver-
sational talent, and began to be known in London society.
"Wherever he dined the guests were struck with his re-
markable powers, and were anxious to make his acquain-

66 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

tance. His nature was anything but that of a " recluse."
Though in later life he preferred his own impressions on
reading a play to any interpretation by an actor, he used at
one time to go to see Rachel, Kean, and Macready. He
himself acted occasionally in charades at his sister's house,
and had no aversion to fancy balls. To one of these, or
rather to a masked ball, he intended going in the character
of Mr. Mantalini, and then changing to that of Mrs. Mala-
prop ; and, like himself, read up for them. But he actu-
ally appeared in "the characters first of Mantalini in
Nickleby, and afterward of a canting Methodist." Mr.
Hallam had introduced him also to the Society of Anti-
quaries, and the Eoyal Literary Society, on the committee
of which latter he served in 1852 ; andj as we have seen,
he was well known to chess-players, and belonged to the
St. George's Club. While his mother was well enough,
he gave dinners during the season of from eight to eigh-
teen persons two or three times a week, and dined out
himself frequently. Indeed, he could not bear dining
alone, and, if without any special invitation, he would
drop in upon some of his relations or more intimate
friends to spend the evening. Of his talk, Miss Shirreff
truly observes : " The brilliancy of Mr. Buckle's conversa-
tion was too well known to need mention ; but what the
world did not know was how entirely it was the same
among a few intimates with whom he felt at home as it
was at a large party where success meant celebrity. His
talk was the outpouring of a full and earnest mind, it had
more matter than wit, more of book knowledge than of
personal observation. The favorite maxim of many dinner-
table talkers, ' Glissez, mais rta/ppuyez pasj was certainly

MR. BUCKLE'S CONVERSATION. 67

not his. He loved to go to the bottom of a subject, unless
he found that his opponent and himself stood on ground
so different, or started from such opposite principles, as to
make ultimate agreement hopeless, and then he dropped or
turned the subject. His manner of doing this unfortu-
nately gave offense at times, while he not seldom wearied
others by keeping up the ball, and letting conversation
merge into discussion. He was simply bent on getting at
the truth, and, if he believed himself to hold it, he could
with difficulty be made to understand that others might
be impatient while he set it forth. On the other hand, it
is fair to mention that if too fond of argument, and some-
times too prone to self-assertion, his temper in discussion
was perfect ; he was a most candid opponent and a most
admirable listener." His memory was almost faultless,
and always ready to assist and illustrate his wonderful
powers of explanation. "Pages of our great prose wri-
ters," says Miss Shirreff, " were impressed on his memory.
He could quote passage after passage with the same ease
as others quote poetry ; while of poetry itself he was wont
to say, i it stamps itself on the brain.' Truly did it seem
that, without effort on his part, all that was grandest in
English poetry had become, so to speak, a part of his
mind. Shakespeare, ever first, then Massinger, and Beau-
mont and* Fletcher, were so familiar to him that he seemed
ever ready to recall a passage, and often to recite it with
an intense delight in its beauty which would have made
it felt by others naturally indifferent." It was the same
in all that was best in French literature : in Yoltaire,
Corneille, Racine, Boileau, and, above all, Moliere. Cap-
tain Kennedy recalls an instance of this ready memory on

68 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

an occasion when they were in company together. The
conversation turned on telling points in the drama, and
one of the party cited that scene in " Horace " 4 which so
struck Boileau, where Horace is lamenting the disgrace
which he supposes has been brought upon him by the
flight of his son in the combat with the Curiaces. " Que
vouliez-vous qu'il fit contre trois?" asks Julie; and the
old man passionately exclaims, " Qu'il mourut ! " Buckle
agreed that it was very fine, and immediately recited the
whole scene from its commencement, giving the dialogue
with much spirit and effect.

On another occasion, he happened to be dining at the
same house with Prior, and chanced to remark on the hap-
piness of Burke's simile of the claim of right to tax Amer-
ica to a claim of the right to shear a wolf. 8 Prior then
knew nothing of Buckle, and, forgetting his own quotation
in his " Life of Burke," or confusing it, in his mind, with
what he says just before of Sheridan, contradicted him,
and said the simile belonged to the latter. A neighbor
whispered to Buckle, " Take care what you say ; that is
Prior, who wrote Burke's life." Buckle was silent, but
only for a minute ; and then he come out with the whole
paragraph of that magnificent onslaught : " Are we yet to
be told of the rights for which we went to war ? Oh, ex-
cellent rights ! Oh, valuable rights ! Valuable you should
be, for we have paid dear at parting with you ! Oh, valu-
able rights ! that have cost Britain thirteen provinces, four
islands, a hundred thousand men, and more than seventy
millions of money ! Oh, wonderful rights ! that have lost

4 Corneille, " Horace," act iii., sc. vi.

6 "Westminster Papers," vol. vi., p. 24, No. 62, for June, 1873.

READY MEMORY. 69

to Great Britain her empire on the ocean, her boasted,
grand, and substantial superiority, which made the world
bend before her ! Oh, inestimable rights ! that have takgn
from ITS our rank among nations, our importance abroad,
and our happiness at home ; that have taken from us our
trade, our manufactures, and our commerce ; that have
reduced us from the most nourishing empire in the world
to be one of the most compact, unenviable powers on the
face of the globe ! Oh, wonderful rights ! that are likely
to take from us all that yet remains ! What were these
rights ? Could any man describe them ; could any man
give them a body and a soul answerable to all these mighty
costs ? We did all this because we had a right to do it ;
that was exactly the fact. c And all this we dared to be-
cause we dared.' We had a right to tax America, says
the noble lord ; and, as we had a right, we must do it.
We must risk everything, we will forfeit everything, we
will think of no consequences, we will take no considera-
tion into our view but our right, we will consult no ability,
we will not measure our right with our power, but we will
have our right, we will have our bond. America, give us
our bond ; next your heart we will have it : the pound
of flesh is ours, and we will have it. This was their lan-
guage. Oh, miserable and infatuated men ! miserable and
undone country ! not to know that right signified nothing
without might ; that the claim without the power of en-
forcing it was nugatory and idle in the copyhold of rival
states, or of immense bodies ! Oh ! says a silly man, full
of his prerogative of dominion over a few beasts of the
field, there is excellent wool on the back of a wolf, and
therefore he must be sheared. What ! shear a wolf ? Yes.

TO BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

But will lie comply ? have you considered the trouble ?
how will you get this wool ? Oh, I have considered
nothing, and I will consider nothing but my right :
a wolf is an animal that has wool; all animals that
have wool are to be shorn, and therefore I will shear the
wolf."

After this Buckle and Prior soon became acquainted ;
and the latter dined at Buckle's house in 1855.

Despite his wonderful memory, Buckle would never
allow himself to trust to it entirely. Every book he read
was full of notes, sometimes a regular abstract of the con-
tents ; and every quotation in his work, as it came from
the press, was carefully compared with the original. He
used to carry about a little note-book in his pocket, in
which he would write down such things as dates and long
quotations he wished to remember, and this he would con-
sult from time to time during his walks. For poetry this
was hardly necessary, but a page or two of prose he was
obliged to read over three or four times before he knew it
by heart. Yast, too, as was the extent of his reading,
everything was happily digested and always ready when
required, so that, unlike those whose " much reading " in-
terferes with and obstructs their thoughts, with him, the
more he read the more his powers increased. Another
gift, which greatly enhanced the pleasure of hearing his
apt quotations, was the beautiful modulation and flexibility
of his voice, which, though he cared nothing for music,
was extremely musical. Miss Shirreff describes his voice
and intonation as peculiar ; " his delivery was impassioned
as if another soul spoke through his usually calm exterior ;
and it seemed to me of many a familiar passage that I

DESCRIPTION OF BUCKLE. ft

never had known its full power and beauty till I heard it
from his lips."

"With Miss Shirreff and her sister, Mrs. Grey, Buckle
became acquainted in 1854. " A valued friend of ours,"
writes the former, "had known Mr. Buckle and his moth-
er for some time, and paid us the compliment of thinking
we should appreciate him." A dinner was accordingly
arranged, and that Buckle appreciated the introduction is
shown by the entry in his diary, that he met " a Mrs. Grey
and her sister, two remarkably accomplished women."
" It was a house," says Miss Shirreff, " in which good con-
versation was valued, and where, consequently, the guests
contributed their best. Talk flowed on, mostly on literary
or speculative subjects, and Mr. Buckle was brilliant and
original beyond even what we had been led to expect.
His appearance struck us as remarkable, though he had no
pretension to good looks. He had fine eyes, and a mas-
sive, well-shaped head ; but premature baldness made the
latter rather singular than attractive ; and beyond a look
of power, in the upper part of his face especially, there
was nothing to admire. He was tall, but his figure had no
elasticity ; it denoted the languor of the mere student, one
who has had no early habit of bodily exercise. The same
fact could be read in his hand, which was well-shaped, but
had that peculiar stamp that marks one trained to wield a
pen only. ... In society his manner was very simple and
quiet, though easily roused to excitement by conversation ;
and we found later that, in intimate intercourse, a boyish
playfulness often varied his habitually earnest conversation
on the great subjects which were never long absent from
his thoughts." " That first meeting led to many others,

72 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

at our own house or among friends ; quiet evening or long
afternoon talks, in which he sometimes was led to forget
the rigid method of his hours. It was less easy to know
his mother, for she was even then an invalid ; but he was
very eager to bring us together, and succeeded ere very
long in doing so. The acquaintance thus begun rapidly
extended to all our familiar circle, grew into intimacy with
other members of our family, and ripened into one of
those friendships which are not reckoned by years, but are
felt early in their growth to be beyond the power of time
to alter.

" In the course of that spring we spent several weeks
in the neighborhood of London, and Mr. Buckle, like other
friends, was invited from time to time to spend a day with
us. ... Pleasant days they were ; and, like a boy out of
school, he seemed to enjoy strolling in the garden, ram-
bling in Richmond Park, roaming also in conversation
over every imaginable subject, and crowding into the few
hours of his visit food for thought, and recollections of
mere amusing talk, such as weeks of intercourse with
others can seldom furnish." (

They took him to the " Crystal Palace, June 29th, then
lately opened, which he always said he never should have
seen but for our taking him, and which he never revisited.
It was a day more rich in many ways than mortal days are
often allowed to be. We were a large party, all intimates,
and all ready for enjoyment, and for the kind of enjoy-
ment which the Crystal Palace offered for the first time.
It was a lovely summer's day, and the mere drive some
miles out of London for there was no noisy, whistling

6 " Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works," vol. i., p. xxii.

VISIT TO THE CRYSTAL PALACE. 73

railway then was a delight. The art collections were not
so full, the flowers not in such rich luxuriance as they
have been since ; but there was a charm about the fresh
beauty of the place, and in the new views of popular
enjoyment that it offered, which added to the pleasure
then something which more than loss of novelty has im-
paired.

" "We were not altogether disabused at that time of the
illusions of a -new era of peaceful progress which the first
Exhibition of 1851 had seemed to inaugurate. It is true
that we were even then in the first stage of the Crimean
War; but many still believed that the struggle would
quickly end ; the glorious days, the dark months of suffer-
ing yet to come, were little anticipated. . . . None shared
the illusions of the period more fondly than Mr. Buckle.
He thought he had reached philosophically, and could
prove as necessary corollaries of a certain condition of
knowledge and civilization, the conclusion which numbers
held, without knowing why; and it was this train of
thought which made the opening of ' The People's Palace '
interesting to him. . . . "We had wandered through the
different courts, reproducing in a manner as new then as
it was striking, the memorials of the past. From Nineveh
to Egypt, Greece, Imperial Koine, Moslem Granada, and
Italy through her days of glory to her decline all had
been passed in review ; and he then turned, as he loved to
do, to the future, with its bright promise of reward to
man's genius, and of continued triumph over the blind
powers of Nature ; and it seemed but a natural transition
from his own speaking, as if still uttering his own
thoughts, when he took up Hamlet's words : ' "What a

74 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

piece of work is man ! How noble in reason ! how infinite
in faculty!"'

In August, 1854, Miss Shirreff paid a visit to Mrs.
Buckle, who was stopping at Highgate for the summer.
Here, she says : " I made real acquaintance with Mrs.
Buckle ; and, apart from her being the mother of such a
son, she was a very interesting person to know. It is curi-
ous how many people there are on whom their own lives
seem to have produced no impression ; they may have seen
and felt much, but they have not reflected upon their ex-
perience, and they remain apparently unconscious of the
influences that have been at work around and upon them.
"With Mrs. Buckle it was exactly the reverse. The events,
the persons, the books that had affected her at particular
times or in a particular manner, whatever influenced her
actions or opinions, remained vividly impressed on her
mind, and she spoke freely of her own experience, and
eagerly of all that bore upon her son. He was the joy,
even more than the pride of her heart. Having saved
him from the early peril that threatened him, and saved
him, as she fondly believed, in a great measure by her
loving care, he seemed twice her own ; and that he was
saved for great things, to do true and permanent service
to mankind, was also an article of that proud mother's
creed, little dreaming how short a time he was to be al-
lowed even for sowing the seeds of usefulness. . . . "When
I said above that Mrs. Buckle spoke freely of her own ex-
perience, I should add that her conversation was the very
reverse of gossip. It was a psychological, rather than a
biographical experience that she detailed. I rarely re-
member any names being introduced, and never unless as-

LETTER TO MRS. GREY. 75

sociated with good. Of all her husband's family, the one
she spoke of most often was his nephew, Mr. John Buckle,
for whom she had great respect and affection. Henry
Buckle (her son) also made frequent reference to his
cousin's opinions, and had the highest esteem for his abili-
ties and confidence in his friendship."

But besides the personal sympathy there was a literary
bond between the two families. Mrs. Grey and Miss Shir-
reff had just published their " Thoughts on Self -Culture,"
and any literary occupation in his friends always aroused
his warmest interest. Of this work he remarks in his
diary, that it is " well written " which is considerable
praise from him, as he seldom takes the trouble to com-
mend books in his diary ; and he at once offered the au-
thors every assistance in his power in their future literary
undertakings, an assistance which was afterward returned
by useful criticism on his own work. In one letter he
writes : u But seriously, if you do anything while you are
away, you will want books ; and if you will, before I come,
think of what you require, should they be in my library,
you can take them with you. Who can work without
tools ? tell me that." But the correspondence will show,
better than anything I can say, his great interest in such
matters and constant kindness. He writes :

59 OXFORD TERKACE, 31st August, 1854.

* .

" DEAE MRS. GEEY : I feel that it was very ill-natured
on my part not to press ' Comte ' upon you last night when
you so considerately hesitated as to borrowing it. To
make the only amends in my power, I now send it you,
and beg that you will keep it as long as you like. For I

76 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

promise you that, if I Lave at any time occasion to refer to
it, I will ask to have it back. So that you need have no
scruple on that head. The only thing I will beg of you
is, that when not reading it you would have it put in some
cupboard, as on several grounds I value it very much, and
I never leave it out at home.

" I recommend you to begin by reading the prelimi-
nary view, i Exposition,' in vol. i., then pass over the
physical sciences in vols. i., ii., iii., and begin at vol. iv.,
the ' Physique Sociale.' Having read this to the end of
vol. vi., you can then, if you like, read the scientific parts,
which, however, are of somewhat inferior merit to the
4 Sociologie.' By this means you will economize time and

labor."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 9th May, 1854.

" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : After our conversation yes-
terday, touching the habits of acquisitiveness which litera-
ture is apt to encourage, it is, I think, no slight proof of
the simplicity and ingenuousness of my mind that I should
lend a book to a lover of books. But so it is. And I can
only hope that the subject of Middleton's work 7 will pro-
tect the work itself, and that, although in it modern mira-
cles are rejected, you may be induced by a miraculous in-
terposition eventually to return what I so confidingly offer.

" To speak, however, seriously, as one ought to do on
theological matters, it has occurred to me that sending you
the 'Letter' would save you some little trouble, as it is
not likely to be found in many circulating libraries, and it

7 Conyers Middleton, D. D., " A Free Inquiry into the Miraculous Powers
which are supposed to have subsisted in the Christian Church from the
earliest Ages through several successive centuries. To which is added the
Author's Letter from Rome."

LETTERS. 77

is well worth being acquainted with from its own merit,
as well as from the great effect it produced at its first ap-
pearance. "Will you say to Mrs. Grey, with my kind re-
gards, that I hope she also will read it ; to any one unac-
quainted , with the subject it will open a new field of
thought and to beat up fresh ground is, I am well as-
sured, no slight pleasure both to Mrs. Grey and yourself."

11 SOUTH GKOVE, HIGHGATE, 18th September, 1854.

" DEAB MES. GKEY : You sent me the first three vols.
of i Comte,' as I happen to remember, for I put them away
directly they came. I am sorry you should have missed
taking them with you,' as in the country one particularly
needs some intellectual employment to prevent the mind
from falling into those vacant raptures which the beauties
of nature are apt to suggest. It is the old antagonism be-
tween the internal and the external between mind and
matter between science and art. That is a battle which
will never be ended.

" We intend remaining here till to-morrow fortnight,
or, should the weather be very fine, a week longer. I
am getting on rapidly with my work, but still I have
many regrets that I am not going to review your book
it would for many reasons have given me great pleasure
to do so. But I think you will acknowledge that I could
not with any sense of what was due to myself have taken
any further steps ; and I am sure you will feel that my
not having done so has arisen from anything but a di-
minished interest or a desire to withdraw from what I
had offered. I say thus much because in my hasty morn-
ing visit to you the other day I fear that I hardly ex-

78 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

plained sufficiently what my views really were, and the
causes of them.

I am now completing my examination of the causes
of the French Revolution, which I think will interest
you and Miss Shirreff too, if she could hear them. Pray
remember me most kindly to her. I take great interest
in what she is doing, or about to do, on female education.
The grand thing would be to make women more ashamed
of ignorance; but that is perhaps too difficult a task to
undertake. The next best thing to seeing the ignominy
of ignorance is to feel the beauty of knowledge and
there I think something might be done. And in this
point of view I might caution Miss Shirreff against ad-
vising too muck to be learned. In knowledge, as well as
in morals, immense harm has been done by pitching the
standard too high ; the consequence of which has been
that people, feeling they can't come up to it, cease to try,
and, finding they can't get to the top of the tree, they
won't even climb up one of its branches. Would it not
be better to show them a shrub, and make them believe it
was a full-grown tree ? "

"49 SUSSEX SQUARE, BRIGHTON, 8th October, 1854.
" DEAR Miss SHIEREFF : . . . . We arrived in Brighton
yesterday, and in passing through town I called on Mrs.

. She expects to see Mr. in about a month,

and has promised to ask him to review i Self-Culture.' I
made the proposal that he should be asked, casually and
in the general course of conversation, and not at all as if I
had called for that purpose. Cunning me ! Why was I
not a diplomatist ? That's my vocation ! . . .

LETTERS. 79

" And now in regard to what you are doing. I ob-
jected to your recommending too many subjects of study,
not so much because they weaken the mind, but rather
because they terrify it. When I said to you concentrate,
that was my counsel for your own intellect, quite irrespec-
tive of what you should recommend to others. Generally,
I think, there is too much concentration. But my fear is
lest you should place the standard of excellence too high,
and thus intimidate those you wish to allure. If you
were writing a scientific work on education, then, indeed,
it would be proper to raise an ideal ; but, as your object
is practical, the first point is, not what ought to be, but
what can be. I cordially agree with all you say about a
wide range of study being valuable for the sympathies as
well as for the intellect, but remember that you are address-
ing minds most of which either do not perceive this, or, at
all events, perceive it very faintly. The feeling of intel-
lectual sympathy is by no means a very early step even
in minds of some power, and in ordinary cases the step is
never taken at all. I doubt, therefore, whether in this
line of acquirement you can make proselytes. For those
who are capable of being convinced will already be con-
verted. Your mission is with the heathen; why, then,
preach to the regenerate and baptize the elect? If you
deal with average minds you must hold out average in-
ducements such, for example, as the value of knowledge,
as a discipline in the acquisition of it ; or, as a disgrace
not to have it. These are substantial grounds; but the
high ground of intellectual sympathy is too little under-
stood to be available for your purpose. In nearly all
minds the idea of sympathy is preoccupied by moral as-

80 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

sociations which leave no room for the admittance of in-
tellectual ones. For fifty persons who confess the utility
of knowledge as a discipline, you will perhaps find one
who values it as a source of sympathy. Language has
much to do with this ; the meaning of sympathy being so
fixed and settled that to many ears the mere expression
6 intellectual sympathy ' would seem pedantic. What,
therefore, I mean is this : that if you recommend a large
range of reading, you will be compelled to admit that the
greater part of it must be superficial ; and you can only
justify this by the argument of intellectual sympathy an
argument quite decisive to those who understand it, but
falling pointless on the immense majority of those for
whom you write.

""We shall remain in Sussex Square with my aunt
about three weeks ; and, if anything occurs to you in any
way as if any suggestion of mine could be of the slightest
use, pray write to me here, as I should feel indeed happy
could I aid your praiseworthy undertaking."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 8th December, 1854.
" DEAR Miss SHIREEFF : .... In reference to what
you were asking me, I advise you to dismiss the larger
subject from your mind until you have finished the
smaller and more practical one on which you are engaged.
I would suggest that it should be entirely practical, and
short, so as to be published at a low price ; and that, above
all, it should be unmistakably clear, so that the meaning
is at once obvious. In a work of that sort, parentheses
and inversions are to be carefully avoided; and so any
long sentence, unless broken up into distinct parts. . . .

LETTERS. 81

The frequent use of the relative is a great aid to lucidity.
I make no excuse for offering these somewhat presump-
tuous suggestions, as I have thought a good deal about
language, and, above all, as I am sure you will look at the
intention of the advice and my real wish to do what I
can to further your pursuits. A short list of books given
under the different chapters would be useful, and I hope
when I return to town early in January to hear that it is
wellnigh finished. I need hardly say how much will
depend upon the arrangement of the topics, i. e., the order
in which they succeed each other. You possibly adopt
what is a good plan, of drawing up first a skeleton outline.
... I send ( Cousin,' in five vols., but do not postpone
what you are doing to read it."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 15th April, 1855.

" DEAK Miss SHTREEFF : I am sorry to say that I can

give you no information about Dr. , never having

heard his name ; nor do I know at this moment whom to
apply to on such a subject, as his reputation is perhaps
rather practical than physiological, and I believe I am un-
acquainted personally with any oculist, and none but an
oculist would be a competent judge. Of course a man
may be a great physiological oculist, and yet an unsafe
person to trust as an operator ; and the Germans are, on
most surgical matters, considered very inferior manipula-
tors to the French. You do not say whom this informa-
tion is for; I trust not for Mr. . Alas! alas! when

it comes to a chance of losing one's sight and yet the
blind are contented ; why, I never could understand.

"I received all the books safely, and am very much

82 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

obliged for the pains you have taken with Querard 8 . . . .
I am very busy and tolerably well, though I think some-
times that my work is beginning to tell upon me."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 12th May, 1855.
" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : What I probably said was,
that you had better obtain a list of modern educational
works. But I could not have offered to show you one, as
I really know nothing of the subject except in its specula-
tive bearings, and am hardly acquainted with even the
titles of such works as you ought to recommend for female
education. Perhaps your best plan would be either to call
or write to some large educational publisher, such as Riv-
ingtons, for a list of elementary books ? In which case,
if you could procure them from the London library or
elsewhere, and if any of them are on subjects with which
you are not familiar and I chance to understand, I will
gladly read them and give you the best opinion I can form
of their merit. This, or anything else in my power, I
shall be truly happy to do ; but never again use me so ill
as to write me a note doubting whether or no I grudge
giving up time in order to help you. There is no particu-
lar reason why I should hurry in my own work, and there
is reason why I should assist you, if I can ; the reason be-
ing simply the selfish one of doing myself a pleasure.
However, as Hamlet says, ' Something too much of this.'
So, I will only add, write me your plans and views in de-
tail, and I will consider of them for a day or two, and
give you at all events an honest and matured opinion.

" Yours truly, HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE.

8 " La France Litte"raire," etc.

LETTERS. 83

" i The Aspects of Nature ' are going on beautifully,
notwithstanding the unkindness of some people, who
promise to help some people, and then don't help them at
all."

"59 OXFOKD TERKACE, 19th May, 1855.

" DEAR, Miss SHIRREFF : I have carefully read the pa-
pers you sent me, and think your general scheme very
good indeed, so good that I can suggest no alteration. I
still think that you propose more than the great majority
of minds can finally retain ; but this is only my own opin-
ion, and it may well be that, on a subject on which you
have evidently thought so much, you are more likely to
be right than I. So on this I will say no more.

"As to the < Subjects of Lessons,' the following ad-
ditions occur to me, which I can recommend from personal
knowledge :

" Lavallee, ' Tlistoire des Francais.' (One of the best
abridgments ever written.)

" Koch, ' Tableau des Be volutions.' (An admirable
summary of general history of Europe in three volumes.)

" Keightley's Histories of England and of Greece, but
not his history of Rome, because there is a still better small
history of Eome by Schmitz, the friend and translator of
Niebuhr.

"For physical knowledge, Chambers's ' Educational
Course,' and Orr's * Circle of the Sciences.' (I have looked
into some of them, and those I have seen are good.)

" Yillemain, I think, is a one-sided book ; and I would
much prefer parts of Hallam's ' Literature of Europe';
also Craik's 'History of Literature and Learning in Eng-
land.' These two would probably be enough. You men-

84: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

tion '"Wharton.' I don't know if you mean Warton's
6 History of English Poetry ' ? If so, it is an extremely
prolix book, full of curious but irrelevant dissertations, and
does not come down lower than the sixteenth century.

" I entirely agree with you that it is better to read
translations of the classics than modern translations ; 9 and,
above all, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, Herodotus, and
Caesar.

" In political economy, not Marcet or Say, but Smith's
'"Wealth of Nations' must be read, and is more impor-
tant than the history of foreign countries. This one work
is quite enough, if made a text-book, and perhaps exercises
written on it, as it should be mastered thoroughly, which
I believe most intelligent girls of sixteen are quite capable
of doing.

" Whately's < Logic ' far too formal and repulsive
and the elements of geometry would answer every pur-
pose as a mental discipline. To Locke, I would add Eeid
' On the Mind ' ; otherwise, by only reading one side,
you only make a partisan, and Eeid is really able, and in
a small compass opens views untouched by Locke. This
would be enough of metaphysics. Cousin is surely too
long. Perhaps you might recommend Morell, History of
Speculative Philosophy,' which, though not profound, I
find to be accurate as far as it goes. Recommend at the
same time the corresponding passages in Hallam's ' Litera-
ture,' and pray enforce the capital principle of passing
from one book to another according to the subject, and not
necessarily finishing the book first.

9 i. e. ? Better to learn modern languages than ancient, provided both
can not be learned ?

LETTEES. 85

" Beckmann's c History of Inventions ' is the best book
of its kind.

" Maps of the Society for Diffusion of Useful Knowl-
edge are really good.

" Geology / would omit ; but, of course, you will use
your own discretion. Only remember that geology, with-
out animal physiology, comparative anatomy, and botany,
has no scientific existence ; and every good work of geol-
ogy presupposes a knowledge of those subjects.

" I think astronomy essential ; and fortunately Her-
schel's book is good, clear, and does not require much

mathematics to understand it.

" Bailey, on < Formation of Opinions,' is important in
many points of view.

"I would give a short specimen of the best way of
taking notes, and of keeping a commonplace book.

" This is all that occurs to me to say. If there is any-
thing else I can do or suggest, you are well assured how
willingly I will help you.

" Your papers I keep here, as, before I see you, I will
read them over again.

" Yours, etc., etc.

" I will go on Monday to some booksellers, and try to
procure a list of educational books. But, in writing your
book, don't measure other minds by your own. In all
practical matters it is dangerous to aim high."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 1st June, 1855.
"DEAR Miss SHIBKEFF: . . . And you, I hope, are
doing something touching which you will want advice;
or, at all events, suggestions. I am very busy, very sue-

86 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

cessful, and therefore feel a little as I always do under
such circumstances, which are rather unfavorable to one's
Christian humility. Hence my idea of being able to help
you. But, seriously, do not hesitate to ask for whatever I
can do."

"59 OXFOED TERRACE, 8th June, 1855.

"DEAR Miss SHERKEFF: . . . My mother is certainly
better ; indeed, improving every day, I almost think, since
her house has become emptier. She would like very much
to see you, but / feel satisfied that, after two months of
seeing people every day, she can not be too quiet ; and
therefore, for the present, it would be better to defer call-
ing upon her. She has quite lost her power of walking ;
but it is evident that nothing is really the matter with
her, as she looks well, sleeps well, and has lost all her for-
midable symptoms. . . .

"I will try and pay you a visit on Sunday evening,
but don't think me neglectful if I omit doing so, as I am
working very hard, and sometimes feel so tired after din-
ner that I can not move."

"HENDON, 29th June, 1855.

" DEAR Miss SHIKEEFF : You asked me to write about
my mother; she is indeed altered, and I am becoming
very uneasy. Such complete weakness as hardly to be
able to move from one chair to another without holding
something, and a necessity of taking nourishment every
two or three hours. Mr. Rix says that, without active and
prolonged stimulus, she may lose her memory altogether.
She is to see no one, and keep very quiet. I see no im-
provement since we have been here -and you, who can
form some idea, and only some, of what my mother is to

LETTERS MRS. BUCKLE'S ILLNESS. 87

me, may imagine how unhappy I am. It is hardly worth
while, with this hanging over me, to say anything about
myself; but I am not at all well sleeping badly, and
having painful, nervous feelings at night.

" My mother takes no medicine, and nothing is to be
done but to wait the result. Her spirits are admirable,
always smiling, and never does a complaint of any kind
come from her. Indeed, this is the really favorable fea-
ture ; and, as I am positively assured there is no organic
disease, everything depends on the power of rallying.

" This is a sad note, but it is the only sort of one I can
write. Still, I shall be glad, and indeed anxious to hear
about you, what you are doing, and if you are going
abroad ? And Mrs. Grey, too : it will, I am afraid, be
long before I see either of you. If I can give you any
advice about your book, do not let the tone of this note
prevent your asking me. I think, the more miserable one
is, the more willing one becomes to draw nearer to others."

, 5ih July, 1855.

Miss SHIRKEFF: My mother is better. How
much better, or whether or no permanently so, I can not
tell, but certainly better. On Tuesday [3d inst.] I first
saw a favorable change ; and to-day she has walked a few
yards in the little garden without help. She sends her
love, and says she is very sorry that your absence from
England will prevent her from seeing you for, character-
istically enough, she is now beginning to talk about seeing
all her friends again. I have had the fullest written par-
ticulars of Mr. Rix's observations on her. He says he never
saw such sudden and complete prostration, and he was

88 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

very apprehensive of some failure in the vital powers.
While she was at Tunbridge "Wells all this was kept from
me, and she would not let my sister write to me the truth ;
but I learn that her weakness was so great that the few
stairs she had to mount she literally crawled up, holding,
not by the rails, but by the stairs themselves. But her
spirits never flagged, and she wrote to me so cheerfully
that I had not the least idea of her real state. I am not
naturally sanguine at least, not in the practice of life
but still I do hope now that the worst is over, and I feel
that every day which passes without the appearance of
mischief increases the probability that no mischief has
been done.

" Tour very kind and warm-hearted letter was indeed
welcome to me, and made me feel as if we were old friends
rather than recent acquaintances ; and so you will, I hope,
think, if at any time I can be of use to you in your special
pursuits, or in any more general affairs. At present no-
thing much occurs to me in regard to what you are doing,
as I do not know how far you have progressed; but I
would particularly recommend you, when abroad, to in-
form yourself as to the best elementary German and Italian
works on the history of literature. If you can mention
any really good short and clear , it would add much to the
value of your book ; and on this I can give you no in-
formation. Lavallee, f Histoire des Francais,' and Baran-
te, ' Litterature au xviii 6 Siecle,' are models in their own
line ; and I would ask to see some German and Italian
works as nearly as possible on their plan. The librarians
abroad I have always found very courteous and well-in-
formed ; and if you were to state your objects, and call

LETTERS. 89

with Mr. at one or two good public libraries (Geneva

will probably be in your route), you would, I am sure, be
well repaid. Unless any book on education is specially
recommended to you, I would not lose time in reading it.
Far better it will be to consult the original authorities and
mature your own plan.

" I do not know what provision you intend making
when abroad for your own improvement. Books are cum-
bersome in traveling, and one or two good, tough, solid
works you will probably think enough to take. I should
advise Mill's ' Political Economy ' ; if you have read it,
never mind, read it again. We have had some talk on the
laws of the distribution of wealth, and you will, perhaps,
come to it in some degree with a fresh mind. Besides,
we must remember that political economy is the only
branch of political knowledge which is not empirical the
only one raised to a science. This alone is sufficient reason
for carefully studying it; and Mill's book is upon the
whole the best since Adam Smith though, for pure po-
litical economy , hardly equal to Bicardo's. But Mill has
larger social views than Bicardo, and is less difficult. In-
deed, if you were to read Bicardo now, you would not do
yourself justice, as no one can study him with advantage
without preliminary training on his own subject. You
spoke to me of Mill's c Logic.' I almost doubt if it would
repay you the great labor of mastering, and, without mas-
tering it, would do you little good. Suppose, for your
other work, you were to take with you Ly ell's ' Principles
of Geology ' (the last edition in one volume royal 8vo),
and really digest it and make an abstract of it. It is a
great book, and would be very serviceable.

90 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" And now, dear Miss Shirreff, I think I have no more
to say, except to wish yon every happiness while you are
away, and to remind you that an imagination inflamed by
the beauties of Swiss scenery may require the counterpoise
of a severer train of thought than is necessary in a me-
tropolis."

"HENDON, nth July, 1855.

" DEAK Mus. GEEY : By all means keep ' Hallam ' as
long as you like, and take it into the country with you ;
and I sincerely hope that the change of air and quiet will
do you good. I am truly sorry to receive so indifferent
an account of your health. To hear such things is enough
to prevent one from being an optimist how much more
so to you who feel them! I have often speculated on
what you and Miss Shirreff could accomplish if you were
made capable of real wear and tear ; but this is a specula-
tion I could never bring to maturity, because of the strong
suspicion I have that with a given mind there must and
will be a certain physical structure of which we may
modify the effects, but never change the nature. Look at
Miss Martin eau ! Give her delicacy as well as power, and
I believe that she never could have gone through the work
she has. However, one can't talk about this in a note the
subject is too big. I do not perceive that my mother is
better since I last wrote, but she holds her ground, and, if
there is any alteration, it is an improvement, which is all
that can be expected, as her treatment, which seems judi-
cious, is intended to produce slow results. She is unques-
tionably stronger than when she first came here. I shall
make a point (if all goes well with her) of coming to see
you when you return to town so you will, I hope, when

LETTERS. 91

your plans are settled, let me know how long you intend
remaining in London after you come back to it early in
August."

"HENDON, 23d Atigust, 1855.

" DEAK Miss SHIEEEFF : About ten days ago I heard
from Mrs. Grey that you were quite well and enjoying
yourself greatly, and that you would remain at Interlachen
till the beginning of September. I therefore address to
you there, as this agrees with the plan of your movements
which you sent me a rare instance, I should think, of
travelers knowing beforehand what they are going to do !
First of all, I will say that my mother is decidedly better,
though her progress is slower than I ever remember to
have seen it, and she is unable to walk a quarter of the
distance she could four months since. Last week she had
a very slight attack of gout, which is now passing off fa-
vorably, and there seems reason to hope that she will be
better in consequence. She sends her love to you, and
says she is much disappointed at not having seen you this
summer. In her feeling of regret I share not a little, as
I had hoped that we might have had some comfortable
talk about what you are doing, and which, for many
reasons, I am anxious should be done as well as possible.
A really good book on education will be invaluable, and to-
ward writing one nothing can avail so much as my favorite
maxim patient thought, turning the subject round in one's
mind, and looking at it in every direction. This I should
rely much more on than any amount of reading. Have
you taken the opportunity of making inquiries of practical
persons as to the working of education in Switzerland?
Germany, Switzerland, and Scotland are the three coun-

92 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

tries where most attention has been paid to this subject ;
and I make no doubt but that valuable hints might be col-
lected. The fact that your book must be in some measure
speculative makes it the more necessary to collect testi-
mony ; for all, even the best of us, are full of prejudices,
and, by comparing the standard of different countries, this
evil may be somewhat remedied. I would make particular
inquiries as to the amount of time that young people can
give to study with advantage. My own impression is, that
the time given at school is generally too long for health,
and there are strong physical reasons against lessons
before breakfast for average children. In England the
plan is, I know, very general ; how is it in Switzerland ?
This is one of the things well worth ascertaining. Anoth-
er thing is, how do they cultivate the memory ? Whether
by association, or by insisting on an effort of the will?
You will see how important this question is, in regard to
learning dates, teaching poetry, etc. ; and it would be use-
ful for you to know the plan ordinarily adopted at Geneva
or other chief places in Switzerland. Perhaps you have
done all'this, and half laugh at my supernumerary advice ;
but I'll take my chance, and when I do write I like to say
at once what comes uppermost.

"We leave here on llth September for Tun bridge
Wells, thence to Brighton, where we shall remain till late
in November. My mother then goes to Boulogne, and, if
she continues to improve, I shall not accompany her, as I
wish, if possible, to have my first volume ready for the
press by Christmas, which will be impossible if I am so
long away from London. When shall you be in town?
As my movements are not quite certain, please address to

LETTERS. 93

me at Oxford Terrace. The last few weeks I have been
remarkably well, and am working zealously, and, on the
whole, satisfactorily; but the arrangement and classifica-
tion of the notes is laborious beyond anything I could have
conceived, owing chiefly to absence from my library. Still,
I do hope that I am doing something which, so far as mere
industry is concerned, will neither disgrace me nor disap-
point my friends.

" "When I recommended Mill's ' Political Economy ' I
meant John Mill, and not his ' Essays on Unsettled Ques-
tions in Political Economy ' (though they are very interest-
ing), but his large work in two vols. called ' Treatise on Po-
litical Economy,' and published about nine years ago, and
which I am certain would interest you much. Very re-
cently I saw a copy second-hand of his * Logic' in a catalogue
sent to me, and I wrote for it for you, but was too late ; it
had been sold. The booksellers tell me that the demand for
his works is increasing ; and, considering what the works
are, this, if true, is an honorable testimony to the present
age. His ' Logic ' has gone through three editions in a few
years, and a fourth is now preparing. I hope you like
Ly ell's ' Geology.' It is a grand book, though I think his
arguments on the transmutation of species very unsatisfac-
tory. Still, that is only a small part, and if you compare
it, for instance, with our best books on botany, mineralogy,
chemistry, or zoology, you will at once see how much Lyell
has made of his subject, compared to what other men have
done on other subjects."

" BRIGHTON, 9th November, 1855.

"DEAK Miss SHIREEFF: I heard yesterday that you
called last week upon my sister at Boulogne, and, as I take

94: BUCKLE'S 'LIFE AND WKITINGS.

for granted that was en route for England, I write a few
lines to you, which, indeed, I should have done before had
I felt sure about your movements. Uncertainty in this
respect and (to say the truth) hurry and fatigue about my
work kept me silent, but I heard of you from Mrs. Shirreff
when I was in town.

" You will, I know, be glad to hear that my mother
continues to improve. Still, she is far weaker that when
you last saw her. My book goes on miserably slow, and
at times I am daunted by the work still before me. The
text itself is ready for the press, but the notes ! oh, the
notes ! How unhandsome it is of mankind to expect
authors to give proof of what they assert, and how silly it
is of authors to give it! We shall remain here, I think,
till the middle of December. Pray remember me most
kindly to Mrs. Grey when you see her. What have you
been doing abroad? Don't take my short notes as the
measure of your answer. I would write at greater length,
but am really overworked, and feel as if I could think of
nothing but the ' History of Civilization.' When vol. i.
is out I will become more punctual, less selfish, and more
virtuous."

1 'BRIGHTON, 21st November, 1855.

" DEAK MES. GREY : . . . . My mother is really better,
but still very weak in walking. She is, however, less
nervous, and has lost those alarming sinking feelings which
used to come on every afternoon. I am particularly well,
but, miserable wretch that I am, I have no right to be
well, because iny book creeps on like a snail, and I ought
to be affected by its slowness. Still it 'is moving. But I
love not the drudgery needed to put it into motion."

"5$ OXFORD TERRACE, 15th January, 1856.

" DEAR Miss SHIRKEFF : I really hardly know how to
answer your question, because everything depends on the
ability, and, above all, on the industry of the person seek-
ing the information. Schlosser's ' History of the Eigh-
teenth Century,' though somewhat tedious, is, on the
whole, one of the best books for general accuracy I mean
for the accuracy of the impression it leaves on the mind
after reading it. The last edition of Koch, ' Tableau des
Revolutions,' contains common facts of the eighteenth
century, well put together; so do the later volumes of
Sismondi, ' Histoire des Frangais,' and, above all, the ad-
mirable work of Flassan, < Histoire de la Diplomatic
Franchise.' These, with Mahon's < History of England,'
would be enough to recommend; because, in the notes,
there are references to the other and original sources. If
a more special list is required, I will furnish it, as I can
never be too busy to help a friend of yours.

" If you have the means of reading any foreign books
on the philosophy of statistics except Quetelet, which I
know I should be glad to have additional proof for my
Chapter I. of the regularity with which, under the same
circumstances, the same human actions repeat themselves."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 19th January, 1856.
" DEAR MRS. GREY : I did not return home last night
till very late, when I found your note, and was not a little
vexed at having missed your dinner. The truth is, that
being somewhat deranged, if not altogether mad, at find-
ing I had time to spare, I went out in the afternoon to
enjoy myself, which I accomplished by playing chess for

96 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

seven hours, and difficult games too. I have not been so
luxurious for four or five years, and feel all the better for
it to-day.

" I am a Christian, and I am virtuous, and therefore
would have come to you yesterday if I could ; but, when
I went out, the chance had not occurred to me of your
sending so prompt and so kind an answer to my note. I
have had a long interview with the two Parkers ; they
were very obliging and willing to meet me in everything,
and handsomely. It is impossible to tell you all about it
in a note. To-morrow I go to Whitehall to see Mr. Fors-
ter. 10 . . . My mother is a little better. She sends her
love, or at least would if she knew I was writing to you."

" 59 OXFOKD TERRACE, 9th March, 1856.

" DEAR Miss SHIEREFF : I do not think you need allow
any weight to your objection against [writing] novels.
You have not, and, I am sure, will not, attempt to pro-
scribe them. What harm, then, can there be in attempt-
ing to raise their character by setting a good model ? Look
at Miss Edgeworth equally successful with her tales and
with her works for educational purposes. Every branch
of literature is good ; improve what you will, but prohibit
nothing. Two very different and yet very eminent men
Warburton and Mackintosh have testified to the bene-
fit they have derived from novels ; and, although I now
never read them, I can give evidence to their having aided
my intellectual education.

" Mrs. Austen may, no doubt, if she likes, continue to

10 " I called at Whitehall Place by appointment on Mr. Forster to talk
about my book. He says I must not consent to Parker showing the MS. to
a man unknown to me ; but only to a common friend." Diary.

LETTERS. 97

translate she has never proved that she can do anything
better ; but Miss Martineau does not translate (except with
the view, as in her ' Comte,' of diffusing philosophical
knowledge) ; nor does Mrs. Somerville ; nor does any wo-
man who reaches far and aims high, unless she is forced to
do so. The more I think of it, the more I see it in this
light. Remember that a given reputation represents a
given income, and, even in this point of view, a name is
the first thing to be desired. If, however, on mature de-
liberation, you think differently, I will make every effort
to meet your wishes, be they what they may.

"I think that the construction of a plot is not the
chief point in a good novel or tale. The language, and
particularly the dramatic power telling conversation and
the like go for more. See, for instance, Sir W. Scott,
as compared with James."

"59 OXFOED TEEEACE, 25th May, 1856.
" DEAR Miss SHIEEEFF : I am deeply sensible of the
kindness of your note, but I really am not working too
hard ; and if I were to go away for a few days, it would
do me no good, because my mind would be in my work,
and there would be no recreation. The day I called on
you I was slightly depressed, but these are only little shad-
ows which pass over me and leave me as before. I am
very careful no night work no worry of any kind and
now never exceeding nine hours a day, and very often
eight, and even less. Thank you for all your kindness
about me ; but yet a little while and I shall be free for
some time, and will recruit, though, indeed, I have no-
thing to recruit, because by no means unwell."
7

98 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 20th June, 1856.

" DEAE Miss SHIEEEFF : It will give me real pleasure
if I can be of any use in regard to your work ; " but, I
need hardly say, it is a matter requiring a great deal of
deliberation. I will make a point of seeing Mrs. Grey
about it ; and, as your return to town is doubtful, I wish
that in the mean time you would write me a full and pre-
cise account of how you stand i. e., how many copies you
printed, how many remain unsold, whether they are all in
quires or bound up, and what percentage Hope was to re-
ceive for distributing them ; also, if his percentage was cal-
culated on the published price, or on the trade price ; like-
wise, what allowance he made to the trade on your behalf.

" Whatever his terms were, you must be prepared to
submit to others more unfavorable, because whoever takes
your book will not have the advantage of printing it, and
therefore must get more profit in the distribution. I should
say that the object to which all others should be subordi-
nate is to get the public to buy the remaining copies, how-
ever small your profit may be. I wish I had an opportu-
nity of talking it over with you ; but shall not leave town
till the 10th July, so there is time yet.

" My present idea is to test the effect of some adver-
tisements in the ' Times ' ; but, when I hear from you, I
shall be better able to judge."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 24th June, 1856.
" DEAE MES. GEEY: I am putting en train a little plot
of my own about the ' Self -Culture.' In the mean time I
must have a copy of the last edition, for a purpose which

11 Second edition of " Thoughts on Self-Culture."

LETTERS. 99

I intend to make a mystery of until I bring it to bear. So
don't be inquisitive. My copy I have lent ; and, as Miss
Shirreff has obtained the others from Hope, I can only get
one from her or you and, as the matter presses, I wish to
have it at once : so, if possible, please send it by the bearer.
" I shall add no more, except that I am sure you will
be satisfied with what I am doing."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 30th June, 1856.

" A thousand thanks, dear kind Mrs. Grey, for your
most welcome letter, which I have this moment received.
It is a greater pleasure than I can tell you to see how those
I value care for me, for, with your letter, I also received
one from Miss Shirreff, equally considerate. I will not be
so affected as to conceal from you that I am a little
alarmed, and at times very depressed, to think that with
such large hopes I have such little powers. My head is at
times weak and slightly confused ; but it goes off (the
feeling, not the head I will have my joke) again directly.
They tell me that I have nothing to fear, and I am not
apprehensive except of my future.

" To break down in the midst of what, according to
my measure of greatness, is a great career and to pass
away, and make no sign this, I own, is a prospect which
I now for the first time see is possible ; and the thought
of which seems to chill my life as it creeps over me. Per-
haps I have aspired too high ; but I have at times such a
sense of power, such a feeling of reach and grasp, and, if
I may so say, such a command over the realm of thought,
that it was no idle vanity to believe that I could do more
than I shall now ever be able to effect. I must contract

100 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

the field maybe, I shall then survey the ground the bet-
terand others will not miss what, to me, will be an irre-
trievable loss, since I forfeit my confidence in myself."

But at least he had something to show for it ; for his
first volume was now potentially finished. The first in-
dication that he was again nearly ready is the entry on
30th January, 1855, " Began to arrange the books which
I quote in notes to vol. i. of Introduction " ; and on 22d
July, 1855, "Began at length the great task of copying
my work for the press " ; and again in the same year,
" Began to despair of ever finishing " ; for even while he
was thus copying for the press he " wrote account of Bota-

Kny in France under Louis XIY. as completely as possible
till I get History of Botany ' by Pulteney. Wrote ac-
S count of bad Emperors favoring Christianity and the good
V Emperors persecuting it." " Began and finished notes of
\ f\ ' Spain ' and ' Inquisition ' to prove that morals have not
^V diminished persecution." However, on the 1st of January,
V 1856, he "began at length to copy notes" for his MS.,
^ and entered into negotiations with Mr. Parker for its pub-
^ lication. " I have had a long interview," he writes, "with
\j the two Parkers. They were very obliging, and willing
to meet me in everything, and handsomely."

As we have seen by his letters, Mr. Forster strongly
advised him not to intrust his MS. to the hands of any
one unknown to him; and he therefore wrote to Mr.
Parker as follows :

"59 OXFORD TEKBACE, 19th January, 1856.
" DEAK SIR : As Mr. J. Parker, your son, will, I sup-
pose, have left England before you can receive this, I

LETTERS. 101

write to you in reference to our conversation on Thurs-
day, which I have now had time to think over.

" I quite agree in your opinion that the season is too
advanced to bring out my work at present, and I am
willing to defer going to press till July, which, I believe,
you mentioned as about the month when it would be ad-
visable to begin to print it.

" In ten days or a fortnight I shall have the MS. in
such a state that the most important parts of it can be
examined by any one you select to act on your behalf.
But, as I mentioned to you, I feel nervous about intrust-
ing it in the hands of a person of whom I have no knowl-
edge, and that, too, for an indefinite period ; and, having
no copy, the risk I should run would make me very un-
comfortable. I fully admit the propriety of your having
an opinion on it in regard to the style of composition, and,
therefore, probable popularity ; but this might be obtained
from some one with whom we are both acquainted, and
to whom I could send the MS. direct at the time he would
appoint, and when I knew he would be at leisure to read
it at once, and return it without delay. The two most
competent men I know are Mr. Forster and Mr. Baden
Powell, with both of whom you are probably personally
acquainted, and as to whose ability there can be no ques-
tion. "Would it suit you to ask either of these gentlemen
to act as referees ? In them I should have complete con-
fidence ; and, if you consulted either of them, it would be
understood that, being appointed by you, he would act on
your side rather than on mine. After all, the main ques-
tion is, have I written the book clearly and popularly?
for, as I have been engaged incessantly on it for fourteen

102 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

years, I shall not be presumptuous in saying that the
amount of reading it will display will be such as to do no
discredit to its publishers.

" I trust that you will not consider my proposition un-
reasonable ; but? I really feel an insuperable repugnance to
intrusting to a person, of whose very name I am ignorant,
a MS. which has cost me many years of continued thought.

" Believe me, etc.

" I may mention that, though I have the pleasure of
knowing Mr. Forster and Mr. Powell, neither of them
has heard or seen a line of my work, so that they would
come to it unprejudiced. Mr. Forster, as editor of the
' Examiner,' has, of course, peculiar facilities for judging
if a book is likely to be popular."

a 59 OXFOKD TERRACE, 22d February, 1856.

" DEAR SIR : I am very sensible of your handsome pro-
posal, of declining having a preliminary examination made
of my MS. But I think myself bound to meet you in a
similar spirit, and I would therefore suggest another plan
as it is my desire if possible to establish a permanent
connection with your house in a manner satisfactory to
both of us ; and this I could hardly expect to do by seek-
ing to induce you to undertake a work of such length, of
which neither yourself, nor any person in whom you con-
fide, ever heard a line.

" My suggestion, then, is this : that inasmuch as you
appear satisfied with the general character of the work,
and the industry employed on it, the point on which alone
you will require information is as to the clearness and at-
tractiveness of the style, which, as a matter of business,

LETTERS. 103

will be your principal consideration. For, if the style is
judged to be good, as well as the facts curious, a tolerable
success is certain : since every book which has failed has
owed its failure either to want of industry in collecting
evidence, or else to want of lucidity in arranging it. In
this view there are other gentlemen besides those I named,
with whose judgment you might perhaps be satisfied. Dr.
Mayo and Mr. Eobert Bell are both able, clear-headed
men ; and to either of them I could give an outline of my
scheme in half an hour's conversation, and let them see
any part of the MS. which they wished. It seems to me
that, in justice to yourself, something of this sort should
be done ; for I do not like the idea of my having refused
your first proposal of having the MS. examined by a friend
of yours, and eventually no examination taking place at
all. In such an arrangement there is no reciprocity, and
you would be placing a confidence in my abilities, which a
man still unknown as an author can not reasonably expect.
" In regard to the terms of publication, this much I
believe was arranged with your son as a preliminary to the
negotiation : namely, that you should pay me a fixed sum
for the copyright of the first edition of the first volume,
which, as far as I can judge, will be about 600 8vo pages ;
though, until the notes are more advanced, I can only make
a rough estimate of the size. As to what the sum ought
to be, and as to how many copies ought to be printed, you
are a better judge than I am ; and there can, I think, be
no difficulty between us on that head. Bat even this part
of the business would be easier adjusted if you knew more
of the probable popularity of the work ; and on this, as
on other grounds I have mentioned, I wish you to have an

104 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

opinion in which you could place confidence. If, however,
you are really satisfied with the matter as it stands, and
desire no examination of the MS., I will add on my own
behalf that I am deeply impressed with the importance of
a clear and popular style, and that I have made great and
constant efforts to attain it.

" I now leave the matter entirely in your hands. I
have done what I think just, in proposing that you should
have the opinion of a third party ; but, if you deem this
unnecessary, then my suggestion is that an edition of 1,500
copies should be printed, and that you should state the sum
you will pay for the copyright of that edition."

" 59 OXFOKD TERRACE, llth July, 1856.

" DEAK Sm : By your letter of yesterday, I understand
that you offer to print an edition of my first volume at
your own cost and risk ; and that you propose, as soon as
it is ready for publication, to pay me a sum equal to one
half the profits upon that edition.

" This proposal, as far as I can judge, seems fair and
liberal, and I am willing to accept it but not exactly in
this form. You will perhaps remember that from the be-
ginning I stated that I disliked uncertain arrangements,
and that my wish was to receive a fixed and definite sum
for the copyright of the first edition. To this you agreed,
and the only question now between us is to name the sum.
I am quite willing to take, as a basis of the arrangement,
half the estimated profits ; and, with your experience of
books, it will be easy for you to form an idea of what that
will be. The volume will be rather more than 600 pages
8vo, about the size of Macaulay (i. e., calculating the same

LETTERS. 105

number of words on the page as in one of his volumes),
and, as the notes will be numerous, you would probably
think sixteen shillings a fair price at which to publish it.
Supposing, then, a thousand copies are printed, you will
be able to estimate the half profits ; because I have taken
the greatest possible care in preparing the MS. so that the
corrections of the press will be very trifling.

" Whatever sum you agree to pay me will, of course,
include such corrections as even a careful copy may be
supposed to require (that is to say, I am not to be charged
with them) ; but if I make any alterations of extent, such
as interpolating or omitting sentences, I shall be willing
and desirous to pay for them myself.

" I should wish to have twelve copies delivered to me
free of charge for presentation to my friends. As to send-
ing any copies to the reviews and newspapers, that I take
for granted is your concern.

" In regard to any future edition, it will naturally be
my wish to remain in your hands ; but I can not formally
bind myself down to any such engagement, because, to do
so would in fact be surrendering the control of my own
property ; it would be equivalent to selling the copyright
without reaping the advantages of the sale, since it would
be a compact which would bind me without binding you.

"If what I have said meets your views, it only remains
for you to fix a specified sum, as that was the condition
mentioned at our first interview.

" I hope that you will consider what I have written as
satisfactory. You have acted very frankly with me, and
I wish to do the same with you.

" Believe me, etc."

106 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" I leave town early on Wednesday, 16th. If you wish
to see me, I am always at home in the morning ; but I hope
there will be no further difficulty to give you the trouble
of calling, and that a letter will be sufficient."

"TUNBRIDGE WELLS, MOUNT EDGECUMBE COTTAGE,

"20tJiJuly, 1856.

" DEAK SIR : Judging from your letter, the obstacles to
further negotiation appear insuperable. It will therefore
be better that the matter should end here.

" I am sorry that you should have had so much un-
necessary trouble."

"TimBKiDGE WELLS, 27th July, 1856.

" DEAK MKS. GREY : . . . . The air here is really so
fine, and my mother is so much improving in it, that I am
almost beginning to like the country. A frightful and
alarming degeneracy ! Pray God that my mind may be
preserved to me, and that the degradation of taste does
not become permanent.

" I am as well as ever, and I think as busy as ever :
deeply immersed in comparative anatomy, the dryness of
which I enliven by excursions into free will and predesti-
nation. I find that physiology and theology correct each
other very well ; and, between the two, reason holds her
own. My mother writes to-day to Miss Shirreff to try
and coax her to come and stay with us. She sends her
love, and hopes that, if you and Mr. Grey can not come
here for the summer, you will at all events take a run
down when Miss Shirreff is with us : and, if you get rooms
at the Ephraim hotel, we can all breakfast and dine to-
gether ; as our cottage is large enough for that, though it
has but few bedrooms.

LETTERS. 107

" The negotiation with Mr. Parker is off : he wanted
to bind me down respecting subsequent editions, and I did
not choose to be bound. It is not very important, and I
am glad that something is settled.

" Do you keep a look-out as to the i Examiner.' If
there is a review of * Self -Culture,' and you buy the
paper, please to send it to me. I shall be very anx-
ious to know about it."

" TUNBRIDGE WELLS, 28th August, 1856.
" DEAK Miss SHIEEEFF : You do both me and your-
self great injustice by calling your criticism 'unsought?
So far from this, I find your suggestions too valuable not
to ask for them ; and I have adopted at least five out of
six of every emendation you proposed. In regard to the
more general objections contained in your letter, I see
considerable force in them : but, as they do not strike at
any great principle, or even at the accuracy of any par-
ticular fact, it seems hardly worth while to undergo the
labor of rewriting and rearranging so large a part of the
MSS. Such alteration in any chapter would also com-
pel me to alter the notes belonging to that chapter, as
they are consecutively numbered, and could not be altered
without defacing the text. Unless, therefore, there is any-
thing fundamentally vicious in the arrangement and pro-
portion of the different parts, I would not change them
now. Besides this, I may fairly say that I have bestowed
considerable thought on the general scheme, and I think
that I could bring forward arguments (too long for a let-
ter) to justify the apparently disproportionate length of
the notice of Burke and Bichat. As to the French Protes-

108 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

tants, I am more inclined to agree with you : though, even
here, it is to be observed that general historians represent
the struggle between Protestants and Catholics as always
a struggle between toleration and intolerance ; and, as I
assert that the triumph of the Catholic party in France
has increased toleration, I thought myself bound to sup-
port with full evidence what many will deem a paradoxi-
cal assertion. Eead,.for instance, Smedley's * History of
the Keformed Church of France,' which is constantly
appealed to as an authority, and is the most elaborate
work in English on the subject, and in it you will see how
completely the author has misrepresented the contest of
the two parties under Louis XIII. Even Sismondi, lib-
eral as he is, does not treat the Catholics fairly. I have
also worked this part of the subject at the greater length,
because I thought it confirmed one of the leading propo-
sitions in my fifth chapter, to the effect that religious
tenets do not so much affect society as they are affected by
it. I wished to show how much more depends on circum-
stance than on dogma: it was therefore useful to prove
that, though the Catholics are theoretically more intolerant
than the Protestants, they were in France practically more
tolerant ; and that this arose from the pressure of general
events."

" TUNBBIDGE WELLS, 8th October, 1856.

" DEAR Miss SHIEEEFF : My mother is as well as when
you were here. Her loss of speech, which lasted for a
few minutes, has left no mischief behind so far as one can
perceive ; only it is disheartening to see that with the ut-
most care so little has been done toward preventing such
attacks. But Mr. Eix, in whom I place some confidence,

LETTERS. 109

assures me most positively that she is upon the whole
steadily improving ; and he makes little account of her
late temporary seizure. On the 29th we separate : she to
Boulogne, I to London.

" In regard to your publishing translations, I thought,
and still think, that, looking at your remote interests, the
step is not advisable. But I had then hoped that before
this time you would be fit for real work ; and, as I fear
that, though better, you are still hardly in a state to go on
with what you projected, it remains for you to consider
how far it is worth while to sacrifice the present to the fu-
ture. The main point, I think, is, what prospect you have
of a speedy recovery of strength. I am most unwilling to
believe that you will be for any length of time unfit for
work ; but, if there were reason to apprehend this, cer-
tainly my objections against your appearing as a translator
would be weakened. Wait till I come to town, and we
will talk it over for I do most sincerely trust that the
mountain air will have done so much to reestablish you
that when we meet you will have gained your strength
and lost your fears. If not, you know well that I will do
whatever lies in my power either in the way of advice or
of any description of active help which you may require.
Meanwhile, don't try too much at present, and be a firm
believer in time and patience. You say that you are bet-
ter than you were. This is a clear gain, and shows the
direction in which things are tending.

" Your letter raises several questions of interest which,
if I had you here, I would answer categorically and dis-
cursively ; but when I tell you that it is now ten o'clock
at night, and that I have had a hard day's work, I know

110 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

you will excuse my not entering into them now. I am,
in truth, so tired as hardly to know what I am writing ;
but I would not delay, as I wished this letter to meet you
on your arrival at Manchester. Only one thing I will say
in regard to ' Diversions of Purley ' : that Home Tooke
was a nominalist and sensationalist, and that Donaldson
and Bunsen were idealists hence the opposition. Tooke's
book is a fine sample of deductive reasoning in philology ;
indeed, he says, if I rightly remember, that he arrived at
his conclusions before knowing a word of Anglo-Saxon ;
so that his facts are illustrations, not proofs.

" I am sorry, but not surprised to hear of Hope ; but I
am glad that you have escaped from him with so little loss.
As soon as I go to town I shall see what is doing with
6 Self-Culture.'

" This is a sad scrawl, but I am really oppressed with
work."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 28th October, 1856.

" DEAK Miss SHIRREFF : . . . . To-morrow I shall go
to Petheram, to show him the notice, or rather, short
review, of your book; and consult with him if it is
worth while to extract anything to put in his catalogue.
I should have liked to have known Mr. Puff. I always
was a charlatan, and, the older I grow, the more the pro-
pensity waxes.

" My mother goes from Tunbridge Wells to Boulogne,
avoiding London. She is, I think, better than when you
were with us. I am just like a child come home for the
holidays, in the midst of my toys. "What lovely things
books are ! I suppose some time or other I too shall pub-
lish a book, but I don't know much about it."

LETTERS.

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 18th November, 1856.
" DEAE MES. GEEY : I am doubly glad to hear of the
article in the ' Church of England Review ' ; glad for the
sake of your book, and glad too, as it proves that the
orthodox are losing their power of distinguishing friends
from enemies ; and this I take to be a mark of their com-
ing fall, for is it not written that they whom the gods seek
to overthrow^ they first dement ?

" On Friday next, 21st, at seven I shall wait upon you
with the feeling of respect that your note naturally in-
spires."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 15th December, 1856.

" DEAE Miss SHIEEEFF :....! am certainly better,
and fully intend returning from the sea 12 vigorous and (if
anybody contradicts me) dangerous. At present I am
safe, cowardly, and taciturn.

" I have very good accounts from my mother."

" BOULOGNE-SUR-MER, %2d December, 1856.

" DEAE Miss SHIEEEFF : You asked me to let you know
how I was going on, and although I can not give a favorable
account, I will not be so insensible to your kindness as to
delay writing any longer.

" Dr. Allatt precisely confirms what Mr. Morgan said
in London that I am weak, with low fever hanging about
me. I am to live well, and take quinine both of which
I have done since coming here, but without much effect.
Fortunately, I only feel weak physically, and am as fit for
head work as I ever was. This is a great comfort to me,
and I am only sorry not to get on with my first volume ;

12 Boulogne.

112 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

though, if I were in town, I should probably feel the
fatigue too much of moving and opening books for verify-
ing my notes. Dr. Allatt suspects that the brain has been
overworked, but says he will not speak positively at present;
at all events, he thinks there is nothing which I shall not
soon get over ; but he strongly urges my putting aside my
first volume for the present. To lose another season would
be a great vexation to me ; and then, too, these early checks
make me think mournfully of the future. If I am to be
struck down in the vestibule, how shall I enter the temple ?
" I shall certainly stay here till the end of this month ;
and, then if I am not better, there is nothing for it but
traveling, as while I am stationary I must work."

It was indeed no wonder that at last his health began
to feel the strain. No doubt personal experience origi-
nated his " strong suspicion " that, " with a given mind,
there must and will be a certain physical structure, of
which we may modify the effects, but never change the
nature." 13 We may modify the effects, indeed ; but he
aggravated, rather than mitigated them. The "while I
am stationary, I must work," was true enough ; but not
in the implication. It was simply impossible for him not
to work, and he worked hard, though not so hard as when
at home, while traveling. He read even in the train.
While, too, he accomplished his minimum of seven hours
a day, his only relaxation was playing at chess ; and when
we take into consideration that his weakness was not so
much bodily in its origin as nervous, and the great anxi-
ety he suffered on account of his mother's health, it is by

""Letter," July 17, 1855.

INCKEASING WEAKNESS OF MRS. BUCKLE. H3

no means astonishing that the tension at last proved too
great, and his health broke down. 14 Miss Shirreff writes :
" His mother knew too well that she could not afford to
wait. During the spring and summer of 1SS6 she was
more ill, and had a more general sense of failing than she
would allow him to know. She kept up her courage and
her spirits for his sake, lest he should be diverted from
his work. I was staying with them for a short time at
Tunbridge "Wells, and daily she betrayed to me her
knowledge that her days were numbered, and her anxi-
ety to see her son take his right place in the world. She
had been content that he should hide his bright gifts in
their quiet home so long as the serious purpose of his
life required it ; but now that it was partly attained, that
a portion of his work was ready, she grew eager to see
those gifts acknowledged before she herself went forth, to
be no more seen on earth. Chapter by chapter, almost
page by page, had that first volume been planned with
her, commented on by her, every speculation as it arose
talked over with her ; and now her mind was oppressed
with the fear that she might never know how those pages,
so unutterably precious to her, would be welcomed by
those whose welcome would crown her beloved with fame.
Yet, to spare him, she never would betray in his presence
the real secret of her growing impatience ; only when we
were alone she would say to me : Surely" God will let me

14 There are several indications in his diary of great weakness. " June
24, 1856 : Went to Divan. Coming home through Hyde Park, I suddenly
felt ill, and fell down insensible." He does not say how he got home ; and
the next day appears to have been in his usual health. Again, October 31,
1856, he writes : " I sent for Dr. Morgan, who says that I am low, and
the system generally out of order."
8

114: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

live to see Henry's book ' ; and she did live to see it, and
to read the dedication to herself, the only words she was
unprepared to meet. Mr. Buckle told me he bitterly re-
pented the rash act of laying the volume before her, to
enjoy her surprise and pleasure, for he was alarmed at her
agitation. Even the next day, when showing it to me, she
could not speak ; but pointed with tears to the few words
that summed up to her the full expression of his love and
gratitude. She thus saw her ardent wish gratified, and
her impatience was but too well justified. The second
volume was dedicated to her memory alone ! "

He had at the end of the year decided to print the
volume himself, as he could not come to a satisfactory
arrangement with Messrs. Parker. "February 7th, Mr.
Levy came to show me a specimen page of my work
printed, and gave me an estimate. I settled everything
with him, and on Monday they (Levy & Robson) will
begin to print and finish the volume by the end of
April." He then wrote to Messrs. Parker to ask them
whether they would undertake to publish it on com-
mission :

"59 OXFOKD TERRACE, 17th February, 1857.

" MY DEAR SIR : As you were unwilling and perhaps
reasonably so to run the risk of printing my work ex-
cept on conditions which I was equally unwilling to
accept, I have determined to print it at my own expense,
and I received last Saturday a proof of the first sheet
from Levy & Robson's, who were strongly recommended
to me by Mr. Forster, and with whose care and attention
I have, thus far, every reason to be satisfied.

" My object in writing to you at present is to ask if

LETTERS. 115

you would be disposed to publish on commission the fif-
teen hundred copies which I am printing. In this way
you would avoid the risk of loss, and, should the work
prove tolerably successful, you will have a criterion by
which to estimate any proposal you might like to make
for the subsequent volumes, or for subsequent editions
of the first volume. Should the book fail, you will, of
course, not be bound to continue your connection with
me after the first edition ; and if, on the other hand, it
should succeed, it will be for your interest and for mine
that the connection should be a permanent one. "We
should in this way be united by the bond of self-interest,
which seems more satisfactory than the one formerly pro-
posed. I feel that, looking at the character of the works
you publish, you are the best publisher I could select, and
if you exerted yourself (as I am sure you would do) to
push the work, there is no reason to think that there
would be any difficulty about subsequent arrangements.
At all events you will, I hope, look on my proposition as a
proof that our negotiation was not broken off by the small-
est want of confidence on my part, but simply by an im-
pression that it was not for my interest to accept your
terms though I must cheerfully acknowledge that I do
not believe any publisher ever offered terms so favorable
for the first work of an unknown author.

" On Saturday morning I leave town for a few days ;
but, if you should be willing to reopen the negotiation, I
will either send for a specimen of the paper and of the
printing, or I will remain at home to see you any morn-
ing between 10.30 and 1.30 that you may appoint, if you
will favor me by calling before Saturday.' 7

116 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 2d April, 1857.

"Mr DEAB SIR: The volume will not be completed
before the middle of May, as the notes are even longer
than I anticipated, and require very great care in printing.
If, however, you think that it is advisable to announce it
at once, I have no objection.

The title is :

< HISTORY OF CIVILIZATION m ENGLAND,

4 By Henry Thomas Buckle.

* Yolume I. Being the first part of a General

Introduction. 15

" I believe it is understood between us that the issue
of this edition (of 1,500 copies) is a sort of experiment to
enable an opinion to be formed of the probable success of
the book ; and that, in the event of the whole impression
selling satisfactorily, we may then (i. e., if you think
proper) recur to the plan of your paying a certain sum
for each subsequent edition.

"As in matters of business much unpleasantness is
avoided by being explicit at first, you will, I am sure,
excuse my recapitulating this, and suggesting that a
memorandum should be drawn up stating that our actual
engagement is confined to the first edition of the first
volume, and that you agree to publish it on commission
for me according to the terms contained in your printed
paper. If this is contrary to the usual course, it will be
quite sufficient that you should write me a note to the
same effect, as I trust that you feel as much confidence in
my word as I do in yours, and my only object is to pre-

15 It will be observed that this last was omitted.

LETTERS. 117

vent the possibility of misunderstanding subsequently

arising."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 3d April, 1857.

" MY DEAR SIB : Your note is quite sufficient, and the
advertisement is correct.

"In regard to boarding the volume, Mr. Bell sug-
gested to me the other day that it would be better only to
have 500 bound, and the remainder in sheets ; as that, in
case of the sale being slow, they would keep better in
sheets, and be less liable to lose their color. Is this the
case ? and what do you think the best plan ? If there is
no fear of injury, I should prefer having the whole im-
pression boarded at once.

" I shall be able to meet your wishes in regard to the
point you mentioned the last time you called ; and I can
appropriate a dry room to receive 1,000 copies until you
require them, leaving you only 500 at first.

" Believe me, etc.

" I am much obliged by the good wishes you express
for my success, and I fully agree with you that we shall
get on well together. Indeed, even at the time that I
thought it advisable to break off our former negotiations,
I always did justice to the open way in which you met
me, and to the liberal character of your offer."

"BRIGHTON, 1st March, 1857.

"DEAR Miss SHIEEEFF: It is very cheering to hear
you at length say that you are quite well and able to work
once more regularly; but pray take example from your
former state, and also from mine, and proceed gradually.
I should never have been as I am now but for an eager

118 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

desire to save this season. Indeed, I was getting half
ashamed at constantly putting off what I was perhaps too
ready to talk about. However, all this is past, and com-
paring one month with another I certainly am not losing
ground, so that I have every right to suppose that dimin-
ished labor will be rewarded by increased strength.

" In a week or two I shall ask you to revise Chapters
XII. and XIY., the only two not quite completed. My
mother, I really think, is better ; but Dr. Bright says the
greatest caution is needed, and allows her to see literally
no one except my sister not even her own niece."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 30th March, 1857.
" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF :....! shall take my mother
to Brighton the day before Good Friday if the wind is
not too cold for her. She will stay there, but I must
return to town early in the week. I am gaining strength
slowly, but steadily, which I take to be the safest way."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 1st April, 1857.

" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : I have not yet received your
note by post, but shall be very happy to dine with Mrs.
Shirreff to-morrow (Thursday) at seven. "When you show
me your Philos. Transac. I shall be better able to advise
you about them.

" I will not delay a post in writing, and therefore have
had no time yet to look at your notes, but am half inclined
to be vexed at your thinking it necessary to apologize
for their freedom. Let them be as free and hostile as
they may, I well know the spirit in which they are
dictated."

LETTER TO MRS. GREY. 119

"BRIGHTON, 18th April, 1857.

" DEAR MRS. GREY : I shall return to town on Mon-
day, and am vexed to think that you are to leave London
just as I enter it. Thanks much for the offer of Miss
ShirrefFs aid. Perhaps, as you have Descartes, she will
take the trouble of verifying the references from his
work, if you will send them to Chester Street.

" I forget whether or not I asked you some time ago

(as I intended to do) to write to Mrs. (I don't know

if I spell rightly the name of your friend in Stockholm),
for information respecting Swedish and other books on
the 'Life of Christina.' Captain Woodhead is engaged
by my advice on this subject, and is busy learning Swe-
dish ; and I have promised to collect information for him
in regard either to MSS. or printed books. He meditates
a journey to Stockholm in the summer, but it will save
time to go there furnished with preliminary knowledge as
to the best sources.

" Please, dear Mrs. Grey, why do you put to me such
puzzling questions ? That a man should be so unfortu-
nate as to be asked to give an account of the transcenden-
tal process in a note ! That he should have a friend who
can make such a request! And then, perhaps, blamed
for not complying with it ! Such a man is greatly to be
pitied particularly when the poor creature intends en-
tering into details respecting German transcendentalism
in a second volume which he meditates writing, and which
he hopes will convey comfort to those orthodox minds
which his first volume may have embarrassed.

" Seriously, however, I do not think anything can be
better on this most interesting subject than the passages

120 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

I have collected from Kant (at end of Chapter I.), in
which he vindicates transcendentally the freedom which
he destroys logically. The logical deals with the universal
understanding; the transcendental with the individual
reason. The first explains without feeling; the second
feels without explaining. The first being performed by
one mind may be repeated and imitated by another. The
second is by its nature incapable of being copied because
it concerns an eminently individual, and, as it were, an
isolated process. Therefore it is that logical truths are
dependent upon the age in which they are found. That
is to say, the state of surrounding knowledge supplies the
major premise. On the other hand, in the transcendental
process, the mind itself supplies the major premise. From
this it appears that, if two minds are exactly of the same
nature, they will arrive at the same transcendental con-
clusions, whatever be the difference of country or age in
which they live. In regard, however, to their logical con-
clusions, they will arrive at different results in proportion
as the varieties of their surroundings. Knowledge sup-
plies them with different ideas. Or, to give another illus-
tration, the transcendental is statical ; the logical is dyna-
mical.

" There are extremely few persons (indeed, only two
besides yourself) to whom I would have written all this :
because, setting a high value on clearness, I dislike the
appearance of mysticism. But I know you well enough
to feel sure that you will not accuse me of affecting ob-
scurity in a matter which is rather dark than difficult.
Still, I am fearful that you will not quite catch my mean-
ing. Do not keep this letter, but make a memorandum

LETTER TO MRS. BOWYEAR. 121

of the heads, and when we meet I will try and explain
what I have said. But oblige me by putting the letter
itself in the fire ; as I do not care about having my opin-
ions on these most sacred subjects discussed. 18

" I should like to have a line or two from you (to Ox-
ford Terrace) to say how far our minds have met on com-
mon ground in this field of thought. One thing, at least,
I know that we both respect each other's convictions.

" I am, etc.

"My mother is really better. She sends her kind
love. I wish you and she could see more of each other.
She has gone through the process of which we have been
speaking."

He writes to Mrs. Bowyear on the same subject as
follows :

" You remind me that I have not answered your for-
mer questions respecting transcendental convictions, and
the relation between them and religious belief ; the reason
of my silence is the impossibility of treating such subjects
in a letter. In conversation you would raise difficulties
and ask for further information on what seemed obscure,
but you can not cross-examine a letter, and on subjects of
such immense difficulty I fear to be misunderstood ; and
I shrink from saying anything that might give a painful
direction to your speculations. In regard to books, on
this there is nothing in English, and what perhaps I should
most recommend are the minor works of Fichte, which I
could lend you if you find yourself strong enough in Ger-

16 This letter was kept by permission given afterward.

122 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

man to master them. The difference between the tran-
scendental operations of the reason and the empirical
operations of the understanding is also worked out by
Kant, and at the end of my first chapter you will find all
the passages collected in which that wonderful thinker
applies this difference to solve the problem of free will
and necessity. Coleridge saw the difficulty, but dared not
investigate it. Miserable creatures that we are, to think
that we offend God by using with freedom the faculties
that God has given us ! There is only one safe maxim on
these questions, viz., that, if we strive honestly after the
truth, we satisfy our conscience, and, having done all that
lies in our power, may wash our hands of the result. If
this maxim be neglected, then investigations will only lead
to a life of misery, and had far better be left alone."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 30th April, 1857.
"DEAB Mus. GKET: I inclose pp. 481 to 512, the
only two sheets which you have missed. What you say
about Descartes absenting himself from France is quite
true, but there is no evidence that he did so for liberty's
sake, though, if I remember rightly, the very imperfect
account of him in the ' Biographic Universelle ' 17 asserts
that such was his motive. But in his correspondence he
says that his object in going to Holland was to separate
himself from his friends that he might meditate uninter-

17 " Revenu des ses voyages, il jeta un coup-d'oeil sur les diverges occu-
pations des hommes ; il sentit que la seule qui lui convint 6 tait la culture de
sa raison ; mais comme tout 6tait extreme dans cette ame ardente, il crut
que s'il restait en France il ne serait ni assez seul ni assez libre ; il vendit
une partie de son bien, et se retira en Hollande (1629), comme dans un
sejour tranquille, particulierement propre a la paix et a la liberte de ses
meditations."

PUBLICATION OF THE HISTORY. 123

ruptedly ; and certainly there was at that time less free
discussion in Holland than in France. In regard to his
subsequent visit to Sweden, it was partly to procure a
settlement (his pecuniary affairs being deranged), and
partly from real admiration for that most remarkable and
cruelly maligned woman, Christine.

" In regard to the note on the crystalline lens, I confess
that I think you are right, and therefore I am wrong. My
mind, and hence my reading, is too discursive, and, what
is worse, the discursiveness is too ostentatiously displayed,
as I clearly perceive now that the volume is printed. This
is fortunately rather a blemish than an error, as the argu-
ments and facts which form the framework of the book
remain intact.

"My mother is a little better, and writes very san-
guinely about herself. I do not get up my strength as I
ought, and don't expect much improvement till I am
through the press. . . .

" Observe that Descartes' works were not prohibited
in France during his lifetime, and therefore a fortiori
why should his person have been attacked ?

" I shall insert a note at the end of Chapter YIII. to
say that Descartes died in Sweden. Thanks, very much,
dear Mrs. Grey, for your criticisms. They are useful to
me, and I am also glad to have them as showing the inter-
est you take in what I am doing."

The long-delayed work, which at last had to be printed
at the author's expense, at length appeared, and met with
an almost instantaneous success. In London it became
the talk of the season, and its author the lion of the sea-

124: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

son. There was so nrncli originality, such power, such
industry, and such fearlessness, that public curiosity was
piqued to meet the obscure author. Courted, feasted, and
caressed in private, he was attacked in public by the mass
of reviews. But, as he once said at Cairo, " the people of
England have such an admiration of any kind of intellec-
tual splendor that they will forgive for its sake the most
objectionable doctrines," and his brilliant conversation was
an additional incentive to all who met him to make his
acquaintance ; while, as he writes to Mr. Capel, 18 " If I
had written more obscurely, I should have excited less
anger," it had the effect of selling his book the quicker.
"If men are not struck down by hostility, they always
thrive by it," he writes, 19 and he had sold 675 copies of
the edition at the end of the year of its publication. Mr.
Parker agreed to buy a new edition of 2,000 copies for
500. It found its way all over the Continent. The Amer-
icans began reprinting it the same year that it was pub-
lished, and, in May, he had a visit from a Russian gentle-
man, who told him of its success at Moscow.

It was, of course, impossible for Buckle to answer the
very numerous attacks that were made upon him from all
quarters. Had he done so, he would never have written
anything more. But he collected and read them. In Oc-
tober, 1858, he writes to Miss Shirreff: "As I collect
every criticism on my work, I wish you would let me
know the date of the .... Such things in after years will
be very interesting. Besides this, I want my book to get
among the mechanics' institutes and the people; and, to
tell you the honest truth, I would rather be praised in

18 24th October, 1857. 19 September, 1861.

CRITICISM. 125

popular and, as you rightly call them, vulgar papers, than

in scholarly publications. The and are no

judges of the critical value of what I have doije ; but they
are admirable judges of its social consequences among
their own class of readers. And these are they whom I
am now beginning to touch, and whom I wish to move."

The greater number of the objections brought against
his arguments by the various reviewers would, taken to-
gether, almost answer each other ; and any one who might
feel inclined to try will find a list of them at the end of
this work. Buckle publicly answered only one, 20 which
he selects because of the " marvelous ignorance " it dis-
plays, and which he uses as a vehicle to warn the public
against lending too much weight to such ephemeral pro-
ductions. But to his friends and privately he justified
himself against attack. Thus, he wrote " a long letter to
Dr. Lyon Playfair 21 in answer to one just received respect-
ing my chemical views of cheap food " ; wrote 2a " a long
letter to Vice-Chancellor "Wood in answer to a long letter
from him objecting to my superiority of intellectual
laws"; and again, "to Professor "Wheatstone, justifying
my assertion that Malus discovered the polarization of
light."

u 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 31st October, 1857.

" MY DEAK VICE-CHANCELLOR : 23 1 can not sufficiently
thank you for your interesting letter interesting inasmuch
as it deals with a most important subject which has cost
me some years of anxious reflection ; and, interesting in a

20 " History of Civilization," vol. ii., p. 5, note 6.

21 October 18th, 1857. M November 1st, 1857.

23 Lord Hatherley.

126 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

narrower and personal point of view, because it shows the
kindly feeling with which you regard my inquiries, even
where you differ with their result. I have been for some
time,- partly from severe mental suffering, and partly from
overwork, so reduced in strength as to be incapable of sus-
tained application ; and, although I am now steadily gain-
ing ground, quite unequal to enter into so elaborate an
argument as your objections require.

" Indeed, it would under any circumstances be impos-
sible for me, within the limits of a letter, to make any re-
ply worth your listening to. I can only hope that at some
future day we may have an opportunity of talking the
subject over, when I flatter myself that I should convince
you not that I am right (for our methods of investigation
are too different to admit of unanimity of result) but that
I am not altogether and thoroughly wrong in ascribing the
progress of society to intellectual laws rather than moral
ones.

"In reference to the individual, I have always ad-
mitted the superiority of the moral elements, which I as
strenuously deny in reference to the organization of soci-
ety. I have not made the admission in my book, simply
because my inquiry has nothing to do with the individual,
but is solely concerned with the dynamics of masses. Thus,
for instance, when I say that the marriages annually con-
tracted by a nation are uninfluenced by personal considera-
tions, I am surely justified in a scientific point of view in
making this statement ; because, although each individual
is moved by such considerations, we find that they are in-
visible in the mass, and that the laws of food govern the
phenomenon in its totality.

CRITICISM. 127

" This way of putting it is, I am afraid, very unsatis-
factory as must be the case in all attempts to defend a
complicated paradox (for paradox it is) in %. few words,
and at a short notice, and, moreover, with diminished
powers for I have not energy left to reopen the great
question. Still, I would not delay a post in answering
your very kind letter and thanking you heartily for it.

" The mass of national marriages is no doubt immedi-
ately determined by the mass of personal consideration.
But this, which in the individual is the supreme cause, is
in the mass only the proximate cause.

" Scientifically, we always look at the most remote
cause, or the highest generalization, which in this case
resolves itself into the physical laws of food. Here, as in
many other things, there is an antagonism between prac-
tice (which deals with the most proximate causes) and sci-
ence (which deals with the most remote ones)."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 2d November, 1857.

" MY DEAK VICE-CHANCELLOR : Since I wrote to you
on Saturday night, it has occurred to me to make two
remarks : The first is, that in from (I should suppose)
fifteen to twenty different reviews which I have seen of
my work, I do not remember that a single attack is made
upon my assertion respecting the superiority of intellectual
laws. The other remark I wish to make is, that in what
I am told are generally considered to be the two ablest
articles my theory is distinctly admitted.

" The < Saturday Keview,' July 11, p. 39, says : < We
think that Mr. Buckle makes good his point. The primary
cause of progress is in the intellect, but the subordinate

128 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

cause that is, moral motives modifying the primary
cause indefinitely.' And the writer adds, what I fully
admit, that such modifications are enormous, and until they
are ascertained the science is incomplete.

" The ' "Westminster Review ' for October says, p. 396,
1 We may then very seriously regret, as Mr. Buckle does,
the common notions of the influence of moral principle on
the progress of civilization.'

" "Who wrote the article in the { Saturday Review ' I
do not know ; a4 but the article in the ' "Westminster ' was
written by an Oxford clergyman of considerable reputa-
tion, and, as such, not likely to be prejudiced in my favor.

" These facts show that among thinking men the bal-
ance of opinion is not so entirely against me as you sup-
pose ; and you will perhaps forgive me if I add that they
may possibly induce you to reconsider some expressions in
your letter which, on second reading of it, struck me more
than they did at first. You object against me the con-
fidence of my language, and yet you do not scruple your-
self to pronounce conclusions, which I have arrived at
honestly and with great labor, to be glaring fallacies. I
have said, and I deliberately repeatj that my inferences
are from my point of view (that is, an investigation of the
remote and PRIMARY causes of civilization) impregnable.
Unless the ordinary and received methods of argument are
erroneous, I am satisfied that the superiority of the intel-
lectual laws is proved both a priori and a posteriori ; and
I am equally satisfied that this is only applicable to the
progress of society, but that in regard to the individual the
superiority of the moral laws may be proved as decisively.

84 It was Mr. Sandars, whom he soon after met at Mr. Parker's.

CRITICISM. 129

" Yon will, I trust, accept this second letter as an evi-
dence of the value which I attach to your opinion. If I
cared less for your judgment, I should write Igss earnestly ;
but I can not sit down quietly under the conviction that
able and upright men believe me to have asserted doctrines
which are erroneous, and which nothing but their palpable
absurdity prevents from being pernicious.

"You say that printing diffused moral truths, and
hence caused progress. This is quite true ; but, if the in-
tellect invented the printing, it follows that the result is
due to the original mover. If I push a man against you
and kill you, who is the cause of the death ? The proxi-
mate cause is the man pushed, but the real cause is the man
who pushes. The object of all science is to rise from
proximate causes to more remote ones, while in practice
(which concerns the individual, and deals, not with the
science, but with the art of life) the safest course is to look
at what is proximate. Therefore I hold that in the former
case the intellectual laws are supreme : in the latter case
the moral laws. To return to my illustration : in practice
you would save your life by avoiding the man who was
pushed against you; but in criminal law (which is, or
rather ought to be, a science) you would direct your at-
tention to the more remote cause, and prosecute the man
who pushed. Here is the antagonism between science and
art which lies at the root of many of my speculations." 25

25 Of the reviews I have seen, Buckle's view on the superiority of intel-
lectual laws is attacked in the following :

EEVIEW. PUBLISHED. MONTH. YEAB.

" Edinburgh Review " .... Edinburgh, April, 1858

" Blackwood's Magazine " November, 1858

" Fraser's Magazine " September, 1859

130 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 5fh May, 1858.

" MY DEAR SIR : 2<t In our conversation last night you
remarked that, in speaking of Malus as the discoverer of
the c polarization of light,' I had used a mode of expres-
sion which was not used by any writer of authority, and,
on my suggesting that Biot had so expressed himself, you
said that he was careful to qualify the statement as 'polari-
zation of light ~by reflection?

" Of course I admitted at once, what indeed is known to
every one interested in these subjects, that Malus's dis-
covery was as you stated it ; but I still venture to think
that there was nothing unusual in my way of putting it.
I now find on referring to Biot's ' Life of Malus ' (' Bio-
graphie Universelle,' vol. xxvi., p. 410) that M. Biot uses
the very words which I have employed, without the word
reflection. He says : Malus ' auteur d'une des plus impor-
tantes decouvertes de la physique, celle de la polarisation
de la lumiere, naquit a Paris,' etc.

" Besides this, M. Pouillet, in his f Elemens de Phy-
sique ' (vol. ii., part ii., p. 484, Paris, 1832) says that Malus
' decouvrit en 1810 la polarisation de la lumiere.'

" Neither of these eminent authorities thinks it neces-
sary to qualify his statement ; and I do not see how any

EBVIEW. PUBLISHED. MONTH. YBAB.

" Dublin University Magazine " January, 1858

" National Review " January, 1858

" North American Review ". . . Boston, . October, 1858

Ibid October, 1861

"The Christian Examiner ". . . Boston, . March, 1858

Ibid January, 1863

" The Bradford Keview " March, 1860

The letter to Lord Hatherley was written 2d November, 1857.

26 Sir Charles Wheatstone.

LETTER TO ME. PAEKEE. 131

one can be fairly accused of inaccuracy in following their
example.

" I would not have troubled you with this- letter except
that your kindness in suggesting what you thought a neces-
sary alteration in my work makes me wish to testify the
respect I feel for any opinion of yours, and makes me also
desire to prevent your supposing that I retain what I have
written out of mere obstinacy. I confess, too, that I should
be sorry if able and accomplished men were to believe that
I would write on the history of physical science without
having properly qualified myself to do so.

" Sincerely thanking you for the interest you take in
what I have done,

" I am, dear sir, with much regard,
" Yery truly yours,

"HENRY THOMAS BUCKLE."

, 18th July, 1857.

" MY DEAR SIR : " Your two letters of the 7th and
llth did not reach me till some ten days after they were
written, as I have been exploring out-of-the-way parts of
Cornwall, and could not calculate my movements precisely,
so had to wait for my letters at Penzance.

" I have now read the articles in the * Athenaeum ' and
' Saturday Review.' Of the former I say nothing, be-
cause it is an attack upon my book, and no man is a fair
judge in his own cause. In regard to the < Saturday Ke-
view,' the writer has shown considerable skill in grasping
the salient points, and, I think, has exercised remarkable
discretion in giving no extracts. Whoever he may be, he

87 Mr. Parker.

132 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

is unquestionably a man of very considerable ability and
power of analysis.

" I do not know if any other notices have appeared.
On the 23d and 24th I shall be in Bristol, where I have
. directed my next batch of letters to be sent."

1 'BRIGHTON, 10th October, 1857.

" MY DEAK CAPEL : I return Mrs. Huth's note, which
I am much pleased to read. You rightly judge that I as-
sign considerable weight to any opinion expressed by
thinking women, and in this instance I have, of course,
special reasons for doing so, as to praise her opinion is to
praise my own work and thus do we delude ourselves !

" I agree with you about ' Eraser.' Indeed, the only
real judgment of my book is that in the ' Saturday Ee-

view ' ; 38 and even there the writer has not stated the

fundamental principles of my method viz., that political
economy and statistics form the only means of bridging
| over the chasm that separates the study of nature from the
study of mind. I wish, too, that I could get a well-written
article in a scientific journal not one reviewer having
grappled (either by way of attack or defense) with my
more strictly physical views."

"The 'Westminster' reviewer 80 brings two special
charges against me. He says, first, That in the latter part

28 July llth, 1857, and "Eraser" for October, 1857. They were both,
however, by the same hand Mr. Bandars.

89 A little before his death one such review appeared, not in a scientific
journal, but in "Blackwood's Magazine " (November, 1861, vol. xc., No. 553,
pp. 582-596), entitled " Mr. Buckle's Scientific Errors "but which is itself,
apart from other matter, full of errors of mere statement.

30 For October, 1857, vol. xii., new series, Art. No. iv., pp. 375-899.

LETTER TO MR. CAPEL. 133

of my volume I violate my own method, and write deduc-
tively instead of inductively ; and, second, That, while I
deny the importance of individuals, I ascribe the greatest
effects to Louis XIY.

" I answer : First, That in the first five chapters I es-
tablish certain principles by induction, and in the next
nine chapters verify these by a deductive application ; and
that this is not an infringement of my method, but a
necessary change of it, inasmuch as the alteration of aim
requires an alteration of treatment. The ' Principia ' are
partly inductive and partly deductive, but who on that
account ever charged Newton with inconsistencies ? They
alone are inconsistent who do not change their scheme if
the change of plan demand it.

" To the second objection I say that I only ascribe a
transient influence to Louis XIY., since his work was un-
done by the reaction of the eighteenth century. So that
my general proposition still holds good viz., that in the
long run (or on the great average of affairs) individuals
count for nothing. Besides this, I distinctly state, in
Chapter xi., that the way was prepared by the Protective
Spirit for Louis XIY. ; so that even his transient influence
was partly due to the action of those general causes which
governed the march of the French mind.

" I shall remain here probably till the last week in
October, and then return to Oxford Terrace. I am cer-
tainly better, and am able to write a little of my second
volume. I am now engaged on the first chapter, which
contains an analysis of Spanish civilization, and of the
causes and consequences of the influence of the Church in
Spain."

134 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" TUNBEIDGE WELLS, 13th August, 1858.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : I am afraid I can't help you about
the quotations. It is se long since I paid attention to
these matters, and, to say the truth, it is the last point
upon which I had expected to be attacked. You were
shrewd enough about the authorship of the article in the
c Quarterly ' you know your own trade-mark. 81 I wish
you had told me how you enjoyed your trip. I am quite
well, and working very hard at Scotland a tough morsel.

" I am almost sure you will find something in * Wet-
stein.' "

"59 OXFOED TEEEACE, 5th August, 1857.
" MY DEAR CAPEL : Thanks for your note, but I don't
feel inclined to supply the American gentlemen with the
information about myself in this indirect manner. They
have both the power and the right to reprint my book in
any way they choose, but the notes are so voluminous that,
unless they appoint some competent editor, the volume will
swarm with blunders, and in such case I shall, for my own
reputation, disavow it by public advertisement. In works
of this character the usual course has been with the most
respectable American publishers to communicate directly
with the author or with his publishers. I mean this has
been the course if they required any aid or information ;
but it is quite unusual for them to get their information
by applying indirectly, and obtaining what they want
through the author's friends. If the American publishers
have any proposal to make, and will write to me, I shall
be anxious to meet them in a fair and liberal spirit, so far

31 Mr. Capel was a clergyman.

r?;

fcTdtftfrMinrf

LETTER TO THEODOl

as is consistent with the interest of my publishers, to
whom, of course, I shall refer the matter. . . .

"Parker's account of my book.is very satisfactory, and
additional copies have been recently taken by Mudie,
making twelve in all. About a week ago twenty-five
copies were sent out to America on speculation."

Messrs. Appleton reprinted his first volume without
giving him anything ; afterward, when the second volume
was published, they sent him perhaps <50. 3a He after-
ward wrote to Mr. Theodore Parker as follows :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 9th July, 1858.

"Mr DEAR SIR: Absence from town prevented me
from receiving till yesterday your very kind and friendly
letter. I certainly shall not venture to write upon the
civilization of your noble country until I have visited it,
and satisfied myself in regard to many matters respecting
which books (as you truly say) supply no adequate informa-
tion. Indeed, in the national character of every really
great people there is a certain shape and color which can
not be recognized at a distance. But, at present, I am
exclusively occupied with an analysis of the civilization of
Spain and Scotland, which I hope to publish early next
year ; and, should I fulfill that expectation, I shall hope to
visit America in the summer of 1859.

" In regard to Scotland, the leading facts are its reli-
gious intolerance and the absence of municipal spirit dur-
ing the middle ages. The causes of these phenomena I
have attempted to generalize.

" Spain I have almost finished, but I find a difficulty

32 "Atlantic Monthly," p. 495.

136 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

in collecting evidence respecting the rapid decline of that
country during the reigns of Philip III., Philip IV., and
Charles II. In investigating the causes of the decline
(both remote and proximate) I trust that I have not been
wholly unsuccessful. In Mr. Ticknor's singularly valuable
6 History of Spanish Literature ' there is more real infor-
mation than can be found in any of the many Spanish his-
tories that I have had occasion to read.

" You mention a book on America by a Pole as being
important, but I can not quite decipher his name. I
should be very glad to buy it, and if you would take the
trouble to send its title either to me or to your London
bookseller, with a request that he should forward it to me,
you would render me a service.

u I do not like reading at public libraries, and I pur-
chase nearly all the books which I use. I have at present
about 20,000 volumes.

" I believe you correspond with Mr. Chapman ; if so,
would you kindly beg him to send me any criticisms which
appear in America on my book ? You ought to know of
some which he would not be aware of.

"Some time ago I received from an American pub-
lisher a request that I would write my life. At that time
I was very unwell, worn from overwork, and harassed by
domestic anxiety. I also thought the form of the request
rather blunt, and from all these causes I was induced to
return a somewhat curt answer, and one very foreign to
my usual habits. But you and I are no longer strangers to
each other, and I willingly send you the particulars which
you desire for your friend.

" I was born at Lee, in Kent, on the 24rth of Novem-

LETTER TO THEODORE PARKER. 137

her, 1822. My father was a merchant. His name was
Thomas Henry Buckle, and he was descended from a
family one of whom was well known as Lozd Mayor of
London in the reign of Queen Elizabeth. He died in
1840. My mother, who still lives, was a Miss Middleton,
of the Yorkshire Middletons.

" As a boy my health was extremely delicate, and my
parents were fortunately guided by that good and wise
man Dr. Birkbeck (whose name I believe is not unknown
in America), who forbad my receiving any education that
would tax the brain.

" This prevented me from being, in the common sense
of the word, educated, and also prevented my going to
college. When I was in my eighteenth year iny father
died (January, 1840), and left me in independent circum-
stances, in a pecuniary point of view.

" My health steadily improved, and to this moment I
had read little except ' Shakespeare,' ' The Arabian Nights,'
and Bunyan's ' Pilgrim's Progress,' three books on which
I literally feasted.

"Between the ages of eighteen and nineteen I con-
ceived the plan of my book dimly indeed but still the
plan was there, and I set about its execution. From the
age of nineteen I have worked on an average nine to ten
hours daily. My method was this : In the morning I usu-
ally studied physical science, in the forenoon languages
(of which till the age of nineteen I was deplorably igno-
rant), and the rest of the day history and jurisprudence ;
in the evening general literature. I have always steadily
refused to write in reviews, being determined to give up
my life to a larger purpose.

138 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

" I have, therefore, produced nothing except the first
volume of my ' History,' and the ' Lecture on the Influ-
ence of Women.'

" This, I think, is all you requested me to communi-
cate. Any further information which your friend may re-
quire will be much at his service. I should always feel it
a pleasure and a privilege to hear from you." 33

It is time, however, that we should pause a little to
consider the history which was emphatically Buckle's Life.

33 Weiss's " Life of Theodore Parker," pp. 468, 469, L

CHAPTER III.

Carelessness of Critics Free Will Greater Laws including Lesser Influence
of Circumstances Mental Laws the Key of History in Europe Compara-
tive Influence of Intellectual and Moral Progress The Claims of Eeligion,
Literature, and Government as Civilizers The History of the World too
vast to be undertaken at present by One Man Why England is chosen
Plan of the Body of the " History "The Qualities needed by the Historian
Mournful Forebodings.

ENOUGH has been said of the reception of the "His-
tory of Civilization," but a few words will be of use on its
conception. No fragment indeed, before or since, has ever
made so deep an impression. The boldness of its generali-
zations, the vast learning, the singularly clear and simple
style, together with the intimation that the reader had be-
fore him in that weighty volume but a part of an introduc-
tion to a work, must inevitably excite a world-wide curi-
osity. The way in which Buckle said what he thought, de-
spite ancient prejudices and traditions, greatly captivated
the mass and equally excited the anger of the dull and me-
chanic plodder, who is at once ignorant enough to consider
himself the salt of the earth, and torpid enough to be posi-
tively hurt by any jog to the even run of his ideas in their
accustomed groove. But the very beauty and perfection of
this fragment exposed it to the attack of disingenuous foes,
as well as to that class of careless readers, who, misled by the
beauty of the outline, considered and criticised it as though

140 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

it were a finished drawing. " Mr. Buckle has not proved
this, and not proved that," they say ; " He has omitted to
mention this, and forgotten to give due effect to the
other " ; as though, forsooth, the work were finished and
the proof were done. As well might we blame Fielding
for the preference Mrs. Blyfil shows for Tom Jones to her
own son. It is only necessary to consider that we know the
author's plan better than he does himself, and omit to read
the finish of his novel. Moreover, since these critics are
unaccustomed to look at history in a scientific spirit, and
are smarting under the free use of Buckle's surgical knife
to their social and literary excrescences, they are, perhaps,
and not unnaturally, very anxious to find fault. Despite
many worthy exceptions, we too often see death preferred
to an honorable surrender, and the pitiful spectacle is pre-
sented to us of minds, capable enough, reduced by their
narrow education to carping criticism. Men who under-
take the office of critic should at least take the trouble to
understand their author, and not blame Buckle, as, for
instance, M. von Oettingen does, when really he is himself
to blame. M. von Oettingen has only failed to under-
stand Buckle, and hence I choose this instance in prefer-
ence to others, in which I might be led into saying harsh
things upon certain authors who wander out of their
course to gratify their appetite of revenge, and indulge
in this happiness unhurt, only because such criticisms are
ephemeral, and must fall from very rottenness before the
advance of knowledge. The instance I take from M. von
Oettingen is a very typical one. He talks of Buckle's
" dilletante manner," and then blames him for his asser-
tion that, " In round numbers . .. . for every twenty girls,

CARELESSNESS OF CEITICS.

there are twenty-one boys born. . . . Does he not know,"
says Yon Oettingen, " that, if the still-born are included,
the proportion should be expressed as twenty-two and
twenty-two hundredths of a boy ? " * It is a pity that M.
von Oettingen, who is an able and laborious man, should
not have taken a little more care in first ascertaining what
point Buckle wished to illustrate in mentioning these num-
bers. Supposing he had been utterly wrong about the
births, and said that more girls were born than boys, what
on earth would it have mattered ? All he wishes to show
is that a law was discovered by the method of statistical
inquiry, or observation of the mass, which could not be
discovered by observation on the individual; and how
would the mistake we have supposed have affected this ?
Again, how often have I seen, not only in contemporary
reviews, but in the current literature of the day, an utter
confusion as to the sense in which Buckle uses the word
skepticism f And yet he has himself defined it more than
once a as the spirit of doubt which makes us question our-
selves as to our knowledge ; and not merely religious skep-
ticism, which is but a part of it. "Without this no one
can advance, for every one is satisfied with what he knows.
The same applies to Sir H. S. Maine's terrible warning
concerning Buckle's imprudence in ascribing the low state
of Indian civilization to the fact that their principal food
is rice, which, he says, is not the case. If Sir H. Maine
had read his author more carefully he would have seen
that Buckle was not mistaken, that he did not depend
solely on old travelers for his information, but that, among

1 " Moralstatistik," p. 49, 1874.

a " History of Civilization," e. g., vol. L, p. 308.

142 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

many other authorities, the frequent mention of rice as
the chief article of diet in their ancient codes of law
shows its great and general importance. However, let us
suppose for the moment that Sir H. Maine is right on this
point ; again Buckle's argument would stand. For, in the
first place, whatever the food, there is no doubt it was
cheap ; in the second, this is only one among many
causes; and, thirdly, India is only one instance among
many countries of the same chain of causes producing the
same effect.

This prevalence of misconception, which is chiefly
due, as I have already said, to the fragmentary state of
the work on the one hand, which supplies only one side
of the proof, and on the other to the want of reiteration
of proof and example which would have been supplied in
the body of the work, has induced me to give a condensed
account of Buckle's work, with a sketch of the general
plan. One thing, however, the reader should bear in
mind : it is hardly to be expected that I, with inferior
powers, should be able to write in a few pages what
Buckle, with his vastly superior powers and great com-
mand of language, required two volumes, and more,
adequately to state. What I have done is merely to show
what the plan of his history was as nearly as can be ascer-
tained. In some cases, indeed, I have attempted to sup-
ply additional illustrations on those points which have
been most criticised ; but nowhere have I attempted to
strengthen his authorities, for which the reader must turn
to what is extant of the " History of Civilization."

Buckle begins his inquiry into the laws of civilization
with an investigation into the possibility of the actions of

FREE WILL. 143

man being determined by natural laws. If they are not
the result of fixed laws, then they must be due to chance
or to supernatural interference, and thus, bejug by their
nature capricious, can never be predicted, and the actions
of mankind can therefore never be raised to a science.
If, for instance, on dissecting animals we found that dif-
ferent individuals had a great variety of organs, arranged
in no particular order, and sometimes one set present and
sometimes another, anatomy could never have been raised
to a science. If, again, the chemist found that under the
same conditions the same reactions did not take place, or
that, in other words, the elements possessed a will of their
own to combine how they liked, chemistry could never
have been raised to a science. In the same way, if man-
kind are wholly uninfluenced by their general constitution
and the circumstances in which they are placed, their
actions can never be predicted, and can therefore never be
raised to a science.

Now, this preliminary question resolves itself simply
into this : Are our actions the result of free will ; or are
they all preordained ; or are they neither the one nor the
other, but simply the result of what has gone before ? If
I take up my hat and go for a walk, is my will the cause ;
or has it been preordained that so many thousand years
after the creation of the world an individual should exist,
who at a certain period of his life should take that par-
ticular walk ? or is it not rather the result of my consti-
tution and the influence of external matters, such as the
physiological want of air and exercise, the condition of
leisure, my power of walking, my education, the fact that
I have an overcoat, or perhaps that it is a fine day, or that

144 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

I have a friend to visit, and a thousand and one causes
that no person can possibly fully weigh ? Even should I
toss up whether I shall go out, is not that action again
determined by a similar series of causes ? Even if there
be such a power as free will, it is most certain that it is
closely hedged about and subordinated to the action of its
circumstances. It may be visible in the individual, but in
the mass is nowhere to be seen. The progress of man-
kind is like that of a ship full of passengers, ever moving
onward in the same direction, sometimes retarded, and
sometimes assisted by the weather, while the individual
passengers may walk a little forward or a little backward,
or sit, or sleep, and still progress. This is what we see in
the statistical mirror of our actions : under the same cir-
cumstances, the same results ; given the antecedents, the
result can be predicted an impossible consequence were
our actions undetermined by their antecedents. "While,
therefore, the theory of predestination can only be ad-
vanced under the admission that God is bad, and while
free will can only be advanced under the supposition that
one particular state of consciousness is always true 3 while
others are not, the theory that our actions are caused by
what has happened to us before by which, of course,
is meant our inherited internal machinery, the circum-
stances which have influenced our education, and the act-
ual circumstances amid which we are placed is not only
highly probable in itself, but is borne out by the only
method we have at present for showing it statistics and
history. For in such matters the observation of one in-

3 See, for a fuller explanation, the " History of Civilization," vol. i., pp.
12-16.

FREE WILL. 145

dividual upon himself is so liable to individual perturba-
tions that observations conducted in this way can never be
relied upon to do more than confirm conclusions arrived
at by a larger method. Conclusions arrived at from the
fact that they explain history and statistics are not di-
rectly proved, indeed, but they are proved in the same
way as Newton proved the theory of gravity, and rest on
as assured a ground as the theory of biological evolution.

Surely, if free will exists, and mankind are uninflu-
enced by their antecedents, it is a marvelous thing that
we can predict what, under given circumstances, men will
do; that we can predict the numbers of persons who
will marry in a given year as easily as the number that
will be born ; that we can predict, not only the number
of people who, driven to desperation, or in a moment of
madness, will put an end to their own lives, but that most
of them will do so in June, on a Monday, at about mid-
night, and how many will cut their throats, or hang, or
shoot, or drown themselves ; that year after year a crime
like murder, so often committed in a mere fit of passion,
and so often again long premeditated and carefully
planned, should year after year occur with a regularity
which is simply inexplicable on the theory that such
deeds are uninfluenced by external laws ; that year after
year the same number of octogenarians will marry; and
that even the same number of persons yearly forget to
address their letters before posting them.

It is not that, should the man, whom circumstances
force to suicide, not kill himself, some one else is doomed,
but that the man can not escape so long as the circum-
stances are unchanged. We can picture to ourselves such

14:6 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

things in this way : If a crowd is closely encircled by a
wall, the number of people next the wall is only regulated
by the circumference ; but the individuals next it are de-
termined by their relative strength, the position they held
to begin with, and their like or dislike of their position.
" But," it is objected by those who argue for free will, " in
every class of affairs only a certain number of actions are
possible, and hence we must always find certain of them
occurring with regularity, provided that we take a suffi-
ciently large number or a long enough time." Mr. Drum-
mond, who advocates this view, instances the throws of
dice, " which when narrowly viewed seem utterly capri-
cious, are found, when our observations are allowed a suffi-
ciently wide sweep, to pass under the dominion of fixed
rules." 4 In the first place we may object that, did we
know all the antecedents of the individual throw, such as
the original position of the dice in the box, their weight,
the number of times they are turned over, the friction, the
angle at which they are thrown out, the height and the
length of the box, we might predict the throw, and that,
therefore, if we take the word " chance " in the strictest
sense, no cast of dice can be said to be due to chance.
And, as concerns the application of this illustration to
mankind, we are not at present interested to show that
their actions can be predicted, but that they do not origi-
nate from bare free will, and that they are due to various
motives. However, we can afford to waive this objection
because a direct connection has been fully shown between
circumstances and the actions of mankind. If Mr. Drum-
mond's theory were true, and the actions of mankind were

4 "Free Will in Relation to Statistics," p. 16.

FREE WILL. 147

no more subject to their antecedents than impossible dice
from an impossible box, then, despite such calamities as
famine and war, among the same number of people in a
good length of time, the same actions should occur with
their wonted regularity. But how stands the fact ? Mar-
riage, which being a legal act is more certainly registered
than any other class of human deeds, is found to be affect-
ed in a way that can not be gainsaid : when the prosperity
of a country decreases, from whatever cause, marriages
become fewer between young people, and old people ob-
tain for their money young husbands or wives.

It is needless to give more such instances of a direct
connection of antecedents with human actions, for they
have been patent to all who seek them for the last twenty
years. But those who admit a causal connection between
circumstances and actions still stand up for a certain
amount of free will. Yon Oettingen, and even Drummond
in another place, admits this causal connection, but seeks
to explain its compatibility with the exercise of choice. 6
Yon Oettingen seeks to explain the regularity of man's

5 Thus, Yon Oettingen says : " Gerade well der freie Wille keine acciden-
telle, sondern ein constante und nach gewissen Gesetzen der Motivation
wirkende Ursache ist, miissen auch die dieser Ursache proportionalen Wir-
kungen eine bei richtiger Analyse und Gruppirung unverkennbare gesetz-
massige Constanz hervortreten lassen." " Moralstatistik," p. 126. And so
Drummond : " The most zealous advocate of the doctrine of free will must
admit that man's freedom moves within very narrow limits. . . . Nor does
the doctrine of free will teach that we can act without motives. . . . Upon
this point, then, the Necessarian and the Free-Wilier are at one : both allow
that man always acts from a motive. The former, however, asserts that he
must always obey the stronger ; the latter accords to him a choice involving
moral responsibility, between the better and the worse. . . . The mind, in
short, is a living force ; by its own act it throws its weight into the scale,
and by joining itself to any one motive gives this the preponderance over
all the rest." "Free Will," etc., pp. 8, 9.

148 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

actions by the supposition that man is so made that he
wills to act according to laws, and which he calls the law
of God's providence. 6 He does not seem to see that this
is a mere sophism, and really means absolute absence of
true free will. Mr. Drummond, again, does not seem to
see that if the man obeys the apparently weaker of two
impulses by throwing the weight of his mind into the
scale, that this is nothing more than saying that a man's
actions are determined by a variety of antecedents, among
which are his constitution and education. To return to
our former illustration : these writers see that by the nature
of things a certain number of people must be next the in-
closing wall, but they will not admit but that it is a free
matter of choice to each whether he will be next the wall
or no.

This is not fatalism, though it has been frequently mis-
taken for it. When the length of the wall is altered, the
number next it is different. When the course of the ship
is altered, the course of the passengers is also changed.
But no one man can effect a change of this sort. The
mass is too weighty to be moved by his puny strength.
Free will there is, in the sense that each one seeks to satisfy
his individual wants ; wants which are incompatible with
the wants of others clash and are annihilated, while wants
which do not clash are a part of the general progress. If
all are agreed to alter the course of the ship for Australia,
it can not be done if no one knows where Australia is, nor
if the provisions will not hold out, nor if the ship is a sail-

6 " Moralstatistik," p. 747, among others. " Welches wir das Gesetz
gottlicher Providers oder vaterlich heiliger Liebe nennen konnen," or a modi-
fication of Leibnitz's philosophy.

GREATER LAWS INCLUDING LESSER. 149

ing-vessel and the wind is strongly against it. No change
in the number of murderers will take place so long as the
causes which produce murder are unaltered. But they
ccm be altered, and are always changing, not indeed
merely by alteration of the laws, but by alteration in the
general constitution of society. We are wandering, how-
ever, beyond what it is necessary to show. It is quite
sufficient for Buckle's purpose if it be admitted that there
is a causal connection between men's actions and their
antecedents. It may be called free will if we like, so long
as we admit that, given precisely the same antecedents,
the same act will be performed ; and, given similar ante-
cedents, similar acts will be performed. This being ad-
mitted, we admit the possibility of the science of history,
because we admit that men are not different in their action
from other parts of our universe, and, consequently, could
we obtain a knowledge of their behavior after certain ante-
cedents, we may predict their behavior at a future period
under similar antecedents.

Before proceeding further into an inquiry as to how
these antecedents relatively affect men's actions, it will be
necessary to draw attention to Buckle's method of proced-
ure. If we look at the ascertained laws of other sciences,
it will be found that there are some laws which it is con-
venient to call greater, and others, less ; that is, some laws
which include others, as gravitation includes molecular
attraction, or those which describe the normal case and
leave the minor variations out of account. If, for instance,
it were said that all vertebrates have a circulation, that
would be perfectly true as a general description, yet the
vertebrates have very different kinds of circulation. If,

150 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

again, we were to say that one difference between mankind
and the lower animals is that the former can communicate
their thoughts to one another in articulate speech, that too
would be perfectly true in the main, though some people
have not the power of speech. If, again, we say that a
stone dropped from a given point will always strike the
same spot, this is also true in the main, but the wind may
in some cases alter its direction. In these cases we have
a perfect right to talk in generalities, just as we have a
perfect right to manipulate figures by means of algebrai-
cal signs. They are perfectly true, with the understanding
that we are talking in generalities. If, then, we wish to
describe a general law, it is needless and confusing to set
down all its minor details. If we wish to arrive at the
acting cause of our motion in space, we take the ultimate
cause as high as we can reach it, and leave out of account
such minor disturbing causes as the action of the planets.
The results thus obtained may not be absolutely true, but
it is unquestionable that scientific truths are obtained by
these artifices which could not be obtained by endeavoring
to include all the factors at once. If a mathematician
were to try to work with a line that had breadth, his con-
clusions would soon become hopelessly confused.

There is, in short, even in our present state of knowl-
edge, a possibility of determining the grand laws of human
progress ; and, as we progress in knowledge, there is no
doubt that we shall be able to determine nearer and nearer
the conduct of individuals. The mass of beings are gov-
erned by laws which we can even now follow. The indi-
vidual is influenced by minor laws which we can not -yet
determine. It is as if we had discovered the planetary

INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. 151

system, but had not yet discovered that each revolves
round its own axis, or was attended by minor satellites
governed by their own laws. Given the prosperity of a
country and the number of its inhabitants, we can predict
the number of marriages which will take place in a year ;
but without further knowledge we can not predict which
individuals will marry.

It is the business, then, of a historian to show the causal
relation between historical actions and their antecedents.
And, since men's antecedents are both internal, or mental,
and external, or physical, the earlier qualifications of a his-
torian sound nowadays rather ridiculous : " He understood
ancient and modern history so exactly as to be master of
all the principal names and dates ! " 7 He must, indeed,
understand every science, besides the chronicle of men's
actions, or how can he do this? No one previously to
Buckle did so. Comte had no knowledge of political
economy. 8 Mill did not write on history, and our most
brilliant historian of modern times knew nothing of natu-
ral science and hardly anything of mathematics. 9 For
most of the so-called historians, indeed, a disputed pedigree
is of far greater importance than the system of thought of
the country they are describing.

Buckle set to work in a different way. He begins by
a process of elimination in order to arrive at the highest or
most general laws which govern the progress of mankind.
Man's progress is influenced by his antecedents. These
antecedents are some of them within him, as we have said,

7 Chalmers's " Biographical Dictionary," Art. Abouzit.

8 "Philos. Posit," e. g., vol. vi., p. 123.

9 Trevelyan's " Life and Letters of Lord Macaulay," vol. i., 87, 372, 410.

152 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

and some without ; which of the two has the most influ-
ence on his conduct ? Which of the two is the most gen-
eral and includes the other ? 10

Now, there are four classes of physical agents which
affect mankind, namely : climate, food, soil, and the gen-
eral aspect of nature, all of which are found to exercise
a most important influence on civilization, 11 and a prepon-
derating influence in tropical countries. In these, such as
India, Egypt, and Mexico, the means of supporting life
are cheap, on account of the fertility of the soil and the
suitability of the climate to the growth of food plants,
and the little need of clothing ; with the result that popu-
lation increases far beyond the demand for labor, and the
price of labor is consequently small. Capital is therefore
accumulated in the hands of the few, and a despotism nec-
essarily ensues. Moreover, the fierce heat of the sun, the
vastness of the oceans, the mighty height of the moun-
tains, together with monsoons, tropical storms, the annual

rise of the Nile, volcanoes, and pther manifestations of the
Vx*of a. ^^Jy^^f ^. #+*<v++s*- .

power of nature, oppess--4ftftttkmd/ w5*b a sense of his -

insignificance, and-^excite his imagination. A powerful
priest]ioed-4s called into being, and the chains of slavery
are more firmly riveted. To- thio olacc all the earlier civi-

10 This division is of course merely arbitrary, for the convenience of
classification and elimination ; for a man's constitution is as much due to
antecedents lying outside him as are his present circumstances.

11 Buckle has been much blamed in some quarters for not naming Race
among these causes. Such authors forget that race is not a primary cause,
but a consequence itself of the causes mentioned. And, though it persists
for some time after these causes are changed, it does not do so for as long
as is generally supposed ; and, even if it did, the racial characteristics are
still not the primary cause, but climate, etc., together with those physical
causes which lead to emigration.

INFLUENCE OF CIRCUMSTANCES. . 153

/^^u^o^t^ -ctax* 4C*5t ^ tt-*&tt***'

lizations Moag, because in such countries a large popula-
tion can exist with plenty of leisure, even though the ails
of commerce and agriculture be in their infancy. This
leisure they can employ in mighty buildings or laborious
carvings, or poetry, but science is almost neglected, because
the imagination predominates, and it occurs to no one that
nature may be led captive. |/vt*^w^ ^AA*/^

In Europe, onAe-etkerMnd, greater 'labor is required
for the production of f ojod, clothing is necessary, and the
cost of living greater. ' Seas, again, are small ; earthquakes
are generally light and occur rarely; volcanoes are few,
mountains are low, and the sun of comparatively little
power. Hence men are not so subject to despotisms, and,
losing their awe of nature, they begin to examine her and
cultivate science.

" Hence it is that, looking at the history of the world
as a whole, the tendency has been in Europe to subordinate
nature to man; out of Europe, to subordinate man to
nature. To this there are, in barbarous countries, several
exceptions; but in civilized countries the rule has been
universal. The great division, therefore, between Euro-
pean and non-European civilization is the basis of the phi-
losophy of history, since it suggests the important con-
sideration that if we would understand, for instance, the
history of India, we must make the external world our
first study, because it has influenced man more than man
has influenced it. If, on the other hand, we would under-
stand the history of a country like England or France, we
must make man our principal study, because, nature being
comparatively weak,' every step in the great progress has
increased the dominion of the human mind over the agen-

154 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITDTOS.

cies of the external world. Even in those countries where
the power of man has reached the highest point, the pres-
sure of nature is still immense, but it diminishes in each
succeeding generation, because our increasing knowledge
enables us not so much to control nature as to foretell her
movements, and thus obviate many of the evils she would
otherwise occasion. ... If, therefore, we take the largest
possible view of' the history of Europe, and confine our-
selves entirely to the primary cause of its superiority over
other parts of the world, we must resolve it into the en-
croachment of the mind of man upon the organic and in-
organic forces of nature."

For European civilization, then^ the study of mental
laws is necessary; and the effect of nature on mankind
is, comparatively, subordinate. How shall these laws be
studied ? By the study of individual minds, as the meta-
physicians have attempted ? This method Buckle rejected,
because he found that the ablest metaphysicians had been
led to opposite conclusions according as they adopted the
deductive or inductive method of investigation. Those
who follow the first say that all men have " the same
notion of the good, the true, and the beautiful " ; those
who follow the second say " there is no such standard, be-
cause ideas depend upon sensations," and sensations upon
circumstances.

An eclectic school is impossible, because no one can
mediate between them without being a metaphysician, and
no one can be a metaphysician without being either a
sensationalist or an idealist; in other words, without be-
longing to one of those very parties whose claim he pro-
fesses to judge. So long as deductive and inductive rea-

MENTAL LAWS THE KEY OF HISTOEY IN EUROPE. 155

soning can not be reconciled, so long the subject requires
some preliminary difficulties to be removed, or it is not
capable of scientific treatment. Moreover, siich a method
is unscientific, because it presumes that the peculiarities
of the individual are common to all. As well might we
expect to discover from the anatomical construction and
physiological functions of one man those which are uni-
versal, or from the investigation of the course of a par-
ticular disease in one individual learn its usual course.
There is no reason why we should study the science of man
after a different fashion to every other science, and there-
fore Buckle, rejecting the individual, studies the mass of
mental actions in the only possible way : that is, histori-
cally. " It now remains for us to ascertain the manner
in which, by the application of this method, the laws of
mental progress may be most easilv discovered. If, in the
first place, we ask what this progress is, the answer seems
very simple that it is a twofold progress, moral and intel-
lectual, the first having more immediate relation to our
duties, the second to our knowledge. . . . There can be
no doubt that a people are not really advancing if, on the
one hand, their increasing ability is accompanied by in-
creasing vice ; or if, on thfe, other hand, while they are be-
coming more virtuous, they/likewise become more ignorant.
This double movement, moral and intellectual, is essential
to the very idea of civilization, and includes the entire
theory of mental progress. ... A question now arises of
great moment, namely, "Which of these two parts or ele-
ments of mental progress is the more important ? For, the
progress itself being the result of their united action, it
becomes necessary to ascertain which of them works more

156 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

powerfully, in order that we may subordinate the inferior
element to the laws of the superior one."

This mental progress, moral and intellectual, can not be
said to owe anything to inheritance. Such a thing is in-
deed possible, but we have no proof whatever of it ; "
while, on the other hand, as far as history extends, and in
all countries, we have records of men possessing an intel-
lectual power which, taken as a whole, has never since
been exceeded. Be this as it may, it is indisputable that
human progress advances with strides out of all proportion
to any possible advance of intellectual power by means
of inheritance, and we must therefore look to the causes

12 Mr. Galton has, indeed, attempted a proof in his " Hereditary Genius."
But the attempt, valuable as it is as far as it goes, has failed from the in-
herent difficulty of such an investigation, and partly, as it seems to me, on
account of the method he adopts. The number of individuals whose history
he investigates is small compared to what it should be ; and the biographi-
cal material at disposal is lamentably imperfect. It is quite possible that a
person may have great intellectual powers and not leave any record of it.
It is quite possible, again, that a father who occupies a high position may
bring on a commonplace son by superior education and opportunity. Buckle
himself had a strong suspicion that superior intellectual power was inherita-
ble (" Posthumous Works," vol. i., pp. 326, 593 ; and " Lecture on the In-
fluence of Women "). He points out that we must not only inquire " how
many instances there are of hereditary talents, etc., but how many instances
there are of such qualities not being hereditary " (" History of Civilization,"
vol. i., p. 161, note 12). The largest view of the question is perhaps that
taken by Mr. Herbert Spencer, who points out that negro children educated
with whites can only keep up with them up to a certain point, and then fall
behind. Mr. Wilson again (" Prehistoric Man," 1876, vol. ii., p. 325) con-
siders such evidence not reliable, and due solely to caste prejudice. Lady
Duff Gordon, however, who saw with her own eyes, and can not be accused
of prejudice, says of a mixed Herrenhut school at Cape Colony of blacks
and Bastaards : there " three jet-black niggerlings . . . grinned, and didn't
care a straw for spelling ; while the dingy yellow little Bastaards were strain-
ing their black eyes out with eagerness to answer the master's questions."
(" Last Letters from Egypt, to which are added Letters from the Cape."
London, 1875, p. 276.)

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PROGRESS. 157

of tliis advance, not to any possible inheritance, but
to the circumstances which surround the infant after
birth. .*

" On this account it is evident that, if we look at man-
kind in the aggregate, their moral and intellectual conduct
is regulated by the moral and intellectual notions preva-
lent in their own time," and " it requires but a superficial
acquaintance with history to be aware that this standard is
constantly changing, and that it is never precisely the
same even in the most similar countries, or in two succes-
sive generations of the same country. . . . This extreme
mutability in the ordinary standard of human actions
shows that the conditions on which the standard depends
must themselves be very mutable ; and those conditions,
whatever they may be, are evidently the originators of
the moral and intellectual conduct of the great average
of mankind." When, however, we look at our present
knowledge of moral truths, and compare it with the past,
there is not a single one of any moment that was not pro-
pounded at least two thousand years before Christ. The
grand precepts of self-sacrifice, honor your parents, for-
give your enemies, restrain your passions, are still unim-
proved upon and stationary. " But, if we contrast this sta-
tionary aspect of moral truths with the progressive aspects
of intellectual truth, the change is indeed startling. All
the great moral systems which have exercised much influ-
ence have been fundamentally the same; all the great
intellectual systems have been fundamentally different."
Not only have the moderns made most important addi-
tions to every department of knowledge that the ancients
ever attempted to study, but they have created sciences,

158 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

the faintest idea of which never entered the mind of the
boldest thinker that antiquity ever produced.

"When, therefore, we know that progress depends upon
the advance of moral and intellectual truths, and we find
that moral truths are stationary, while intellectual truths
are highly progressive, the only conclusion it is possible
to draw is, that human progress depends on the advance
of intellectual knowledge, and that this advance is inde-
pendent of moral knowledge.

It may be well to notice here a very common objection
to Buckle's views, which appears to rest on an imperfect
conception of the action of morals. It is urged by Sola-
vev and several other reviewers that it is not only new
advances in intellectual knowledge that work. Suppose,
for instance, that mankind discover a new food say the
potato ; that discovery will last for all time in nourishing
mankind. So a moral truth is ever new, like the law of
gravitation. Moreover, scientific truths exist, and exert
an influence over us though we know them not. Gravita-
tion existed, and worked the same as now, before we knew
it ; and so moral laws may work upon us and increase our
civilization, although we may have no distinct perception
of their existence.

This last objection involves a misconception as to
what constitutes progress. Putting aside the theological
view, there can be but one answer, namely, the attain-
ment by mankind of greater happiness on earth. " This

13 This, of course, does not mean that individuals may not occasionally
be made even more unhappy than heretofore ; but it is the greatest happi-
ness for the greatest possible number. The abolition of the Corn Laws
may have made a certain number of people less comfortable than before,
but a far greater number were made more comfortable. The imprisonment

INTELLECTUAL AND MORAL PROGRESS. 159

can only be done by increasing knowledge of the natural
laws, or, in other words, by increasing knowledge of the
invariable sequence of forces. As long as we are ignorant
of any one, so long are we unable to turn it to our benefit
either directly, as in the case of electricity, which we
turn to use, or indirectly, as in the case of our knowledge
of disease germs, which we ward off. As long as con-
ditions remain the same, consequences must remain the
same ; electricity has always existed, as far as we know,
but it exerted no influence on progress until we knew its
laws.

The other half of the argument is, in short, the asser-
tion that a constant force will work an inconstant effect.
In reality, moral truths, as compared with intellectual
truths, are sterile. Let us compare the two, as we compare
the richness of two languages, by taking the highest speci-
men of each. The prodigy of intellectual genius makes
discoveries and popularizes them. These "acquisitions
made by the intellect are in every civilized country care-
fully preserved, registered in certain well-understood for-
mulas, and protected by the use of technical and scientific
language ; they are easily handed down from one genera-
tion to another, and, thus assuming an accessible or, as it
were, a tangible form, they often influence the most dis-
tant posterity ; they become the heirlooms of mankind, the
immortal bequest of the genius to which they owe their
birth. But the good deeds effected by our moral faculties
are less capable of transmission ; they are of a more private
and retiring character ; while, as the motives to which they

of a burglar may make him less happy than before, but his intended vic-
tims are saved pain.

160 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

owe their origin are generally the result of self-discipline
and of self-sacrifice, they have to be worked out by every
man for himself ; and, thus begun by each anew, they de-
rive little benefit from the maxims of preceding experience,
nor can they well be stored up for the use of future mor-
alists. . . . Indeed, if we examine the effects of the most
active philanthropy, and of the largest and most disinter-
ested kindness, we shall find that those effects are, com-
paratively speaking, short-lived ; that there is only a small
number of individuals that they come in contact with and
benefit ; that they rarely survive the generation which
witnessed their commencement ; and that, when they take
the more durable form of founding great public charities,
such institutions invariably fall, first into abuse, then into
decay, and after a time are either destroyed or perverted
from their original intention, mocking the effort by which
it is vainly attempted to perpetuate the memory even of
the purest and most energetic benevolence."

A moral maxim unknown, therefore, can have no effect.
No moral maxims have much effect on individuals, because
to work them out requires an individual effort^ which is
little capable of being lightened by the experience of
others, and is comparatively incapable of transmission.
The only remaining argument is that symbolized by our
potato. This will only nourish the man who has it ; or, in
other words, only the man who knows a moral truth can
be benefited by it. To get a more general benefit from
the discovery of the potato as a food, it must be widely
grown ; and so, to get an increasing effect from the same
moral truth, it must be more widely diffused. It may be
urged that, though moral truths are unprogressive, their

CHANGES WORKED BY CHRISTIANITY. 161

effects may be increasing. A greater proportion of people
may now be made acquainted with them than formerly,
and hence a greater proportion may live fnorally, and
hence, again, civilization may be advanced. This may be
true, only the increased diffusion of moral truths is also
due to the advance of knowledge, which has improved the
means of intercommunication of thought by steam and by
printing. Then, it may be urged, there is really no sepa-
rate advance, but a reciprocal progress ; knowledge ad-
vancing morality, morality advancing civilization. This is
very frequently urged ; but, if moral progress is not sub-
ordinate to intellectual progress, and entirely dependent on
it, then it must be shown that the diffusion of moral truths
among people who had them not before has civilized them.
Have they done so? It is admitted by the missionaries
themselves that the attempt to convert without first intro-
ducing some little intellectual improvement is useless.
"When Christianity was introduced, so far .from civilizing
the people, it was itself dragged down to their own level.
Its only effect was to satisfy the aspirations of those already
cultivated enough to receive it ; for the mass it was a mere
substitution of names. Yenus and Ashtaroth became the
Virgin Mary ; Apollo and Horus became Christ ; Jupiter
and Osiris, God. The mystic trinity of the Assyrians and
Egyptians was introduced into Christianity, while the
horde of lesser gods, displaced by the saints, were rele-
gated in the minds of the ignorant multitude to the depths
of hell.

That this is the invariable effect of the introduction of
any system of morals superior to the state of knowledge

of the people on whom it is imposed, we may prove by a
11

162 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

cursory review of the fate of other great systems of re-
ligion. Look at India. There is a country which has had
great religious teachers, who inculcated most of the moral
truths which we are accustomed to think were first intro-
duced by Christianity. Indeed, one of them taught a re-
ligion which so singularly resembles Christianity as to
afford an instructing example of the constant effect of the
same causes. Buddhism was a religion for the poor and
degraded : " My law is a law of grace for all"; " My doc-
trine is like the sky ; there is room for all without excep-
tion." There are reverence for parents, forgiving of ene-
mies, absence of revenge, and a universal charity, which
extends not only to all mankind but to the whole animal
kind as well. The object was, indeed, a selfish one, the
salvation of the individual from further penance on earth ;
but this object is one common to all religions, and among
the early Christians assumed a form which well-nigh ex-
tinguished the virtue of charity altogether. 14 This religion
was imposed upon a people in much the same state of
civilization as the early Christians were, and with a result
that was strikingly similar. Neither in Christianity nor
in Buddhism was there any authorization of a priesthood,
and, indeed, both the New Testament and Buddha speak
against such institutions. But now, in both religions,
every temple is full of graven images ; there is a regular
hierarchy, culminating in a Pope, as well as all the abuses
of asceticism in monasteries and nunneries.

This parallel, indeed, only existed up to the Kef orma-
tion, in Europe taken as a whole, though it still exists in

14 I allude to the inhuman treatment by some of the most celebrated
saints of their nearest relatives.

MORAL TRUTHS STATIONARY. 163

those parts, such as Russia and certain South European
countries, where the people remain almost untouched by
the progress of knowledge. "Why does this parallel no
longer hold good ? "Wherein has the development of East-
ern Asia and Western Europe differed? It can surely
not be asserted that a greater proportion of Buddhists
than of Christians are ignorant of moral truths. If any-
thing, the fact is the other way. But, owing to causes
which have already been described, knowledge has stead-
ily advanced in Europe, while in Asia it has remained
comparatively stationary.

Let us turn from the comparative effects of the knowl-
edge of moral and intellectual truths upon the practice
of religions, to mark what each has done for the ameliora-
tion of the great scourges of humanity. "We see, in the
past, a succession of men most conscientious, upright, and
zealous, fully acquainted with all the great maxims of
morality hang, burn, torture, and destroy thousands upon
thousands of their fellow creatures, merely because they
and their victims were not agreed as to the exact constitu-
tion of the Holy Trinity. In the present age we see men,
their equals in every respect, equally earnest and upright
and intelligent, condemn their predecessors' actions as
barbarous and wicked, and inconsistent with morality.
"What is the cause of this difference? The advance of
moral and intellectual truth? This can not be, for the
religious persecutors well knew that they should do good
to them that hate them, and love their enemies as them-
selves. Nor has anything been added to moral truth since
their time. "We are then forced to adopt the view that
this progress is caused by the progress of knowledge, and

164 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

not by a progress of moral knowledge. In this particular
case, indeed, we may show directly that intolerance is re-
moved by knowledge. Who has not been moved in his
childhood with the story of the Crucifixion ? "Who has not
hoped against knowledge in the choice of the people be-
fore Pilate ? and whose heart has not sunk before the cry,
" Give us Barabbas," and risen in indignation against the
mob and them that wrought this wrong, even to a desire
of revenge, and a feeling that every Jew should be tor-
tured to death to make amends? Again, if a man is
firmly convinced that only those who think as he does
will be saved from an eternal torture, will he not be right,
in his own light, in attempting to scotch the pestiferous
germs of heresy, and thus save the many from torture by
the torture of a few ? Can any moral knowledge what-
ever eradicate such a belief ? No, assuredly not. The
advance of knowledge alone, which shows a man he is not
infallible, that there have been other views in the world
besides his own, and shakes the faith in his heart of hearts
that the dogmas of religion are all necessary and authen-
ticated truths this alone can work an alteration in a good
man, while a bad is too indifferent either to persecute or
to show charity.

And this is the reason why bad men have often made
the best rulers, and good men have frequently, indeed
generally, done harm in proportion to their power. For
bad men, being solely devoted to their own pleasure, care
nothing for the salvation of others, or to constrain men to
think as they do. For a selfish gratification they will cur-
tail the power of their successors and thus increase the
liberties of the people. In this way the best Roman

THE MOVING FOKCE. 165

emperors were the worst persecutors ; our most immoral
kings were those under whom the liberties of England
most increased : and the same phenomena are everywhere
to be seen.

For the aggregate, then, moral knowledge is of hardly
any importance as compared with intellectual. For the
individual it is far more important than intellectual knowl-
edge. The foundation of morality is the will to do good ;
and this is so necessary a feeling to the well-being of indi-
viduals, that the man who is without it is without half the
pleasure of life. It is dangerous, however, in direct pro-
portion to the power and ignorance of the person who
practices it ; because the will to do good without a knowl-
of the way to do so must necessarily be harmful. But the
science of morality is so little understood that it may be
taken as an axiom that the best men do the most harm.
Their hearts are tender, and they can not resist the ap-
peals of the needy; they are unwilling to suspect ill of
any one, and become the tools of knaves; they will not
take advantage of their opportunity to get rid of a crim-
inal, and the community suffer in consequence.

While, therefore, moral laws are naught but disturbing
factors in the steady march of civilization, the progress of
intellectual knowledge is the great moving force the gen-
eral of the army under whose orders the inferior leader,
moral law, performs his evolutions. From this it follows
that, if the analysis thus far is true, it only remains to
investigate the laws of intellectual progress to arrive at a
knowledge of the laws of civilization, which are ultimate
laws for us.

Before attempting to do so, however, it will be well to

166 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

I/consider the claims of religion, literature, and govern-
] ment to be the chief factors in the march of civilization,
y Such an examination were indeed unnecessary, had not so
much stress been laid upon these as factors by former
writers on human progress ; for it follows as a necessary
corollary, from what has been said on the subjection of
moral practice to intellectual knowledge, that the others
are subjected in the same way. If the morality of a given
age is determined by its knowledge, we can hardly say
that religion is independent. Literature must by its con-
stitution be dependent ; and legislators can, no more than
other people, be far in advance of the age in which they
live. If, for instance, a man appears who propounds a
religion far in advance of the present state of the people,
it will either be dragged down to their own level or neg-
lected until such time as the people have advanced to it.
The Jews had a religion in advance of their civilization,
and they were practically idolaters. The same happened
on the introduction of the Christian religion, the religions
of Buddha and of Mohammed. In every case the reli-
gion was corrupted until the people were civilized enough
to receive it. In the same way, when a nation grows too
civilized for the religion it holds, like the French, it is
quietly neglected.

It is the same with literature. During the earlier
middle ages Latin was a living language ; but the people
who might have read the best authors of antiquity pre-
ferred the legends and fables which satisfied their grade
of civilization, and raised a class of literature which rather
retarded than advanced their progress. Here was a litera-
ture above them, and it could not touch them; neither

LEGISLATORS NOT LEADERS. 167

could Luther touch those who were unprepared. The ex-
ponent of the stage of thought of one part of Europe, he
was heard and followed there ; while for the,rest his voice
was as one crying in the wilderness. For the same reason
the Greeks failed to retain that civilization which at one
time they had acquired, because their first men spoke to
each other and not to the people. The horses went on
without the carriage. It was the same with the philoso-
phers of Germany, who wrote in a style far above the
heads of the people, in a language which only those who
had made a special study of it could understand ; with the
result that they advanced, but the people did not follow.

Nor can a " wise law " by a " far-seeing legislator " in
any way hasten the march of civilization. In the first
place, no legislator ever invented a law that he has enact-
ed and that has not soon after been repealed. In the
quality of a thinker he may certainly see what should be
done, but he can not do it until he has persuaded the
people also that it is desirable. If we examine those
enactments which are said to have benefited the people,
it will invariably be found that the people demanded them
first, and the laws were made afterward. So far from the
legislators being the leaders of civilization, they are as a
rule behind the civilization of their age ; because, being
accustomed to look at questions from their practical side,
they are in most cases unable to look at them from a
speculative point of view at all. And this is borne out
by their private correspondence, in which they express
their fears of the result of those very measures which the
pressure of outside opinion obliges them to advocate in
public. But the legislator is best judged of where he is

168 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

least dependent on the demands of the people. Here if
anywhere he should aid their civilization ; and what has
he done ? Crippled trade, made laws against usury, med-
dled with every step of the individual, and tied his tongue ;
these are the benefits for which we are to be grateful-
and again be grateful for their abolition. " To maintain
order, to prevent the strong from oppressing the weak,
and to adopt certain precautions respecting the public
health, are the only services which any government can
render to the interests of civilization. That these are ser-
vices of immense value no one will deny ; but it can not
be said that by them civilization is advanced or the prog-
ress of man accelerated. All that is done is to afford the
opportunity of progress ; the progress itself must depend
on other matters."

" By applying to the history of man those methods of
investigation which have been found successful in other
branches of knowledge, and by rejecting all preconceived
notions which would not bear the test of those methods,
we have arrived at certain results, the heads of which it
may now be convenient to recapitulate. We have seen
that our actions, being solely the result of internal and
external agencies, must be explicable by the laws of those
agencies ; that is to say, by mental laws and by physical laws.
"We have also seen that mental laws are, in Europe, more
powerful than physical laws, and that, in the progress of
civilization, their superiority is constantly increasing, be-
cause advancing knowledge multiplies the resources of
the mind, but leaves the old resources of nature stationary.
On this account we have treated the mental laws as being
the great regulators of progress ; and we have looked at

GENERALIZATION'S UNRELIABLE. 169

the physical laws as occupying a subordinate place, and as
merely displaying themselves in occasional, disturbances,
the force and frequency of which have been long declin-
ing, and are now, on a large average, almost inoperative.
Having, by this means, resolved the study of what may
be called the dynamics of society into the study of the
laws of the mind, we have subjected this last to a similar
analysis, and we have found that they consist of two parts,
namely, moral laws and intellectual laws. By comparing
these two parts, we have clearly ascertained the vast su-
mriority of the intellectual laws ; and we have seen that,
as the progress of civilization is marked by the triumph of
the mental laws over the physical, just so is it marked by
the triumph of intellectual laws over the moral ones. . . .
From all this it evidently follows that, if we wish to as-
certain the conditions which regulate the progress of mod-
ern civilization, we must seek them in the history of the
amount and diffusion of intellectual knowledge; and we
must consider physical phenomena and moral principles
as causing, no doubt, great aberrations in short periods, but
in long periods correcting and balancing themselves, and
thus leaving the intellectual laws to act uncontrolled by
these inferior and subordinate agents."

" The totality of human actions being thus, from the
highest point of view, governed by the totality of human
knowledge, it might seem a simple matter to collect the
evidence of the knowledge, and, by subjecting it to succes-
sive generalizations, ascertain the whole of the laws which
regulate the progress of civilization." Since, however, so-
called historians have not hitherto recognized this fact,
and, instead of giving information respecting the progress

170 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

of knowledge, have almost confined themselves to petty bio-
graphical details, there is nothing ready to the historian's
hands. Several generations of workers are requisite to col-
lect such evidence as is still to be had, for no single man is
equal to such a task ; and hence Buckle had to abandon
his original plan of writing the history of civilization, and
confine himself to the history of civilization in England.

England he chooses to illustrate the laws of civiliza-
tion, not on account of its being the most civilized coun-
try, though that may be the case, but because it is the
country which has developed with least interference f
outside. In every science laws are most successfully dis-
covered by means of experiments ; and experiment means
simply isolation of phenomena, or freedom from complica-
tions whereby the phenomena are obscured. That coun-
try which has worked out its civilization most freely by
itself, which had most escaped foreign influence, and had
been least interfered with by the personal peculiarities of
its rulers, would most fulfill the conditions of an experi-
ment. England, during the last three centuries at least,
answers this requirement better than any other country,
and hence England is chosen as the best representative
obtainable of the development of civilization : the country
whose history Buckle chooses particularly to study in order
that he may discover, from successive generalizations on
the progress of knowledge there, the laws which govern
the general progress of knowledge, and hence the laws
which govern the progress of civilization of mankind.

But, in limiting his sources of investigation, his deduc-
tions must, to a proportionate extent, be uncertain, be-
cause it may be that an inferior law is more prominent in

AN ILLUSTRATION. 171

that one country than it would appear on a survey of the
whole globe. As an illustration, let us say that in Han-
over the sexes are born as 1 to 1*07 ; we should conclude,
therefore, that it was the common case in all Europe
that children are born, 1 girl to every TOT boys, unless
we extended our observations to other countries, and saw
that there male births were in excess. From this we should
see that there was a superior law governing the proportion
of the sexes, which we should never detect if we confined
our observations to Hanover, which law seems, as far as
we are yet able to say, to be that the sex of a child de-
pends on the relative vigor of the parents taken in its lar-
gest sense, and including the inherited tendency to pro-
duce a particular sex, which is itself possibly a form of
vigor, or its absence. This law would, therefore, in its turn
be governed by that which determines the relative age at
which the two sexes marry ; which is, in the main, the
general prosperity of the country. Thus, since women do
not earn their own living as a rule, the, age at which they
marry is determined chiefly by the age at which their
beauty is most captivating to the opposite sex, which is
much the same for all Europe. The age at which the
bread-winners marry depends upon the prosperity of the
country : the greater the prosperity, the earlier the men
marry. If all this be true, we should say, then, that the
equality of the sexes born in Hanover showed that most
people had insufficient to live upon a law at which we
could not have arrived had our statistical information been
restricted to Hanover alone."

15 1 would guard here against the supposition that I advance the above
as a scientific truth. It is merely intended for an illustration. Though not

172 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

There are certain intellectual peculiarities, again, which
have had very important effects on civilization, considered
as a whole, but which were comparatively rare in England.
The results of these peculiarities must, therefore, be stud-
ied in the history of those countries where they were most
marked and strongly developed ; just as an anatomist who
wishes to study certain obscure muscles in the human back
dissects the tiger or porpoise, in which they are more fully
developed. Until a secure groundwork of the compara-
tive effects of the different forms of thought is obtained,
it is difficult to form a conclusion as to which is the most
important, which advances civilization, or which is mere
perturbation. The remaining part of the introduction was
therefore designed in some measure to fill the void caused
by the impossibility .of writing a history of general civili-
zation ; that is, England was chosen as the country whose
civilization has followed a course more orderly and less
disturbed than any other, and therefore the laws of normal
development could best be traced ; while, when it is neces-
sary to investigate the effects of social developments which
have been injurious to progress, their effects will be best
seen where they have been strongest.

Thus, in England, the effect of the spirit of protection,
or interference with individual freedom of thought and
action, has been felt, but in so slight a degree that it is
difficult to estimate its true effect until we turn to the his-
tory of some country where it has existed in a much greater
degree. This is not difficult, because France, Germany,

improbable in itself, it must certainly be more complicated, since what one
country, such as Ireland, considers living in comfort, another, such as
France, would by no means consider so.

CONTRASTS BETWEEN CIVILIZATIONS. 173

Spain, Italy, and Russia have been strongly protective.
If, however, we wish to estimate the effect of a disturbing
cause in other scientific investigations, wet- compare two
things identical in all respects but in that disturbing cause
the effects of which we want to investigate, and by these
means we isolate it. To investigate the effect of the shape
of the head of a projectile on its speed we fire projectiles
with variously shaped heads, with the same charge of pow-
der, on the same day, from the same gun, on the same
range ; and know that any difference shown is due to no-
thing but the shape of the projectile's head and resistance
it affords to the air. "We must, therefore, choose a country
for comparison with England as similar as possible in all
other respects but that of protection. Germany and Italy
have been split up into small states. Germany and Russia
have been long behindhand in civilization. Spain has
been, and is, exceedingly loyal and superstitious. All but
France have been exceedingly backward in the spread of
knowledge. In short, without mentioning other reasons,
France is the country whose circumstances and state have
been most similar to those of England, with the one ex-
ception that the spirit of protection has been strongly
prevalent in the one country and not in the other. For
this reason France and England are historically compared,
in order to bring out clearly the effects of this interference
with progress and estimate its value in order that its per-
turbations may be recognized where present in the history
of England. " But the French, as a people, have, since
the beginning or middle of the seventeenth century, been
remarkably free from superstition ; and, notwithstanding
the efforts of their government, they are very adverse to

174 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

ecclesiastical power; so that, although their history dis-
plays the protective principle in its political form, it sup-
plies little evidence respecting its religious form ; while, in
our own country, the evidence is also scanty." Hence it
was necessary " to give a view of Spanish history, because
in it we may trace the full results of that protection against
error which the spiritual classes are always eager to afford.
In Spain the Church has, from a very early period, pos-
sessed more authority, and the clergy have been more in-
fluential, both with the people and the government, than
in any other country " ; it is " therefore convenient to
study in Spain the law of ecclesiastical development, and
the manner in which the development affects the national
interests." Another circumstance which operates on the
intellectual progress of a nation is the method of investi-
gation which its ablest men habitually employ. This
method can only be one of two kinds : it must be either
inductive or deductive. Each of these belongs to a differ-
ent form of civilization, and is always accompanied by a
different style of thought, particularly in regard to religion
and science. These differences are of such immense im-
portance that, until their laws are known, we can not be
said to understand the real history of past events. Now
the two extremes of difference are, undoubtedly, Germany
and the United States ; the Germans being preeminently
deductive, the Americans inductive. But Germany and
America are in so many other respects diametrically op-
posed to each other, that " it is expedient to study the
operations of the deductive and inductive spirit in coun-
tries between which a closer analogy exists. . . . Such an
opportunity occurs in the history of Scotland, as compared

METHODS OF INVESTIGATION. 175

with that of England. Here we have two countries bor-
dering on each other, speaking the same language, reading
the same literature, and knit together by the same inter-
ests. And yet it is a truth . . . that until the last thirty or
forty years the Scotch intellect has been even more entirely
deductive than the English intellect has been inductive."
Again, in Germany, for instance, "the accumulation of
knowledge has been far more rapid than in England ;
the laws of the accumulation of knowledge may on that
account be most conveniently studied in German history,
and then applied deductively to the history of England.
In the same way, the Americans have diffused their knowl-
edge much more completely than we have done." In that
country, therefore, the laws of diffusion may most con-
veniently be studied, and thence applied to the phenomena
of English civilization.

In the course of these historical comparisons Buckle
did not omit to point out the effects in each country of
the protective spirit, the method of scientific investigation,
the credulous habit of thought, and how all these acted
and reacted on each other. The causes of the different
directions thus pursued by these countries having been
pointed out, he would close the "Introduction" with a
generalization of the causes themselves ; " and, having
thus referred them to certain principles common to all,
we shall be possessed of what may be called the funda-
mental laws of European thought, the divergence of the
different countries being regulated either by the direction
those laws take, or else by their comparative energy."
Their demonstration in the two volumes only was neces-
sarily incomplete, and Buckle therefore warns his reader

176 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

"to suspend his final judgment until the close" of the
" Introduction," when the " subject in all its bearings "
would be laid before him./

In the " Introduction " Buckle's method was on the
whole inductive ; that is, he studied the effects in order to
learn the causes. And though he altered his method in
parts of his historical comparisons to confirm the results
he had already inductively obtained, yet in the main the
" Introduction " was inductive. The body of the work
was, on the other hand, to have been deductive ; that is,
having discovered inductively the fundamental laws of
human progress, he would have applied them to English
history, which would have served as a series of illustra-
tions of the truth of those laws which he had already dis-
covered. But here again he would not have confined
himself strictly to the one method, and would inductively
have established those minor laws which now appear to us
as aberrations of the larger or fundamental ones. "With
this view he proposed, for the sake of clearness, to divide
what he called the special history of society into certain
classes, not according to any arbitrary standard, but accord-
ing to the actual condition of things as, for instance,
clergy, aristocracy, agriculturists, manufacturers, and the
like. This division he would only adopt as a scientific
artifice, and with the view of showing that the principles
which he had arrived at from a general observation of
history were applicable to all the different classes of a
special period. If such a proof could be made out, it was
evident that such a series of parallel reasonings would be
more confirmatory of the original principle than the ordi-
nary method of investigation. If, for instance, he could

DIVISIONS OF SOCIETY. 177

show that a certain law which he had arrived at by a gen-
eral consideration of history is in any large period sepa-
rately applicable to all the great classes of society, he
would have made out a case very analogous to that in
which the general laws of natural philosophy are applied
to mechanics, hydrostatics, acoustics, and the like. This is
also the way in which general physiological principles col-
lected from the whole of organic nature have been applied
to man, and the nutrition of plants throws light on the
functions of human nutrition. At the same time, and by
way of further precaution, he would, while investigating
periods of special history, take occasion, when very impor-
tant principles were at stake, to recur to general history,
and not hesitate to collect evidence from other countries,
in order to prove that it holds good under the most differ-
ent conditions. If this should be accomplished with any
degree of success, not only would he have pointed out
some of the great laws which regulate the progress of
nations, but he hoped that, by a reflex process, some light
would be thrown upon the general constitution of the
human mind, and that some contribution would have been
made toward the formation of a basis on which metaphysi-
cal science could be hereafter erected.

But it is evident that, looking upon society as a whole,
it admits of two sorts of divisions : a division into classes,
and a division into interests. The nature of the first set of
divisions is very obvious, because it is constantly passing
before our eye. But the nature of the division into inter-
ests is much more obscure ; and this seems to arise partly
from the circumstance that men love their interest much
more than they love the class to which they belong, and
12

178 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

partly because, to understand the different interests, it is
necessary to have a much more comprehensive knowledge
than is required in understanding the feelings of the dif-
ferent classes by which those interests are put in move-
ment. These great interests are, in every civilized society,
six in number, which will, from selfish motives, be always
especially protected by certain classes. These are religion,
science, literature, wealth, liberty, and the great principle
of order, or that conserving impulse which is exceedingly
dangerous in the contracted minds of ordinary politicians,
because it makes them oppose themselves to the healthy
development of society, but which, notwithstanding, has
more than once saved this country, and is the only protec-
tion we possess against the anarchical license into which,
unhappily, liberty is so prone to run. It is evident that
the most perfect society is that in which each of these
great interests is developed to the highest possible pitch
that is compatible with the free existence of the others.

How he would have executed this project we have an
example in the " Fragment on Elizabeth," whose reign
would most probably have formed one of those epochs
around which he proposed to group the history of the
various classes and interests of the period, and show how
everything fitted in with the laws of history already enun-
ciated. The Great Rebellion would probably have formed
another. These periods again would have been connected
by a short summary of the last group, and short anticipa-
tion of the next, so that each would have formed, as it
were, a link, perfect in itself, in the chain of the history of
England.

All this would have served as illustrative and confir-

WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN SHOWN. 179

matory of what he had already advanced in the " Intro-
duction." In that he did not pretend to investigate ques-
tions of practical utility, or to trace the connection be-
tween the discoveries of science and the arts of life. In
the " History " he hoped to do this, and to explain a num-
ber of minute social events, many of which are regarded
as isolated, if not incongruous ; how great events never
spring from small causes, and everything is connected
with and determined by its antecedents. He would have
worked out the fact that the advance of European civiliza-
tion is characterized by a diminishing influence of physi-
cal and an increasing influence of mental laws, the com-
plete proof of which could only be collected from his-
tory; have shown how every great increase in the ac-
tivity of the human intellect has struck a blow at the
warlike spirit ; and how the yeomanry class gradually de-
cayed. He would have shown how Elizabeth humbled
first the Catholic and then the Protestant clergy; the
effects produced on the whole structure of society by the
sudden change which took place in the value of the pre-
cious metals, and have shown that the fall of prices was
particularly detrimental to those landlords whose lands
were permanently let at a fixed rent ; and hence how the
clergy were weakened through their pockets, tried to re-
coup themselves by other means, and so helped to bring
on the Reformation ; how the growth of manufactures, by
taking men away from agriculture, made them see that
the powers of nature were not beyond their control, and
therefore diminished superstition ; and how the Puritans
were more fanatical than superstitious. He would have
traced the influence of Warburton's book, " The Alliance

180 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

between Church and State," which appeared in 1736, and
which argues that the state has nothing to do with errors
in religion, nor the least right to repress them " To make
such a man a bishop was a great feat for the eighteenth
century, and would have been an impossible one for the
seventeenth." He would have examined carefully and in
detail the inductive tendency in English thinkers for more
than a hundred and fifty years after the death of Bacon ;
and how only in the nineteenth century an attempt was
made to return in some degree to the deductive method ;
why England devoted herself to practical pursuits and
politics, iDstead of to physical science and metaphysics
during seventy years after the death of Newton; and
would have shown how the opponents of Young were
able to put down the undulatory theory of light as a valu-
able illustration of the history and habits of the English
mind. He would have given an account of the angry-
contests which arose between the lovers of things past
and the lovers of things future shown in the hostility di-
rected against the Royal Society as the first institution in
which the idea of progress was distinctly embodied a
contest which is among the most instructive parts of our
history. The immense services of Locke in England, in
deposing the mere classical scholar from his pedestal of
supreme knowledge, would also have been related, to-
gether with the details of such discoveries as were subser-
vient to civilization. He would have shown how the
advance and spread of knowledge stopped the political
retrogression of George III.'s time; and how lawgivers
are never reformers; how the rise and growth of clubs
were of immense importance, and played a great part in

MOURNFUL FOREBODINGS. 181

the history of England during the latter part of the eigh-
teenth century; and have collected the evidence of the
development of the love of traveling, and the influence of
the French and English intellect on each other.

These are a few of the points which he would have
treated in the body of the work, collected from a few
stray remarks in what he published. Little as they tell
us of what he would undoubtedly have done, they are
nevertheless valuable as giving some indication of the way
he would have written his history, and his extraordinary
breadth of view. At the end he would have again re-
turned from his restricted field of England, and, casting
his eyes over the whole of Europe, he would have ex-
amined the present condition of the human mind, and
endeavored to estimate its future prospects, fix the basis
of our present civilization, and indicate its future progress.

It is painful to be thus reminded of the vastness of our
loss in the death of a single man far away in Damascus ;
but let us console ourselves in the fact that nevertheless
we have the greatest, by far the greatest, part of what
it would have been possible for him to give us. Though
the proof is not so cogent, though we have not the detail
of the method, yet the method itself is there in all its
majesty of simple truth : " When the true path of inquiry
has once been indicated, the rest is comparatively easy.
The beaten highway is always open; and the difficulty is
not to find those who will travel the old road, but those
who will make a fresh one. Every age produces in abun-
dance men of sagacity and of considerable industry, who,
while perfectly competent to increase the details of a
science, are unable to extend its distant boundaries. This

182 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

is because such extension must be accompanied by a new
method, which, to be valuable as well as new, supposes on
the part of its suggester, not only a complete mastery over
the resources of his subject, but also of the possession of
originality and comprehensiveness the two rarest forms
of human genius."

Had he lived to finish the introduction, we should
have had a work as complete in itself as Comte's " Phi-
losophic Positive " ; that is, the philosophy of history
without the detailed historical proof. It is sad that he
did not live to finish his work, and sad, indeed, that he
did not live to finish that one more volume. That he
would have finished the whole work, despite the chorus
of doubt raised by the reviewers on the appearance of the
first volume, is pretty certain. " They do not know the
amount of material I have collected," he was wont to say.
And we, who are privileged to see a part, and but a small
part, of what he had collected in his published common-
place books, can well believe that, had he lived, the work
would by this time have been an accomplished fact. Nine
more volumes had to be written, and he calculated that
each of them would have taken two years to write." It
was no careless ambition that laid the foundation of so
grand an enterprise. With the faculties he felt that he
possessed, and the ample materials he had collected ; with
the determination to postpone to that one work every
other object of ambition, devote his whole strength to
that alone, and sacrifice to it many interests which men
hold dear, he was justified in his belief that such power

16 His own estimate varied considerably. I have heard it stated on good
authority that he had estimated the number of volumes required at twenty.

FALSE ACCUSATIONS. 183

and self-denial should yield success. Some of the most
pleasurable incentives to action he must disregard. " ISTot
for him," he says, in that mournful peroration written
soon after his mother's death " " not for him are those
rewards which in other pursuits the same energy would
have earned ; not for him, the sweets of popular applause ;
not for him, the luxury of power ; not for him, a share in
the councils of his country ; not for him, a conspicuous
and honored place before the public eye. Albeit con-
scious of what he could do, he may not compete in the
great contest ; he can not hope to win the prize ; he can
not even enjoy the excitement of the struggle. To him
the arena is closed. His recompense lies within himself,
and he must learn to care little for the sympathy of his
fellow creatures or for such honors as they are able to
bestow. So far from looking for these things, he should
rather be prepared for that obloquy which always awaits
those, who, by opening up new veins of thought, disturb
the prejudices of their contemporaries. "While ignorance,
and worse than ignorance, is imputed to him ; while his
motives are misrepresented and his integrity impeached ;
while he is accused of denying the value of moral prin-
ciples, and of attacking the foundation of all religion, as
if he were some public enemy, who made it his business
to corrupt society, and whose delight it was to see what
evil he could do; while these charges are brought for-
ward, and repeated from mouth to mouth, he must be
capable of pursuing in silence the even tenor of his way,
without swerving, without pausing, and without stepping
from his path to notice the angry outcries which he can

17 To the fourth chapter of his second volume.

184 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

not but hear, and which he is more than human if he does
not long to rebuke. These are the qualities and these
the high resolves indispensable to him, who, on the most
important of all subjects, believing the old road is worn
out and useless, seeks to strike out a new one for himself,
and in the effort not only perhaps exhausts his strength,
but is sure to incur the enmity of those who are bent on
maintaining the ancient scheme unimpaired. To solve
the great problem of affairs, to detect those hidden cir-
cumstances which determine the march and destiny of
nations, and to find in the events of the past a key to
the proceedings of the future, is nothing less than to unite
into a single science all the laws of the moral and physi-
cal world. Whoever does this will build up afresh the
fabric of our knowledge, rearrange its various parts, and
harmonize its apparent discrepancies. Perchance the
human mind is hardly ready for so vast an enterprise.
At all events, he who undertakes it will meet with little
sympathy, and will find few to help him."

And then his voice sinks to a more somber tone, as he
almost foresees the sad fate which awaits him : " And, let
him toil as he may, the sun and noontide of his life shall
pass by, the evening of his days shall overtake him, and
he himself have to quit the scene, leaving that unfinished
which he had vainly hoped to complete. He may lay the
foundation ; it will be for his successors to raise the edi-
fice. Their hands will give the last touch ; they will reap
the glory; their names will be remembered when his
is forgotten. It is, indeed, too true that such a work
requires, not only several minds, but also the successive
experience of several generations. Once, I own, I thought

HOPES AND EEGRETS. 185

otherwise. Once, when I first caught sight of the whole
field of knowledge, and seemed, however dimly, to dis-
cern its various parts and the relation they bbre to one an-
other, I was so entranced with its surpassing beauty that
the judgment was beguiled, and I deemed myself able,
not only to cover the surface, but also to master the
details. Little did I know how the horizon enlarges as
well as recedes, and how vainly we grasp at the fleeting
forms which melt away and elude us in the distance. Of
all that I had hoped to do, I now find but too surely how
small a part I shall accomplish. In those early aspira-
tions there was much that was fanciful; perhaps there
was much that was foolish. Perhaps, too, they contained
a moral defect, and savored of an arrogance which belongs
to a strength that refuses to recognize its own weakness.
Still, even now that they are defeated and brought to
naught, I can not repent having indulged in them, but,
on the contrary, I would willingly recall them, if I could.
For such hopes belong to that joyous and sanguine period
of h'f e when alone we are really happy ; when the emo-
tions are more active than the judgment ; when experience
has not yet hardened our nature ; when the affections are
not yet blighted and nipped to the core ; and when, the
bitterness of disappointment not having yet been felt,
difficulties are unheeded, obstacles are unseen, ambition
is a pleasure instead of a pang, and, the blood coursing
swiftly through the veins, the pulse beats high, while the
heart throbs at the prospect of the future. Those are
glorious days, but they go from us, and nothing can
compensate their absence. To me they now seem more
like the visions of a disordered fancy than the sober

186 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

realities of things that were, and are not. It is painful
to make. % this .confession, but I owe it to the reader, be-
cause I would not have him to suppose that either in this
or in future volumes of my " History " I shall be able to
redeem my pledge, and to perform all that I promised.
Something I hope to achieve which will interest the
thinkers of this age, and something, perhaps, on which
posterity may build. It will, however, only be a frag-
ment of my original design." It was necessary to curtail
the " Introduction," or he could never hope to finish the
" History " as he had laid it out.

To turn from the consideration of Buckle's work to
that of some of the criticisms which have been lavished
upon it is a passage from the sublime to the ridiculous.
Some call him the " English Comte " ; some " Quetelet's
Enfant Terrible " ; some go even so far as to call the work
a mere compilation. These charges are not, as might be
thought, mere spite aroused by the unpleasant truths which
Buckle has told. Had they been so, it would not have
been worth while to notice them. But they are specimens
of a sort of mental incapacity which is fostered by micro-
scopic study, an inability to generalize or see a generaliza-
tion. It will be well, therefore, to fix, in some measure,
Buckle's place in history, show to which among his prede-
cessors he is really indebted, and what is the amount of
that debt.

CHAPTER IV.

Only Comparative Originality possible Comte and Buckle Vito Machiavelli
Bodin Bossuet Montesquieu Kant Buckle His place in History.

OKIGINALITY, as understood by the vulgar, is indepen-
dence of the labors of others. Its utter impossibility under
such a definition is, however, sometimes recognized, and
hence originality is sometimes allowed to a man who in-
vents a new way of threading a needle ; or they may call
the discovery of the retina-purple original because it has
not an obvious connection with the labors of former physi-
ologists. But, if a man patiently and laboriously collects
all that has been done in his particular study, and then, in
full public view, generalizes the facts and evolves order
out of chaos, " Oh," say they, " we could do the same our-
selves ! " The one is the obvious and almost mechanical
result of the other ; we will not allow originality to what
seems so calm and unbroken a process. Eeasoning in this
way, it is just as easy to deny all merit to the designer of
the Parthenon. Temples have been built of a like form
before. These Doric columns are to be seen in Egypt ;
that ornament is a transformation of the Assyrian honey-
suckle pattern. Is there, then, nothing new in the ex-
quisite proportion of those columns, the subordination of
the several parts, the gentle curves on every side, the re-
jection of what is bad, and the position of what is good ?

"Were originality, as thus defined, possible, then, as-

188 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

suredly, of all classes of authors, the writers of fiction
should owe least to their predecessors ; and yet in no class
of literature is the dependence on what has gone before
more marked. Leaving out of consideration mere imita-
tion of style and choice of subject, which constantly runs
in sequences until it is stopped by some form of ridicule,
such as Cervantes' s " Don Quixote," or Boileau's " Heros
de Roman," we can not shut our eyes to the evident evo-
lution of one piece of fiction from another, and even to
the instances of direct plagiarism with which the best and
most original works of fiction abound. Name whom we
may, a little consideration will convince us that each has
been greatly dependent upon his predecessors. Let us
cite the first great poets whose names occur to us say
Homer, Yirgil, Dante, Ariosto, Shakespeare, Spenser, and
Milton. With the exception of the first, who can be left
out of account, it is easy to show their dependence. Dante
avows his obligations to Yirgil, a poet himself greatly de-
pendent on Homer, and who, in his turn, has inspired
most of the heroic poets of the middle ages. Ariosto has
been greatly indebted to him, to Ovid, and even to Horace. 1

1 For example :

" Arma virumque cano, Trojae qui primus ab oris
Italiam, fato profugus, Laviniaque venit
Littora "

" Le Donne, i cavalier, 1' arme, gli amori
Le cortesie, 1' audaci imprese io canto,
Che furo al tempo che passaro i Mori
D' Africa il mare," etc.

" Neque

Decedit aerata triremi, et
Post equitem sedet atra cura."

" Lo trova in su la roda e in su la poppa
E se cavalca, il porta dietro in groppa."

NON-ORIGINALITY OF WRITERS. 189

Shakespeare has no original plots. Spenser is deeply in-
debted to Ariosto, and we find at least one example 2 of a
very important idea common both to him. and Shake-
speare. Milton, too, is a boundless borrower. 3 Indeed, so
far does this dependency go that not a single work of any
description can be said to be original in the strict sense
laid down at the opening of this chapter. Each one im-
proves a little or draws new truths from the works of his
predecessors. Nor are the "prose writers of fiction any
more original than the poets. From the earliest times be-
fore stories were committed to writing their universal ori-
gin was in a fact, such as a love-story or a fight. This
was told in various forms, incidents were added, stories
divided, and mixed and made new again. Thus Spenser
introduced an island full of allegorical personages into his
" Faery Queen," which was after the fashion of many pro-
ductions of this period; this gave birth to Fletcher's
"Purple Island," which produced Bernard's "Isle of
Man," from which, in its turn, arose Bunyan's " Pilgrim's
Progress." And this is an example of what should, ac-
cording to our definition, be another sort of want of origi-

2 " Caesar dead and turned to clay," etc.

" Ne, when the life decays and form doth fade,
Doth it consume, and into nothing go,
But chaunged is and altred to and froe."

8 Thus Mr. E. Gosse points out (" Studies in the Literature of Northern
Europe," London, 1879) that Milton's " Paradise Lost," in plot, speeches,
and description, is founded on the " Lucifer " of Van den Vondel. He is,
besides, indebted to Ariosto ; e. g. :

" Perche fatto non ha 1' alma Natura,
Che senza te potessi nascer 1' uomo," etc.

" Oh, why did God . . . create at last
This Novelty on earth ? " etc.

190 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

nality: his description of Yanity Fair, for instance, was
probably taken from Bartholomew Fair or his own experi-
ence, like characters are taken from life by various authors
and worked up into different forms ; and so, too, with feel-
ings that are common to the human race ; for Dante and
he both open with the same sort of description of tribula-
tion and doubt. Swift, again, in his " Gulliver's Travels,"
Fontenelle in his " Plurality of Worlds," Yoltaire in his
" Micromegas," are all indebted to Bergerac. Even Lord
Macaulay's New Zealander is taken from a conceit of Gib-
bon's; Sheridan's Mrs. Malaprop from Fielding's Mrs.
Slipslop ; Dickens owes his style and many of his inci-
dents, such as the Duel and Samuel Weller's offer of
money to Pickwick, to Smollett, and "Weller's story of the
muffins in all probability to Beauclerc's account to John-
son of the tragical end of Mr. Fitzherbert. Indeed, a man
who was really original in everything he said would be a
very prodigy, as great a prodigy as a new animal not de-
rived from some similar ancestor. There is no single
work whose dependence may not be traced upward from
suggester to suggester until its origin is lost in antiquity,
and it only remains for us to infer from analogous cases
that it originated in some fact.

Such being the true genesis of all works, it is idle to
expect in Buckle or any one else complete independence
of all predecessors. But he, and many other men of
genius, are none the less original because their works are
laboriously raised upon the studies of mankind. To pull
down the old building, reshape its stones, and build it up
into a more harmonious and perfect whole, is to produce
original work. The difference between this and a com-

BUCKLE AND COMTE CONTRASTED. 191

pilation is the same as between one of Mr. Galton's in-
genious combination photographs and the Venus of Prax-
iteles. The first is a combination of all that? is there ; the
other requires not only combination, but selection of the
best, together with that creative genius which coordinates
and harmonizes the whole into a beauty which has never
yet existed. And so, in Buckle's plan, we may trace pass-
ing resemblances, while, as a whole, his work is as original
and fresh as any creation of genius yet produced.

It follows: that supposing Comte and Buckle equals
in genius, and of the same tone of thought, they should
have produced works extremely similar to each other.
And so they both were, in part. They were both deeply
imbued with the idea of the order and regularity of every-
thing in the universe ; both had had the same predecessors ;
they were contemporary and men of genius; but there
they diverge, and their circumstances were so different
that the resemblances are almost insignificant. We should
do Comte an injustice were we to compare him directly
with Buckle. Though they wrote on the same subject,
their aims were entirely different: Comte' s main work
was the classification of the sciences, to which sociology
was only added as the crowning-point. He erected a tem-
porary bridge over the gulf which separates the science of
man from the remainder of the sciences ; but it was only a
makeshift, because he neglected to use all the material
which former workmen had collected on its shores. His
judgment, moreover, was warped I had almost said en-
slaved by the circumstances in which he had the misfor-
tune to be placed. Amid a nation worn out with the
excitement of endless revolution, condemned like those

192 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

unhappy spirits on the fiery sands of the seventh circle to
constant movement, and whose momentary pause before
the allotted time was punished with a hundred years of
additional torment; giddy with change, their faculties
amazed by the doubt thrown upon every principle that in
quiet times is almost inborn and clings to us unquestioned
through a lifetime. Rampant theories jostled each other
in the race for power ; while Comte, amid all this bustle
and clatter, this jangling and jarring and hurly-burly of
opinions, turned a longing eye to those quiet and sleepy
times when there was an authority to direct the opinions
of men a time doubly quiet and orderly when viewed
through the mist of ages past, when all, in theory, obeyed
unquestioning the behests of the wisest of their race. He
looked and longed, indeed, but no mind could pass through
those stirring times and remain the same as it was before.
He was like to him tempted of the fiend in the guise of
a fair woman, who loathes the form which holy water re-
veals, but would wish to recall what his imagination de-
picted. And so Comte imagined an impossible pope and
priesthood endowed with power over the opinions of man-
kind, telling them what to think, and what they should
believe; while there was to be another division of the
government to carry out these theories an executive, as
it were, to a moral privy council. This was his aim in his
" Sociologie," which is further elaborated in his " Philoso-
phic Politique " ; and it is enough to repeat what Buckle
has already said of it, that its serious proposal would make
the plain men of our island lift up their eyes in astonish-
ment, and probably suggest that its author should for his
own sake be immediately confined so monstrously and

DIFFERENCES POINTED OUT. 193

obviously was it impracticable. 4 It was, indeed, inevitable
from the circumstances of his life that he should be un-
practical. Had he possessed practicality, he? would have
been a very great writer, and, even as it is, he is far be-
yond the ordinary run. But his incapacity to .see the need
of freedom, and particularly of that primary need so em-
phasized by Buckle, that governments must always follow
the wishes of the people, and can never lead them, is alone
sufficient to show that he had not grasped the science of
history. With Comte the people can not move intelli-
gently out of the leading-strings of the government ; with
Buckle, the sole function of a government is to express as
best it may the sum of the national will. He has made a
great advance ; he has shown the interconnection of many
historic facts of western Europe ; he has insisted on the
subjection of man to his antecedents ; but he has neglected
the connection between man and natural laws.

What is usually advanced as representing this connec-
tion is the famous law of the Three States, on the value
and importance of which he so strongly insists. But it ap-
pears to me that its value has been very greatly exagger-
ated, and it is well known that it is original only in
its modification, and can be traced upward from Comte,
through St. Simon, Turgot, Fichte, Yico, to the early
writers on the philosophy of history. They represent the
last remains of that universal passion for ticketing which
was formerly thought to constitute science. Everywhere
in these earlier philosophies do we see history carefully di-
vided into so many ages the Age of Gold, the Age of
Bronze, and the Age of Iron ; or the ages of childhood, pu-

4 "Essay on Mill," "Fraser's Magazine" for May, 1859, p. 511.
13

194: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

bert y, manhood, decline, and decrepitude. In all, the pres-
ent age is invariably the age of decrepitude ; nor is Comte
an exception, for with him the present and positive stage
is also the last. Just as ages of childhood, manhood, and
puberty serve in some measure to picture the actual prog-
ress of the world, so the three stages of Comte also roughly
represent a true course of thought. In so far, they are of
value, but they serve little or nothing to explain the dy-
namics of civilization why mankind should progress in
one way more than another, why certain nations should
outstrip their compeers ; in a word, just that which he
thinks they explain.

The recklessness of the assertion that Buckle owed
everything to Comte is obvious to whoever will consider
what each has achieved in the science of history. Indeed,
their similarity is only incidental. They held certain
views in common because their subjects overlapped each
other Comte in seeking for a rational form of govern-
ment, and Buckle in showing how every movement of
mankind is subject to law. But the difference between
the two is far greater than that between Comte and St.
Simon, or Buckle and Montesquieu; and, moreover, it is
fundamental. Their different treatment of history is
shown most clearly in such points as Comte's failure in
every case to account for the greater advance of one coun-
try than another, as, for instance, Italy than Spain; or
why certain countries adopted Protestantism and others
did not; and in his irrational exaltation of Catholicism,
due to his ignorance of the early heresies and his false
notions of its unity and power. He has idealized it ; he
supposes it existed as a great moral power, and that from

COMTE'S ERRONEOUS DEDUCTION'S. 195

it, during the middle ages, all reform originated. He
either did not know, or he ignored the fact, that the Cath-
olic Church was never so united as it has been during this
century ; that in earlier ages the difficulties of communi-
cation were too great to allow of more than a nominal
exercise of the central power ; and that, from the earliest
to the present time, it never had the power that he claims
for it. The priesthood, which he alleges to have been of
immense importance in all countries and nations as a
speculative class, have, moreover, considering the leisure
they enjoyed, done little or nothing compared with other
classes. They did not separate theory and practice, but
were in all nations rather practical than theoretical. The
treatment of the middle ages, for which Comte has been
most praised, was indeed that in which he failed most
signally, partly on account of his early education, which
narrowed his mind, and partly on account of his protec-
tionist bias, which led him to look behind the revolution-
ary period for the quiet for which he longed, and, trusting
to De Maistre's account, to imagine that something of the
same organization as existed in the middle ages would
calm existing troubles and reconcile existing distraction.

There are many points upon which Comte and Buckle
are one ; perhaps they are even more than those in which
they differ ; but, while the former are mostly subsidiary,
the latter are mostly fundamental. Comte's laws of civili-
zation are evolved as a necessary deduction from his hie-
rarchy of the sciences ; he supposes mankind to be subject
to natural laws, and not above them, simply because other
matters have been reduced to order and brought into the
domain of science. Buckle, on the other hand, proves the

196 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

predictability of human actions by statistics. Comte ad-
vances as important laws of history his theological, meta-
physical, and positive stages, which he afterward reasons
deductively by illustrations from history. These, which
are mere tickets of phases of thought, analogous to the
labels on specimens in a museum, are rightly unnoticed by
Buckle, who discovers the laws of civilization first induc-
tively, and then, when he has done this, reverses the
process and proves them deductively. In this the Com-
tists accuse him of inconsequence, because they are more
familiar with the " Philosophic Positive " than the " His-
tory of Civilization," and urge that without the proof of
the hierarchy of the sciences history can not be made
positive; when, in fact, Buckle has proved directly and
incontrovertibly the dependence of human actions on their
antecedent circumstances, while the hierarchy of the sci-
ences is a very unsafe proof indeed. 6 Every step Buckle
takes is strictly reasoned, and his proof is more positive
and verified than any Comte chooses to give us ; that is,
Buckle's work stands on the same basis as any other scien-
tific work, while Comte, with all his positive claim, stands
on a basis not much more secure than, say, Smith's " The-
ory of Moral Sentiments," or, in other words, though his
method is positive, there is no inductive complement to his

6 Without entering upon this large subject in the way of proof which
has been done, indeed, far better than would be possible to me, by Mr. Her-
bert Spencer I would merely point out the obvious truth that chemistry
could be as well understood without mathematics and physics as astronomy
without chemistry, physics, and geology. The failure of M. Comte's proof
as to the hierarchy of the sciences, as that of the value of the three stages,
though it greatly lessens the value of the work according to his own estima-
tion, nevertheless deprives it of little merit ; for, as he himself so often
points out, any work which coordinates human knowledge is of value ; and
in details the " Philosophic Positive " is extremely valuable and suggestive.

BUCKLE'S DISTINCTIVE MERIT. 197

deductive proof. Again, Comte knows hardly anything of
and despises political economy ; and supposes that it would
be both practicable and desirable that all nations should be
directed by their governments, and that all nations should
agree to be governed by a parliament of the wise, and
accept their laws on trust laws, the object of which they
did not understand a proposition which of itself shows
how little Comte grasped one of the most important of his-
torical facts ; while Buckle's chief merit is that he first made
a science of history by connecting it with political econ-
omy and statistics, and has shown how every advance is
intellectual from the people, and never in the opposite j
direction. Indeed, one of the truths he most insists upon
is, that it is better to make a harmful law with the concur-
rence of the people than to make a good one which they
do not like. Neither is Buckle solely a positivist like
Comte, for he allows the truth of the emotions. ISTor does
he venture to set a limit to the conquests of human mind,
as Comte, and even scientific men of the present day, are
so fond of doing, when a mere cursory survey of history
must convince all unprejudiced people that we are far too
ignorant to give any opinion on the matter beyond this,
that the achievements of the human mind will be far
beyond anything we can at present even imagine. In
religious opinion they were much the same. Both Comte
and Buckle allowed that the existence of God and the
immortality of man could not, at all events at present or
in the immediate future, be positively proved. But there
they diverged Comte to a ridiculous ritual under the belief
that, the one being unattainable, human needs must be sat-
isfied on the model of what had satisfied the only Church

198 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

he ever knew ; Buckle to what at least was for himself a
transcendental proof, that what for mankind was a uni-
versal need was also a scientific truth.

In these, which are all of them fundamental points, and
which might have been added to, there is, as I have al-
ready said, more difference between the views of Comte
and Buckle than between either of the two and many of
their predecessors ; and I have dwelt the more upon them
than on the points of similarity, even at the risk of ap-
pearing unjust to Comte, because they are both more im-
portant, and also refute the shallow opinion that Buckle
has only popularized in England what Comte had first dis-
covered in France. At the same time, there are many and
valuable hints which Buckle has obtained from Comte in
minor matters, which no doubt saved him trouble, though,
in my opinion, his book would have been very much as
it now is had Comte's never been written. 6 The points
of resemblance are mostly necessary deductions, such as
the value of the inventions of gunpowder, the compass,
and printing ; 7 that the standard of clerical recruits is not
as high as it was ; 8 that the supposition that morality is
identical with religion is ruinous to the former; 9 and
others, together with certain deductions which at first sight

6 This is not M. LittrS's opinion, who says : "H n'aurait jamais ecrit un
tel livre, s'il n'y avait pas eu avant lui le livre de M. Comte " (" La Philoso-
phic Positive," p. 65, vol. ii., January to June, 1868). To which we may op-
pose M. de Remusat, who is at least unprejudiced : " Et cependant nous
pencherions a croire qu'il lui doit peu de reconnaissance. Rien ne nous
prouve qu'il n'eut pas trouve de lui meme ce qu'il lui emprunte " (" Revue
des Deux Mondes," p. 19, vol. xviii., 1st November, 1858). But this is a
minor consideration ; it is sufficient that no one can justly say that Comte
was Buckle's " master."

7 " Philosophic Positive," vol. iv., p. 104.

8 Ibid., pp. 422, 423. 9 Ibid., p. 554.

BUCKLE'S OBLIGATIONS TO PREDECESSORS. 199

seem to be identical, such as their common neglect of meta-
physics, but which, in reality, are fundamentally differ-
ent ; since Comte refuses to have anything to^do with meta-
physics on the ground that the mind is unable to observe
itself, 10 and that transcendental views are unprovable;
while Buckle, on the other hand, does not discard meta-
physics altogether, but points out that the method of ob-
serving individual minds is not trustworthy, and the right
method is to study first the manifestations of the mass of
minds, and then only confirm these observations by the
former method."

Of course Buckle would have been the last to claim for
himself originality in the sense that he owed nothing to
his predecessors, to whom he was indebted in the mass, and
without whose labors he could not have written as he has.
To point out the particulars of his indebtedness, or whose
was the ore from which any grain of metal has been ex-
tracted, is, however, beyond the scope of this work, and
would, moreover, be as difficult and unsatisfactory as to
endeavor to point out in what Fraxiteles's Yenus was in-
debted to each of the hundred models. In each and every
of Buckle's predecessors we must of necessity find some
points of resemblance ; but it will be sufficient for us to
consider his real predecessors, or those who have taken an
important step in advance, and leave out of account the
feudal crowd who can only follow whither their knightly
leaders have gone before.

Now the really important ideas which have made a sci-
ence of history possible are extremely few. These are:

10 " Philosophic Positive," vol. iv., pp. 483, 488.

11 Buckle's History of Civilization," i., 151, 152.

200 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Firstly, that man's course on earth is orderly, and not erra-
tic ; first really propounded by Yico. Secondly, that man
is governed by natural laws ; a proposition really due to
Montesquieu. Thirdly, that the laws of history are to be
looked for in the actions of the mass of mankind, and not
in those of the individual ; propounded by Kant. And,
lastly, that moral laws are dependent or intellectual; a
proposition first enunciated and established by Buckle.

The great skeptic Yico was the first who fairly grasped
the view that we must look for the laws of history, not in
divine interference, but in natural and earthly circum-
stances. And, though so great an opponent of Descartes,
lie nevertheless lays down the same fundamental proposi-
tion that the machine of life, once started, goes on with-
out the constant interference of Heaven. This view, which
his position at Naples made dangerous, and his religion
perhaps made him unwilling to express, he concealed un-
der the veil of that very Providence which he denied,
saying that man was so constituted by it that he must
move in a constant direction. He generalizes history. He
saw that the history of the Eoman Empire, the only history
he knew, was not a solitary and peculiar instance of growth
followed by maturity and decay, but the result of general
laws ; that the minds of men were everywhere the same,
and the same circumstances would produce the same his-
tory ; that individuals do not shape laws, but laws shape
individuals. Nay, so bold were his generalizations and so
skeptical his mind, that he denied that Zoroaster, Pythago-
ras, Solon, and Dracon had had any existence, and averred
that their codes were first produced by the wants of man,
and then ascribed to them, by that tendency in ignorant

THE SKEPTIC VICO. 201

ages to ascribe everything great to individuals. In the
same way he anticipates the criticism of the present day
as to the personality of Homer, of Orpheus^-and of Her-
cules ; allowing, in some cases, a slight personality which
has been beplastered with all the great deeds of the like
kind which really happened afterward, or which the imagi-
nation of succeeding generations considered would render
the image more symmetrical. His method is the same as
Comte's. He has inherited of the classical period with its
successive metaphysical developers the theory of stages of
development, and shows that he has rightly conceived the
possibility of a science of history, by applying them, all
imperfect as they are, to the history of ancient nations,
and more ' particularly to that of Rome, where he again
anticipates the criticism of Niebuhr in his denial of the
early myths and in their rational explanation. And, though
he himself is not guiltless of the production of mythological
history, and we may now smile at his thunder-storm theory
of civilization, we must remember that it does not materially
differ from the tone of thought which produced the geologi-
cal-catastrophe theories prevalent before the era of Lyell.

Justly, therefore, has Yico been styled the father of the
philosophy of history, in the sense established by literary
usage, which, however, is in the same sense that some type
of Lemur is the father of mankind. He is the ancestor
up to whom we can trace the lineage ; but he is not the
father. Though he had glimpses of truth, there was much
worthless matter together with that which was good. He
seized the fact that civilization is not due to individual
lawgivers, who are merely the expression of the age ; that
progress is due to the natural satisfaction of human needs,

202 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

for which he was to some extent indebted to Machiavelli's
axiom that each man seeks what is best for himself ; that,
given the same circumstances, the same history will be
evolved ; but, owing to the age in which he wrote and the
consequent narrowness of his view, he thought that the
same circumstances did sometimes recur, and hence his
well-known historical corsi and ricorsi. With little more
than the Roman history and the Italy of his day in view,
he thought the only possible change was to some form
which had existed before ; and for this again he was in-
debted to Machiavelli, who was to Yico much the same as
Alexander Bodin to Montesquieu that is, both Bodin and
Machiavelli revived the classical tone of thought and am-
plified it. But the sixteenth century was too 'early, and
those who might have succeeded were necessarily doomed
to fail in an enterprise which was reserved for the genius
of the eighteenth. Before Yico everything was considered
from a supernatural point of view, a method of treatment
of which Bossuet is the most perfect exponent, notwith-
standing that he lived a hundred years later than Bodin.
Had Bossuet not been a priest, and Louis XIY. not been
his king, it is possible that his great powers might have
earned for him the title which Yico subsequently won.
His circumstances, however, overcame his genius, and the
work which professed to be a history of the causes of the
rise and fall of nations, from the earliest times down to
Charlemagne, turned out to be simply so many instances,
made to fit in from history, to his leading idea that the
world exists for the sake of the Catholic Church. 12

12 1 have hardly found in Professor Flint's " Philosophy of History," or
in his account in the " Encyclopaedia Britannica," a single word in Buckle's

BOSSUET. 203

Vico, like Comte, lias not taught us laws of civilization.
But he lias taught us to look for them in the doings of

praise ; and not only does he practically adopt many of Buckle's views with-
out a reference to him (e. g., " Philosophy of History," pp. 7, 27, 94, 101,
104, 128, 129), but actually goes out of his way to accuse him of unfairness
and dishonesty in his account of Bossuet. Mr. Flint's accusation is this :
that it is untrue that Bossuet neglected the Mohammedans, or overrated
Martin of Tours ; and he maintains that the Jewish nation is the most re-
markable in antiquity. Now, in the first place, though Bossuet does say
that he has deferred all consideration of Mohammed for his subsequent
work, yet it is indisputable that he has written a scheme of what he con-
siders the "history of civilization without any mention of Mohammedan
learning. Mr. Flint says Bossuet did not profess to write a history of civili-
zation. I answer, then, what is the meaning of " je reprendrai en particu-
lier, avec les reflexions necessaires, premierement ceux qui nous font en-
tendre la duree perpe"tuelle de la religion, et enfin ceux qui nous decouvrent
les causes des grands changcmenis arrives dans ks empires "? He certainly
puts religion first ; but as certainly professes to treat of the causes of politi-
cal and social changes. I doubt, moreover, that, even if he had written the
continuation he proposed, from the time of Charlemagne to Louis XIV.,
which " vous decouvrira les causes des prodigieux succes de Mahomet et de
ses successeurs," he would have done more than give some account of the
Crusades. It is indisputable, again, that Bossuet, when he does mention
Mahomet, gives a very clear idea of what he considers the " False Prophet "
had to do with civilization, which was simply to inflict a great evil on the
Christian religion. Does Professor Flint really think anything further en-
tered into Bossuet's mind ? Again, as to St. Martin, I have yet to learn that
an author is to be blamed because he cites in a note his authority for the
text. "All that Bossuet has written in his 'Discours,'" says Professor
Flint, " is just the two lines which Mr. Buckle quotes." "Well, and what
then ? Buckle does not accuse Bossuet of saying more than he has quoted
of Martin of Tours. What he does say is : " When he has occasion to men-
tion some obscure member of that class to which he himself belonged, then
it is that he scatters his praises with boundless profusion." But Professor
Flint does not consider that to say of an ignorant priest who is now de-
servedly forgotten that his " unrivaled actions filled the universe with his
fame, both during his lifetime and after his death," is scattering praise
with boundless profusion ; nor does he mention that this is only the most
striking instance among many. And, lastly, if Professor Flint holds the
Jewish nation to have been the " most remarkable in antiquity," I would
ask him on what grounds? They were ignorant, and were obstinate, as
Buckle says. Their morals, their learning, and their laws were obtained
from their neighbors. Their monotheism was perhaps independently

204 BUCKLE'S LIFE AKD WKITINGS.

mankind, and not in the doctrines of any theology. There-
in lies his merit, which is rather a negative than a positive
one.

Montesquieu was the first comprehensively to treat the
phenomena of civilization according to natural laws. There
had been attempts before him, and especially by Bodin, to
connect human affairs with external nature ; but these
treatises are analogous to the sensations of a man who has
lived all his past life in ignorance at home, and who sud-
denly finds himself in a foreign country where every cus-
tom is new to him. He can not think himself into his
subject. So Bodin, the ablest of Montesquieu's predeces-

evolved, but the Buddhists, at least, showed a contemporary monotheism,
and it is probable that the early Assyrians were also at one time monotheis-
tic. The Jews naturally had a good deal of influence on Christian thought,
but certainly not so much as Platonic, Persian, Buddhistic, and Egyptian
theology. But the subject is too large for my space. I will merely add
that both Professor Flint and M. Mayer have read Buckle carelessly if they
suppose that he is unjust to Bossuet in not making allowance for the age in
which he lived. Buckle is not writing a biography of Bossuet illustrated by
history, but a history illustrated by Bossuet. His narrowness and credulity
are solely referred to as an illustration of the fact that under Louis XIV.
even the " towering genius " of Bossuet could not overcome the tendencies
of the age. " In no instance," says Buckle, " can we find a better example
of this reactionary movement than in the case of Bossuet, Bishop of Meaux.
The success, and indeed the mere existence, of his work on Universal His-
tory, becomes from this point of view highly instructive. Considered by
itself, the book is a painful exhibition of a great genius cramped by a su-
perstitious age. But, considered in reference to the time in which it ap-
peared, it is invaluable as a symptom of the French intellect, since it proves
that, toward the end of the seventeenth century, one of the most eminent
men in one of the first countries of Europe could willingly submit to a pros-
tration of judgment, and could display a blind credulity, of which, in our
day, even the feeblest minds would be ashamed ; and that this, so far from
causing scandal, or bringing a rebuke on the head of the author, was re-
ceived with universal and unqualified applause." See Buckle's " History of
Civilization in England," vol. i., pp. 721-729 ; Flint's " The Philosophy of
History in France and Germany," pp. 89-92 ; Mayr's " Die Philosophische
Geschichtsauffassung der Neuzeit," pp. 20, 21.

MACHIAYELLI. 205

sors, wlio had been accustomed to see the finger of God
in every trifling event, suddenly finds, in the writings of
Plato, Hippocrates, Polybius, and other ancient authors,
the very obvious remark that the customs of men are
adapted to the climate in which they happen to dwell.
He attempts to graft these original ideas upon those amid
which he had grown up, and necessarily and inevitably
fails. But Montesquieu, on the other hand, enjoyed the
immense advantage of living two hundred years later than
Bodin. He was thoroughly imbued with the truth enun-
ciated by Machiavelli and Yico, that mankind were per-
petually seeking to satisfy their wants; that, therefore,
their customs and laws were made to suit these wants, or,
in other words, that every law is the result of the circum-
stances by which its makers are surrounded. This is a
discovery which had never been anticipated, and for which
he will ever live. JSTor is his conception of the origin of
laws, great as it is, his only merit, for he also was the first
completely to separate history from biography. Yoltaire
had already insisted on the necessity of a reformation in
the manner of writing history, by paying more attention
to the history of the people, and less to that of their rulers,
and this improvement, as Buckle further points out, " was
so agreeable to the spirit of the time that it was generally
and quickly adopted, and thus became an indication of
those democratic tendencies of which it was, in reality, a
result. It is not, therefore, surprising that Montesquieu
should have taken the same course, even before the move-
ment had been clearly declared, since he, like most great
thinkers, was a representative of the intellectual condition,
and a satisfier of the intellectual wants in which he lived.

206 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

But what constitutes the peculiarity of Montesquieu in
this matter is, that with him a contempt for those details
respecting courts, ministers, and princes, in which ordinary
compilers take great delight, was accompanied by an equal
contempt for other details which are really interesting
because they concern the mental habits of the few truly
eminent men who, from time to time, have appeared on
the stage of public life. This was because Montesquieu
perceived that though these things are very interesting
they are also very unimportant. He knew, what no his-
torian before him had even suspected, that in the great
march of human affairs individual peculiarities count for
nothing, and that, therefore, the historian has no business
with them, but should leave them to the biographer, to
whose province they properly belong. The consequence is,
that not only does he treat the most powerful princes with
such disregard as to relate the reigns of six emperors in two
lines, but he constantly enforces the necessity, even in the
case of eminent men, of subordinating their special influ
ence to the more general influence of surrounding society."
" In his work on the ' Spirit of Laws,' he studies the
way in which both civil and political legislation of a people
are naturally connected with their climate, soil, and food.
It is true that in this vast enterprise he almost entirely
failed ; but this was because meteorology, chemistry, and
physiology were still too backward to admit of such an
undertaking. This, however, affects the value of his con-
clusions, not of his method," which, as Buckle proceeds to
point out, is not affected by the truth or falsehood of his
illustrations. " The difficulty is not to discover facts, but
to discover the true method according to which the laws

MONTESQUIEU. 207

of the facts may be ascertained. In this Montesquieu per-
formed a double service, since he not only enriched history,
but also strengthened its foundation. He enriched his-
tory by incorporating with it physical inquiries, and he
strengthened history by separating it from biography, and
thus freeing it from details which are always unimportant
and often unauthentic. And, although he committed the
error of studying the influence of nature over men consid-
ered as individuals, rather than over men considered as an
aggregate society, this arose principally from the fact that,
in his time, the resources necessary for the more compli-
cated study had not yet been created. ... He failed partly
because the sciences of external nature were too backward,
and partly because those other branches of knowledge
which connect nature with man were still unformed." "

Montesquieu's mistake of studying the influence of
nature over men as individuals was remedied by Kant,
the greatest of German thinkers, with the exception of
Goethe. He it was who first pointed out that, in a large
view of human affairs, free will can be left out of account,
and necessity take its place. He even adduces the tables
of births, deaths, and marriages in support of the fact
that human affairs are subject to natural laws. 14 He
clearly sees that history is governed by circumstances,
and, indeed, has anticipated Laplace's doctrine of necessity
in the simile of human progress to trees in forests which

13 Buckle's " History of Civilization in England," vol. i., pp. 752-766.

u Kant: "Idee zu einer allgemeinen Geschichte in weltbiirgerlicher
Absicht" "Was man sich auch in metaphysischer Absicht fur einen
Begriff von der 'Freiheit des Willens' machen mag; so sind doch die
Erscheinungen desselben, die menschlichen Handlungen, ebensowohl, als
jede andere Naturbegebenheit, nach allgemeinen Naturgesetzen bestimmt."
" Werke," vol. iv., p. 293.

208 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

can only grow upward because their companions deter-
mine their growth." He points out that, though we can
trace no general laws of civilization in individuals, we can
see a tendency in the mass, which, he thinks, is to express
an entity, an ideal man in humanity, brought about, not
by his desire to do this or that, but by the pressure of
circumstances which leave but one course open to him.
Kant's merit is to have perceived that the force of cir-
cumstance is too strong for free will, and that laws may
be traced in the conduct of the mass of human beings,
which are invisible in the individual. Yet he, like so
many others, must conceive a goal toward which all men
are striving. It is this assumed necessity for an aim in
civilization beyond the present even in the remote fu-
ture which marks how little the true laws of civilization
have as yet sunk into men's minds, a badge of slavery to
the old idea that mankind are extra to the rest of nature,
and not subject like the rest of the universe to general
laws. Hence it is that so many reviewers have com-
plained that Buckle has left civilization undefined. De-
fine civilization ? As well might we attempt to define the
Deity, or think it necessary that He should be defined
before the laws of morals could successfully be investi-
gated! When will mankind cease talking of humility
and be really humble? When will they allow the uni-
verse to be something more than a mere pedestal for their
display ? When will they admit that they are but a part
of a grand whole, and that, perhaps, not the apple of the
eye ? No one thinks it necessary to look for a summum
lonum in mathematics, chemistry, or geology, and, if they

15 Kant: "Werke," vol. iv., p. 299.

KANT. 209

do look wistfully to the future for a time when all sci-
ences shall be displayed, they know they do but dream,
and such speculations are not necessary to the perfection
of any science. Why, then, should it be so difficult to
conceive that the laws of history may satisfactorily be
studied without first determining whither man's steps are
tending or where his progress shall be stopped ?

Kant, however, confined his speculations rather to the
political side of progress than the material, and this is
always apt to lead to those dangerous assumptions as to
imaginary perfection such as misled St. Simon, Comte,
and others. He saw that history might be predicted, and,
above all, saw that to do so required a large historical
knowledge ; and hence, though he failed in giving a fore-
cast of the way in which history should be written, he
has contributed to its philosophy important and original
truths, without attempting an elaboration, in which he
certainly would have failed.

Finally came Buckle, who, with a precision hitherto
unknown, has pointed out the real laws which govern
human affairs. He is the first to have raised history to
a science, because he first wrote it scientifically. He
pursues the same method as scientific workers in other
branches of knowledge, and substantiates his researches
in the same way. Here there is no groping in the dark,
no ideas thrown out of which the author does not know
the full value, no hap-hazard and uncorroborated state-
ments. Everything is strictly logical: not a mere logic
of words, but a logic of facts. Compare him with whom
you will compare him with Comte and how striking
is the difference ! The latter may be challenged at every

210 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

step ; the former, armed from top to toe, is invulnerable.
They were contemporary, and, if anything, Comte, with
his foreign education, to whom speculations on the laws
of civilization were open from his childhood, had the
advantage over the Engish thinker, to whom these things
must be new. But mark the difference. The great
Frenchman, sagacious, quick, and extremely self-confident,
chooses His course while his mind is yet green and un-
formed, and deliberately shuts himself off from all further
knowledge, in the vain hope that his views would by such
means be more logical ; and that, since he would not hear
conflicting opinions, neither would he be influenced by
wrong ones. Yain hope ! He only succeeded in shutting
out those views which might have corrected and broad-
ened his field of humanity. There is hardly a note to his
" Physique Sociale," never a confirmation of a fact ; and,
having adopted the three-stage theory from his predeces-
sors, and modified it to truth, he treats it as an hotel-
keeper does his wine labels, which he considers have the
power of changing the quality of the wine. Instead of
looking upon the three stages as mere descriptions of an
invariable sequence of ideas, he makes them dynamical,
and refers everything to their action, rather than to the
action of general laws, to which he assigns a very subor-
dinate position.

Buckle, on the other hand, might have been writing
the elements of Euclid, as far as his method is concerned.
In his proof that men do not act without motives, that
these motives are the natural result of their circumstances,
and so on through his book, he proceeds step by step,
eliminating, as a chemist during an analysis, law after law.

HIS ADMIRABLE MERIT. 211

He then begins to confirm these laws by pointing out how
every action of mankind is explained by them. Though he
probably has not connected man with nature <&s intimately
as hereafter he will be, 18 he did connect for the first time
all the known sciences with history, and is, therefore, just
as much the founder of the science of history, in the true
sense of the word, as Adam Smith was of political econ-
omy. Both had predecessors in their work, and both,
unlike their predecessors, left the foundation of their sub-
jects so sound and sure that, though they may be added
to, the foundation itself need never be altered. Much
will no doubt be added to Buckle's work, as much has
been to Adam Smith's, but nothing will be taken away.
He has left the main part unfinished, but it will have to
be finished in the way he has indicated. The general
laws, not merely evolved out of his inner consciousness,
but discovered by patient investigation, are there. Some,
of course, were known before, but they have been relieved
of their superincumbent mass of useless matter, so as to
have acquired a new, an increased, and a far more general
force. Others, and some of the most important, he has
enunciated for the first time : such as the dependency of
morals upon the intellectual state of the people;" the
greater value of popularization of knowledge as compared

16 As, for instance, in the probable effects of astral influences on mete-
orology and economical affairs.

17 Comte certainly pointed out that moral truths are useless without
some civilization, and that the value of morality depends upon the way in
which it is practiced (" Philosophic Positive," v., 416-419). But he did not
see that moral truths are stationary, and dependent upon the state of intel-
lectual knowledge for their interpretation. There have, besides, been many
other approaches ; but none come near to Buckle. What Condorcet says,
for instance, was simply to show how small is the power of the Church
when not backed by public opinion.

212 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

with its concentration ; and, above all, lie has shown, what
Montesquieu and his disciples could only indicate, the im-
possibility of escape from general laws ; not that he taught
man to be permanently subject to them, as so many of
Buckle's reviewers have carelessly conceived, but that it
is useless to draw off the water of a dropsy until the heart
is cured ; it is useless to amend the proximate agent un-
less the higher and governing power is altered.

I know well that I shall be accused of the common
fault of the biographer, that I have gazed upon the bright-
ness of my hero until I can see naught else. And truly
there is so much of goodness and greatness in mankind
that the character of any one who towers above the rest
must necessarily and honestly be most worthy to him who
studies it most. To others, his light is obscured by the
multitude of other lights ; in some cases the nearer appear
to the careless observer the brightest ; in others, he may as-
cribe mysterious magnitude to the distant twinkle which
has shone from time long gone through all the time ensu-
ing. I can not say. My judgment may be affected as the
judgments of others have been before now. But, looking
at those things on which our judgment should be based,
it does seem to me that reason, at least as much as affec-
tion, has governed me in my estimation. Consider his
youth, his delicate state of health, his self-education, the
enormous drudgery he went through, and vast amount of
reading he achieved ; his self-denial, his love of truth, his
kindness to others, his charity and warmth of heart.
These raise him personally above the average of men.
Consider, again, the breadth and depth of his speculations,
his wonderful memory and vast power of assimilation,

HIS PLACE IN HISTORY. 213

which gave him in every book he read a new soldier in
his army of truth ; an army in which every man was effec-
tive, because Buckle knew how to use him, Tjr-hile another
would have been simply confused, each individual would
have impeded the other, and the greater the army the
more hopelessly would theyjiav-e- been clubbed. This
gift of generalship, and the still higher and rarer gift of
generalization which Buckle possessed in so eminent a
degree, when found together with that quality which is
best defined as strong common sense, are so rare and valu-
able that we can not choose but allow him greatness who
possesses them. It is proved when a man of small for-
tune, without assistance from friends, is suddenly sought
after and caressed by all that is best in his native country,
his fame spreads to the four quarters of the globe, his
name long after his death constantly appearing in the
literature of the day, and his works, translated into the
chief European languages, continually being reprinted,
and creating a literature of their own.

And these works, what are they ? But a fragment of
a fragment.

CHAPTEE Y.

Election to the Athenaeum To the Political Economy Club Lecture at the
Koyal Institution Success and Sorrow Letters Volume II. Anticipa-
tion of Death Mill's " Liberty "The Eights of Women Death of Mrs.
Buckle Grief of her Son Pooley's Case "Letter to a Gentleman"
Illness Stay at Blackheath Kindness to Children Utilitarianism and
Morals Death of his Nephew Stay at Carshalton Further Illness.

THE full recognition by society in London of the value
of Buckle's work had hardly time to show itself before its
ebb. But with the returning flood at the beginning of
1858 the tide of honors began rapidly to rise. Having
been put up for election at the Athenaeum, it soon became
evident that this election would meet with considerable
opposition ; the clerical element, which had not been lov-
ingly treated in the " History of Civilization," did not pro-
pose to return good for evil, but would do their utmost to
avenge his trespasses against their profession, and prevent
the purity of their club from being spotted by the mem-
bership of such a skeptic : insomuch that Buckle was even
advised to allow himself to be elected by the committee
rather than run the risk of failure, which his friends, nu-
merous as they were, believed to be imminent. But this
was not Buckle's way. Great as the honor of election by
the committee is, it would have been contrary to all self-
respect to shirk the battle. His friends did their utmost ;
and, when the time came, it became clear that he had no-

ELECTION TO THE ATHENAEUM. 215

thing to fear. Some there were who knew him, many
who admired his book, and many more who could not
brook the disgrace which the action of a mere* cabal sought
to bring upon the club. One gentleman told an active
supporter of Buckle's that he had been asked to go down
to vote against him " because of his religious views." " If
that is your reason," he replied, " I shall certainly go and
vote for him." Indeed, so invisible had the opposition
become that many of those who had feared it most began
to doubt whether it had ever existed ; yet it was the opin-
ion of a member of no mean authority that the party had
had a very substantial existence, but had drawn off on see-
ing the strong general manifestation in Buckle's favor
probably from a proper respect to the wishes of the club,
though a different reason has been assigned for it. 1 It is fair
to say, however, that the greater number of clergy were
in his favor, and in the result he was triumphantly elected
by 264 votes to 9. The Political Economy Club spontane-
ously elected him a member, 2 and finally he was invited by
the Secretary of the Royal Institution to lecture there.

With the knowledge that we have since the publication
of his " Posthumous Papers," we see how he thought much
on the " Influence of women on the progress of knowledge,"
and would naturally choose that theme for his lecture.
" Most able men have had able mothers," he remarks as an
accepted axiom in his mind ; and adds, " I shall hereafter
from a vast collection of evidence prove that the popular

1 It has been said, with how much truth I know not, that the majority
gave the cabal pretty clearly to understand that, if Buckle were pipped, they
would do the same for every clergyman put up.

2 December 2, 1868 : " Dined for the first time with the Political Econ-
omy Club, which elected me a member spontaneously."

216 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

opinion is correct, that able men have able mothers. Wo-
men ought to educate their children, and, in fact, nearly
always do so after a fashion ; for education is not books." 3
He felt what an inestimable benefit the atmosphere of a
cultivated mother had been to him, and he wished to point
out perhaps influenced by Miss ShirrefFs work how
mankind is harmed by neglect of women's education.

, Expectation was on tiptoe. The novelty, the great
reputation of Buckle, and the fact that he had never spo-
ken in public before, excited the liveliest curiosity. He
began preparing his lecture on January 18th, and worked
daily at it up to the 21st February, writing out the main
points, and then (as he calls it) studying it, or, in other
words, rehearsing. He also, very wisely, attended the Fri-
day-evening lectures at the Royal Institution, which he
had never been to before, in order that he might accustom
himself to the theatre and the audience. On the 9th he
began writing it out for the press, as Mr. Parker was anx-
ious to publish it in " Fraser " ; but broke off, writing to

Mr. Parker :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 10th March, 1858.

" MY DEAR SIR : I can not make up my mind to write
the lecture, because, if I were to do so, I am sure that new
views or expressions would open themselves to me in
speaking, and I should deliver something quite different
from what I had written.

" But I intend to take notes, and, as I have a pretty
good memory, I am certain that with their aid I could
write out the lecture in two days after it was delivered ;
and, as you appear anxious [to] have it, I should not object

3 " Posthumous Works," vol. i., pp. 325, 326.

LECTUEE AT THE ROYAL INSTITUTION. 217

to do so. The only proviso I would make is, that I do
not forfeit the copyright in it by your printing it in < Fra-
ser.' Of course I have not the least intention-, at present
of exercising such power, and I need hardly say that I
would do nothing to effect the sale of 'Fraser,' if you
print the lecture there. Only as a principle, I have de-
termined never to surrender the copyright in whatever
I write.

" Have you succeeded in getting a ticket for the 19th ?
If not, I will, if I possibly can, send you one, but I can not
promise till three or four days beforehand. Please let me
know as soon as you can.

" If the lecture is printed in < Fraser,' could I have
eight or ten copies struck off separately, or would this be
inconvenient or unusual ? "

Numberless applications for tickets had to be refused,
and even Buckle could not get as many as he wanted. As
Mr. Barlow writes to him: "It is very hard that you
should be limited because of your just popularity. But
what can be done ? I can not expand the lecture-room,
nor prevent members from exercising their right to in-
dulge themselves and their friends with a high intellectual
gratification."

On the evening of March 19th the doors of the Royal
Institution were opened some time before the usual hour
to admit the throng of fashionable people who had col-
lected, and by the usual time for opening the theatre was
crammed from floor to ceiling by a brilliant and excited
audience, of which ladies formed a by no means inconsid-
erable portion. As the hour struck, and Mr. Buckle

218 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

walked in, tlie loud buzz of conversation was drowned in
a burst of applause, which in turn gave way, as the lec-
turer opened his lips, to a silence in which one might
have heard a pin drop. Beginning in a somewhat low
voice, to husband his power, he soon warmed up, and
spoke on with great energy and action in that beautifully
modulated voice so well known to his friends, without
pause, without even hesitation, for an hour and forty min-
utes. He had written the heads of his lecture on a card,
at the earnest solicitation of Mr. Barlow, who warned him
how terrifying he would find the fixed gaze of nearly a
thousand people, and how probable it was that the sight
of his first expectant audience would unnerve him; but
he never once took it out of his pocket. This thorough
success of his maiden lecture gave Buckle the greatest
pleasure, which he did not attempt to conceal. Faraday,
Owen, and Murchison severally thanked him for the
great treat they had enjoyed ; and from all sides he re-
ceived letters of congratulation and of thanks.

Notwithstanding the letter to Mr. Parker, he had al-
ready written the lecture out before it was delivered, and
immediately after he set to revising it. On March 22d he
writes again to him :

" I have, by sitting up very late last night and work-
ing hard to-day, succeeded in writing out the lecture. I
am really so tired that I can't read it over, and I send it to
you as it is, feeling quite unequal to make a better copy,
as I had intended. You will, of course, let me see the
proof with the MS.

" I have received the most gratifying letters from men
of influence as to the effect produced by my lecture all

LETTER TO MISS SHIBREFF. 219

regarding it as an epoch, and urging me to have it pub-
lished. From this I have reason to believe that the de-
mand will be considerable. Possibly you may think it
worth while to print a hundred, or a hundred and fifty,
more copies of ' Fraser ' than usual. I do not mean this
in regard to myself, as I don't intend to give more than

four or five copies away.

" Yours very truly, etc."

" 23d March. I was unavoidably prevented from
sending this last night, and I now open my letter to add
that, since writing it, I have received such a quantity of
fresh communications as proves that the effect produced is
far greater."

Immediately after the publication of his first volume
he had begun to work at the second, for which he had
already got the greater part of the material by his pre-
vious reading. Yet, even while engaged upon this, and
also on the preparation of his lecture, he could still find
time to help his friends. We have already seen one letter
for help for Captain Woodhead ; he also helps Miss Shir-

reff:

"HALSTEAD, 19th June, 1857.

" DEAR Miss SHIEREFF : I am very much distressed to
hear from Mrs. Bowyear so poor an account of your
health ; and what I regret, if possible, more is, that your
letter, as she tells me, shows symptoms of a want of con-
fidence and a disheartening feeling respecting your work,
and the probability of bringing what you are engaged on
to a successful issue. What this is I have experienced,
though happily only for a short time, and at long inter-
vals ; but when, as in your case, it is aggravated by sharp

220 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

physical pain, the combination must, indeed, be hard to
bear. The best way for you to console yourself is to re-
flect that the mental depression is mainly caused by the
state of the body ; that it will pass away ; and that it is
essentially unfounded, because, on comparing what you
can do with what others have done in your field, you have
every right to feel sanguine. You know that I make it
the business of my life to study what pertains to the intel-
lect, and I may therefore venture to believe that on such
a point I am a fair judge ; and I do honestly and deliber-
ately say that what you can and will do must be valu-
able looking at the amount of careful thought and of
natural power you have already expended on the subject
of education. I hope you know me too well to hold me
capable of the baseness of flattery ; but, firmly as I am
satisfied of the truth of what I am saying, I would not say
it except that I fear you are flagging in mind as well as in
body, and my regard for you is too sincere to let me think
this without doing what I may to remedy this case so
far as the want of confidence is concerned. If I can possi-
bly help you in any way, if you want my opinion respect-
ing any educational books or others which I have not
read, I will get them, read them carefully, and let you
know what I think. Pray give me something to do for
you. I am now pretty well, my time is my own, and a
few weeks' delay in preparing my second volume would
be as nothing compared to the pleasure of furthering your
labors and cheering you in the prosecution of them. Any
MS. you have prepared' I will read through carefully, and
would play the true part of a friend in criticising it closely
and severely. But pray keep up your spirits, and remem-

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 221

ber that the subject you are engaged on is one of the
noblest that could possibly be selected ; and that I am as
certain as I am of my own existence that you will succeed.
" I am enjoying myself here very much, and, instead
of the two or three days I meditated, shall remain till the
beginning of next week."

But, while in the very noontide of his fame, strong in
the citadel of his reputation, honored, feted, and feared,
he saw only too clearly that happiness would nevermore
be his. He had had hardly time to sip the cup before it
was dashed from his lips. As he turned homeward from
those gatherings of all that was of worth in London, the
contrast was great, indeed, of what was and might have
been. Another's loss too clearly shadowed forth his own :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 5ih August, 1857.

" MY DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : I am shocked, indeed, at
this melancholy event. Poor Mr. Grey! how deeply I
feel for him to lose his mother thus suddenly I wish
you had told me how he bears it. "What anxiety, too, for
Mrs. Grey ! But I think more of her husband. She loses
only an aunt ; he, a mother. Poor Grey ! I wrote a few
lines to him the moment I received your letter. I much
wish I could have seen you this evening, but I dine at

Mrs. 's, with little heart, however, either for that or

anything else. I am broken-spirited, and care for nothing
but I would not put off my engagement : I am easily
excited, and excitement just now will do me good.

" To-morrow I go to Herne Bay. My mother is mis-
erably feeble ; but the threatening symptoms have all dis-
appeared, and they assure me that there is no cause for

222 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

present apprehension. This is what they say present ap-
prehension ! I know the meaning of that, and I see the
future but too clearly."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 5th August, 1857.
"MY DEAR GREY: Perhaps I ought to abstain from
intruding on your grief, while sorrow is still so fresh ; but
we have been for some time on such intimate terms that I
can not resist the impulse of my heart, which urges me to
express the deep and earnest sympathy which I feel for
you under your irreparable calamity. Not that I, or in-
deed any one, can offer consolation ; for I have more than
once undergone in anticipation what you are suffering in
reality, and it has always seemed to me that consolation
may be for the dead, but never for the living. Still, you
are not, as I should be you have not lost all, you do not
stand alone in the world. At all events, if I may judge
of my own feelings of what would be precious to me had
I received so heavy a blow, you will not think that, in say-
ing how from the bottom of my heart I sympathize with
you, I am unduly trespassing on what is sacred to yourself.
You will rather believe that I write to you because my
mind is overflowing, and because it seems to me that I
have need to tell you what I feel."

" HERNE BAY, llth August, 1857.

" MY DEAR MRS. GREY : Your few lines with Mr.
Grey's note have been just sent to me from Oxford Ter-
race ; and, glad as I am to hear of you, I am almost sorry
that at such a moment he thought it necessary to answer
what I wrote, as I am fearful of ever seeming to intrude on
the thoughts of one bowed down by so grievous an affliction.

SUCCESS AND SORROW. 223

" I left town early on Thursday morning for Herne
Bay, and found my mother very weak, but calm, and per-
fectly happy. Month after month she is n<?w gradually
altering for the worse at times slightly better, but, on the
whole, perceptibly losing ground. Her mind is changed,
even since I was here last ; * she is unable to read, she
confuses one idea with another, and nothing remains of
her, as she once was, except her smile and the exquisite
tenderness of her affections. I while away my days here
doing nothing, and caring for nothing because I feel that
I have no future.

" Dear Mrs. Grey, I did not intend to write a note to
make you feel uncomfortable ; but my mind is now full
of one idea, and I can not help dwelling on it. When
you too are suffering, it seems selfish in me; but you
would not care for my writing if I did not speak what was
within."

" HERNE BAY, 5th September, 1857.

" MY DEAK Miss SHTRKEFF : You will no doubt have
received through Mrs. Grey a message from me. To that
I have now nothing to add, except that all remains the
same the mind (at least the intellect) irretrievably shat-
tered ; but what remains is apparently safe for the pres-
ent ; at least, there is no reason for apprehension beyond
the constant uncertainty incidental to such a state. For
the future I shall say nothing upon this, unless, contrary
to all expectation I had almost said contrary to all possi-
bility there should be a favorable change ; in which case
you shall know immediately.

4 June 30th.

224 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

" Your account of the progress of your own work is
very cheering. Any parts of it that you wish me to see
in MS. I will gladly read and give my very best attention
to. Do not scruple about this, as to help you would give
me real pleasure ; and, although I am still unable to write,
I am as equal as ever to reading and thinking. If you
could send it in the form of a registered letter^ I would
keep it with my own papers till I had read it, and return
it to you registered / in which case there is, I believe,
hardly an instance of loss, so many precautions being
taken. I am very anxious that you should execute this
work really well. Much will depend upon it, both for
your sake, and for the sake of the important subject of
education. I do not for a moment suppose that I should
be able to suggest to you new ideas on a subject you have
so deeply pondered, but possibly something might occur
to me (if I saw the whole work) as to the arrangement of
the topics or chapters ; and I need not remind you how
dependent all books (and particularly one like yours) are
on this almost mechanical consideration.

"Perhaps, too, other little points might be brought
out ; at all events, whatever the length of your MS. may
be, I should like to see the whole of it (if you are willing
that I should do so) when and how you think advisable.
As soon as I know full particulars I will take the first
opportunity of speaking to Parker, and I believe I can
answer for his acceptance of what I shall strongly, but
most conscientiously, recommend to him.

"I receive from all quarters the most favorable ac-
counts of the success of my work and, strange enough,

LETTER TO MISS SHIREEFF. 225

even at Oxford among the High-Church party. This
passes my comprehension ; but the ' Gentleman's Maga-
zine' is entirely in the hands of the Oxford people;
and yet see what they say of me in the number for
September just published."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 26th October, 1857.

" MY DEAR Miss SHERKEFF : I received your letter yes-
terday, and though very glad to hear from you, the plea-
sure was somewhat lessened by the account you give of
your work. "What ! Faint at the eleventh hour ! Im-
possible ! Surely you do not mean that you despair about
your book because it can not be all that you wish. And
as to your other objection, that your system of education
is different from others, and that therefore you will not
get a hearing, I do not believe that these are days in
which a view of education (or of any other subject) can be
suppressed because it is new. Pray go on ; then let me
see it ; and trust the rest to me, to Mr. Parker, and to the
public. Me first ! and the public last ! Observe the
vanity of the man. Seriously, I want to know that you
are advancing, as the right publishing season will soon be
at hand.

" I am better ; and able to work, and even to write a
little. . . . We are now settled in town. "We have never
returned home so early, and I do not know how so much
of London will agree with me. For my mother I make
no doubt it is the best plan, as we dare not risk for her the
chance of taking cold in traveling, and she always seems
happier here than anywhere else. . . .

" My book is selling extremely well."

226 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 4th February, 1858.

" MY DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : I am delighted. You have
come up to my expectations, and that is saying much. I
have now (2 P. M.) read to page TO, and therefore will de-
lay no longer telling you what I think. "When I saw you
last night I purposely abstained from giving you an opin-
ion, though I saw that you wanted one. I abstained, be-
cause your opening did not satisfy me, and does not quite
satisfy me now ; and seeing you so unwell I could not find
it in my heart to tell you so : and I should ill repay the
confidence you place in me if I were to flatter you ; there-
fore I said nothing. But the latter half of Chapter I. and
what I have read in Chapter II. are truly admirable. But
the opening is weak : I mean weak, not in conception, but
as a work of art. I intend first to finish the whole ; and
then carefully read again, and, if necessary, study the first
chapter, and we will then look it over. It is possible that
I may change my mind ; but I do not think I shall. You
may rely upon my giving your work such earnest and pa-
tient attention as real friendship can secure.

" Remember that I am only discontented with a small
part ; and that only because I compare you with yourself.
I would have called to-day to tell you all this, but am
obliged to go in a different direction ; and as I dine out at
a distance and must be home earlier than usual to dress."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 5th February, 1858.
" DEAR Miss SHIRKEFF : . . . Since writing to you
yesterday I have read about 20 more pages, all good: clear-
ly arranged, clearly written, and sometimes eloquent. I
have no alterations to suggest beyond a few trifling matters

LETTERS TO MISS SHIRREFF. 227

solely in regard to style. If you have written the remain-
der in the same way, I shall venture to pronounce it much
superior to anything you have yet done."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 15th February, 1858.

" DEAE Miss SHIEEEFF : I send with this note your
first four chapters. The fifth I have nearly finished ; but,
as I am reading the MS. with great care, I go on slowly,
especially as I can do nothing to it by candle-light. The
style is on the whole very good / indeed, your choice of
words is admirable; and the only fault is that the sen-
tences are too long.

" Don't be alarmed at my lengthy list of corrections ; I
have simply done for your MS. precisely what I would
have done for my own. Some of my suggestions you will
no doubt disapprove of : in such case, let them stand over
till we meet.

" I have proposed no alteration rashly ; but the reason
of the proposal may not be at once apparent.

" The arrangement is good, clear, and symmetrical. I
am sorry I can't find more fault, it is so pleasant to be
spiteful at least, I enjoy it."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 22d February, 1858.

" MY DEAE Miss SHIEEEFF : I return Chapter L, which
I have read through twice, once to-day and once yesterday.
I have, moreover, very carefully thought it over, and al-
though I can not pretend to think it equal to the other
parts, still I now believe that it had better not be altered,
because I do not think alteration would improve it.

" My impression is that your mind is better calculated

228 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

to work out principles deductively (as you do in the body
of the book) than to rise to those principles by an induc-
tive and historical investigation, such as that contained in
Chapter I.

" The best of us can not do all things equally well, and
I only dislike Chapter I. when I compare it with what you
do in other matters. If I were to compare it with what
other writers on education have done, I should not have a
word to say against it. Still, I clearly see that the chapter
is essential to what follows : therefore it must stand, and
I would let it remain as it is. Another remark I ought in
justice to make is, that perhaps I am too harsh toward
Chapter L, because to me the whole matter seems so ob-
vious that I tire of an elaborate proof of a truism. It is
very difficult for me to forego my own point of view, and
(as it were, forgetting my knowledge) put myself in the
point of view of the majority of your readers. Yet this
is what I ought to do to give a sound judgment. You
must, therefore, take what I have said with this allow-
ance, and not affix too much value to my slight censure,
which is, after all, a relative censure rather than an abs.0-
lute one.

" To-morrow, or next day at the latest, you shall have
Chapters V., YL, and YII. ; and the other two I hope by
the end of the week.

" I have not the slightest doubt of the success of your
work.

" Your reasons for the word ' intellectual ' in the title-
page seem satisfactory; but you had better consult Mr.
Parker as to this."

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 229

' ' 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 3d March, 1858.

" DEAR Miss SHIKREFF : I send Koch, three volumes.
Your latter chapters I like quite as much a- the others.
Some parts are admirable, but, looking at the book practi-
cally and as a work of art, I am of opinion that it is rather
too long. Still, I am not sure about this, and it may
well be that I am wrong.

" Are you serious in thinking to decoy me into writing
a dissertation on the professional employments of women ?
for you certainly know that without a dissertation it would
be impossible for me to write anything. The subject is
too large, and any opinion I might give would require to
be limited. All I know is that the matter is one of ex-
treme difficulty.

" The Dr. Smith, editor of the ' Dictionaries,' is Dr.
William Smith. He very civilly called on me the other
day, and that's how I know the name so pat.

" What you say in your letter about Smyth's lectures
is quite true ; and, as you have modified the praise, there
can be no objection to it.

" I do heartily rejoice to think that I have been of use
to you, and to hear you say so gives me real pleasure.

" Sincerely yours, etc.

" My mother is quite as well as usual. Dr. Bright was
much pleased with her to-day."

But her health, nevertheless, was in a very critical state,
and in July he staid with her and his sister, Mrs. Allatt,
at St. Helena Cottage, at Tunbridge Wells. Besides
looking through Miss Shirreff's MS., he was bringing out
a second edition of his first volume, and writing his second.

230 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" TUNBRIDGE WELLS, ST. HELENA COTTAGE,
"21slJuly, 1858.

"My DEAR SiE 5 : Thanks for the check for 665 7s.,
which I have just received as balance due for my first edi-
tion. The account is quite satisfactory, and the charge
for advertising very moderate.

" "When you pay the 500 for the second edition, please
to pay it into the London and Westminster Bank, to the
account of my cousin, Henry Buckle, of 40 Westbourne
Terrace.

"The fact is that, my income consisting entirely of
dividends, which I draw as I want them, I have no bankers ;
but my cousin, Mr. Henry Buckle, who is one of the di-
rectors of the "Westminster Bank, always manages for me
the very few business transactions which I have. I shall
write to him by to-day's post to tell him that you will pay
500 to his account shortly, but I am not quite sure what
I had better do with the check you have sent me, as my
name must be put on the back of it before it is presented,
and in that state [if] it falls into improper hands, the law
is so uncertain about crossed checks that I might be run-
ning some risk. Would it be the same thing to you if
you paid the two sums into the "Westminster Bank to my
cousin's account, leaving me either to destroy the check or
to return it to you by post, if it is quite safe to transmit it
in that way, which, from your sending it, I presume to be
the case ?

" I shall take no notice of the ( Quarterly.' The ani-
mus is too evident to do any harm. Besides, there is really
nothing to answer. The reviewer has had a year to ex-

Mr. Parker.

LETTER TO MR. PARKER. 231

amine my notes and authorities, and neither he nor, in-
deed, any of my opponents have even accused me (much
less convicted me) of incorrect or garbled quotations. As
to the general principles at issue, they can never be dealt
with in a controversy ; and, having said in my work all
that I can say, I must leave men to decide between them
and the opposite views.

" I am glad to hear that you are about to take a holi-
day. I hope it will do you good. I am working closer
and more successfully than I have been able to do for the
last three years."

WELLS, ST. HELENA COTTAGE,
"27th July, 1858.

" MY DEAK SIR 6 : I am really so very busy on ' Scot-
land,' and it would take so much thought as well as time to
write a proper review of Miss ShirrefFs book, that I can
not undertake it, at all events at present. I saw the
' Saturday Keview,' and a miserable article it was, written
in a bad spirit, and by a man evidently incapable of tak-
ing a grasp of the subject. I am inclined to agree with
you that there a/re rather too many books recommended,
but that is at worst only an error of detail, and a work of
so much power must stand or fall according to the sound-
ness or unsoundness of its general principles. Besides, it is
a mistake on the right side ; for it is easier for a parent or
governess to curtail a good list of books than to add to it.

" Thanks about the check. A day or so will of course
not be important, but the fact is that I wrote last Saturday
giving a commission to buy 1,000 of this New Zealand

6 To the same.

232 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Loan, which is just issued and guaranteed by government,
and, as Mr. Henry Buckle pays for it, I do not like him to
be without funds. "When I wrote to him I mentioned that
you would pay 1,165 Is. to his account. I have had a
good laugh at Daniel some people are so funny.

" Sincerely yours, etc.

"I hope you do not take it ill that I should again
decline writing a review of Miss ShirrefL But I really
find that I have more to do than I expected ; and I am
determined that, if possible, my second volume shall not
disgrace the first. I have about two hundred volumes on
Scotland down here to get through."

1 '59 OXFORD TERRACE, 25th September, 1858.

" DEAK Miss SHIKREFF : I will send to Chester Street
either to-day or to-morrow a Dutch work in two volumes
on the ' History of Manners,' which I think you will like.
If you have it sent down to Twickenham, please to give
particular orders about the packing, as I value it very
much ; it being out of print in Holland, and entirely un-
known in England. It will give you a fair specimen of
those curious parts of Dutch literature of which your in-
dustry has supplied the key. I am truly glad to hear of
your progress. . . .

" Your book is selling steadily, but of course slowly.
At this time of the year it is much for a book to sell at all.

" The g in Dutch is always guttural even at the begin-
ning of words.

"... I am remarkably well, and able to work with
perfect comfort upward of eight hours, so that Yol. II.
is happy in its mind. My mother sends her love. We

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 233

shall, I hope, in about a week go to Brighton for two
months.

" The old Dutch spelling (i. e., of seventeenth century or
even part of eighteenth) is more like the present Flemish.
Now the spelling is nearly always the same ; and your eye
will soon get used to the very slight difference the prin-
cipal being ij for y."

"BRIGHTON, 13th October, 1858.

" MY DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : After your truly kind let-
ter I can not delay letting you know that we arrived here
Monday, 7 and that my mother was less fatigued by the
journey than I had expected; and, as coming here has
done no harm, the hope remains of its doing good. But I
am not sanguine ; I have been too often and too cruelly
disappointed for that.

" I hope you will like the Dutch books. There is a
noble field open there for anybody; and yet, strange to
say, no Englishman has cultivated it. I was thinking that
a life of Grotius would not be a bad enterprise. He has
deservedly a great name, and his career was full of adven-
ture. But we will talk of this when we meet, and, as to
the practical part of the question, I should like to hear
what Parker says.

" You had better get from the London Library Davies's
4 History of Holland, 5 and use it as a text-book, i. e., make
systematic notes from it, so as to thoroughly master the
leading events in Dutch history. I would also recommend
your drawing up an abstract of the somewhat scanty notices
of Dutch Literati in Hallam's * Literature ' ; reading each
life in ' Biographic Universelle.' There is nothing like

* October llth.

234 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

taking a general survey before doing any one thing. If
you could get hold of Paquot, ' Hist. Lit. des Pays Bas, 5
you would find it useful."

" October, 1858.

" DEAR MRS. BOWYEAR : . . . . For the last three weeks
I have been unable to write a single line of my ( History,'
and I now confine myself to reading and thinking, which
I can do as well as ever, though I am too unsettled to com-
pose. My mother is just the same as when I wrote last,
caring for nothing but seeing me, though she is too unwell
to converse. . . .

" While she is in this state, nothing could induce me
to leave her, even for a day, without absolute necessity.
She has no pleasure left except that of knowing that I am
near her, and, as long as that remains, she shall never
lose it.

"... I want change, for, besides my anxiety, I am
vexed, and, to say the truth, a little frightened at my sud-
den and complete inability to compose."

' ' BRIGHTON, 5th November, 1858.

" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : The only good history of Hol-
land in Dutch that I know of is by "Wagenaar, with Bilder-
dyk's continuation. You would probably not read the
whole of it, as it is in sixty-one volumes about twice the
size of Sismondi, 'Hist, des Francais.' You will, how-
ever, have to use it ; and, fortunately, I have a complete
copy.

" I don't agree as to the circulating libraries being the
main support of a ' Life of Grotius.' Such a biography, if
done carefully, would be very valuable, and would be pur-

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 235

chased by many persons for their own libraries. But more
of this anon. I have at home some valuable materials for
you. In the mean time, try and get Burign^'s ' Life of
Grotius ' (about 1T50), written in French, but perhaps the
English translation may be easier procured. We shall be
in town, I hope, the first week in December. During the
last ten days my mother seems to have rallied a little, but
I can not tell.

" There is a c Life of Grotius ' by Charles Butler very
poor."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 28d December, 1858.

"MY DEAR Miss SHIEEEFF: . . . Both in Dutch and
Spanish there are many openings ; and, when I was think-
ing about you the other day, it occurred to me how much
remained to be done for the early geography (fifteenth
and sixteenth centuries), and the adventurous lives of the
explorers men half geographers and half missionaries.
Above all, in reading Dutch, remember that nearly every-
thing is new to the English ; and, therefore, take copious
and precise notes of all curious matters. They are sure
to come in usefully.

" You will be shocked to learn that Mr. Petheram died
suddenly a few days ago. As soon as I heard of it, I
thought of c Self-Culture ' ; and I made every necessary
inquiry yesterday afternoon. It is difficult to arrive at the
truth ; but, unless different parties have deceived me or
are deceived themselves, you are quite safe i. e., his af-
fairs are not left embarrassed. The business will be car-
ried on for at least some time. You must take this infor-
mation for what it is worth. I have collected it from
booksellers whom I think I can rely upon. Still, you had

236 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

better write to Mr. Petheram (his son, quite a youth, has
the management of everything), and say that he is no
doubt aware that your book was published on commission
only ; and that, as you suppose the business will not be
carried on, you would wish the remaining copies to be
returned to your house. This I advise as a matter of
precaution. The burial is to be to-morrow ; and I would
write on Monday morning.

"Will you tell Mrs. Grey that Dr. Addison is to be
here to-day at four o'clock (do you know, Dr. Bright died
suddenly ?), and, therefore, I can not call upon her, as she
wished. Neither could I yesterday ; for, having only just
heard of Mr. Petheram' s death, I was engaged the greater
part of the day in collecting such information as would be
useful to you to know.

" Thanks, indeed ! real warm thanks to you for all you
say and feel.

" You might leave a few copies of i Self-Culture,' in
case the business should be carried on ; but I would ~by all
means keep the larger part of the impression in your
hands. You might mention (as it were, casually) that you
had not received an account of the sale."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 5fh January, 1859.

" DEAR Miss SHTRKEFF : I return Simpkins's letter.
As a matter of equity they clearly have no right to the
extra ten per cent., unless they take the trouble off your
hands.

"But what you have to consider is the expediency,
not the justice ; and the question is, Will any other house
equally respectable grant you more favorable terms ?

LETTER TO MRS. GREY. 237

This I rather doubt, because, in every trade, traders re-
fuse to deal with private persons as they do among them-
selves ; and, if Simpkins was not to charge the ten per
cent., he would be dealing with you as he did with Pethe-
ram.

" My advice is to accept Simpkins' s offer on condition
that he will take one hundred copies at a time, and bind
them, charging you as Petheram did for the binding. In
regard to advertising, I think you had better keep it in
your own hands, and then you are sure that the adver-
tisements you pay for are inserted.

" If you are reluctant to adopt this course, I will most
willingly make any inquiries that you desire respecting
other publishers.

" Should you conclude with Simpkins, let it be clearly
understood that the title-page remains unaltered (for you
need not be put to that expense), and that you are not
charged for insurance of stock, or for anything beyond the
binding and ten per cent. You will, of course, keep a
copy of your letters to them."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 6th January, 1859.

" MY DEAH I!KS. GKEY : I will call upon you between
3 and 3.30, on either Monday or Tuesday, whichever will
suit you best. I name that hour because I intend to have
a long talk with you, and because, not being very well, I
must be home by five o'clock, to have rest and a cigar
before dinner.

"I shall keep your MS. till I see you, as I wish to
turn the subject over in my mind. At present I see no
difficulty which you can not conquer. Great preliminary

238 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

knowledge jv-ill -have to be acquired, but, speaking hastily,
I should say ten or twelve years would suffice. The
main thing will be to study economically, letting no time
run to waste. I need not assure you that all that I know,
and have, and can, will be at your disposition.

" I liked your letter very much. You approach such
an undertaking in the manner most likely to succeed
i. e., with a knowledge of its real difficulties."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 14th Januwy, 1859.

"DEAR Miss SHTRREFF: As you don't tell me what
Messrs. Simpkins say about advertising, I can not give an
opinion about their advice ; but my own impression is that
you had better confine yourself to the ' Times,' consid-
ering its universal circulation. I suspect publishers insert
advertisements in the smaller periodicals mainly with the
view of keeping up their connection.

" I am quite distressed to hear of poor Mrs. Bowyear's
illness. One feels for her and her husband in every way
as it were, exiled and shut out from all their friends.
The next time you hear from Clifton, do, pray, send me a
few lines to say how they are ; and, when you write to
Mrs. Bowyear, say with my love everything that is kind,
and which, in truth, I really feel. If I were differently
situated, I should be tempted to run down for a couple of
days to the hotel at Clifton, to try and cheer them both up
a little. As soon as I hear that Mrs. Bowyear is tolerably
well again, I shall write to her ; but I don't like to trouble
her husband (as I did before) with inquiries which he has
to answer, now that he is necessarily much occupied.

" I have not seen Bohn's edition of Butler's ' Analogy,'

HIS MOTHER'S DEMISE AT HAND,
but it can not be so good as the old

thing is in such cases always added by inferior men under
pretense of illustrating or correcting. In all*eally great
works, the best editions are those published under the
author's own eye. A good copy of Butler, published in
the middle of the last century, can be bought for about
2*. 6d."

As his mother's state grew worse and worse, his anxiety
began to tell upon his health, and he was quite unable to
write. But his nature was so sanguine that he never could
quite realize how dangerous was the case and how immi-
nent the end. For the last six months of her life she was
from time to time delirious, but such was her strength of
mind that always when her son entered the room she be-
came perfectly rational. "Well might he say with Young :

" How oft I gazed prophetically sad !
How oft I saw her dead while yet in smiles !
In smiles she sunk her grief to lessen mine.
She spoke me comfort, and increased my pain.
Like powerful armies trenching at a town,
By slow, and silent, but resistless sap,
In his pale progress gently gaining ground,
Death urged his deadly siege ; in spite of art,
Of all the balmy blessings nature lends
To succor frail humanity ."

Sometimes, indeed, a sentence would escape her, showing
that her mind was wandering a little ; and he would seize
up his hat and rush out of the house, unable to endure it.

As some relief from the torment of his thoughts, he
dined out frequently. In February he writes to Mrs.
Bowyear : " I am still immersed in Scotch theology, for I
am more and more convinced that the real history of Scot-

24:0 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

land in the seventh century is to be found in the pulpit
and in the ecclesiastical assemblies. A few days ago I
tried to compose, and with better success than previously.
I wrote about three pages that morning, and this has given
me fresh courage. But it is only after the great excite-
ment of conversation that I can write in the morning.
Nothing now stirs me but talk. Every other stimulus has
lost its power. I am dining out a good deal, and hear
much of my own success ; but it moves me not. Often
would I exclaim with Hamlet, ' They fool me to the top
of my bent.' "

On the 9th December he had written to Mr. Parker
offering to undertake a review on Mill's " Liberty," which
he felt would be a new stimulus to him : " If Mr. Mill's
forthcoming work on ' Liberty ' is what I fully contemplate
it will be, it will be intimately connected with some views
of my own concerning the influence of legislation ; and, in
such case, I would give you a review for ' Fraser.' But,
as I write nothing hastily, and look forward to reproducing
some day my miscellaneous contributions in a permanent
form, I should wish (if my proposal is agreeable to you) to
stipulate once for all that I retain the copyright of what-
ever I send to ' Eraser.' My object in writing so soon is
that I may have leisure to meditate the subject of Mr.
Mill's book ; and I would beg of you to consider this let-
ter as strictly confidential, because, if the work on < Lib-
erty ' is different to what I expect, I shall not review it.
As between you and me I shall require no engagement re-
specting the copyright, so perfectly am I satisfied that you
could do nothing but what was not only just but liberal.
But, as a matter of business, and looking at the uncertain-

LETTER TO MR. PARKER. 241

ty of affairs, I would ask for a line from you to acknowl-
edge that I retain the copyright of whatever I give you
for f Eraser.' If you have the smallest objection to this, I
shall not feel at all hurt by your frankly saying so. What-
ever I publish in ' Eraser,' or elsewhere, I shall sign with
my name."

Mill's " Liberty " did fully answer his expectations, and
he began to prepare his notes on February 3d. On the
9th of March he writes :

" MY DEAE, SIE : 8 I am now engaged in earnest on the
' Essay on Mill,' and, if you wish to announce it, you can
do so for c Eraser ' of 1st of May ; as, if I remain pretty
well, it will be ready for the press by the middle of April,
at the latest. I am afraid you must make up your mind
for a long article, both the subject and the man being of
the highest importance. Had I foreseen the labor it costs
me, I confess that I should not have undertaken it ; as, for
the last month, it has engrossed my thoughts. However,
I shall do my utmost not to discredit your magazine.

" The ' Saturday Keviews ' I wish to keep until I have
finished my article, when they shall be returned to you.

" At p. 55 of Mill < On Liberty,' a case is mentioned
of a person in 1857 being ' grossly insulted' by a judge.
Will you be kind enough to ascertain for me where I can
get sprinted account of this in detail ? Also please to let
me have the new volume of ' Transactions of Social Sci-
ence,' and the last edition of Whately's ' Logic,' provided
there is much new in it, since the sixth edition, which I
possess, published by Fellowes, 1836. I see that you pub-

8 Mr. Parker.
16

242 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

lish Whately's ' Logic ' in two different forms ; the cheap-
er one will do for me, if it contains the same matter as the

larger octavo.

" Yours very truly, etc.

" I should be glad to know the date of the first edition
of Mill's < Logic.' "

He also writes to Mrs. Grey :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 18th March, 1859.

" Mr DEAR MKS. GKEY : I have delayed answering your
note until I had time to consider it ; though, before you
called yesterday, my mind was so much shaken about your
plan that I had meditated writing to you.

" First of all, in regard to my name being in the pro-
spectus. I have long felt that men, perhaps from kind-
heartedness, or, as I rather believe, from want of firmness,
think too lightly of giving their names to charitable pro-
posals, and are unwilling to refuse what seems so slight a
matter. To me, however, it appears that no man should
give his name to any plan unless he is thoroughly con-
vinced of its propriety, not merely because he thinks it
good. "When I first heard of this scheme, I thought it
good ; but on further reflection I more than doubt of its
propriety. I look much to the influence of women for the
future advance of society ; but I am convinced that any-
thing which makes men and women compete, or which di-
minishes in the slightest degree the pecuniary profits of a
profession by throwing part of those profits into the hands
of women, will tell fearfully against women's power. At
present the two sexes do not envy each other ; but, if the

THE EIGHTS OF WOMEN. 943

stronger sex should envy the weaker, it must happen that
the weaker will go the wall.

" Again, this is not a spontaneous English' movement ;
it is of American origin, and in America women have
more influence than in any other country, ancient or mod-
ern. In the United States, women being so respected, an
experiment may be safe, which here would be hazardous.
The institution would be covered with ridicule; and, al-
though this, generally speaking, would be no objection, it
is in the highest degree objectionable when the ridicule is
directed by men against the plans of women. That you
would do good, I make no doubt, as I can see many strong
arguments in favor of such a hospital. But I firmly be-
lieve that the large results would be mischievous.

" These things have passed through my mind in the
last few days, and you must forgive me, dear Mrs. Grey,
if I say that, on account of these, I can neither give my
name, nor can I, as I at first promised, ask my friends to
do so.

" But, although I disapprove of it, I admit the difficulty
of deciding how far the remote mischief will outweigh
the present good. I can only say, therefore, that if you
still persist in it, and if you find that more money will be
wanted, I will give to it any donation that you like to
name, simply because I wish to further what interests
you ; but in such case the gift must be anonymous and
through you. I can not openly countenance what I be-
lieve to be an extremely bold experiment, of which the
evil (to my mind at least) is greater than the good. On
the other hand, I can not bear to appear uncomplying and
ungracious to a friend whom I really value ; therefore I

244 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

do most heartily offer to you any donation you like or think
proper, if under these circumstances you are willing to
accept it.

" It gives me great pain to refuse to you the use of my
name ; but I can honestly say that I am acting according
to the best of my judgment, and certainly in opposition to
my first impression."

But the siege was now fast drawing to a close, and he

knew it.

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 8th March, 1859.

" MY PEAK MES. WOODHEAD : I almost fear from your
letter that you did not receive the one which I wrote to
you some seven or eight weeks since, in answer to yours,
.... and that explains my silence. If you knew all, you
would pity me. Certainly, no one has less cause for ela-
tion than I have. What can I care about fame, when I
see the only person who would have gloried in it perishing
before my eyes, her noble faculties wasting away, the very
power of expressing her affection almost gone ? And this
is called success ! Rather call it cruel and bitter humilia-
tion, and failure at the last moment of all my cherished
hopes.

" When I tell you that for three months I have not
written six pages, you may imagine what I have gone
through and what I feel. I can work, and think, and talk,
as of old ; but the creative power seems to have gone from
me. I have only a chapter and a quarter to finish ; when
it will be done I have no idea. Nothing does me good
but excitement, and the excitement I relish is conversation.
Burn this when you have read it and shown it to your
husband. I am not wont to say thus much, but I am not

DEATH OF MRS. BUCKLE. 245

willing that friends whom I care for should be misled into
thinking me changed.

"My mother is slowly but incessantly degenerating,
mind and body both going. I have been lately reading
with intense interest John Mill's new book on ' Liberty.'
Pray get it, and study it well ; it is full of wisdom. Mr.
Capel, seeing how it roused me, and how I was stagnating
at my old work, suggested to me to write a review of it.
This I have begun to do, and am feeling more pleasure in
it than in anything for a long time. If I complete it, you
will find it in ' Fraser ' for May.

" I am very glad to hear that your husband is getting
on with his work. Give my kind love to him, and say
that he has only to write to me about any difficulty which
he thinks I can clear up; and even without that I am
pleased to see his or your handwriting."

The end was not far off. Mrs. Buckle was so much
worse on March 31st that her son telegraphed to his sister.
On April 1st is written in his diary : " Mr. Morgan came,
and said it is now only a question of hours with my darling
Jenny. ... At 9.15 my angel mother died peacefully,
without pain."

We shall draw a veil over the last sad minutes, the last
tender pressure of the trembling hands, the last fond look
of the fast-dimming eyes, the frantic grief of the survivors.
" Consolation may be for the dead, but never for the liv-
ing." He had lost his all, and stood in the world alone.

'And, when the last sad offices were rendered to the
mother he had loved so well, and he sat down in the " dull
and dreary house, once so full of light and love," the first

246 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

thing he wrote was his proof of the immortality of the soul
from the universality of the affections :

" Look now at the way in which this godlike and fun-
damental principle of our nature acts. As long as we are
with those whom we love, and as long as the sense of se-
curity is unimpaired, we rejoice, and the remote conse-
quences of our love are usually forgotten. Its fears and
its risks are unheeded. But when the dark day approaches,
and the moment of sorrow is at hand, other and yet essen-
tial parts of our affection come into play. And if, per-
chance, the struggle has been long and arduous; if we
have been tempted to cling to hope when hope should
have been abandoned, so much the more are we at the last
changed and humbled. To note the slow but inevitable
march of disease, to watch the enemy stealing in at the
gate, to see the strength gradually waning, the limbs tot-
tering more and more, the noble faculties dwindling by
degrees, the eye paling and losing its luster, the tongue
faltering as it vainly tries to utter its words of endearment,
the very lips hardly able to smile with their wonted ten-
derness to see this, is hard indeed to bear, and many of
the strongest natures have sunk under it. But when even
this is gone ; when the very signs of life are mute ; when
the last faint tie is severed, and there lies before us naught
save the shell and husk of what we loved too well, then
truly, if we believe the separation were final, how could
we stand up and live ? 8 We have staked our all upon a

9 Mr. Glennie, in his " Pilgrim Memories," p. 76, misreads this passage
as follows : " And wonderful it seemed to me that any one acquainted with
the facts of existence could dare to make so much of himself as to found
an argument for the truth of a belief on his ' inability to stand up and live '
were he to find it false ! "

GRIEF OF HER SON. 247

single cast, and lost the stake. There, where we have gar-
nered up our hearts, and where our treasure is, thieves
break in and spoil. Methinks that in that ftioment of
desolation the best of us would succumb, but for the deep
conviction that all is not really over ; that we have as yet
only seen a part; and that something remains behind.
Something behind; something which the eye of reason
can not discern, but on which the eye of affection is fixed.
"What is that which, passing over us like a shadow, strains
the aching vision as we gaze at it ? Whence comes that
sense of mysterious companionship in the midst of solitude ;
that ineffable feeling which cheers the afflicted ? Why is
it that at these times our minds are thrown back on them-
selves, and, being so thrown, have a forecast of another
and a higher state ? If this be a delusion, it is one which
the affections have themselves created, and we must be-
lieve that the purest and noblest elements of our nature
conspire to deceive us. So surely as we lose what we love,
so surely does hope mingle with grief. . . . And of all the
moral sentiments which adorn and elevate the human char-
acter, the instinct of affection is surely the most lovely, the
most powerful, and the most general. Unless, therefore,
we are prepared to assert that this, the fairest and choicest
of our possessions, is of so delusive and fraudulent a charac-
ter that its dictates are not to be trusted, we can hardly
avoid the conclusion that, inasmuch as they are the same
in all ages, with all degrees of knowledge, and with all
varieties of religion, they bear upon their surface the im-
press of truth, and are at once the conditions and conse-
quence of our being."

Alas ! alas ! would that this proof were as clear to us

24:8 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

as to his grief -wrought heart ! Bereaved and lonely man
that he was, we might perchance think his mind was at
that time too readily open to such transcendental reason-
ing ; and yet it was no new idea with him, for he had al-
ready enunciated the thought in his first volume. 10 But,
seeing as we do that, though the universal emotion of love
is a possible indication of immortality, love would exist
just the same were our death absolute we can not hold
it proof. Indeed, this present world could not exist with-
out the binding principle of love, without which every
organized being would be swept away and effaced from
the earth. It is too plain that its existence is as necessary
a concomitant of our own as the air we breathe, and can
not, as such, be held a proof of our immortality.

But the emotion being the result of the stored-up
knowledge of our lives of that knowledge which is not
only learned from books and learned conversation, but from
the experience of the feelings, of the void in our being, of
the sympathies and laws of intercourse of mankind these,
indeed, may be trusted to indicate the truth, and pioneer the
way for surer generalizations from proven facts. As Buckle
himself writes," " The emotions are as much a part of us as
the understanding ; they are as truthful ; they are as likely
to be right. Though their view is different (from that of
the understanding), it is not capricious. They obey fixed

10 Talking of the institution of priesthood, he says : " We may, if need
be, remove some of its parts ; but we would not, we dare not, tamper with
those great religious truths which are altogether independent of it, truths
which comfort the mind of man, raise -him above the instincts of the hour,
and infuse into him those lofty aspirations which, revealing to him his own
immortality, are the measure and the symptom of a future life." " History
of Civilization," vol. L, p. 695.

11 " History of Civilization," ii., p. 502.

LETTER TO MRS. GREY. 249

laws ; they follow an orderly and uniform course ; they run
in sequences ; they have their logic and method of inference."
He kept very quiet for twelve days after his mother's
death, working about six hours a day, chiefly in finishing
his " Essay on Mill." On April 13th, having heard of a
severe illness in Mrs. Grey's family, he visited her, "for the
first time," he writes, " since my darling mother's death."
But the memories of his mother which this visit called up
were too much for him, and he could not repeat it :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE,
["Between 13th and 23d] April, 1859.

" You would not ask me, my dear friend, if you knew
what my visit to Cadogan Place cost me. I can not;
everything which brings up a former association unhinges
me. I overrated my own strength I deemed myself
more than I am ; do not, I pray you, think me unkind.
Perhaps I may yet see you, for I promised Mrs. Bowyear
to call on her in Chester Street if I could ; but that must
be the only visit I make before I leave this house, where
everything is hateful to me. Do not be uneasy about me ;
I am quite well ; and, within such limits as are left to me,
I am happy. I can work freely and well. Beyond this
there is nothing for me to look for, except the deep con-
viction which I have of another life, and which makes me
feel that all is not really over."

And, under like circumstances, he wrote to Mrs. Bow-
year, after his visit :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, April, 1859.

"... I can not, my dear friend, come to you, for
there is a mass of business to finish, and which would be

250 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

at a standstill were I to leave town. I have promised my
aunt that I will visit her before I go elsewhere ; and I
could not, at such a moment, find it in my heart to dis-
appoint her. I remain quite well ; but my grief increases
as association after association rises in my mind and tells
me what I have lost. One thing alone I cling to the
deep and unalterable conviction that the end is not yet
come, and that we never really die. But it is a separation
for half a life ; and the most sanguine view that I can take
is that I have a probability before me of thirty years of
fame, of power, and of desolation." . . .

The "Essay on Mill" was published on May 1, 1859,
and led to consequences which it will be necessary to dwell
upon, as they relate to the most important event in Buckle's
public life his accusation of Mr. Justice Coleridge. In
Mill's " Liberty," which he reviewed, he had come upon
the following passage : " Penalties for opinion, or at least
for its expression, still exist by law ; and their enforcement
is not, even in these times, so unexampled as to make it
incredible that they may some day be revived in full force.
In the year 1857, at the summer assizes of the county of
Cornwall, an unfortunate man, said to be of unexception-
able conduct in all relations of life, was sentenced to
twenty-one months' imprisonment for uttering and writing
on a gate some offensive words against Christianity."

" It was with the greatest astonishment," writes Buckle,
" that I read in Mr. Mill's work that such a thing had
occurred in this country, at one of our assizes, less than
two years ago. Notwithstanding my knowledge of Mr.
Mill's accuracy, I thought that, in this instance, he must

POOLEY'S CASE. 251

have been mistaken. I supposed that he had not heard all
the circumstances, and that the person punished had been
guilty of some other offense." He, accordingly/ carefully
investigated the case, and read all the reports he could
find, with the result that the following are the facts of the
case, as stated by Buckle, and they have never been dis-
puted : " In the summer of 185T, a poor man, named
Thomas Pooley, was gaining his livelihood as a common
laborer in Liskeard, in Cornwall, where he had been well
known for several years, and had always borne a high
character for honesty, industry, and sobriety. His habits
were so eccentric that his mind was justly reputed to be
disordered ; and an accident which happened to him about
two years before this period had evidently inflicted some
serious injury, as since then his demeanor had become
more strange and excitable. Still, he was not only per-
fectly harmless, but was a very useful member of society,
respected by his neighbors, and loved by his family, for
whom he toiled with a zeal rare in his class, or, indeed, in
any class. Among other hallucinations, he believed that
the earth was a living animal ; and, in his ordinary employ-
ment of well-sinking, he avoided digging too deeply, lest
he should penetrate the skin of the earth, and wound some
vital part. He also imagined that if he hurt the earth the
tides would cease to flow, and that, nothing being really
mortal, whenever a child died it reappeared at the next
birth in the same family. Holding all nature to be ani-
mated, he, moreover, fancied that this was in some way
connected with the potato-rot ; and in the wildness of his
vagaries he did not hesitate to say that, if the ashes of
burned Bibles were strewed over the fields, the rot would

252 BUCKLE'S LIFE AKD WRITINGS.

cease. This was associated in liis mind with a foolish dis-
like of the Bible itself, and an hostility against Christian-
ity ; in reference, however, to which he could hurt no one,
as not only was he very ignorant, but his neighbors, re-
garding him as crack-brained, were uninfluenced by him,
though in the other relations of life he was valued and
respected by his employers, and indeed by all who were
most acquainted with his disposition.

" This singular man, who was known by the additional
peculiarity of wearing a long beard, wrote upon a gate a
few very silly words expressive of his opinion respecting
the potato-rot and the Bible, and also of his hatred of
Christianity. For this, as well as for using language
equally absurd, but which no one was obliged to listen to,
and which certainly could influence no one, a clergyman
in the neighborhood lodged an information against him,
and caused him to be summoned before a magistrate, who
was likewise a clergyman. The magistrate, instead of
pitying him, or remonstrating with him, committed him
for trial, and sent him to jail."

Thomas Pooley was brought before the judge ; there
was no counsel for the defense, but there was for the prose-
cution. The attorney who prosecuted knew well all the
history recounted above, with the exception as he asserts
that he was ignorant that Pooley was deranged. The
spectators and reporters noticed the incoherence of his
speech, his restless manner, and glaring eye; but the
judge writes in an official letter, " There was not the
slightest suggestion made to me of his being other than
perfectly sane ; nor was there anything in his demeanor at
the trial, or in the conduct of his defense by himself,

A SIMILAR CASE WITH A DIFFERENCE. 253

which indicated it." The result was that Pooley was con-
victed.

Quite recently there was a case remarkably similar : A
man named Sullivan was charged with annoying the in-
habitants of a part of London by chalking up words in
public places, such as " The Power of Prayer." He had
habitually offended in this way, as Pooley had been in the
habit of doing in his way. It is needless to say that Sul-
livan was not committed for trial, much less punished
with twenty-one months' imprisonment. The magistrate
told him " he had no right to chalk up any words on pri-
vate property. . . . He ought to have the sense to see he
was doing more harm than good by persistently breaking
the law " ; and the man was discharged, with a caution
that if brought up again he would be fined. 12 So Pooley
might have been cautioned and discharged, or sentenced
to a nominal punishment ; he ought, indeed, never to have
been convicted. But he was sentenced to imprisonment
for one year and nine months an imprisonment which
he soon exchanged for the madhouse.

Such a case was indeed likely to arouse all the generous
indignation of which Buckle's nature was capable. Like
Yoltaire, he preferred the heat and dust of the combat in
the cause of justice and freedom, rather than to consult
merely his own comfort, and remain mute and quiet. But
he only did once what Yoltaire did many times. Yol-
taire stood up for liberty where liberty was hardly known.
Buckle stood up for liberty where, indeed, she was in dan-
ger of being driven from her natural abode. Yoltaire
saved Sirven and La Barre, and defended the reputations

12 See the " Pall Mall Gazette," March 16th, 1878.

254 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

of Galas, De Lally, and even Byng, an alien and an ene-
my, simply because he loved freedom, and could not look
quietly on the perpetration of injustice. For this he has
been honored and revered ; and shall we deal out a differ-
ent measure to Buckle ?

That the conviction was unjust, or, at least, that the
punishment was monstrous, the free pardon that ridicu-
lous and insulting fiction of the law to screen itself from
an acknowledgment that it has been wrong sufficiently
proves. As for the judge, his friends are placed in the
dilemma of either acknowledging that he committed an
injustice, or that he was incapable ; that he did not observe
those signs of lunacy which were patent even to the re-
porters ; that he was so careless to sift the evidence
against an undefended, ignorant man, that nothing was
brought out at the trial concerning Pooley's hallucinations
and his blameless life. It is no excuse for the late Sir
John Coleridge, as the " Law Magazine " I3 hints that it
should be, that, like the Inquisitors of Spain, his motives
were unimpeachable. Their excuse was ignorance ; but
no man, least of all an English judge, would care to plead
that excuse to-day. Mill himself pointed out the danger
in such prosecutions to personal liberty, and Buckle saw
and attacked it. He told his friend, Mr. Henriquez, that
"he saw no guarantee that the age of persecution was
passed for ever ; and could quite conceive that, in times of
great civil commotion, if a religious party got the upper
hand, persecution would be recommended and acquiesced
in. Only one party, indeed, could be trusted not to abuse
power and never to persecute, and that was the skeptics."

13 For August, 1859, p. 280.

BUCKLE'S ENERGETIC ATTACK. 255

Buckle attacked the judge, because, as lie justly points
out, " it is impossible for us by any effort of abstract rea-
soning to consider oppression apart from the^ppressor.
We may abhor a speculative principle, and yet respect him
who advocates it. This distinction between the opinion
and the person is, however, confined to the intellectual
world, and does not extend to the practical. Such a sepa-
ration can not exist in regard to actual deeds of cruelty."
This personal attack was, however, resented by most of
the papers of the day, because they were not able to think
themselves into the position of the poor and oppressed.
They could see the position of the judge, but not the full
danger of intolerance and interference with liberty.

" The circumstances," says Buckle, " to which I have
directed public attention were not sought for by me. I
did not go out of my road to find them. I had never
heard of the case of Pooley until I came across it in the
book which I was reviewing. As it had fallen in my way,
I thought it my duty first to investigate it, and then to
expose it. In exposing it I denounced the principal ac-
tors, especially him who gave the finishing touch to the
whole. By doing so I have incurred the hostility of his
friends, and I have, moreover, displeased a large class of
persons who consider that an English judge occupies so
elevated a position that he ought not to be made the ob-
ject of a personal attack. To me, however, it appears
that his elevation and his name, and the pomp and the dig-
nity and the mighty weight of that office which he held,
are among the circumstances which justify the course I
have taken. If he had been a man of no account, it would
hardly have been worth while for me to pause, in the

256 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

midst of my solitary labors, that I might turn aside and
smite him. For what is he to me ? Our ways of life and
our career are so completely different that between us
there can be no rivalry ; and the motives which commonly
induce one man to attack another can have no place. I
can not envy him, for I see nothing to envy. Neither can
I fear him ; nor can I expect to derive any benefit from
hurting him. Unless, therefore, it is supposed that I am
actuated by a spirit of pure, naked, and motiveless malig-
nity, I have a right to be believed when I say that in this
matter my sole object has been to promote the great, and,
to me, the sacred cause of liberty of speech and of publica-
tion. This, indeed, lies near to my heart. And it is this
alone which gives to the present case its real importance,
and will prevent it from sinking into oblivion. Yet a few
years, and Sir John Coleridge and Thomas Pooley will be
numbered with the dead. But, though the men will die, the
principles which they represent are immortal. The pow-
erful and intolerant judge, seeking to stop the mouth of the
poor and friendless well-sinker, is but the type of a far
older and wider struggle. In every part of the civilized
world the same contest is raging ; and the question is still
undecided whether or not men shall say what they like ;
in other words, whether language is to be refuted by lan-
guage, or whether it is to be refuted by force. Disguise
it as you will, this is the real issue. In this great warfare
between liberty and repression Sir John Coleridge has
chosen his side, and I have chosen mine. But he, being
armed with the power of the executive government,
has been able to carry matters with a high hand, and to
strengthen his party not indeed by arguments, but by vio-

LETTEE TO MR. PARKER. 257

lence. Instead of refuting, he imprisons. My weapons
are of another kind, and shall I not use them ? Am I for
ever to sit by in silence ? Are all the blows ty> be dealt
from one side, and none from the other ? I think not. I
think it is but right and fitting that Sir John Coleridge,
and those who agree with him, should be taught that lit-
erature is able to punish as well as to persuade ; and that
she never exercises her high vocation with greater dignity
than when, upholding the weak against the strong, she lets
the world see that she is no respecter of persons, but will,
if need be, strike at the highest place, and humble the
proudest name." 14

Some even of his own friends were shocked by the
violence of his language ; but the following letters will
explain themselves :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 20th April, 1859.
" MY DEAR SIE : 16 There are so many corrections in
the inclosed proofs that I must see another revise, which
please ~by all means to let me have not later than 4 p. M.
to-morrow (Thursday). I shall remain in town till Friday
afternoon, in order to finish the whole ; and then you will
only have to send to Brighton a proof of the last three
pages and the Greek notes. I send herewith the Greek
notes. The proofs which I now inclose please to return
to me on Thursday, with the revise. The headings will, I
think, do very well as you have put them. One or two of
your words in the proof, and a small part of letter, I was
unable to decipher ; but, in truth, I am half stupid with
work and nervousness. Sincerely yours, etc.

14 " Letter to a Gentleman." 16 Mr. Parker.

258 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

" I wish you would send copies of ' Fraser ' to Mr.
Sandars and to Mr. Fitz-James Stephen, with my kind
regards as well as to Mr. Kingsley.

" I can not alter the passages about Coleridge. The
mischief he has done is a thousand times greater than any
punishment which I can inflict on him. On reading over
the proof, I feel fresh indignation."

Mr. Charles Kingsley evidently did not approve of the
attack. Buckle answered his remonstrance, but only a
fragment has been preserved :

"... You suggest about asking his opinion. What
I have written above is very hurriedly, amid the pressure
of many matters, and it is flatly put ; but the result has
been long meditated. Can you put to me any case in which
you would punish a man for using or writing words, if
such words could not produce a breach of the peace ? I
do not say that you or I would strike or collar the scoun-
drel who used the language though, maybe, if it [had]
been used before one's wife or daughter, we should do even
that. But it is enough if a reasonable apprehension exists
that the peace may be broken. Whether or not the ap-
prehension be reasonable, the magistrate can, I suppose, be
the only judge. Do think this over, for I am deeply in-
terested in the question, and try if you can put a case fit
for punishment which my definition does not include.
Perhaps at your leisure you may write to me again. . . .
Much do I hope that at some not very distant time we
may be brought into closer contact. At present I have no
pleasure but when I am alone."

To Mr. Parker he writes again :

LETTEK TO ME. PARKER. 259

"49 SUSSEX SQUARE, BRIGHTON, llth May, 1859.

" MY DEAR Sra : Thanks for the check f or,j34 which
I have just received for my essay in ' Fraser.'

"I do, indeed, regret that anything I have written
should expose you to annoyance ; but it is surely unfair to
hold you responsible for an article signed by me. Three
weeks ago I said, what I now repeat, that I wished you to
state to whoever it might concern that you suggested my
softening the expressions respecting Sir John Coleridge,
and that I refused to do so. As I said, then, I would far
rather have withdrawn the whole article than cancel a
single word I had written on a transaction respecting
which I felt so strongly. In justice, therefore, to your
own interests you ought to make this known, and I hope
you will. You can keep this letter, and show it to who-
ever you like. I wrote the remarks on Sir John Coleridge
deliberately. I carefully considered them afterward. I
consulted upon them a friend in whose judgment I repose
great confidence ; and now that I read them again in print,
I have nothing to withdraw or regret. I have some little
knowledge of the history of England, and I do deliberately
say that, considering all the circumstances of Pooley's case,
the sentence passed by Sir J. Coleridge is the greatest
crime and the foulest cruelty which has been perpetrated
in any country under sanction of the law since the seven-
teenth century. Holding this opinion, I have stated it
with the indignation which I felt, and still feel. The fact
that the culprit is powerful and influential produced no
effect, except to make me apply to him stronger language
than I would have done had he been weak and insignifi-
cant. There are, unhappily, innumerable instances of re-

260 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

ligious intolerance in our judicial history; but in such
cases the age was intolerant, and public opinion sanctioned
the cruelty. The peculiarity of this case is that a judge
drives a poor man to insanity, and beggars his family, for the
sake of enforcing a persecuting principle with which men
have lost their former sympathy. He goes out of his way ;
he runs counter to the liberal tendencies of his time ; and
in doing so perpetrates an act of cruelty. I ask, ' Is that
act a crime ? and, if so, is it wrong to denounce the author
of it as a criminal ? ' Our laws do not call it a crime ; but
God forbid that we should form our notion of crime ac-
cording to the maxims of criminal law. As to motives,
these lie out of our reach, and no human eye can discern
them. But, if intolerance and oppression are crimes, I do
not see how the act of Sir J. Coleridge can escape that
appellation.

" Whatever any one may write against me, in this or
any other matter, pray publish it in ' Eraser,' without think-
ing it necessary even to inform me. I am very glad that
the judge's son has taken it up, because it is right that
both sides should be heard ; and I shall be only too glad
if some redeeming circumstances are brought out to make
the case appear less nefarious. This is the first personal
attack I ever made ; and I can conscientiously say that I
have been actuated to it by no mean or unworthy motive.
In my judgment Sir J. Coleridge committed a great and
grievous crime, which the interests of toleration, of liberty,
and of true religion required to be punished, but which,
being committed under shelter of the law, could only be
punished by a man of letters writing in a free country.

" Whatever you communicate to me in this matter I

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 261

shall consider strictly confidential ; and, as I hold that a
great principle is at stake (viz., how far an author is justi-
fied in using strong language to express strong abhorrence),
I should be really glad to hear some further particulars.
I should particularly like to know what the chief objec-
tions are whether as to the epithets of ' criminal,' etc., or
whether the general statement is deemed unfair. I sup-
pose that no attempt will be made to impugn the facts as
I have put them. I have evidence at home for all I have

said."

" BRIGHTON, 10th May, 1859.

"Mr DEAR Miss SHTRREFF: I need not tell you how
much pleasure your truly kind letter has given to me, for
you know that I am sensible of and value your friendship.
I am quite well, working very busily, and doing all in my
power to keep myself well. More than this is impossi-
ble either for me or for any one else, as we do not make
events, but are made by them.

" Neither do you say anything about your own work.
Can I be of use to you ? I suppose you can now read
Dutch with tolerable fluency, and you ought to select some
one subject. I have already mentioned the most interest-
ing, and probably most important, subject in Dutch biog-
raphy Grotius. You and Mrs. Bowyear, I remember,
laughed at me for this ; but that does not prevent it being
advisable for you to take it up, as I don't think either of
you much understood what you were laughing at. Before
I go to the north of Scotland I shall be in town for a day,
and would send to you any Dutch or other books you
needed.

BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" I am glad you found my account of Mill's c Logic '
clear. His profound views respecting coexistences, and
also respecting the difference between induction and de-
duction, are so very far in advance of the public mind
that probably I have done some service in popularizing
them ; as, though I have often talked to men on these
matters, I have never found any one who was really on a
level with the actual state of our knowledge of method.

" What you say about my notice of Justice Coleridge
does a little surprise me. I knew at the time that most
persons would think I had shown too much virulence ; but
I believed then, and believe now, that in this case, as in
other cases, when I have taken an unpopular view (such,
for instance, as the absence of dynamical power in morals),
those who object to my treatment have not taken so much
pains to inform themselves as I have done. You know
that I have no personal animosity against Coleridge ; and
yet I do say that, to the best of my judgment, his sentence
on Pooley is the most criminal act committed by any Eng-
lish judge since the seventeenth century. Most acts of re-
ligious cruelty have been in compliance with the temper
of the age ; but here we have a man going out of his way,
and running counter to the liberal tendencies of the time,
in order to gratify that malignant passion a zeal for pro-
tecting religion. I have felt all I have written ; and I
should be ashamed of myself if, on such a subject, and
with my way of looking at affairs, I had expressed less
warmth. Of course I may be wrong, but it seemed to
me that the influence, the name, and the social position of
the judge, made it the more necessary to be uncompromis-
ing, and to strike a blow which should be felt. And that

LETTER TO MISS SHIEEEFF. 263

it has been felt the letters I have received within the last
few days have proved. I believe that the more the true
principles of toleration are understood, the mdre alive will
people [learn] to be to the magnitude of that crime. At
all events, I know that, even if I had used still stronger
language, I should only have written what a powerful and
intelligent minority think. And I have yet to learn that
there are any good arguments in favor of a man concealing
what he does think. I never have, and never will, attack
a man for speculative opinions ; but when he translates
those opinions into acts, and in so doing commits cruelty,
it is for the general weal that he should be attacked. A
poor, ignorant, half-witted man sentenced to be imprisoned
for a year and nine months for writing and speaking a few
words against the Author of the Christian religion ! And
when I express only a part of the loathing and abomina-
tion with which I regard so monstrous an act, you, my
dear friend, c regret the extreme violence ' of my expres-
sions. To me it appears that your doctrine would root out
indignation from our vocabulary ; for if such an act is not
to rouse indignation, what is ?

" With all honesty do I say that I attach the highest
value to your judgment, and therefore it is that I should
really be glad if you would let me know why you dislike
the remarks on Coleridge. On my part there is no per-
sonal feeling, no rivalry, no jealousy ; but I felt great in-
dignation. I believed that the indignation ought to be
expressed ; and I knew that many who agreed with me
would shrink from compromising themselves, and incur-
ring the hostility of Coleridge's numerous and powerful
friends. For that I care nothing ; but for the opinion of

264: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

MY friends I care a great deal, especially on a matter of

this sort."

"BRIGHTON, 13th May, 1859.

" MY DEAR Miss SHIEEEFF : I am very glad that you
have written so fully and freely, as, indeed, I felt little
doubt that you would do. But, though I admit the force
of all your reasoning, I am not convinced by it, sim-
ply because our premises are different. We look upon
affairs from an opposite point of view, and therefore
adopt opposite methods. My habits of mind accustom me
to consider actions with regard to their consequences ; you
are more inclined to consider them with regard to their
motives. You, therefore, are more tender to individuals
than I am, particularly if you think them sincere ; and you
hold that moral principles do hasten the improvement of
nations. I hold that they do not. Erom these funda-
mental differences between us, it inevitably happens that
we estimate differently such an act as the sentence on
Pooley.

"We are both agreed that the sentence was wrong;
but you consider that the judge, not having bad motives
(but who can penetrate the heart and discern motives ?),
and not being a bad man, diminishes the criminality of
the sentence, and, therefore, should have prevented me
from using such strong language. Now, in the first place,
hardly any amount of evidence would induce me to be-
lieve that, in THIS AGE, a judge who could pass such a sen-
tence on such a wretched creature as Pooley could have
either a good heart or a good head. He may be clever and
emotional ; an accomplished scholar, a good administrator
of the law in ordinary cases when there is no room for

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF. 265

prejudice ; and it may also be true that, when he passes
sentence of death, his sensibility is (as you say it is) so
shocked as to make him ill. But neither this"' nor a hun-
dred similar facts would prove as much of his moral na-
ture (putting aside his intellectual) as his treatment of
Pooley proves against it. The largest and finest natures
do not reserve their sensibility for great occasions, but ex-
pend it also on small ones. None but real and undoubted
criminals are now executed ; and I do not see that, even
in a moral point of view, it is anything in favor of a judge
that he is made ill when he leaves a man for execution
who has shown himself unfit to live, and whose death will
benefit society. Such feelings proceed as often from
effeminacy of understanding as from kindness of heart.
My analysis may be wrong ; but I think that, while it is
quite possible for a bad-hearted man to weep when he has
ordered an execution, it is hardly possible for a good-
hearted man to have sentenced poor, ignorant, demented
Pooley to twenty-one months' imprisonment.

" However, I would prefer resting my view upon
grounds still broader than these : As a public writer (not as
a private or practical man) I estimate actions solely accord-
ing to their consequences. The consequence of this sen-
tence I deem far more pernicious than I have been able to
state in my * Essay,' because I could not, for want of
space, open up all the topics connected with it. Dealing,
as I always do, with the interest of masses, and striving to
reach the highest view of the subject, I hold that when an
act is pernicious when it is done in the teeth of the lib-
eral tendencies of the time when the punishment far ex-
ceeds the offense when it is not only cruel to the victim,

266 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

but productive of evil consequences as a public example
when these qualities are combined in a single transaction,
I call that transaction a great crime, and, therefore, the
author of it a great criminal.

"Now, in commenting upon such an act, how should
the principal actor be treated ? You say that I should not
have used language which one 'gentleman' would not
have employed to another in conversation. Here we are
altogether at issue. My object was not merely to vindi-
cate the principle of toleration (for that, to all persons of
competent understanding, was done before I was born),
but to punish a great and dangerous criminal. "Whether
I am able to punish is another question. If I am not able,
my remarks are ridiculous from their impotence, and I
have been foolish from incapacity, and not wrong as to in-
tention that is to say, not wrong in intention, unless my
way of looking at affairs is wrong ; and this is the very
point on which we disagree, and which your letter does
not touch upon. At all events, starting with this view
(which is precisely the theory of method which underlies
everything I have ever written), it formed no part of my
plan to use nice and dainty words. Instead of confining
myself to writing like a gentleman, I aimed at writing like
a m<m. I intended to smite Justice Coleridge, and the
anger of his friends is one of many proofs that I have suc-
ceeded. Had I, or had I not, a right to smite him ? Is it
the business of literature to chastise as well as to persuade ?
I think it is ; and I follow the example of many who have
done the greatest good and left the greatest names. You
would have me expose the crime, and yet spare the crim-
inal. But I can not stop at the act of oppression; my

LETTEE TO MISS SHIREEFF. 267

mind goes on to the oppressor. And yet you say, * The
personality of the attack is the only thing I regret.' Most
truly do I know that you speak out of the very fullness
and kindness of your heart ; and I value more than I can
tell you a frankness which proves your friendship, if I
needed new proof. But I can not conceal from you that
we are in this matter as asunder as the two poles. As an
author, I will always say what I think ; and when an act
of cruelty comes across my path, perpetrated by a pow-
erful and influential man, I will never let conventional
and ' gentlemanly ' considerations restrain the indignation
which I feel. You also think that I weaken my own in-
fluence and reputation by making such an attack ; and in
that respect I am inclined to agree with you in part.
Many will be offended ; but it is not the verdict of London
drawing-rooms that can either make or mar a man who has
a great career to run, and a consciousness of being able to
run it. I would not willingly seem arrogant, but I think
you will understand me when I say, that I feel that within
me which can sweep away such little obstacles, and force
people to hear what I have to offer them. "Whether I am
right or wrong in this opinion, next year 16 will probably
determine. Meanwhile I may say that what I have heard
from the boldest and most advanced men has proved that
my attack upon Justice Coleridge has secured for me the
sympathy of those whose opinions are constantly gaining
ground, and are in the van of their age. More than this I
could never have expected. And, in forming your final
opinion upon what I have done, forgive me if I say that
you should not try me by a standard which I do not rec-

16 When vol. ii. of the " History of Civilization " was to be published.

268 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

ognize. My views as to the propriety of a liberty of ex-
pression which many would term license may be wrong,
but they are honestly mine ; I act honestly upon them ;
and I think that the few friends I have should test me by
them.

" I am deeply interested in this matter, and I will ask
you to be kind enough to show this letter to Mrs. Grey
and to Mr. and Mrs. Bowyear, and, when you have an op-
portunity, to Mr. Capel. These include nearly all whom
I really love, and who I believe love me if, indeed, with
my now ruined and shipwrecked affections, I can expect
such a feeling. I wish them to be in possession of my
views on what is not only of the greatest moment to me,
but involves principles which lie at the very root of my
mind, and which, if they are wrong, the sooner they are
refuted the better."

" BRIGHTON, 30th May, 1859.

" MY DEAE CAPEL : You seem to forget that you at
first approved of those remarks on Coleridge which you
now condemn, and at all events regret. The new i Fraser '
will, I suppose, be here to-morrow morning. "Whatever
Mr. Coleridge may write, I shall make no reply."

" BRIGHTON, 49 SUSSEX SQUARE, 31st May, 1859.

" MY DEAE SIE : " I received ' Fraser ' last night, and

your letter this morning. I need hardly assure you that I

fully approve of your inserting the two articles attacking

me. 18 Indeed, under the circumstances, you were bound

17 Mr. Parker.

18 " Mr. Buckle and Sir John Coleridge," by J. D. Coleridge ; and " Con-
cerning Man and his Dwelling-Place," by A. K. H. B. "Eraser's Maga-
zine," vol. lix., pp. 635-645, and 644-661 ; June, 1859.

LETTER TO MB. PARKER. 269

to do so ; and, under any circumstances, it is advisable
that the fullest latitude should be given to the expression
of all opinions, however offensive and unreasonable they
may be to those who dislike them.

"My present disposition is not to answer Mr. Cole-
ridge's letter. "What is your impression about my doing
so ? Before deciding, it may be well to see what the next
two or three days will bring forth in the shape of com-
ments, etc., respecting which I shall trust to your usual
kindness to supply me with information. I shall be in
town on business for three or four days on or about the
14th of June, and I will let you know, that we may talk
this matter over. Meanwhile, please to send me such
criticisms as you may meet with."

In reply to this, Mr. Parker strongly advised him to
silence. But he was so excited that he had already begun
an answer " which, however," he writes, May 31st, " I am
not certain if I shall publish." On June 1st, he writes :
" Continued reply to J. D. Coleridge, though still doubt-
ful as to publishing it." June 2d : " Continued answer
to J. D. Coleridge ; which I think I shall publish." It
was finished on the 8th ; and he wrote to Mr. Parker on
the 9th : " You know that I dislike controversy, as a waste
of time, and that I have always abstained from replying
to attacks made upon me. But the tone of the daily press
and my own private letters convince me that it is abso-
lutely necessary to take notice of what Mr. Coleridge has
said. He has imputed to me many things which I never
meant, and which I desire to state that I never did mean.
I also wish to withdraw the language which I have used

270 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

in intimating that Sir J. Coleridge knew of Pooley's mad-
ness ; while, on the other hand, I shall sum up, and state
more clearly the evidence that he was mad. To do this
is for my interest, and what is for my interest is also for
yours. My letter will be under four pages, and it will be
such as Mr. Coleridge will hardly deem it necessary to
answer. If, however, he should answer it, I promise you
to trespass no more in < Eraser ' ; for your magazine would
be injured by a long personal controversy ; and, indepen-
dently of my sense of justice to you, I feel that your un-
deviating courtesy to me, and, indeed, friendliness, would
be ill returned by my causing you annoyance. There-
fore, in case the matter should go further, I will publish
a pamphlet, thoroughly investigating the whole subject ;
and I make no doubt that the members of Parliament
and others who have furnished me with private and local
information (which I hold in my hands\ will allow me to
mention their names and quote their authority. At pres-
ent there is no necessity for this, and I do not wish to
compromise my friends in an unpopular question; but
some of them would, I know, run any risk sooner than
see me branded as a libeler when they could prove the
contrary.

" I should wish, if you please, an advertisement put at
once into the ' Times,' stating that a letter will appear
from me to the editor of ' Fraser,' because that may delay
the summary which you say the ' Times ' is preparing, and
which I should like to be delayed until my letter appears.
I shall, I think, be able to recall the public mind to the
real points at issue, which Mr. Coleridge has perplexed
with extraneous matter. Besides, I could not reply to the

LETTER TO MR, PARKER. 271

( Times,' and nothing would induce me to answer an
anonymous writer. If I did, there would be no end
of it."

" BRIGHTON, 49 SUSSEX SQUARE, 9th June, 1859.

" MY DEAR SIK : 19 Perhaps you are right in supposing
that it will not be necessary for me to sum up all the evi-
dence of Pooley's madness, though, from what I hear, the
assertions of Mr. Coleridge and of the magistrates' clerk
(whose testimony he quotes) have produced a certain effect.
However, your note in ' Fraser,' 20 with the medical opin-
ion, was very useful as a counteraction.

" If I abstain from going at length into the question
of insanity, about two pages and a half will be all the space
I shall ask for. Mr. Coleridge has quietly imputed to me
a number of accusations which I never made. What can
he mean by talking of my imputing a < conspiracy ' be-
tween Sir George Grey and the Judge ?

" I shall be in Oxford Terrace on Saturday next, the
llth, for about a week. Perhaps you will do me the
pleasure of calling the first morning you can, before 12.30
(on Sunday if you like). I shall be full of business, or else
would call upon you.

" As you say that the ; Times ' has given up its idea
of a summary, it will not be worth while to notice my let-
ter by separate advertisement ; for that would give need-
less prominence to a personal matter. The usual adver-
tisement of the contents of ' Fraser ' would suffice at least,
I should think so ; but you are the best judge.

Mr. Parker.

20 At the end of Mr. J. D. Coleridge's Letter, " Eraser's Magazine," vol.
lix., p. 638, June, 1859.

272 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" I received yesterday a proposal for a public meeting
to be convened on Pooley's case ; but I have thrown cold
water upon it, and at all events I shall take no part. I
have all along had no personal feeling, and I have none
now. I should not be surprised if in a few days you see
an advertisement for a meeting ; but, if so, you may rely
upon my not coming forward.

" Thank you for your kind inquiries. I am much bet-
ter and stronger in every way, and working at [my] next
volume."

On the llth he returned to London, and " had a long
visit from Parker, who does not like to publish my reply
to Coleridge in * Eraser ' ; but recommends me to put it
forward in a pamphlet, which I shall probably do." And
he writes as follows to Mrs. Grey :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 14th June, 1859.
" DEAR MES. GREY : . . . Mr. Parker has just left me.
It is probable that I shall publish a pamphlet about Cole-
ridge and Pooley. This, not being quite settled, please not
to mention ; but I should be glad to hear from you what
points in my accusation of the Judge you think Mr. Cole-
ridge has invalidated. "When we meet on Thursday will
be time enough ; but I should be glad if you will write
down the heads. All I want is your judgment as to wheth-
er or not Mr. Coleridge has set aside any of my charges."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 24th June, 1859.
" MY DEAR SIR : 81 As I have not heard from you, I sup-
pose you have no remark to make ; if so, the pamphlet

"Mr. Parker.

LETTEE TO ME. PAEKEE.

had better be published immediately. Please not to for-
get to send copies to ... and twenty copies to me.

" A young friend of mine is collecting autographs.
Would you be kind enough to preserve for me some of
your best authors ? "

"59 OXFOKD TEKBACE, gjth June, 1859.

" MY DEAR SIK : ai I almost fear whether you will re-
ceive this before you return on Monday, but I chance it,
as I will not go to press until I have your opinion about
the duration of the imprisonment.

" All the accounts I can now lay my hands on say twenty-
one months. This is given, not only in the i Reasoner,'
and in Mr. Holyoake's pamphlet, but also in the ' Specta-
tor' of 8th of August, 1857, and in [the] < Times' of 3d
August. To the argument of my pamphlet it matters (as
you truly say) nothing ; but to the point of it, it matters
a good deal. Besides, in my essay I said twenty-one
months (as Mr. Mill, in his ' Liberty,' I believe, also says) ;
and, though I would willingly recant an error, I do not
wish even in a matter of detail to represent myself as be-
ing wrong when I am probably right. The < Saturday
Review ' stands alone in calling it eighteen months. The
< Solicitors' Journal ' (I think) said twenty-one ; but of this
I am not sure. I must ascertain this. Surely there are
means in this free country of learning beyond the possibil-
ity of a doubt what any sentence was ? and I would rather
stay in town and keep the pamphlet back than be baffled.

" There seems a good deal of force in what you say of
Pooley having 'traduced' the Author of Christianity.

21 Mr. Parker.
18

274 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Therefore I have omitted the ' hurt no one and traduced
no one,' and inserted ( neither hurt nor traduced any liv-
ing being.' This is a real improvement, and I am much
obliged to you for having been the means of putting it
into my head.

" Could the clerk of the records be written to ?
" Sincerely yours, etc.

" The first petition to Sir G. Grey, which I have seen,
but can not at the moment refer to, also mentions twenty-
one months. This I am sure of."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 25th June, 1859.
" MY DEAR SIR : M Since writing to you yesterday I saw
Mr. Mayo, and he undertook to get official evidence of the
sentence. I hav.e this moment received his letter. On
the other side I give an extract of his own words, in order
that you may judge if they set the matter at rest. The
clerk may have been speaking from the memory of what
he saw in the newspapers ; and you will observe that it is
not said that he referred to any document stating what
the sentence was. Can we not have an attested copy of
the sentence on paying a f ee ? I need hardly say that to
be beyond the possibility of doubt I would gladly pay
such fee. I shall not send the proof to the printers till I
hear from you. On Monday I leave home at two o'clock,
and shall be out all the afternoon till about seven.
" Yours very truly, etc.

" Mr. Mayo writes :

" ' I was directed to the Clerk of the Western Assize,

23 Mr. Parker.

LETTER TO MR. PARKER.

Mr. Sidney Gurney House ; and his clerk let me glance
over the parchment indictment in his office containing
four counts; and on the last of the indictment it was
written that the prisoner was found guilty of the 1st, 3d,
and 4th counts ; and the clerk informed me that he knew
positively that the sentence was for twenty-one months'
imprisonment in the jail six months on the first count ;
six months on the third count ; and nine months on the
fourth count. The clerk said a copy could be had of the
indictment if necessary, but only allowed me to glance
over it without noting anything on paper.'

" Thus far Mr. Mayo. A copy of the indictment I
should not much care about ; but a copy or memorandum
of the sentence would be satisfactory though I can not
possibly believe that all the accounts are wrong, and the
' Saturday Review ' alone right. Besides, I don't think
Mr. Coleridge would have let slip the opportunity of
taunting me with inaccuracy."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 27th June, 1859.

"MY DEAJR Sra: 23 I will write immediately to Mr.
Mayo, and try if I can not get official and attested evi-
dence ; for, as there is, to my mind, scarcely any doubt of
twenty-one months being the term, I do not see why I
should needlessly charge myself with inaccuracy.

" In my letter I have purposely used less strong lan-
guage than in my essay ; partly because there was no need
to repeat what I had already said, and partly because I
wished to consider you as the publisher. But surely I
have a right to comment as I like upon the public conduct

23 Mr. Parker.

276 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

of a public magistrate ? and this is all I have done. The
most severe expressions I have used are ' cruelty,' and
1 evil deed ' ; and if the sentence on Pooley was not an
act of cruelty, what does the word mean ? The infliction
of needlessly severe punishment is cruelty, even if the
motive is good. For instance, an honest and well-inten-
tioned schoolmaster may be cruel, and would be punished,
however pure his motives might be. This at least is my
way of looking at it ; and if I am right, then, indeed, a
fortiori an act of cruelty by a judge is an evil deed.

" In regard to your responsibility, I will write you any
sort of letter you desire, with the understanding that you
shall show it to whoever you like. You published (and I
am glad you did so) Mr. Coleridge's letter, charging me
with slander and malignity : can he expect that you, my
sole publisher, should object to print my rejoinder, when
it does not even appear in your magazine, but as a pam-
phlet with my name ?

" Yours very truly, etc.

" If you are ' identified ' with my attack, then every
publisher makes himself responsible for a signed letter
which he publishes as a pamphlet. With such a doctrine
there would be an end to all free discussion."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, %8fh June, 1859.
" MY DEAR Sra : " Entirely to please you I have struck
out the word evil,' leaving the passage < the principal actor,
of that deed.' By this post I send the proof to Messrs.
Saville and Edwards. If to-morrow is fine, I shall be all
day in the country ; therefore, you will perhaps have the

24 Mr. Parker.

"LETTER TO A GENTLEMAN." 277

kindness to see that my corrections are properly made by
the printers. They are only evil,' omitted at p. 1, line
13 ; f are,' instead of i were,' at p. 6, line 29 ; r and ' neither
hurt nor traduced any living being,' instead of ' hurt no
one and traduced no one,' at p. 7, line 23.

" This has been a long and troublesome business, but I
am more vexed by the annoyance it has caused you than
by its effect on me."

The " Letter to a Gentleman respecting Pooley's Case "
was published a few days later, and contains much of the
matter of his private letters. " His defense," says Buckle,
" fully justifies my attack ; and, if he is willing to agree
to the proposal, I wish for nothing better than that both
attack and defense should be reprinted side by side, and
circulated together as widely as possible, so that they may
be read wherever the English people are to be found, or
wherever the English tongue is known." It need hardly
be said that the attack alone, of the two, has been reprinted.

Nevertheless, this pamphlet, despite its power and
scathing sarcasm, had no very great circulation, owing to
the form in which it was printed ; and he writes as follows :

"BOULOGNE, 2Jfih October, 1859.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : . . . I am particularly glad to
hear that you have done something about the 'Letter.'
The little publicity given to it is, I think, unfair toward
me, and still more unfair toward the cause which I advo-
cate. Of course I can do nothing ; and the great dislike
which I have to circulate my own writings prevents me
from sending copies to people. If you chance to be in

278 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

town, I wish you would ask Parker how matters are go-
ing on."

He told his friend, Mr. Henry Huth, that he intended
at some future time to get his essays reprinted, and meant
then to ask Mr. Coleridge, through his publisher, whether
he wished to have his answer to the accusation inserted in
the reprint. "I have not done anything in my life on
which I look back with greater satisfaction than this," he
added with earnest emphasis. " Since I wrote that article
I have had a great many requests from people who have
suffered wrong to write about their cases ; but, if I were to
go about like Don Quixote, redressing evils, I should miss
my effect where I think it most desirable that I should
speak."

That this controversy should have occurred just after
his mother's death was exceedingly lucky for Buckle. It
gave him an interest ; for, excepting as regards his intel-
lectual powers, he was but the wreck of his former self.

" BRIGHTON, 19th May, 1859.

"Mr DEAR MRS. GREY: I did not answer your kind
note immediately, because I thought that by waiting a few
days I might be able to say something positively about my
movements. But they are still uncertain, and I can not
decide upon them. Here I am, working hard and it is
my only pleasure, just as the capacity of work and thought
is the only part of me that has not deteriorated. Strange !
that the intellect alone should be spared. But so it is.
The feeling of real happiness I never expect again to
know; but I am perfectly calm. Only to tell you the

ILLNESS. 279

honest truth at once, I dread to see yon because of the
associations of the past. While I am here, everything re-
minds me of things that were / but, then, I see literally no
one, except my aunt, who never expects me to talk, and
I sit all the evening with her as contemplative as if I
were alone. And I can not break up these habits ; I begin
even to doubt if I shall travel. I do not yield to this with-
out a struggle. One day I did dine with Mr. , but I

suffered too much from the reaction to try society again.
Sometimes my old plan of going to the United States
comes before me but I can not tell. . . .

" I have spent many pleasant days with you all ; bnt, if
we were now to meet, it would only distress your warm
heart. Leave me alone, or write, if you will, about your
studies and your books. Into those I can enter, but all
else is gone. I am quite well, and able to take my full
amount of exercise."

And his aunt writes concerning this visit, showing how
his spirits improved :

"BRIGHTON, 25th June, 1859,

" It is now two weeks to-day since Henry left me : he
was certainly better for the change, and had many friends,
which made it pleasant for him, as he dined out several

times, and often spent the evening at the C 's, who live

in Kemp Town." He often had great fits of depression,
and excessive weakness also. I very much fear for his
brain ; and I am sure he does so himself. One morning
he was out of bed dressing half an hour before he knew

25 He dined out six times in seven weeks, and spent the evening out
once.

280 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

where lie was he thought he was in Oxford Terrace. I
heard from him last week : he said he intended leaving
London in a short time, but did not tell me where he was
going. . . . Henry sometimes said he would go to Bou-
logne ; but he had no settled plan. When he left me he
talked of doing different things every day."

" But I can not tell," is the burden of his letters. He
could decide on nothing for certain. He was changing his
mind every day. But he could still help his friends :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 26th June, 1859.

" DEAR Miss SHIRREFF : I send the third, fourth, and
fifth volumes of Wagenaar. You always take so much
care of books that it seems ungracious to ask you to take
especial care of these ; but the fact is that the entire work,
which I possess, of more than sixty volumes, is very rare,
even in Holland, and here unprocurable. Therefore I
would only beg of you not to travel about with them, as
luggage is sometimes lost, and it would be impossible to
complete the set if anything were to happen to one of the
volumes.

" I am quite well. I shall leave town either on Mon-
day or Tuesday, and probably go direct to Cromer but I

don't know."

The following note, written to Mr. Theodore Parker,
also gives some account of his state :

" BLACKHEATH, 5th July, 1859.

" MY DEAR SIR : I have been in town for a few days on
business, and found your card on my table at Oxford Ter-

STAY AT BLACKHEATII. 281

race. I can not tell you how much I regret that we should
not have met. The great respect which I feel for you, as
the most advanced leader of opinion in one of the two first
nations of the world, would of itself suffice to make me
eager for the pleasure of your personal acquaintance.

" And when I add to this the memory of your obliging
and friendly letters to me, you will easily believe me when
I say how much I have been disappointed at being unable
to call upon you, and make arrangements to see you.

" But the severest of all calamities has befallen me, and
has so prostrated my nervous system that I am now en-
joined the strictest quiet.

" Your conversation would arouse in me so many asso-
ciations, and excite me to so many inquiries respecting
your noble country, that I feel myself, alas ! unequal to
meeting you ; and, as you might possibly hear from some
of my friends in London, I have been compelled to give
up all society. In such cases the more I am interested the
more I am hurt. I do not know how long you are likely
to stay in England ; but it would give me great pleasure to
hear from you, and to be assured that you understand the
cause of my apparent inattention. I shall probably remain
here until the end of August." 26

At the time he wrote this letter he was staying in
lodgings at Blackheath, whither he had gone after leaving
Brighton, and seen his "Letter to a Gentleman" through
the press. His History, the second volume of which he
had been working at, at Brighton, was so far advanced
that he began to copy part of it ; though he enters in his

56 Weiss, vol. i., pp. 469, 470.

BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

diary that he expects fifteen months more will be passed
before it is finished and ready for the press.

During his stay at Blackheath Mr. Capel visited him,
and wrote, as follows, to a friend :

" I went to Elsham Koad," he writes, July 25th, " on
Saturday week, and began a letter to you there to let you
know what our friend is after ; but he broke me off in the
middle, and I did not take it up again.

"He is going on composing uninterruptedly every
morning, and has two chapters on Scotland ready for the
press. He is getting on fast with the fourth, which will,
I hope, soon be complete. He will then be ready to ad-
dress himself to the last on the deductive method of the
Scotch schools, and its influence and general operation.
This, as he says, will prove the toughest part of the vol-
ume.

" There are two or three curious incidents about his
domicile which you will like to hear. He is very much
satisfied with his quarters, as you will have seen from his
note. He advertised, stating his wants, and of course got
numerous replies. He was disposed to go to Bexley
Heath, lower down in Kent, but was determined by the
shady avenues of the fine Spanish chestnuts in Green-
wich Park. Other things have conspired to justify his
choice, for his landlady, who has been a widow four or
five years, turned out a somewhat remarkable person.
She reads Italian, quotes Tasso and Dante, etc., is well
up in French, and knows its literature, and when neces-
sary can produce Yirgil and Cicero. There's for you!
She did not know anything particularly of her inmate till
I went down, and found her rather astonished, and hold-

STAY AT BLACKHEATH. 283

ing her breath at him. She told me she had known me
well in the church in London, and she was evidently glad
to have her excited curiosity as to her guest ,-set at rest.
So I let the light fully in upon her, and called up her
anxiety to make atonement for having ventured to dis-
agree with him in something he had said to her as to the
mental influence of women the old topic, you see. On
going the next day (for they could not take me in there)
I told her I had three copies of the ' History of Civiliza-
tion,' and would lend her one ; but she had lost no time,
and had been to the bookseller and ordered a copy.

" Such, then, is his hostess mentally, and in manners she
is very much of the gentlewoman. So you will not won-
der that in the evening, after dinner, he sometimes drops
the solitaire, and invites her to converse, as he takes his
ease on the lawn in the shade behind the house. Nor is
this, when so disposed, his only resource, for she has two
or three children living with her, whose parents are in
India ; and he has made great friends with these espe-
cially with one, a little girl about five, a quick, intelligent
thing, and, as you may suppose, she has not been slow to
show how sure she is of his predilections, for she climbs
up on him, gets on his back, and pats him on the face,
and glories in her liberties, which pleases him the more.
So, at present, time goes on. ...

" I saw my medecin down here, and he ordered me to
the sea forthwith, or I do not think Mr. Buckle would
have consented to my leaving. As it was, he told me if
he were not so busy, and going on so satisfactorily with
his work, he would go to Cromer with me for as long as I
could stop."

284 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Buckle was, indeed, remarkably fond of children, and
possessed the power of making them fond of him. Once,
when stopping with Mr. Capel, he saw a little girl during
one of his walks who took his fancy " she looked so gen-
tle." He talked to the little thing and played with her,
and the next day, and several days following, he always
found her at the same spot. At last he told her he should
not see her again, because he was going away. The child
looked very blank at this, but, suddenly brightening up,
asked him to take her with him, she would " like to be his
little girl." Once, too, calling on some friends, they no-
ticed how remarkably heated he looked. He had been
playing cricket with some nephews. " I can not refuse
anything to children," he said, in excuse for tiring himself
so in his weak state and on so hot a day.

His little niece was one of his favorite toys. " Let the
mother do for the boy ; I will take care of the little girl,"
he said.

From Greenwich he went to Margate, and, though his
work steadily went on, his weakness gained upon him.
August 17th he " accidentally fell down stairs and fainted
away." Yet he did not himself seem to see that he was
out-taxing his strength.

" MARGATE, 7th September, 1859.

" I expect to be in town for a very few days late in
this month, on my way to Boulogne. I am working very
hard at Yol. II., and am quite well. I have absolutely no-
thing to write about, though I began my paper high up,
thinking to send you a long letter. . . . "What you say

about the little B 's does not seem so alarming as you

think, unless Dr. Mayo has said more than you have told

LETTER TO MR. PARKER. 285

me. He is naturally nervous, and this always makes men
lean to the unfavorable side ; besides, his extreme con-
scientiousness would make him unwilling to run the risk
of seeming to give a flattering judgment. Children change
so rapidly, and are so capable of rallying, that what is true
of them now may not be true in a month's time. I hope
their father and mother will not be needlessly anxious.

As soon as I know where Mrs. B is I will write.

Everything is so uncertain (or, to speak more properly, we
are so densely ignorant) that, unless there is actual organic
disease, I do not think we ought ever to be apprehensive
about those we love. Otherwise we may pass our lives in
constant fear."

"MARGATE, 1 PARK PLACE, 13th August, 1859.

" MY DEAB SIR : 2T . . . Having been working very
hard at Yol. II., I have flagged a little, and been advised
to try sea-bathing here. I am very anxious, if possible, to
go to press early next year. There are still some Spanish
books which Williams and Norgate promised to get for
me, though I hardly know now what they are. I hope
that you have remained pretty well. To stay in London
and to work must be very trying in such weather as we
have had.

" I see advertised in the ' Times ' an article in the
* Law Review ' a8 on Pooley's case ; but, as I know that
my facts can not be disputed, I have not thought it worth
while to buy the 'Review,' and shall wait till I can read

27 Mr. Parker.

28 " Sir John Taylor Coleridge and Mr. Buckle." In the " Law Magazine
and Law Review " for August, 1859, pp. 263-284.

286 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

it in town for nothing which is about the value of most

criticisms."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 28th September, 1859.

" MY DEAR SIR : " Thanks for your note. All that I
want at present is to have the other volume of Campo-
manes's 'Educacion Popular,' of which you procured
some time ago four vols. for me (I think from Nutt's).
This work, as I now have it, is incomplete, and wants the
most important part, viz., the appendix of documents.
Also, I should be glad to have the Spanish work on the
Church. I forget the title, but you sent me last spring a
copy, which I returned to you, and which belonged to Mr.
Doyle, or at least was procured by him.

" I am in town for a few days before going to Brigh-
ton. I am, and have been, very busy with Yol. II.

" Yours very sincerely, etc.

" I have had a hint of a review preparing in the ( Tab-
let.' Do you know aught of it ? And have you heard of
a review in the ' Rambler ' ? Whenever you have occa-
sion to write, please to give me an idea of how Miss Shir-
reff's book is selling ; but don't trouble yourself to write
on purpose I know you have a good deal to do."

"MARGATE, 7th September, 1859.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : Nearly all the early editions of Bayle
are castrated. You had better not buy one before 1730.
Look if it has the two lives of David, one of which is mostly
wanting, 4 vols. folio, calf, 35s. to 2 2s. Chalmers at 6
5s. ought to be a good copy, in sound calf or half morocco ;
and even then it would not be particularly cheap. . . .

89 Mr. Parker.

LETTER TO MRS. BOWYEAR. 287

" I am working very hard at Yol. II., and am tolerably
well.

" Parker sent me the ' Fraser.' Dr. Mayo writes, as he
could hardly fail to do, in a very liberal and friendly spir-
it. I quite agree with what he says ; but it does not touch
my theory. 80

" The most convenient edition of Bayle is one published
this century, in about 16 volumes 8vo; but I am afraid it
is a dear book."

Dr. Mayo's paper chiefly contested the proof of the
little effect of morals on the progress of mankind. Con-
cerning this, Buckle had written soon after the publication
of his first volume to Mrs. Bowyear :

"January, 1858.

" You ask me how I reply to the charge of not taking
into consideration the effects produced by the passions of
men on the course of history. My answer is, that we have
no reason to believe that human passions are materially
better or worse than formerly nor that they are smaller
or greater. If, therefore, the amount and nature of the
passions are unchanged, they can not be the cause either
of progress or of decay ; because an unchanged cause can
only generate an unchangeable effect. On the other hand,
it is true that the manifestation, and, as it were, the shape
of the passions, is different in different periods ; but such
difference, not being innate, must be due to external
causes. Those causes propel and direct the passions of
men, and these last are (in so far as they are changeable)

30 " Some Remarks on Mr. Buckle's * History of Civilization ' " : " Eraser's
Magazine," September, 1859, p. 293 et seq.

288 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

the products of civilization, and not the producers of it.
In my book I always examine the causes of events as high
up as I can find them, because I consider the object of
science is to reach the largest and most remote generaliza-
tions. But my critics prefer considering the immediate
and most proximate causes ; and in their way of looking
at the subject they naturally accuse me of neglecting the
study of the emotions, moral principles, and the like.
According to my view, the passions, etc., are both causes
and effects, and I seek to rise to their cause ; while, if I
were a practical writer, I should confine myself to their
effects. But I despair of writing anything satisfactory
within the limits of a letter on this subject."

''BOULOGNE, 15th October, 1859.

" It is impossible in a letter to answer fully your ques-
tions on the utilitarian theory of morals. But I do not
think that you separate rigidly two very different matters,
viz., what morals do rest upon, and what they ought to rest
upon. All very honest people who have not any reach of
mind regulate the greater part of their moral conduct with-
out attending to consequences ; but it does not follow that
they ought to do so. The doctrine of consequences is only
adopted by persons of a certain amount of thought and
culture, or else by knaves, who very likely have no thought
or culture at all, but who find the doctrine convenient.
Thus it is that the science of political economy perpetually
leads even disinterested and generous men to conclusions
which delight interested and selfish men. The evil of
promiscuous charity, for instance, and the detriment caused
by foundling hospitals and similar institutions, is quite a

UTILITARIANISM AND MORALS. 289

modern discovery, and is directly antagonistic to that spon-
taneous impulse of our nature which urges us to give, and
always to relieve immediate distress. If there ever was a
moral instinct, this is one; and 1 we see it enforced with
great pathos in the New Testament, which was written at
a period when the evil of the instinct (as shown by a sci-
entific investigation of the theory of consequences) was
unknown. I have no doubt that, when our knowledge is
more advanced, an immense number of other impulses will
be in the same way proved to be erroneous ; but, even
when the proof is supplied, there are only two classes who
will act upon it those who are capable of understanding
the argument, and those who, without comprehending it,
are pleased with the doctrine it inculcates. What is vul-
garly called the moral faculty is always spontaneous or,
at least, always appears to be so. But science (i. e., truth)
is invariably a limitation of spontaneousness. Every sci-
entific discovery is contrary to common sense, and the his-
tory of the reception of that discovery is the history of the
struggle with 'the common sense and with the unaided
instincts of our nature. Seeing this, it is surely absurd
to set up these unaided instincts as supreme ; to worship
them as idols ; to regret the doctrine of consequences, and
to say, ' I will do this because I feel it to be right, and I
will listen to nothing which tempts me from what I know
to be my duty J ; to say this is well enough for a child,
or for an adult who has the intellect of a child ; but on
the part of a cultivated person it is nothing better than sla-
very of the understanding, and a servile fear of the spirit
of analysis, to which we owe our most valuable acquisi-
tions.

290 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

" I wish I could publish an essay on this ! How I pine
for more time and more strength ! Since I have been
here I have read what Mill says in his essays, and, like
everything he writes, it is admirable ; but I think that he
has done better things. He does not make enough of the
historical argument of unspontaneous science encroaching
on spontaneous morals, and the improvement of moral
conduct consequent on such encroachments. I saw this
when I wrote my fourth chapter on the impossibility of
moral motives causing social improvement. But here I
am getting into another field, and it is hopeless."

This last letter was written from Boulogne, where he
went as usual to spend Christmas, taking three boxes of
books with him, and intending, as he says, " to work stead-
ily, as I have been doing for some time, in the hope of
finishing Yol. II. before next spring. I am quite strong
now, but miserably restless and dissatisfied with every-
thing except the creations of the intellect." But about a
month later he writes : " I begin this letter hot in the best
frame of mind or body, as I am still suffering from the
effects of fever, which has confined me to bed for three
days. . . . Even before I was laid up, I felt as if my en-
ergy was gone. I can not tell you how I dread the idea
of going to London, to that dull and dreary house which
was once so full of light and love ! On the other hand,
my ambition seems to grow more insatiate than ever ; and
it is perhaps well that it should, as that is my sheet
anchor."

When he did go back he never entered his drawing-
room. Once only, during the whole time from his moth-

DEATH OF HIS NEPHEW. 291

er's death to when he left the house for his last journey,
did he summon up courage to do so, and that was to get a
book from a dwarf bookcase which stood there.

Before he left Boulogne, another cruel bereavement
was destined to befall him, in the death of his favorite
nephew, a boy of uncommon parts, and devoted to his
uncle. He was his constant companion out walking.
" When you talk to me, uncle, it seems like a dream," he
once said ; and Buckle had so high an opinion of him
that he had left him his whole library in his will. The
boy died at Christmas, after three weeks' illness. He that
was to have succeeded went before, and another blow
fell on Buckle's already tottering health.

A few days after his return from Boulogne, Buckle
writes as follows :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 17th January, 1860.

" MY DEAK MRS. WOODHEAD : I have only been a week
in England, and have had so much pressing business that
I have not been able to answer your letter before. I was,
however, really glad to receive it, and to hear that you are
all pretty well. During the last four or five weeks I have
been very unwell, but am now regaining strength, and am
busy with my next volume, which I much desire to pub-
lish this season, though I am so hindered by the extreme
difficulty of procuring Spanish books that I feel no con-
fidence about it. You say nothing about your husband's
work. Since he has everything in his favor leisure,
health, and strength and still no result. However, give
my love to him. As they say in the East, ' It is written,'
and I suppose things must be so. 81

81 Major Woodhead published his " Life of Queen Christina " in 1864.

292 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" I aril told that Macaulay has left his papers in such
confusion that nothing more will be published of his His-
tory. How much he is mourned ! Now that he is dead,
people are beginning to understand the real greatness of
the man whom when living every little critic was ready to
revile.

" Tell your husband to read Darwin < On Species,'
and to master it. He will find it full of thought, and of
original matter."

He worked on as usual his six hours a day, and was as
gay as ever in society :

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 10th February, 1860.
" DEAR THACKERAY : I send Beugnot's work on ' Pa-
ganism,' in the hope that you, not being a pagan, will
neither pawn it nor sell it, but will return it to me like a
Christian when you have read it.

" Joking apart, the book is well worth reading, and the
best I know of on the subject.

" With much regard, etc.

"It must have been under the influence of De Pri-
aulx's wine that I told you yesterday that Salverte was the
author."

And he writes to Mrs. Mitchell that he is making
strenuous efforts to go to press before the summer. But
he reckoned without his constitution, which again was
beginning to break :

" TUNBRIDGE WELLS
" [Between 27th March and 4th April], 1860.

"Mr DEAR ANNIE: ... I have been suffering from
weakness and depression of spirits, with all sorts of odd

LETTERS.

sensations, and strange bodies flitting"
Mr. Morgan says, what, in fact, is obvious, that the brain
has been seriously overworked, and that nothing will
restore it but complete rest and the most bracing air I
can get.

" I shall probably stay here till Tuesday morning, and
then go for a day or two to Ramsgate, thence to Oxford
Terrace, and then, if the weather is fine enough, I shall
travel, but where, I do not yet know. . . ."

The way he set about taking " complete rest " is inti-
mated by the following letters, addressed to his friend
Henry Huth :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 22d August, 1860.

" MY DEAR SIR : I have returned to London for a few
days, and, not finding Nunez's < Life of Charles III.'
(which you thought would have been sent to you before
now), I write to ask if you have heard anything about
it, as I wish to go to press early in November, and the
book will be of no use to me unless I have it before the
middle of October."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 25th August, 1860.

"MY DEAR SIR:-'! feel really obliged by the trouble
you are taking for me. All that I know about Nunez is,
that Rio (in his < Historia del Reinado de Carlos III.,'
Madrid, 1856) constantly refers to his book as an author-
ity. At Yol. I., p. 201, note, Rio gives the title in full as
( Fernan Nunez, Compendio Historico de la Yida del Rey
Carlos III.'

"If it should come to you not later than the 10th
October it would be in time."

294 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEIT1NGS.

"59 OXFORD TERBACE, 12th December, 1860.
"... I have Navarrete, Opuscules, which you lent to
me, and which I shall return as soon as my chapter on
Spain is through the press. Have you any Spanish books
on the reign of Charles IY. or on Spanish politics from
the reign of Ferdinand YII. to the present time ? I hope
to go to press in less than a fortnight."

Mr. Capel at length prevailed on him to come and
stay a week with him at Carshalton. He soon made
friends with the three boys who were undergoing tui-
tion there, and who were, at first, disposed to look upon
him with considerable awe. He romped with them, pro-
cured them holidays, and threatened Mr. Capel that he
would make them rebel if he did not shorten their hours
of work. " He is a very nice fellow," one of the boys
wrote home, " and never talks philosophy to us." And
they followed him about like a pack of dogs.

" Mr. Buckle, when he was here, was a jolly chap,"
was the description of him in a letter home, and the boys
wrote to tell him how they had enjoyed his visit. He an-
swered from Brighton :

" 18th September, 1860.

" MY DEAE BOYS : I received your letter this morning
with great pleasure, as it showed that you had not forgot-
ten me ; and it is always agreeable not to be forgotten.
The next time I stay at Carshalton, all three of you will, I
hope, be at Mr. Capel's, and we shall be as merry as ever.
And I expect that before then you will have learned to go
up the chimney in the way I told you of. I have not tried
it myself, but I hear that it .is very pleasant, and it must
be funny to see a fellow covered with black gradually ris-

LETTER TO MRS. GREY. 295

ing out of the chimney at the top of the house. Mind you
don't do too many lessons ; it's very bad to work too hard,
and particularly unwholesome for boys, especially when
they are growing.

" The weather here is very wet and disagreeable, and
so windy that I had my hat blown off yesterday, and very
nearly lost it in the sea. But I was too quick, and, after
a sharp race, I succeeded in capturing it. Such things
never happened to me at Carshalton. And now I must
say good-by, because I have my lessons to do, and as Zam
not growing I have no excuse for being idle, as you have."

From Brighton, he also wrote to Mrs. Grey, as fol-
lows :

"BRIGHTON, 5th October, 1860.

" MY DEAK MKS. GKEY : Without stopping to make in-
quiries, I have no hesitation in answering your question at
once, by saying that unless a German master has a good
connection to start with he has no reasonable chance of
succeeding here. The great number of schools here have
attracted so many masters that the competition is immense.
I know two German masters here, one of them an able
and very learned man, Dr. Euge, the translator of my
work, and I have in this way heard something of the pros-
pects and usances of teachers. Until about the middle of
October there are comparatively few persons here whom I
know ; but I will bear your request in mind, and make
inquiries from some of the residents when they return to
Brighton.

" Should I see cause to change my opinion, I will write
again otherwise you will suppose that I have heard no-
thing fresh.

296 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" I wish you had told me how Miss Shirreff is, and if
she enjoyed her trip abroad. Pray make my kindest re-
membrances to her and to Mr. Grey.

" "We shall, I hope, often meet in London, as you are
going back so soon ; and I also shall be in town late in
November, in order to go to press. I feel tolerably strong,
and am able to do a good deal of work. The next volume
is actually finished, save the mechanical part of copying
the notes for the press. I am now meditating my third
volume, and trying to see my way to the arrangement of
the different topics which the civilization of America and
Germany naturally suggest.

" I have waited till the end of my letter to tell you
how glad I was to hear from you ; because I wished also
to say that your reproach seems hardly fair. If it is a long
time since you have heard from me, it is a long time since
I have heard from you. The great and constant pressure
of my own work makes me feel letter-writing extremely
onerous ; and I have accustomed myself to expect that my
friends will make allowance for this most of them do
make allowance."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 13th December, 1860.
" MY DEAR Miss SHTRKEFF : I have this moment re-
ceived your letter, and am indeed grieved to hear such an

account of G . Poor little fellow! I had fancied,

from what you told me, that he was really getting better ;
but such continued prostration is alarming. Most earnest-
ly do I trust that his life may be spared. I can not tell
you how much I feel for your sister and her husband.
Give my kindest love to them, and pray, dear Miss Shir-

FUKTHER ILLNESS. 297

reff, let me have ONLY ONE LINE from you when you get to
Halstead, saying how they all are, and what you think of

G 's appearance. That such things should i>e hanging

over us, threatening at every turn of life, is too much.
They only are wise who can harden their hearts.

" I am working very hard, and apparently without in-
convenience ; but every part except my head is very ill.

If it would not be asking too much of Mrs. T , I should

like to have the whole of La Fuente, as well as Martignac
' Sur la Revolution.' You know that I am very particu-
lar about books, and I will take the greatest care of them."

" BRIGHTON, November, 1860.

" MY DEAB MKS. Bow YEAR i ... I am still at Brigh-
ton, too weak and ill to travel. When I shall get to town
I really can not tell. ... I see too surely how changed I
ain in every way, and how impossible it will be for me
ever to complete schemes to which I once thought myself
fully equal. My next volume is far from being ready for
the press ; and when it is ready it will be very inferior to
what either you or I expected."

"BRIGHTON, 29th November, 1860.

" MY DEAK CAPEL : I have been very unwell for some
days, and now, to add to everything else, I have got the
mumps. I shall consequently not be in London till the
latter part of next week."

Before he left Brighton he had an interview with Mr.
Holyoake, who had sent him a pamphlet a year ago, and
now wanted him to bring out a cheap edition of his " His-
tory," leaving out the notes. He also arranged with Mr.

298 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

Parker to sell him the edition of 3,000 copies of his second
volume for 600 ; and, immediately on his return to Lon-
don, on December 6th, " weak and depressed," set to work-
ing about eight hours a day, and began sending MS. to the
printers on January 4th.

At Easter he made a short stay at St. Leonards, with
Mr. and Mrs. Huth ; but, since an eye-witness is the best
witness, we will leave Mrs. Huth to give an account of his
visit in the next chapter.

CHAPTEE VI.

"Women and Knowledge What to read Fine Arts and Civilization Immor-
tality Suicide Stay at St. Leonards Dinner, 18th April Volume 11.
approaching Conclusion Epochs in Literature Further Illness Second
Stay at Carshalton Conversation with Mrs. Huth Tour in Wales In
Scotland Successes of the " History "Stay at Sutton Preparation for
Egypt.

IT was in 1857 that we became acquainted with Henry
Thomas Buckle. Long before we had heard him talked
of by an enthusiastic friend, who told us that Buckle was
then writing the " History of Civilization." Our friend,
Mr. Capel, would not borrow a book from us to read with-
out first asking " my friend Buckle " whether it was worth
reading, as lie knew all books. If I praised a favorite
author, I was told that my admiration was misplaced, as
" my friend Buckle " saw imperfections in him. " But
would not Mr. Huth like to call on my friend Buckle \ "
Mr. Huth decidedly objected, saying that, if that gentle-
man's library contained 22,000 volumes, and he had read
them all, as Mr. Capel assured us, it would be an imperti-
nence for a man, who had not anything very extraordinary
to recommend him, to intrude upon him. I was very glad
of this answer, for I hated that " friend Buckle," whose
name was constantly in Mr. CapePs mouth, and bored me
intensely, who was always put forward to contradict me,
who was said to know everything, and who had seemingly

300 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

done nothing. We were, therefore, considerably surprised
when Mr. Capel came one day and said, " I have told my
friend Buckle that you wish very much to make his ac-
quaintance, and he will be glad to see you if you like to
call upon him." My husband looked very black, but he
had nothing for it but to go to 59 Oxford Terrace, where
he was told Mr. Buckle was not at home, and he left his
card. Later, when our dear friend made his last stay with
us, I told him how we had been forced into our acquaint-
ance with him, and he explained that he had only agreed
to see us as he thought it would be of advantage to Mr.
Capel, who was going to have a son of ours at his school.
At that time he had never expected our acquaintance to
develop into a friendship.

One morning Mr. Capel came in, looking very much
excited, and asked whether I was going to remain at home
that afternoon, for, if so, he would call with Mr. Buckle.
When he came, the conversation turned chiefly on educa-
tion, especially on the bad methods in which languages are
generally taught. Mr. Capel, I think to give Mr. Buckle
a good opinion of me, told him that I was studying min-
eralogy. Upon this Mr. Buckle immediately began to
banter me about it, and advised me rather to read the In-
troductions to the works of Rome de Lisle and of Haiiy,
without going further " For," he said, " as you neither
intend to give lectures or deal in minerals, it is a waste of
time for you to learn to distinguish felspar from quartz ;
it is not for women to go deeply into the technicalities of
science, but only de les effleurer." I told him, another
time, that I had only been looking into the subject, as one
of my boys had begun collecting minerals, and I wished if

WHAT TO BEAD. 301

possible to foster any nascent taste for science ; and he then
quite approved of what I had done, and told me that a
friend of his, who had two charming little b#ys, always
asked his advice about their education, though the eldest
was then only five years old. All the advice he gave her
was to cultivate herself. The atmosphere of a cultured
mother was more beneficial than anything else to children.

At Mr. Buckle's first visit he also spoke of the immod-
erate admiration most people have of the past ; and that
was why, the more remote the times, the bigger, better, and
longer-lived the people were supposed to have been a sub-
ject then new to me, as his first volume had not yet been
published.

Mr. Buckle had on a thick, fluffy overcoat, which I
never saw again till we accompanied him to Southampton,
where he was to embark for Egypt with our sons. He
sat leaning back on a sofa, which pushed his coat collar up
over his ears, and gave him the appearance of a short, fat
man.

The next time I saw Mr. Buckle I asked his advice
about historical reading. He remarked on that occasion,
that most people read too much and think too little ; and
said that it was necessary to take copious notes while read-
ing, and look them through very often. Of Prescott he
observed, that that part of his works which treats of the
Netherlands was inferior to the Spanish part, because he
had never taken the trouble to learn Dutch, and, therefore,
had been unable to study those documents and works
which were as yet untranslated. He advised me to read
Lingard, not only because he was a good writer, but also
because I lived in an atmosphere of Protestant opinion,

302 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

and, therefore, ought to be careful to get acquainted with
the opposite views. On French history he recommended
Lavallee, since, he said, in his four volumes were contained
all the most valuable facts related in the sixteen of Sis-
mondi.

I saw from that very first visit that Mr. Buckle's in-
tellect was something extraordinary. But he seemed to
me a cold, unfeeling man, with no sympathy for individ-
uals, and caring only for what was beneficial for mankind
as a mass. "When, soon after his first volume was pub-
lished, I read his biographical sketch of Edmund Burke, I
began to take a different view, but still thought that his
tenderness could be roused only by individuals of extraor-
dinary intellectual powers. By degrees I got more and
more puzzled about him. I kept a note-book, from which
I was prepared categorically to question him whenever I
knew he was coming; and the kindness, patience, care,
and sympathy with which he answered greatly astonished
me. It was a rule with him, never to pay more than one
visit a day among his friends on acquaintances he only
left cards and his visits, when they happened to be to
me, generally lasted about twenty minutes. But if, on
any subject on which we happened to be talking, I was not
yet quite clear, he went on combating my arguments point
by point, and never moved from his chair until he had
made it perfectly plain to me. But no sooner had I
grasped it than he took up his hat, said good-by, and hur-
riedly left.

The conversations which I had in this way with him
made me see that there were two Buckles one cold and
unfeeling as fate, who invariably took the highest and

FINE ARTS AND CIVILIZATION. 303

widest view, to whom the good of the individual was as
nothing compared to the good of the, mass. This man
was heard in the " History of Civilization," aiid at dinner-
tables where many people were present. The other Buckle
was tender, and capable of feeling every vibration of a
little child's heart ; self-sacrificing to a degree which he
would have blamed in another ; and habitually concentrat-
ing his great intellect on the consequences of individual
actions to the actor. On these occasions he always took
the proximate view, and recommended it in the practice
of life ; for to foresee the remote consequences of our ac-
tions he considered impossible.

In reading the first volume of his work I was struck
by the almost entire absence of any mention of the fine
arts, and asked him whether he thought they had but lit-
tle influence on civilization? "Yes," he did think so.
They had civilized individuals indeed ; but never nations.
Their time has not come yet. And, going on to talk of
the decline of the fine arts in modern times, he pointed
out that when they stood highest men had only just begun
to investigate the laws of nature, and all the highest intel-
lects were absorbed in ai*t. Now they are absorbed in the
discovery of natural laws, and the arts will not again rise
until these are practically all discovered. Then the great-
est men will again have leisure to turn their attention to
art. Leonardo da Yinci was the greatest intellect of his
age. Had he been born now, he would not be an artist,
but a natural philosopher. One of the greatest poets of
the present time was Faraday surely a man need not
write poems to prove himself a poet ? Had he not shown
his great powers of imagination in his discoveries \ The

304: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

last problems which would remain for us to solve would
be those of mind and of matter. And did he think they
would ever be solved ? We had no right to put a limit to
the human intellect. Of Cuvier, who considers " L'influ-
ence du corps sur Fame " a " probleme insoluble hors de
la portee de 1'esprit humain," he said : " If Cuvier said
this, he did not see beyond his own horizon."

He had shown in his " History " how absurd it was to
offer up prayers in church for rain ; how then, I asked
him, is it with prayer for recovery from illness? He
owned his contempt for general " prayers of the congrega-
tion " for recovery, and also that he himself did not be-
lieve prayer would at all alter the course of disease;
" but," he said, " if you have a dear friend who is ill, it is
your duty to do everything in your power to promote re-
covery ; and, if you believe that prayer is efficacious, it is
right for you to pray."

I then went on to say that philosophers talk of the
general increase of happiness, but what comfort have they
for the individual $ " The first answer I am going to give
you to this," he replied, " is that it is the business of phi-
losophers to discover and propagate truth, and not to give
comfort. However, they tell us that there is no future
punishment, and that is a great comfort. Society could
not exist if it were not to punish crime ; but we have no
right to blame the criminal who has become what he is
through a series of events over which he has had no real
control. Knowing this, how can we believe that the Great
Causer of all these events can at last punish His crea-
ture ? " " How do we know that there is a future state \ "
I inquired. " Know it we do not," he answered, " for it

SUICIDE. 305

is transcendental ; but our instincts lead us to believe."
" And what do you think on the question of personality
in a future state ? " I asked. " What do I think on that
subject ? " he said, seeming rather interested in the ques-
tion. " I believe that what we have done here will not
be lost to us, but also that the mind of the philosopher
and that of the idiot will be equal after death. The dif-
ference we now see in them is owing to the material
through which the intellect filters. If mind is immortal
it can not really be diseased. Philosophers do not like
this idea."

" Why is it a sin to commit suicide ? " " Because in
ninety-nine cases in a hundred it is an act either of impa-
tience or of cowardice. As long as a single being exists
whom our death would pain, we have no right to kill our-
selves. Did any one exist whose death would hurt no-
body, and who was afflicted with a very painful and in-
curable disease, I really see no immorality in his quietly
taking a dose of laudanum. The reasons I have given
justify society in branding suicide as a crime, just as a
parent is justified in severely punishing a lie. For a lie,
too, is in most cases told from a bad motive, though it
need not necessarily be wrong. If I were to say ' two
and three make six,' what harm have I done ? "

The maxim commonly attributed to the Jesuits, Mr.
Buckle said, had not originated with them, nor did they
alone act upon it. " In so far as physical pain is con-
cerned, surgeons, for example, constantly act upon it ; for
what is taking off a limb but doing evil that good may
come ? We practice it, too, in the moral world every time
we deprive a child of a pleasure as a punishment, or be-

306 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

cause it would be dangerous to it." He talked of the
beneficial influence of pleasure, not only in his book, but
also in his conversations. " It is a serious responsibility,"
he said to me once, when I asked his advice, " to curtail
another's pleasure." And, on being told that a very deli-
cate old lady had gone to a very cold part of the country
to pass her Christmas with her daughter, he remarked that
the gratification of her will would probably benefit her
health.

Even while he was working eight hours a day at his
second volume, he could find time to give advice to a
friend. He made an appointment to call on me to answer
more fully some questions which I had asked him in Mrs.
Grey's drawing-room, and kept the appointment with his
usual punctuality. He staid nearly an hour, and afterward
wrote to Mr. Man waring to put my name among the sub-
scribers for Mr. Herbert Spencer's "First Principles,"
which he had given me a great desire to read. But he
warned me never to take it in hand when I was tired a
piece of advice he had formerly given to me in regard to
Shakespeare. " The imagination," he said, " is a delicate
thing, and it must be carefully dealt with." On my re-
marking that in Germany there is an idea prevalent that
Shakespeare is more valued there than in his own country,
he replied, " The Germans have some right to say so, for
they were the first to write on 'Shakespeare.' Before
Coleridge, no Englishman had written anything worth
reading on t Shakespeare.' " "When I asked him whether
I should read the German critics, he told me to read Tieck
and Schlegel if I had time, but it is more important to
know " Shakespeare " than to know what has been writ-

STAY AT ST. LEONARDS. 307

ten on him. From ten years of age to eighty, no better
book could be taken in hand.

The printers were going to stop work for about a week
at Easter, and Mr. Buckle having heard that we were go-
ing to make a stay at St. Leonards, asked me a great many
questions about the hotels there, and said that he would
join us in the hotel to which we had decided on going, if
the printers did not play him false. I wondered that he
preferred St. Leonards to Brighton, which place, he had
once told me, always set him up again in three days, how-
ever fatigued he was, and that the strongest east wind was
never too much for him. " This is an exceptional case,"
he said. " I want a change, but I am very anxious to run
as little risk as possible of catching cold, as this would re-
tard the publication of my volume. St. Leonards being a
milder climate, there is not the same risk." About a week
afterward Mr. Capel wrote, asking us to secure a room for
Mr. Buckle in our hotel. "We were not, however, at an
hotel, as we had been tempted by an exceedingly well-
situated house, and all our endeavors to get him a room
for Easter week proved fruitless. To show how sorry we
were at our ill success, I mentioned that we had one spare
room, which we would offer him with pleasure, only that
it was on the third floor, and with a back view. It was,
therefore, with some surprise, more mixed, perhaps, with
fear than pleasure, that we received the following note by
return of post :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 23d March, 1861.
"My DEAR MKS. HUTH: I have just received your
letter, and it is so extremely kind that I can not hesitate

308 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

to say yes to it. Unless the printers play me false I could
be with you by an early train on Thursday next (the day
before Good Friday), or possibly even on Wednesday
evening ; but I think it would be safer to say Thursday.
If this suits you, please to let me have a line to say so, and
also tell me what time the trains leave, and which are the
fast ones. Must I go from London Bridge ? Or can I go
from Pimlico station ?

"I shall be obliged to return home on Tuesday or
Wednesday after Good Friday, when the printers will
again begin to work.

" You will, I know, be careful to have the bed thor-
oughly aired. This I should not mention, except that
lodging-houses at this time of the year have often been
long unoccupied, and I am subject to pains in the limbs,
which are half rheumatic and half neuralgic.

" The bedroom being high up is no objection to me.
On the contrary, I prefer it as being more airy. You
must not put yourself at all out of the way for me, or
make any difference."

We tried to make him as independent as possible, with
a separate sitting-room, and the provision of ink and blot-
ting-book.

But during his whole stay he never once entered the
room. When going out for a walk or drive we never
asked whether he would come with us. Sometimes he
invited himself for a drive, but his walks he always took
alone. Once, indeed, he met my husband on the beach,
and they walked on together, talking on political econ-
omy. Mr. Buckle got interested in the questions he was

ILLNESS. 309

asked, and went on walking and talking for an hour ; but
when he came home he was quite ill for the rest of the
day. My husband did not then know how slight a frame
bore that powerful intellect ; he himself had forgotten it
in the interest of talking. He retired to his bedroom to
sleep if possible for a couple of hours. "When the two
hours were nearly over my husband went softly up stairs
to see if he was moving ; but before he reached his door
he heard our landlady's children singing loudly and jump-
ing violently, as it seemed just over Mr. Buckle's room.
He stopped the noise, and then went to inquire if he had
slept. Mr. Buckle said, " No, the noise had prevented it."
Why did he not ring the bell ? " Oh no, poor little
things ! It was their time for singing and jumping, not
their sleeping time." .

The fullness of his mind was something wonderful.
Every evening the talk turned on a different subject. One
evening, in a sentimental mood, he would talk of poetry.
" Richard II. " he considered the most poetical of Shake-
peare's compositions ; and then, as he stood leaning
against the mantel-piece, he gave us that speech, " No mat-
ter where, of comfort no man speak." I doubt whether
any one has heard it on the stage rendered in anything ap-
proaching the perfection that we had in that little lodging-
house parlor. His eyes started forth, his looks were ghast-
ly, but he neither gesticulated nor moved about, as some
actors do. He did not even raise his voice above the or-
dinary pitch, but tuned it in a manner that made us feel
almost as miserable for the time as the unhappy king.
And then going on from one piece to another, he quoted
those lines of Corneille :

310 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

"Et comme notre esprit, jusqu'au dernier soupir,
Toujours vers quelque objet pousse quelque de"sir,
II se ramene en soi, n'ayant plus ou se prendre ;
Et mont6 sur le faite, il aspire a descendre.
J'ai souhaite I'empire, et j'y suis parvenu;
Mais en le souhaitant je ne 1'ai pas connu.
Dans sa possession j'ai biouv6 pour tous charmes,
D'effroyable soucis, d'e"ternelles allarmes,
Mille ennemis secrets, la mort a tous propos,
Point de plaisir sans trouble, et jamais de repos.'"

He then went on to Milton :

"Thus with the year
Seasons return ; but not to me returns
Day, or the sweet approach of even or morn,
Or sight of vernal bloom, or summer's rose.
Or flocks, or herds, or human face divine ;
But cloud instead, and ever-during dark
Surrounds me, from the cheerful ways of men
Cut off, and, for the book of knowledge fair,
Presented with a universal blank
Of nature's works, to me expunged and rased,
And wisdom at one entrance quite shut out.
So much the rather thou, celestial light,
Shine inward, and the mind through all her powers
Irradiate ; there plant eyes ; all mist from thence
Purge and disperse, that I may see and tell
Of things invisible to mortal sight."

As he finished, my husband asked him some question,
but our poor friend had no voice to answer it ; for several
minutes he was almost in a fainting state, and, had he not
been on the sofa, would have fallen. It was plain that he

1 " Cinna," act. II., scene 1.

FULL OF FUN AND ANECDOTE. 3H

was too painfully reminded by these passages of his own
bereaved state.

But the next evening he would be full of fun and an-
ecdote. His reading of French memoirs had furnished
him with a number of amusing stories, and among others
he told us many that Lord Lyndhurst had got from Tal-
leyrand. They were mostly clever answers of the witty
Frenchman. Another time we asked him a few questions
about the children, and it led to special medical advice for
every one of our little flock : the diet requisite for each dif-
ferent age and constitution, the amount of exercise, of sleep,
etc., etc., were all considered. Later I got much of the ad-
vice confirmed by Dr. Mayo, and none at variance with it.

That Easter, on account of the recent death of the
Duchess of Kent, everybody was in mourning, with the
exception of Mr. Buckle. " People do question me about
it sometimes," he said, " but I always answer that I never
do wear mourning for anybody but those who have been
my personal friends." " "What with going against the
stream in this way," said one of us, " and the opinions ex-
pressed in your book, you will never be Lord Buckle."
u No," he answered, "nor do I wish it." Yet he greatly
admired the character of the Duchess of Kent, and the
way in which she had educated the Princess Yictoria ; re-
specting which he told us how the Princess, having spent
all her pocket-money at a bazaar at Tunbridge Wells, saw
something that she wanted very much to have, but could
not buy. The stall-keeper at once requested her to take
it, and pay when she pleased. " Did not you hear the
Princess say that she had spent her allowance ! " interposed
her governess, who had to act according to the Duchess's

312 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

instructions. The stall-keeper, quite taken aback, asked
to be allowed to put the article aside until the beginning
of next month. This was granted, and the Princess came
on the first day, paid for her parcel, and took it home.
" That is educating," added Mr. Buckle, with a little severe
look at me, when he had finished the story. " The conse-
quence is," he went on, " that the Queen has not once had
to come before Parliament to have her debts paid, as
former sovereigns were wont to do." He did not consider
that I was strict enough. For instance, my youngest child
was rather shy with strangers, and I ought to get her out
o f it send her with the nurse into the kitchen have her
in the drawing-room always, and so on. At the same time
he preferred a want of severity to anything approaching
cruelty to children. The tone in which he told us how
"Wesley's mother prided herself on having forced her chil-
dren while yet very young to bear pain without any out-
ward sign showed that he by no means admired her.
Then, going on to talk of education generally, he said that
girls' schools were nearly all of them bad, for they were
mostly kept by unmarried women, who have no knowledge
of the world, and who are afraid of everything above

mediocrity. "When was sixteen I gave her, as a

birthday present, Moliere's works. Soon after I heard
that her schoolmistress had immediately taken the book
away. I then made inquiries as to what authors were
granted access to that respectable establishment." And
here Mr. Buckle mentioned a number of second and third-
rate poets, among which I only remember the name of
Gray, while the forbidden works included all the greatest
of French and English authors. " "What harm can these

CONVERSATION WITH MRS. HUTH. 313

great works of genius do? " lie continued. " Any girl who
has been brought up in an atmosphere of refinement will
shrink, if anything, from any coarse passage she-may come
across. The youngest schoolboys are allowed to read them
as much as they like ; and which grow up the most refined
men, these schoolboys, or the uneducated poorer classes ?

" How is it," I once asked Mr. Buckle, " that you, who
are so fond of refinement, should be so severe on those
who spend much thought or money on dress more severe
even than on those who waste the same amount on the
decoration of their houses ? " " Because the first has by
far the worst consequences," he answered. " Would not
a greedy woman shock you more than a vain woman ? " I
asked. " If I had a daughter," he replied, " I would rather
she had the former fault of the two." Anything like a
show of diamonds he considered vulgar, as it seemed to
be a sort of flaunting of riches, and I, therefore, confessed
in fear and trembling to my weakness for lace. To my
great relief he allowed that that ornament was blameless.
" The beauty of lace is insidious ; for ten persons who
would notice diamonds, perhaps one would notice lace."

Talking of the so-called " Working Classes," Mr. Buckle
thought that they would always exist, but would be better
paid than they now are. At present fortunes are still un-
equally divided. It is not right that any man should
have two thousand pounds a year and his housemaid only
twenty. Such things, however, can never be altered but
by the gradual rise of the standard of wages. It would
avail nothing were a few well-meaning persons to give
their servants higher wages." These remarks led to my
telling him how much the extravagance of my coachman

314 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

and his family vexed me, and that I was not all sure but
that it was my duty to interfere as far as I could. " Would
your coachman like your advice ? " he asked. " No, he
would not." " Then don't give it. I always give advice
freely when I am asked, but not otherwise, excepting
to those whom I love." I told him that my Viennese
friends, finding me ignorant of many modern works of
German literature, recommended me to read the " Augs-
burger Zeitung." Should I follow this advice or not ?
The answer was that I could not know too much, and
that I should therefore do well to follow their advice, if I
had plenty of time. Since, however, this was not the
case, it was necessary that I should choose carefully what
was most important for me to learn ; and among these the
facts related in the " Augsburger Zeitung " could hardly
be classed.

"We accompanied him to the station when he was leav-
ing us, and saw him take a second-class ticket, which, he
told us, he often did. "I always talk," he said, "and
often find very intelligent people in those carriages ; the
first-class travelers are so dull ; directly you broach a sub-
ject they are frightened." Later in the year, when he
came to us from a tour in Wales, he told us that he had
picked up a great deal of information in this way from
commercial travelers, who generally have a thorough knowl-
edge of the country through which they are in the habit
of traveling.

When we returned to town, and I sent him a few things
which he had been unable to get into his portmanteau, the
messenger came back with some proof-sheets and the fol-
lowing note :

LETTER TO MRS. HUTH. 315

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 3d April, 1861.

" MY DEAS MES. HUTH : I think it a great sliame that
your husband should have so much the start of you as to
be able to begin niy next volume a whole chapter before
you ; a and as I hate cheating I remedy the fraud by inclos-
ing to you the proof-sheets of that chapter, merely begging
that you will return them, if possible, within ten days, or
at all events a fortnight at the very latest. I have not yet
written the Table of Contents, and to do so I shall need
the sheets.

" I say nothing about the pleasure which my visit to
you has given me. You have already phrased it : ' Les
femmes devinent tout.'

" "Will you say to your husband, with my very kindest
regards, that, if he wants any further information about his
proposed course of reading, he must not scruple to write to
me fully, either now or at any future time. However busy
I may be, I am never too busy to attend to what interests
those for whom I have a real regard."

On the 18th of April he dined with Mr. and Mrs.
Huth. "We were a party of ten," writes the latter,
" among whom were Miss Thackeray, Mr. Capel, and Mr.
Roupell. The last-named gentleman, who had never met
Mr. Buckle before, was much struck, not by his brilliancy,
which he had expected, but by the delightful humor which
is not often found in conjunction with such severity of
thought. Poor Mr. Capel, as the representative of the
clergy among us, had to serve as butt to Mr. Buckle's clever
sarcasms against them. Mr. Capel defended them valiant-

3 Mr. Huth looked through the proofs of Chapter I. on Spain.

316 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

ly> by enumerating all the good they had done in preserv-
ing manuscripts, softening manners, spreading civiliza-
tion, etc., etc. ; but at the end of the discussion Mr. Buckle
said, quite seriously, that he considered the evil inflicted
by the clergy on mankind outweighed any good they had
done. After dinner Miss Thackeray made him talk on
poetry, when, among other things, he said that Goethe's
< Faust ' would live as long as the German language was
understood ; indeed he afterward, while traveling in the
East, remarked that, next to < Hamlet,' ' Faust' was the
greatest composition that had ever been written. And
what do you think of Schiller's genius ? All his reply was,
' Schiller did not gird his loins.' ' Oliver Twist ' was the
best of Dickens's works. ' Adam Bede ' will live. ' Silas
Marner ' is a perfect jewel of a novel. One of the com-
pany asked what there was in Racine that his countrymen
assigned to him so high a rank ? ' I have been told,' he
answered, * that the refinement of his style is so subtle that
no one not bred up in the language can appreciate it.' c No
one, he thought, who was thoroughly at home in his own
language could be intimately acquainted with any other.
The gesticulation which the French so constantly make
use of is due to the poverty of their language, and not to
their wit.' I think he added ' that it was due to the same
cause that they had never had but one real poet Beranger.'
English he placed above all other languages ; and it was
plainly not mere sentiment which led him to this conclu-
sion, but study and thought. Once, at our dinner-table,
while describing its force, he said, ' We have little words
in our language which tell like the stroke of a ham-
mer.'

LETTER TO MISS SHIRREFF.

" Mr. Capel and he staid to the last, though he com-
plained of fatigue. We told him to fancy himself in the
lodging-house at St. Leonards, and lie down on the sofa.
He then talked of Newton how mental and physical
strength were combined in his constitution, and com-
plained of his own feebleness, saying, c I am never a week
without feeling that I have a body. If I were a strong
man, I would do something. 7 Only a few weeks later the
second volume was in our hands, and we heard that its au-
thor was very ill, and in danger of brain fever."

On April 23d he writes from Oxford Terrace : " My
seclusion has been all owing to work, which has severely
tasked my strength and engrossed all my time. But now
it is well-nigh over, and unless the printers play me false
my volume will be out by the middle of next week. When
it comes out I hope that the Scotch clergy will love me.
I have toiled hard to deserve their affection."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 30th April, 1861.

"My DEAR Miss SHIKREFF: ... I saw Dr. Williams
the other day, and his prescription is, I think, doing me
good. But I seem to see all events with a distempered

and carping eye. I asked him about Gr , of whose

case lie spoke, on the whole, favorably, looking on time as
the great curer. Tell this to your sister, with my kind
love, and genuine thanks for her letter. Glad as I always
am to see her husband, the distance is too far, and he not
strong enough to make me wish him to call, unless he
should have occasion to be in the neighborhood. I do not
need a visit from him to be assured of his friendship."

318 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

" 59 OXFOKD TERRACE, 1st May, 1861.

"ThcA-R MRS. MITCHELL: . . . You ask me to give
you a list of the few really important writers the world has
produced, and whose works, from the amount of new truth
they contain, mark an epoch in the history of the human
mind. Such a list will necessarily be extremely short ;
and I shall make it shorter by striking out of it the great
physical and mathematical works because the truths in
them are so cumulative that the latest works are usually
the best. With this reservation, I will now mention what
I think the most important and original writers : Homer,
Plato, Aristotle (the Romans produced nothing original ex-
cept their jurisprudence their philosophy they stole from
the Greeks, and spoiled it in the stealing), Dante, Shake-
speare, Bacon, Descartes, Hobbes, Grotius, Locke, Berkeley,
Kant, Brown on c Causes and Effects,' Hegel, Comte's c Phi-
losophic Positive,' Mill's < Logic,' Smith's < "Wealth of Na-
tions,' Malthus ' On Population,' Ricardo's f Political Econ-
omy.' And for the study of human nature, the three
greatest modern works of fiction are ' Don Quixote,' ' The
Pilgrim's Progress,' and Goethe's ' Faust.'

" Possibly I have omitted something ; but there, I be-
lieve, are the whole of the masterpieces. Yirgil and Mil-
ton I omit ; because, greatly as I admire them (especially
Milton), I can not place them in the same rank as Homer,
Dante, and Shakespeare. If this list needs further illus-
trations, pray do not hesitate to ask for it." 3

8 Plato : " This consummate thinker."?; 15, vol. i., " History of Civil-
ization."

Aristotle: "Probably the greatest of all ancient thinkers." P. 543,
note 244, vol. i. " Between Aristotle and Bichat I can find no middle man."
P. 812, note 137, vol. i. Hunter, as a physiologist, "was equaled, or per-

LETTER TO MES. MITCHELL. 319

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 2d May, 1861.

" DEAK MES. MITCHELL : . . . Pray remember that I
did not send you the list with a view to your studies. Each
person needs a separate plan. My intention was to give
you a universal, and, as it were, bird's-eye view of the

haps excelled, by Aristotle ; but, as a pathologist, he stands alone." P.
566, vol. ii., " History of Civilization." " Little inferior to Plato in depth,
and much his superior in comprehensiveness." " Essay on Mill."

Dante : " It is impossible to discuss so large a question in a note ; but,
to my apprehension, no poet, except Dante and Shakespeare, ever had an
imagination more soaring and more audacious than that possessed ^by Sir
Isaac Newton." P. 113, note 194, vol. i., "History of Civilization."

Shakespeare : " The greatest of the sons of men." P. 42, vol. ii. " The

two mightiest intellects our country has produced are Shakespeare and

Newton." P. 504, vol. ii., " History of Civilization." " A perfect intellect,

. . . that instance, I need hardly say, is Shakespeare." " He thought as

deeply as Plato or Kant. He observed as closely as Dickens or Thackeray."

Bacon : Burke was, " Bacon alone excepted, the greatest thinker who
has ever devoted himself to English politics." P. 413, vol. i. " Bacon and
Descartes, the two greatest writers on 'the philosophy of method in the
seventeenth century." P. 542, note 242, vol. i., " History of Civilization."
"To genius of the highest order he added eloquence, wit, and industry."
" While the speculations of Bacon were full of wisdom, his acts were full
of folly."" Essay on Mill."

Descartes : " Of whom the least that can be said is, that he effected a
revolution more decisive than has ever been brought about by any other
single mind." P. 529, vol. i.

Hobbes : " The subtlest dialectician of his time ; a writer, too, of singular
clearness, and among British metaphysicians inferior only to Berkeley.
This profound thinker," etc. P. 356, vol. i., " History of Civilization."

Berkeley : " The most subtle metaphysician who has ever written in
English." P. 659, vol. i. " One of the deepest and most unanswerable of
all speculators." Vol. ii., p. 478, note 113, "History of Civilization."

Kant : " That extraordinary thinker, who in some directions has, perhaps,
penetrated deeper than any philosopher either before or since. . . . The
depth of his mind considerably exceeded its comprehensiveness. " Essay
on Mill," note.

Comte : " A living writer, who has done more than any other to raise
the standard of history." P. 5, vol. i., note 1. " This eminent philosopher."
P. 173, vol. 1. " The greatest [writer on the philosophy of method] in
our own time." P. 542, note 242, vol. 1.

320 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

great epochs of thought, for speculative curiosity rather
than for practical use."

On May 15th, he received his second volume, and the
next day went to Margate, whence he writes :

"17th May, 1861.

" DEAR MES. GKOTE : I am so unwilling that you
should think that during the few weeks for which you
visit town I would intentionally abstain from coming to
see you that I write to tell you the cause. The moment
I had got my second volume through the press, the ex-
citement which had kept me up being withdrawn, I sud-
denly collapsed. The nervous prostration became so
threatening that I was ordered to try what this very
bracing air would do for me. Already I am better, but

Mill: See "the Essay."

Adain Smith : " Published his * Wealth of Nations,' which, looking at its
ultimate results, is probably the most important book that has ever been
written." P. 194, vol. i. " Indeed, Hume, notwithstanding his vast powers,
was inferior to Smith in comprehensiveness, as well as in industry." P.
195, note 59, vol. i. " Well may be it be said of Adam Smith, and said,
too, without fear of contradiction, that this solitary Scotchman has, by the
publication of one single work, contributed more toward the happiness of
man than has been effected by the united abilities of all the statesmen and
legislators of whom history has preserved an authentic account." Vol. i.,
pp. 196, 197. " By far the greatest of all Scotch thinkers." P. 432, vol. ii.
" Displaying that dialectical skill which is natural to his countrymen, and
of which he himself was one of the most consummate masters the world
has ever seen." P. 441, vol. ii., and pp. 443, 540, vol. ii., "History of Civil-
ization."

Malthus: " The great work of Malthus." " Essay on Mill."

Ricardo : " Since Ricardo, no original thinker has taken an active part
in political affairs."" Essay on Mill." " And Mill's book is, on the whole,
the best since Adam Smith, though for pure political economy hardly equal
to Ricardo's. But Mill has larger social views than Ricardo, and is less
difficult." Letter to Miss Shirreff, July 5, 1858.

FURTHER ILLNESS. 321

still miserably nervous, and tormented by the thought of
how little I can do, and how vast an interval there is be-
tween my schemes and my powers. This is th first day
I have been well enough to write, and the trembling of
my hand will, I fear, make this difficult to decipher.

" In about a week, or ten days, I shall probably be
again in town for a very short time, as I am ordered to
move about from place to place as much as possible. Di-
rectly the weather is settled I shall go abroad."

Mr. Capel joined him at Eamsgate, and related after-
ward several little things which showed in what a ner-
vous state poor Buckle then was, and how little things,
which formerly would only have provoked a smile, now
caused him real annoyance. " Now they are coming with
their vulgarities," he irritably exclaimed after a miserably
cooked dinner, when finger-glasses and doylies were put
on the table. Once, too, when Mr. Capel just read a cou-
ple of pages out of a newly published work of Mr. Mill's,
and rather inconsiderately asked some questions on it, his
friend nearly fainted in the attempt to answer him.

At Brighton, where Buckle went after a week's stay
at Ramsgate, his sleep was so restless and agitated that
one night he fell out of bed ; and his voice was heard so
loud that the servants knocked at the door, thinking that
he was calling. Brighton, however, set him up in some
degree, for he again went into society when he returned
to London, after a week's stay there. He called on Mrs.
Iluth, looking as usual and talking as usual ; but it was
plain that he was incapable of work, or he would not have
gone about calling on his friends in the middle of the day.
21

322 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Mrs. Huth writes : " I told him how anxious we had all
been about him, and that the first we had heard of his
illness was from Mrs. Bowyear, who told me that he had
called on her, and was obliged to sit down for twenty
minutes before he was rested enough to speak. He
laughed, and said : ' What ? I did not talk for twenty
minutes ? You must have thought that a very bad symp-
tom ! ' When the carriage came, I asked him whether
we could put him down anywhere? He named some
out-of-the-way street, saying that he had business there.
LoDg after, I accidentally learned that the business was
one of those errands of charity to which he devoted so
much of his time, and that he had not the heart to inter-
rupt them even after his health had broken down."

From Brighton he wrote as follows :

" BRIGHTON, 27th May, 1861.

" DEAE MES. MITCHELL : I have been very ill, and
even now, though much better, my hand shakes so much
as to make it difficult to me to write.

" Complete and sudden nervous exhaustion forced me
to leave town without seeing any of my friends. But I
am told that with returning strength I may again go into
society ; and, as I have determined to go to London on
Thursday, and as your invitation is for only one day ear-
lier, I can not deny myself the pleasure you hold out to
me. Therefore, I will dine with you at eight on Wednes-
day, 29th."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 6th June, 1861.

" DEAE MES. GEOTE : Your letter is very kind, and I
should be truly sorry not to see you before I again leave

LETTER TO MR. CAPEL. 323

town, which I shall do in about ten days. I have returned
home for a short time, because I felt so depressed that I
thought a little society would do me good. But my head
is so weak that I do not venture to see any one whose con-
versation is likely to interest me on a day in which I am
dining out. At present I am engaged till Monday next
inclusive; but on and after Tuesday I have nothing on
my hands, as very few people know that I am in town. I
would, therefore, call upon you on Tuesday afternoon (the
llth), or I would lunch with you ; or, as you kindly speak
of a quiet dinner, I would dine with you on that day, or
on some other when you may chance to be disengaged. If
you are at home when this note arrives, please to let me
have one line by the bearer ; for at present I hold myself
entirely at your disposal after Monday. But do not marvel
if you find me very dull ; I feel like a worn-out old man.

" Thank you for thinking about me for your evening
party ; but I have a dinner engagement for Friday, and I
must not risk a double excitement."

" 59 OXFORD TERRACE, 16th June, 1861.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : I hope to be with you on "Wednes-
day next. I can not fix the time, but I do not think I can
get to you before lunch. Don't ask any one to meet me
while I am with you.

" If my proposal suits you, let me have a line to that
effect.

c * I drink hardly anything but claret pure and sound,
but not expensive Julien, or some vm ordinaire. It is
advisable to know something of the place one gets it from,
otherwise it may be unwholesome. I know that you will

324: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

excuse my mentioning this; or, rather, that you would
wish me to mention it. Mr. Mayo also wishes me to drink
occasionally German seltzer water.

" I shall hope to stay about a week with you. Try and
engage a really new-laid egg for me for breakfast."

Of course the boys were delighted to renew their ac-
quaintance with him when he again came down to Carshal-
ton ; but he seemed to them to be very weak. His gait
was stooping, and his walk rather shambling, though he
was able to walk long distances. As he sat quiet, his over-
worked nerves showed their state of weakness by his con-
stant little groans, as if he were going to speak and stopped
himself suddenly.

While he was staying there, Mrs. Huth came down to
Carshalton with a daughter for the day, to visit her sons.
" I sat half the day," she writes, " with him in the little
front garden. He seemed to be amused with the children,
who were constantly coming up to him, talking to him, or
shouting to him from a distance ; and I noticed the acute-
ness of his ear. The voices of my children at that time were
so alike that I could not distinguish them myself; but he,
though too short-sighted to see their faces unless they were
near him, seemed perfectly able to recognize them by their
voices. He talked to me of my daughter's education.
( Four hours and a half at lessons is too much for her,' he
said ; ' you could not do it yourself, and you are stronger
than she is. 5 Surely I could read four hours and a half in
the day if I had no other duties. ' No, you could not,'
he replied ; ' and that child ought not to work more than
two in the morning and one in the afternoon, at present.

CONVERSATION WITH MRS. HUTH. 325

That may make all the difference in her constitution, wheth-
er she be healthy or sickly during the rest of her life. And
you must find out what she takes an interest in, -and then
occupy her with it. She might take up drawing, in ad-
dition to the three hours' work, since you say she is fond
of it ; and the dancing would also be an extra, since it in-
volves no mental work. The tendency of education nowa-
days is to overwork children, and hence the great propor-
tion of weak-brained adults. Does she learn Latin ? My .
dear Mrs. Huth ! what induced you to make her study one
of the most difficult of languages ? Miss ShirrefF, as you
say, has pointed out its value, and what she says is quite
true, and advisable in the education of strong girls. But
she will teach it herself, if she wishes to know it, by the
time she is twenty ; and, for the present, the best thing
you can do is to make her forget what she has learned as
fast as possible. Let her read books on travel ; they will
teach her pleasantly, and without fatigue, much that is
valuable. If she does not care to read these, let her read
story-books. It is of the greatest importance to foster a
habit of reading ; the rest will come of itself. You ought
not to let her overdo herself physically either ; and by no
means let your daughters walk as you walked at their age.
Much of your present weakness and neuralgia is probably
due to that. You say that at that time you felt all the
better and stronger for it ? I dare say you did. But all
the while you were living on your capital ; your life was
consumed too fast. Statistics show that butchers are very
seldom on the sick-lists of their societies, while bakers are
constantly ill. But, nevertheless, bakers are longer-lived
than butchers. You were quite right not to let your

326 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

daughter practice those Swedish exercises. Nothing of
the kind ought to be done without the advice of a really
good medical man. You may have the action of a feeble
heart, for instance, quickly strengthened by certain re-
peated exercises ; but the result may be heart disease, ow-
ing to that organ having been overworked.

" ' Tutors,' he said, ( generally teach too much from
books, and too little by word of mouth. I teach these
boys more, sometimes, in a quarter of an hour than they
would learn otherwise in a week.' But are our present
race of tutors capable of teaching in that way ? He shook
his head. Presently the postman came, and brought him
a letter. He read it, put it in his pocket, and, looking
quietly up at us, said, ' I have heard of the death of three
relatives to-day, and I do not care for any one of them.
It is conventional,' he went on, ' to look sad when speak-
ing of the death of a relative, though during his lifetime
one may never have shown him the slightest attention. I
think it better to be truthful. The letter I have just re-
ceived told me of the death of a relative abroad, whom I
had already taken a dislike to when we were children ; for
she had a bird that she made a great pet of, yet when it
died she did not seem to care one bit. Later in life, she
used to beat her children on the slightest of grounds.'
The threat < I'll lick you, if you don't,' from one of the
bigger boys to a smaller, which we overheard, caused Mr.
Buckle to tell me that he had heard it once before, and
seen it followed up practically. c Why did I allow it?
Oh, a strong boy is not hurt by a little rough treatment ;
and, supposing I had stopped that one act, what good
should I have done ? "

VISIT TO CAKSHALTON. 327

" Once more we paid Mr. Buckle a short visit at Car-
shalton. "We had been at Leatherhead to look at a place
which we meant to take for the summer, and stopped at
Mr. Capel's on our way back. Everybody was out. Mr.
Capel had gone to town, the servant informed us, but she
f knew where Mr. Buckle and the young gentlemen were.'
We waited ; and after a short time saw them coming
across the field, laughing, talking, and running, as if they
were all boys together. They had been at a strawberry
gathering, and one of the boys, enlarging on the generos-
ity of their host, told us that they * had been allowed to
eat as many as they liked.' < You ought to say, you ate
as many as you could,' interrupted Mr. Buckle ; and then

turning to me, ' filled himself with them till I saw

a strawberry come out of each eye.' Another boy, looking
all dimples, gave me his account of the treat. Mr. Buckle
watched his face, and then asked me in German whether
the mother of the boy had a pretty smile men rarely had
it. I warned him not to think that the little fellow did
not know German; but he said he had forgotten all he
knew since he had been at school. ' That's good educa-
tion,' Mr. Buckle said ironically, < to make a child learn
something, and allow it to be forgotten.' I reminded him
about my daughter's Latin, but he of course saw that I
understood the difference between the two cases.

" The weather was beautiful, and I made a remark on
the air, which was fresh, and fragrant with the scent of
the neighboring lavender fields. He, too, thought the air
very bracing, but said that, all the same, he could not stay
at Carshalton much longer. I guessed the cause, and re-
marked that Mr. Capel was not a suitable companion in

328 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

his nervous state. 'No, poor Capel worries me; but I
shall miss the boys. I wish some one would make me the
guardian of two or three boys.' Then he discussed the
possibility of adopting some ; and said that he could not
adopt children of the lower classes, because they were so
badly brought up ; but that he should be quite satisfied
with ordinary gentlemen's sons of thirteen or fourteen

years of age. I told him that his friend Mrs. had

adopted the eldest child of some servants who had married
from her house. I thought she would find it awkward in
time, when the little girl had grown up as a lady, while her
father and mother, brothers and sisters, had to seek their
company in the servants' hall. lie thought so too, and,
indeed, held that an adopted child ought to be entirely cut
off from all knowledge of its real parents and relations.
"We then talked of his future plans ; he thought Sweden,
a country which he had never yet seen, would prove bene-
ficial as an entire change, and take him away from him-
self ; but doubted that the rudeness of the country and
hardship of traveling might not more than counterbalance
any advantage of this sort to a man in his weak and deli-
cate state of health. As to France, he said the only part
of it which is not too hot for a summer residence is the
extreme north, and there one would be subjected to the
same want of comfort as in Sweden. < Besides,' he added,
< 1 can not bear to see, what makes me miserable even to
think about, a noble people under the heel of that great
brigand 4 a people with such a literature ! ISTo, my indig-
nation increases year by year as this reign goes on.' He
considered France, after England, the most civilized of all

* Louis Napoleon.

BUCKLE'S OPINION OF FEENCH MANNERS. 329

countries. c But,' I urged, ' in Germany there is more
knowledge. A greater proportion of the German popula-
tion are able to read and write even than the English.'
' Reading and writing is not knowledge in itself,' he re-
plied; 'it is only a means to knowledge.' 'But you say
in your first volume that you consider the German philoso-
phers the first in the civilized world, and that Germany
has produced a greater number of thinkers than any other
country.' 6 ' Certainly,' he answered, * but if you look at
the context you will see that I point out that their litera-
ture is the growth of but a century, and has had hardly
any influence on the people.' ' You say that French re-
finement is only on the surface, because you never saw in
France a Frenchman behave with unselfish politeness?
An individual experience goes for nothing in a matter of
that kind. Look in the window of any grocer's shop, and
mark the arrangement of the French preserved fruits.
The people who fill those boxes belong to the lowest or-
ders, and yet how much refinement they show ! Look,
too, at the dresses of their women, and you can not but
admit that Frenchwomen show far more simplicity and
quiet taste in their attire than the women of other coun-
tries.' He gave me more cogent proofs, but I have for-
gotten most of his talk on the subject, and only remember
the generalizations, which amused and surprised me from
their being drawn from facts which most people would
hardly have noticed.

" As he sat there quietly talking on all sorts of sub-
jects, no one would have thought that anything ailed him.
Whenever he changed his position, however, I could see

6 "History of Civilization," vol. L, pp. 217, 218.

330 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

little twitches of pain in his face. I asked him whether
he could keep himself from thinking. l Not altogether,'
he answered. c Could I have known that I should have
to pass so long a time without my books, I should never
have believed I could have borne it so well.' He remarked
once to me that pain or grief is not so difficult to bear as
it appears from a distance ; and it certainly seemed true in
his case, shut out as he was from all mental activity, and
with the wound still smarting of his mother's death. His
calm and cheerfulness were but rarely interrupted. Once
Mr. Capel surprised him in a flood of tears. ' You don't
know how I miss my mother,' he said. Yet he was al-
ways ready to joke. Talking of his health, he remarked,
f Upon the whole, when I look back I find I have made
no progress ' ; and then added, as if it were equally sad,
' and now I am so hungry.' ' :

From Carshalton he went on a tour in "Wales, promis-
ing to write alternately to Mr. Capel and Mrs. Bowyear,
who were to let his other friends know how he was.

"TENBY, 13th July, 1861.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : It is a week to-day since I left
town ; I hope that I am better, but I can not say much
in my own favor. Please to write to me f Post-Office,
Aberystwith, Cardiganshire ' ; and, as I probably shall not
stay there more than two days, do not delay writing. An
article on my ' History ' is to be out to-day in the ' Edin-
burgh He view,' but there is not much chance of my seeing
it here. If you can get hold of it, tell me if it contains
any points of importance.

" I shall have my letters forwarded every ten days or

LETTERS. 331

fortnight ; so that a line to Oxford Terrace will at any
time reach me, sooner or later.

"My love to the boys. Don't give them too many
lessons."

"HULL, 31st July, 186 L

" DEAR MRS. MITCHELL : After wandering for two or
three weeks in Wales, I have crossed the country to this
place, desiring to see an entirely opposite form of life.
On arriving here a few hours ago I found your letter. I
am in every respect better, and my old social cravings are
returning. Again I begin to feel human. At all events,
human or not, I am quite unable to resist the temptation
you hold out to me. I shall hope to be with you some-
where about the middle of August ; but you will perhaps
let me leave the time open, as the rate at which I shall
travel northward will depend on the weather and my
health, and, I fear I must add, on the caprice natural to a
solitary and unthwarted man. I will write to you some
days beforehand, of course with the distinct understanding
that, being myself so uncertain, I shall take the chance of
your house being filled. On no account would I interfere
with the arrangements in regard to friends whom you may
invite ; and if there is not room for me, I would travel on,
and come to you later. Pray let this be clearly under-
stood, as I have no right to leave my arrival so uncertain."

"FrLEY, 6th August, 1861.

" MY DEAR CAPEL : I am now really better. I am
stronger and much less depressed. Your letter, dated 27th
July, I received two days ago; the uncertainty of my
movements prevented me from getting it before. I do

332 BUCKLE'S' 'LIFE AND WKITINGS.

not mind about the for in in which the Spanish translation 8
appears, but please to let both the translator and Robson
understand that there is to be not the slightest alteration
in the text, and that the title is simply to be c Introduction
to the History of Spanish Civilization,' or ' of Civilization
in Spain.' Mr. Huth will be good enough (I suppose) to
revise the proofs.

" I shall be glad if, when you go to town next Satur-
day, you would call at Parker's, and let me know how
things are getting on. ...

" I have not yet seen the ' Edinburgh ' indeed, I
never open a book except < Shakespeare.' But at Whitby I
shall perhaps have an opportunity of seeing the reviews.
Tell me in what article the notice is in the ' Quarterly.' 7

" If Robson should observe any alteration, he should
let you know before printing it. I do not like to be re-
sponsible for anything which I have not written."

"WHITBY, 13th August, 1861.

" MY DEAR MKS. WOODHEAD i Your letter has just
reached me here, where I have stopped on my way to
Scotland. I have been traveling through "Wales, and the
fine mountain air did me much good. Since I saw you
I have suffered a good deal from nervous exhaustion.
Now I am considerably better ; but a very little exertion
fatigues me, and writing makes my hand tremble. Still I
would not delay sending you a line ; and I know, too, that
you will be pleased to hear of the success of my second

6 Translation of chapter i. of vol. ii.

7 " On Scottish Character." " Quarterly Review " for July, 1861.

turn-

LETTER TO MRsN^fojj,^ 333

volume, of which nearly twenty-three hundred copies are
already sold, besides the sale of an American reprint and
a German translation. The chapter on Spain is now being
translated into Spanish. I write with difficulty, but I
hope you will be able to decipher this. Give my love to
your husband. I am pleased to learn that his industry is
returning to him."

"CAKOLSEDE, 25th August, 1861.

" MY DEAK MKS. GEEY : I did not receive your letter
till two days ago. During the last few weeks I have been
constantly on the move, and my letters are only sent to
me about every ten days. For the moment I am staying
with the Mitchells very pleasant people whom I think
you know at all events, Miss ShirrefE knows them.

" I am really better, but think it prudent to abstain
from all work. I wish you could have given me a better
account of yourself and of Mr. Grey. He, no doubt, feels
the absence of summer. Here, at least, it is bitterly cold,
and since I left London I have found rain almost every-
where. I was delighted with Wales the southern and
western parts of which I never saw before. But, as your
theory is that I know nothing about scenery, I will say no
more on that head. Everywhere I go I soon feel restless,
and after the first novelty has passed want to go else-
where. This, I believe, is caused by the absence of that
stimulus to which my brain has been so many years accus-
tomed. I seem to cry out for work, and yet I am afraid
of beginning it too soon.

" You do not say if Miss Shin-off is doing anything.
My kindest regards to her. When quiet with you she

334 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

will perhaps be able to do some work ; and, if my advice
can be of any use to her, there is no need for me to say
how gladly I would give it.

" I have no plans for the future ; but if the weather
improves, I shall probably go farther north.

" I am very glad that you sent me the paper about the
Essays and Reviews Defense Fund. I had not heard of
it, and shall certainly subscribe to it, and bring it under
the notice of others.

" This letter is very dull ; but how can a man help
being dull when he neither reads nor thinks ? I feel a
constant void and craving. But such is the penalty I have
incurred, and I must pay it."

"September, 1861.

" DEAR MRS. BOWYEAR : . . . The second edition of
my first volume is exhausted, and a third edition has been
nearly three weeks in the press. The second volume is
selling rapidly thanks in a great measure to my enemies.
If men are not struck down by hostility, they always
thrive by it. The German translation has appeared, and
a Spanish translation of the chapter on Spain is now
passing through the press. A Russian translation was
advertised as being in preparation, but it has been prohib-
ited at St. Petersburg ; and I have received two different
proposals for a French translation one from Paris and
one from Brussels. So much for the egotism of an au-
thor."

" SUTTON, 15th September, 1861.

"MY DEAR AUNT: . . . My health has improved
greatly, indeed I may say I am almost well, having lost
all my nervous symptoms. I greatly enjoyed my trip in

SUCCESSES OF THE " HISTORY." 335

Wales and Scotland. My new volume is selling famously
in England and America. The German translation of it
has appeared, and a Spanish translation is being prepared.
The Russian translation has been prohibited, it not being
thought right that so mischievous a book should pollute
the pure minds of the Russians. You see that it is your
misfortune to have a bad and dangerous man for a nephew.
The second edition of my first volume is all sold, and a
third edition is being printed. 8 I think I have now told

8 Mr. D. Mackenzie Wallace twice found the Russian translation of
Buckle's History in peasants' huts. " In the course of a few years," he
says, " no less than four independent translations so, at least, I am in-
formed by a good authority were published and sold. Every one read, or
at least, professed to have read, the wonderful book ; and many believed
that its author was the great genius of the present generation. During the
first year of my residence in Russia I rarely had a serious conversation
without hearing Buckle's name mentioned ; and my friends almost always
assumed that he had succeeded in creating a genuine science of history on
the inductive method. In vain I pointed out that Buckle had merely thrown
out some hints in his introductory chapter [ ! ! ] as to how such a science
ought to be constructed, and that he himself had made no serious attempt
to use the method which he commended. My objections had little or no
effect ; the belief was too deep-rooted to be so easily eradicated. In books,
periodicals, newspapers, and professional lectures the name of Buckle was
constantly cited often violently dragged in without the slightest reason
and the cheap translations of his work were sold in enormous quantities."
Pp. 167, 168, " Russia," vol. i., London, 1877.

The following are the particulars of its sale in England :

Vol. i. : By the end of 1857, 675 copies were sold. On July the 10th,
1858, the publisher informs Buckle that 500 copies of the new edition had
been sold, including 100 to Mudie.

By 16th September, 1858, 714 copies of the new edition were sold.

By 8th November, 1858, 950 copies of second edition were sold.

By 15th December, 1858, 992 copies of second edition were sold.

23d February, 1859, 1,100 of the second edition sold.

22d July, 1859, " a trifle more than 1,200."

1st November, 1859, 1,340 were sold, of which 60 went at the October
sales.

13th April, 1860, nearly 600 left of second edition.

7th November, 1860, " there remain unsold 300 copies, and a little more,"
of second edition.

336 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

you all the news. And so, earnestly hoping that you will
soon recover your strength,

" I am, etc., etc."

"CABOLSIDE, 27th August, 1861.

" MY DEAR MES. HUTH : Owing to the uncertainty of
my movements, I did not receive your letter till a few
days ago, on my arrival here.

" I fully hope and expect to be able to pay you a visit
at Sutton perhaps about the middle of September. "When
I can fix a day I will write again, to ask if my time will
suit you. Meanwhile, I should be glad to know if you
have heard from Mr. Capel, and where he is, and how he
is. "When he last wrote to me, he was about to go abroad
with your boys.

" I am much better, but still, as a precautionary mea-
sure, abstain from all work. I hope that you are all well.
Give my best regards to Mr. Huth."

On the 15th we met Mr. Buckle at the station, Mrs.
Huth writes, and saw him get out of a third-class carriage
with his little dog " Skye," who had been especially in-
vited. Skye had never traveled by rail before ; and when
Mr. Buckle had to change at Croydon, and saw him taken

17th April, 1861 (before vol. ii. came out), there remained 150 copies of
the second edition.

15th June, 1861, there were 74 copies remaining.

Vol. ii. : " My second vol. (edition 3,000 copies) was delivered to the
trade on 18th May. The trade subscribed for 900 copies, Mudie's 100.
There were orders in the house for 230. Total taken, 1,230.

"On 25th May, 'nearly 1,600 were sold.'

"On llth June, 'over 1,700.'

" On 15th June, 1,900 sold."

For the translations and editions, see the bibliography of this work.

STAY AT SUTTON. 337

out of the dog-box trembling all over, he preferred rather
to get into a third-class carriage with him than have him
put back, and consequently caught a cold, which he did
not get rid of for a week.

He told us that he felt much stronger, and intended
to try to work for a couple of hours every day. In the
evening he brought a heap of newspapers and other peri-
odicals, and letters, into the drawing-room, which he had
found awaiting him at Oxford Terrace, and had not had
time to read before coming on to Sutton. They all had
reference to his second volume, the periodicals containing
reviews which the publisher or friends had sent him, and
the letters from people in almost every class of society, all
saying something about his book.

One of the most curious among them was from a pub-
lic-house keeper at Glasgow, who said that every word of
Mr. Buckle's character of the Scotch was true, and that he
himself would have written it just as Buckle had done,
but that he had not learned to write books. He finished
up with a long poem, which Mr. Buckle read out to us
with mock solemnity, full of conceits on his name; he
would buckle on his armor, and buckle to, and buckle with,
nor care for the buckling of bigotry's face, but take up his
buckler, etc., etc. Another letter was from a young Amer-
ican lady, who was pained to think that the author of the
" History of Civilization in England " was so little valued
in his own country. "Would it comfort him to know that
a heart was beating for him on the other side of the Atlan-
tic a heart full of admiration and warm and lively sym-
pathy? Many of these communications were from me-
chanics ; one, which was afterward found among Mr. Buc-

338 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

kle's papers, was from the Lieutenant-Governor of Rhode
Island, who also sent him a copy of his work ; and another,
also found among the posthumous papers, was as follows :

" BOSTON, U. S., 9th August, 1861.

" DEAE SIB : In your last volume I observe you despair
of carrying out your primal idea. Did it never occur to
you that you might do three times the quantity of work
thrice as easily by having the assistance of a skilled aman-
uensis ? It is a source of EXTREME regret that I did not
propose to poor Macautey what I now take the liberty of
doing to you.

" I am by birth an Englishman, 38 years of age, a rapid
penman, a stenographer ; have since the age of 14 years
filled various arduous and responsible positions ; for half
my life, certainly, I have been used to write from dictation,
and can enable my employers to do more business in one
hour, and in better shape, than they would do for them-
selves in six : this may seem incredible, but it is absolutely
the fact. I can refer to numerous friends in England and
America to testify as to my character for probity and
honor. My salary is $1,500 (i. e., 300), but I feel I am
frittering it away uselessly while such men as yourself and
Mr. Macauby could render such increased service to the
world, with assistance such as I can afford them.

" I am of strictly temperate habits, of an energetic dis-
position, not ill-manneredly nor unamiable I believe, am
married, have a small family, am in comfortable circum-
stances, own my little cottage and bit of ground, but will
cast my bread upon the waters if you say the word : that
you want me ; for the chief aspiration of my existence is

STAY AT SUTTOK

to be useful to my age, and I know my position and my
power ; and I know, too, how liable I am to be charged
with egotism when I declare to you THE FACT that I am
confident you would find me to be as invaluable as your
own right hand.

" I send herewith a few specimens of my recent com-
position as indices whereby you may judge of my caliber.
I also inclose a copy of a few of my testimonials, printed
by myself, for among other accomplishments I am ama-
teur printer ; also a photographer, etc., etc. I send you a
portrait of myself, done by myself, and remain
" With the greatest regret,

" Yery respectfully,

" Your friend and servant,

" Do you mean to answer all those letters ? " I inquired.
" E"o, not all," he said ; " there are too many. But I
always answer the misspelled ones." "We read as many of
the reviews out loud as we could get through in one even-
ing. Among them was one which said that the second
volume was as full of platitudes as the first ; while as for
that truism which he dwelt so much on in his first volume
that the progress of civilization depends not on moral but
intellectual progress, it was known and recognized by every-
one long before his book was thought of. Mr. Buckle
laughed, and said, " I have been attacked on this point
more than all the others put together ; and now it is called
a truism." 9

The drawing-room was given up to him during the

9 See page 129, and note.

340 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WHITINGS.

morning as a study ; and for tlie first few days of his visit
he attempted to read German for a couple of hours, in
preparation for his third volume, for he was always re-
studying the languages of those countries on which he
wrote. He soon found, however, that his brain was still
too weak. It was not a question of prudence in taxing it,
but simply of possibility. In place of it, he frequently in-
dulged in the " luxury " of thinking. The greater part of
his two volumes, he told us, he had thought out while out
walking ; and here he would go out and sit in some field,
thinking over such subjects as whether Germany or Amer-
ica should be first treated in his next volume. Even Skye
was not allowed to accompany him on " thinking morn-
ings," but delivered over to the custody of one of the boys.
Sometimes the dog escaped, and went for long excursions
on its own account ; but Mr. Buckle would never allow
him to be beaten when he returned, as the boys advised :
he gave him a gentle tap with one finger, talked to him
reprovingly, and pointed in the direction in which he had
run away. And Skye really looked as if he understood it.
" If a dog can not be trained without being beaten," he
said, " it is better that he should not be trained at all."
Once, when he saw one of my boys with a dog-whip, he
advised me not to let him have it. " JSTo boy ought to be
intrusted to handle a whip," he said. " They can never
have sufficient judgment to tell when, and in what degree,
they should use it. Boys are, besides, generally cruelly
inclined, and this propensity ought to be more carefully
checked than any other ; for cruelty is, perhaps, the worst
of vices ; and cruelty to animals almost worse than cruelty
to human beings, so utterly helpless are they. For this

STAY AT SUTTON. 341

reason Rarey's system of breaking horses was so meritori-
ous, because lie substituted firmness and kindness for un-
thinking brutality." For his dog he had a great affection ;
indeed, he said that he could not conceive it possible for
anybody to have much to do with any animal without get-
ting fond of it.

Mr. Buckle's proof of the non-dynamical character of
morals, though it seems clear enough to most readers, was,
nevertheless, often misunderstood. Many people thought
that, because morals were incapable of producing civiliza-
tion, Buckle considered them to be useless. The reason
was that so many fail to grasp the difference between
general and individual effects a subject which is dis-
cussed elsewhere in this volume. Hence it was that a
gentleman once said to him, pointing to his little boy,
" Were I to act in accordance with your teaching, I should
take all possible pains to cultivate the intellect of that
child, and leave his moral character to take care of itself."
Yet it would be impossible to state more distinctly the
exact opposite of Mr. Buckle's ideas on education. The
first thing to look to was a child's health and moral char-
acter ; the cultivation of the intellect was secondary ; and
a healthy child, whose tastes had been fostered but not
forced, would obtain knowledge for himself when his
mind was sufficiently matured. The only time he had
punished his little nephew was once when he had bullied
his sister. On the other hand, his constant advice to Mr.
Capel was: "Don't give the boys too many lessons."
"Were it necessary to neglect one of the two, he would
rather have the intellectual side abandoned than the emo-
tional and moral. And most particularly in the case of

34:2 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

women, in whom lie valued " womanly " qualities far more
than cultivated intellect. It was on this account that he
thought it so bad for a woman to remain unmarried;
"for," said he, "unless occupied in active benevolence,
their affections are starved in a celibate state."

"We were talking one evening of that passage in his
second volume : " They taught the father to smite the un-
believing, and to slay his own boy sooner than propagate
error. As if this were not enough, they tried to extirpate
another affection, even more sacred and more devoted still.
They laid their rude and merciless hands on the holiest
passion of which our nature is capable, the love of a moth-
er for her son. Into that sanctuary they dared to intrude ;
into that they thrust their gaunt and ungentle forms." 10
" Mr. Capel," I said, " is always preaching severity to me,
and wanting me to act the Spartan." " Don't listen to
him," remonstrated Mr. Buckle. " Never hide your affec-
tion from your children. No successes in after-life which
severity can lead to will ever compensate for the want of
a mother's love."

I remember the sad expression of his face while talk-
ing on this subject, the sadness with which he spoke of the
lot of those who have no one to love them, and no one
whom they may love. "I keep my affections alive by
reading ' Shakespeare '," he said. Sometimes, indeed, his
own bereaved state would produce fits of depression and
despair of the future; but he never saddened others by
dwelling any length of time on the blessings which had
been denied to him ; and his buoyant and sanguine tem-
perament made him habitually look at the bright side of
10 Yol. ii., p. 407.

STAY AT BUTTON. 343

everything. His studies, which had made him better ac-
quainted than most people with the enormous amount of
misery to which mankind has been, and is, subjected, had
not extinguished his conviction that the total amount of
mundane happiness exceeds that misery; one of the best
proofs of which is, that were it not so, people would not
cling so to life. He sympathized with "Wilhelm von Hum-
boldt's saying, that in " that marvelous piece of work, man,
both grief and sensibility may coexist with a temperament
otherwise happy." ] But the sentence preceding this :
" True sorrow is ever present to a well-nurtured soul," 13 he
would have put : " Only those of a powerful imagination are
capable of feeling true sorrow ; for they alone can idealize
the object of their affection. Whatever new ties they may
afterward form, however enjoyable life may again become
to them, the image of the lost one will be ever present.
The unimaginative may feel, perhaps, the absence of a
f amih'ar face ; but their loss is nothing more than a broken
habit. "' For him, then, it was plain that the loss of his
mother was irreparable. From the time of her death he
had never been able to talk of her. If his friends tried to
lead him on to that topic, he always changed the conversa-
tion. Once only, when we happened to talk of fine wo-
manly natures, their characteristics, and how they differed
from others, he burst out with, " I wish you had known
my mother ! She was. . . ." But this was the only time
we heard him allude to her. His aunt was very unhappy
about it, thinking that could he be got to talk of his moth-

11 "In dem wunderbaren menschlichen Gemiith konnen Schmerz und
Empfindung eines in anderer Hinsicht gliicklichen Darseins gleichzeitig
neben einander fortleben."

is " In gutgenarteten Seelen ist ein wahrer Schmerz immer ewig."

344 BUCKLE'S LIFE ASTD WETTINGS.

er his grief might be softened. But old Dr. Mayo recom-
mended that he should be allowed to follow his instinct.
" Wait a little, and he will begin to speak of her of his
own accord, and then she will be on his lips continually."
And the event justified the prediction. A gentleman who
met Mr. Buckle not long afterward in Egypt said that he
spoke so much of her that it produced the impression that
she was still alive ; while the writer in the " Atlantic
Monthly," who met him at Cairo, says that Mr. Buckle
declared most impressively his belief in a future state, and
that life would be insupportable if he thought he should
be for ever separated from one person probably his
mother. 18

"When Mr. Buckle first joined us at Sutton, continues
Mrs. Huth, he told us that bodily he was much stronger,
and could do a little work ; but it was evident that his
head was still very weak. Soon after his arrival he en-
deavored to explain to me the theory of latent heat. I
failed to understand it, and after a time he stopped abrupt-
ly, and said, " I have not my powers of explanation ; per-
haps I shall be better able to make it clear to you some
other day." Undoubtedly, it was my fault for being so
dull of comprehension ; but how often had I been as dull,
and even duller, on former occasions ! Yet never before
had he dropped a subject before he had given me a clear
view of it. After a fortnight had passed, he seemed to
grow stronger, though he still complained of his nervous-
ness and absence of mind. The fact that he had sent off
a check and forgotten to cross it seemed to annoy him
very much. " I should not have done such a thing a year

13 "Atlantic Monthly " for April, 1863, p. 498.

STAY AT SUTTOK 345

ago," lie said. Yet lie was now able to enter into elabo-
rate explanations, giving, for instance, a full account of
the Utilitarian philosophy apropos of Mill's first chapter
on that subject, which was expected in the forthcoming
" Eraser." Mr. Buckle gave us its whole history, from the
germ of the idea to its latest development. But it seemed
to me so cold and mechanical a creed, so inadequate to
meet human needs, so harsh to human weakness, that for
several days afterward I kept attacking him on that sub-
ject. " You will see it in time," he said gently. " It is
very natural that you should find some difficulty at first in
thinking yourself into it. You have grown up, and lived
all your life, in an atmosphere of theological ideas, and
you can not change suddenly. But you will see it in time,
for you have a very good, clear understanding."

I repeat this compliment, such as it is, not from any
sense of vanity, but simply because it was the only one he
ever paid me, and because the way in which he said it was
characteristic of him. Most people consider themselves
gifted with a clear understanding ; yet, so afraid was he
lest he might be thought to flatter, that he immediately
added, " And I don't say this just to give you pleasure ;
I mean it really."

When the first chapter of the " Utilitarianism " ap-
peared, Mr. Buckle was delighted with it ; and, pointing
out a single passage, said, " Now, if I had seen this, no
matter where, I should have recognized the pen of Mill.
He is the only man I have a very strong desire to know,
and him I have never seen." " Then why did you not

accept Mrs. 's invitation, when she promised to bring

you together ? " " Oh, I was not strong enough this sum-

346 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

mer," he answered ; " the excitement would have been too
much for me." And in the course of the conversation he
observed : " If Mill and I differ in opinion on any subject,
I always have a latent belief that he is right and that I am
wrong." From Mill the conversation turned on other emi-
nent men. Of Dr. Stanley he spoke very highly : " He
thinks for himself"; and, contrasting him with other
theologians, said that few went through the necessary
study for their subject. Theologians should study the his-
tory of belief in all the ancient creeds ; that a knowledge
of Buddhism is necessary, for instance, to the right under-
standing of Christianity. " Buddhism," he continued, " is,
besides, a most philosophical creed " ; and he traced the
analogy between the transcendental philosophy of Buddha
and that of Fichte in its pantheistic tendencies. From
pantheism to spirit-rapping was but a step ; and one of us
remarked that some of these Spiritualists make a religion
of it, and hold in the greatest reverence any communica-
tion they may receive. A little girl got a message from
her departed grandmother, advising the family to go to
the pantomime ; and accordingly all gravely went off, in
obedience to the message. " And very good advice, too,"
Mr. Buckle said, smiling. He added, that he had himself
been at a seance last June, for the first time in his life.
Some of the manifestations seemed to him totally inex-
plicable by any known natural laws ; but he meant to in-
quire into the subject carefully as soon as he should be
restored to his usual health. He considered it the duty
of every one to rescue phenomena from the domain of the
miraculous, and to marshal them, whenever possible, under
the heads of natural law. Neither the so-called experi-

STAY AT STJTTOK 347

ments of Keichenbach, nor the marvelous powers ascribed
to clairvoyants, would he pronounce to be frauds. But in
all these matters he thought that people were fax too ready
to play into the hands of deceivers, by being more eager
to see and be astonished than to coolly balance facts and
ascertain the truth. Mr. Mayo had pressed him to attend
a clairvoyant's secmce / and he agreed to do so, with the
condition that, instead of the guinea entrance fee, the clair-
voyant should have a fifty-pound note if he could read its
number while it was inclosed in a box. But this condition
was not accepted. He had a short time before been at a
seance in a private house, where the clairvoyant was a
young lady, a friend of the hostess. He did not exactly
disbelieve in her powers, as he had not investigated the
subject. She told him, among other things, that his skull
was remarkably thin; and he really thought it was, he
added, laughing.

"Whenever he traveled about, he always got into conver-
sation with the police and school-teachers of every place he
stopped at. He used to inquire what particular crimes
were prevalent in each district, and found that they were
much the same all over the country : " People have so lit-
tle imagination," he complained, with a grave face as if
this want of imagination in criminal acts were a matter of
serious concern to him. In large towns, such as Birming-
ham, he used to walk through all the worst parts, to ob-
serve manners for himself, and remarked that he might,
as in the well-known anecdote, put down under the head
of manners none. In answer to a question, he said it
might have been dangerous for a weak man like himself,
but he was tall and carried a good stick, and always

348 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

walked in the middle of the road to give less opportu-
nity to people to pick a quarrel. It was necessary to see
everything he wrote on, especially concerning England,
with his own eyes.

Of the teachers he inquired, among other things, what
were the punishments inflicted in their schools. One
schoolmistress told him that, when she first came, finding
that the girls were very unpunctual, she warned them that
all who came late should have three strokes with the cane
on the hand, and that after the first two weeks she very
rarely had occasion to punish them. The master of a
school in another place told him that the vicar had for-
bidden corporal punishment, and obliged him, instead, to
keep the boys in and give them tasks; with the conse-
quence that they became very much duller. " There is
nothing like the cane," Mr. Buckle added ; " a few strokes
that sting and will be felt several hours after make a boy
careful, and don't interfere with his health." " You must
deal with boys either in a rational or in an irrational man-
ner," he said to another friend. " If they will listen to the
arguments of their superiors, you do not require punish-
ment ; but if they will not listen to reason, you must treat
them as irrational beings, and flog them." Some of these
village teachers were well-informed men. One of them
spoke to him of the authors of the "Essays and Reviews,"
praising their boldness ; and then went on to say, " But
there is another, even bolder man, of whom I dare say you
have heard, and whose book you have probably read I
mean Buckle." " What has he done ? " Mr. Buckle asked.
" Buckle, don't you know Buckle ! " "I saw that I was
falling in his esteem through my ignorance," Mr. Buckle

STAY AT BUTTON 1 . 349

said, laughing, " so I said, < Oh yes, Buckle to be sure ' ;
and took my leave."

It is impossible to describe how thorough a master he
was of the art of pleasing ; how he was as ready to amuse
the children as he was grown people ; his joyous nature ;
his inexhaustible but never-tiring talk ; his wealth of anec-
dotes, and especially the way in which they were told,
which made them as amusing when he repeated himself
(as he sometimes did) as when heard for the first time ; or
to describe his appreciation of every little attention, and
the warm interest he took in what were matters of mo-
ment for others. How naturally he entered into all the
hopes and fears of his hostess concerning her family, ask-
ing questions, giving advice, and all with the deepest in-
terest. We remember how touched and soothed we felt
when one of our children fell ill, and we, hearing its cries,
rushed up to the nursery, leaving him alone in the draw-
ing-room. We stopped there some time, and quite forgot
our visitor ; but when we came out he was standing, wait-
ing patiently, outside the nursery door, to learn from us
what was amiss. I see the expression of his face now as
he said to us in a suppliant tone, " Don't look so anxious ;
it will be better to-morrow." And the next day, gently
reproaching me, he said, " You ought not to have let so
young a child go to the Crystal Palace. It is all very well
for the elder ones to have such amusements, but the little
things should be kept as quiet as possible." And then he
went on to say at what age and with what temperament
sight-seeing and the like excitement was beneficial, and
when it was likely to be harmful, adding, " Now, if you.
had asked my advice, I could have told you all this yester-

350 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

day, and the child would have been saved pain" so ac-
customed was he by this time to have his advice sought on
every subject. " If I were to take a profession," he once
said, " I should like to be a physician ; nothing would give
me more pleasure than to assuage pain."

An old lady, who had known Mr. Buckle from his
boyhood, burst into tears when these and other little sto-
ries were repeated to her. " It was not vulgar curiosity
with him," she said ; " it was not that he was meddlesome.
I knew him so well. It was all part and parcel of his
great sympathy. Oh, it was more than human," she went
on, " and imparted a more than earthly soothing effect. I
shall never forget what he was to me when I found myself
suddenly alone in the world, and what he was to me ever
afterward. Even though he had only a few days in town
to prepare for his Eastern journey, he walked across the
park to see me, and to bid me farewell. He asked about
my health ; he gave me advice. He did it as if it were
both a pleasure and a duty to see that I did the right thing
for myself before he left England. I am neither hand-
some nor clever, nor have I rank or title, but he never
forgot that his mother had been fond of me ! And I
have often been made a good deal of by other people, sim-
ply because they saw that the celebrated Buckle treated
me with such respect."

Often was Mr. Buckle attacked by his friends because
he did not marry ; but the fact was that up to his moth-
er's death he never felt lonely ; and perhaps his previous
wounds, and his entire devotion to his book, made him
even unwilling to marry. But after this he acknowledged
his mistake he was alone, terribly alone, in the world.

PREPARATIONS FOR EGYPT. 351

"If at least my little nephew had lived," he said, "I
should have had a friend in time : I would have made
something of him. But," he continued in a lower tone,
" what I love I lose ; and now that I am near forty I am
alone ! "

" If I am not better, there is nothing for it but travel-
ing ; as while I am stationary I must work," he wrote
long ago ; 14 and it was much the same case now. The
prospect of an idle winter in town was insupportable, and
it was necessary to travel somewhere. Perhaps it was
owing to Major Woodhead's suggestion that he finally
decided on going to Egypt. " My head is at times still
weak, and I feel that I need more rest and relaxation," he
writes from Button, 15 and "I can not tell you," he writes
to Mrs. Bowyear, " the intense pleasure with which I look
forward to seeing Egypt that strange, mutilated form of
civilization. For years nothing has excited me so much. 16
I shall go up the Nile as far as Egypt, and probably return
to England about the end of January."

It was all of a piece with his thoughtful and self-sacri-
ficing kindness that he offered to take the two eldest sons
of his host with him. What would he himself have given
when a boy to have traveled in the land of the Thousand
and One Nights ! And holding travel to be a necessary
and important part of education, and knowing the value
of his own influence and teaching, he thought the im-
mense benefit he was conferring would fully compensate
him for the trouble, anxiety, and even labor, their com-

14 To Miss Shirreff, 22d December, 1856.

15 24th September, 1861.

16 13th-19th October, 1861.

352 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

panionship must entail. " Even in our times the impor-
tance of traveling is obvious," lie writes in his " Common-
place Book," " " and we rarely find an untraveled man
who is not full of prejudice and bigotry."

All his time, on returning to London, was occupied in
preparation for his journey and that of his young com-
panions :

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 1M October, 1861.

" MY DEAR MRS. HUTH : I have just had a long talk
with the dear, kind old man, Dr Mayo. Extremely satis-
factory in every respect, particularly as to the good, both
physical and intellectual, which he anticipates for the boys.
But he suggests one or two things of importance. . . .

"My conversation with Dr. Mayo has confirmed my
confidence in being able to meet any event which can
arise in the ordinary course of nature. And as impunity
and absence of risk are always impossible, this is all we
can expect. Give my love to the boys, and read this note
to the little men. I am sure they will be very obedient,
and, by their docility, will help my endeavors to secure
their health and happiness."

"59 OXFORD TERRACE, 18th October, 1861.
" DEAR MRS. GROTE : Your friendly reproaches have
reached me at a moment when I am is the midst of prep-
arations for my departure to the East, and have conse-
quently but a short time to defend myself. Early to-
morrow I leave for Southampton, and sail thence for
Alexandria. I shall ascend the Nile to the first cataract,

17 Fragments on " Traveling." " Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works,"
vol i., p. 524.

PREPARATIONS FOR EGYPT. 353

and thus gratify one of the most cherished wishes of my
childhood. I am literally pining with excitement at the
prospect of seeing the remains of that powerful but imper-
fectly developed nation, whose existence has always been
to me as a dream.

" I am much better, and, indeed, quite well in every
respect, save the most important. I can not work, and
therefore my life has not been very happy ; but, on the
other hand, it has sauntered on untroubled. I have been
traveling in Wales and many parts of England, spending
nearly three weeks at Carolside, in Berwickshire, with the
Mitchells pleasant and accomplished people, and extreme-
ly kind.

" I wish for the next few months to sever myself, if
possible, from all old associations, and, as it were, begin
life afresh. Consequently, I shall write no letters, and
shall not have any forwarded to me. After Egypt, per-
haps I may go to Greece, perhaps to Algiers, pel-haps to
Jerusalem ; but wherever I may be I shall retain a lively
sense of the pleasant hours I have passed with you. Some-
times I fear that I have permanently hurt myself, and form
plans of leaving London altogether but time will show,"

CHAPTER VII.

Responsibility Kindness Alexandria Cairo The Nile Education Thebes
Talk with Mr. Longmore Nubia Love of Antiquities Preparations for
the Desert Stay in Cairo Suez Major Macdonald Sinai Petra Jeru-
salemDead Sea Mill on Buckle Nabulus Nazareth The Fatal Illness
Visit from Mr. Gray Tiberias Akka Tyre Sidon The Last Letter
Beyrout Damascus Illness increasing Death.

ON Sunday, 20th October, 1861, Buckle embarked at
Southampton on the Peninsular and Oriental Company's
steamship Ceylon, for Alexandria, and saw the shores of
England for the last time. He had now undertaken, for
the first time in his life, the responsible care of two chil-
dren, one fourteen and the other eleven years old, of whom,
moreover, he knew little beyond what he had gleaned from
their parents and the family physician. He knew his re-
sponsibility, and undertook their care as none without his
depth of feeling and warmth of heart could have done.
How he understood it is shown by the following letter,
written soon after his return from Nubia :

"I do not wonder at your anxiety in being so long
without intelligence ; but I have done all in my power,
and have never, since we left England, allowed a post to
go by without writing. Your picture of your imagination
of my hanging over the bed of a sick boy, and bringing you
back a child the less, has gone to my very heart, and made
me feel quite miserable, since I know what must have

RESPONSIBILITY. 355

passed through your mind and what you must have
suffered before you would write this. But why, dear
Mrs. Huth, why will you allow your judgment to be led
captive by such dark imaginings ? I never begin any con?
siderable enterprise without well weighing the objections
against it. In taking your children where I have taken
them, and where they are about to go, I have estimated all
the difficulties, or, if you will, all the dangers, and I know
that I am able to meet them. I say that I KNOW it. And
I am too deeply conscious of my own responsibility to
write such a word loosely or rashly. Here, as elsewhere,
some rare combination of events, or some insidious physi-
cal action, creeping unobserved through the human frame,
and stealthily coming on years before, may prostrate one
of your boys, as it may prostrate you or your husband.
This may happen in the healthiest climate, and in spite of
the tenderest care. But it is my deliberate opinion that
until you see your boys again they will run no risk greater
than they would have run had they spent the same time
under your roof. The excitement of the brain caused by
traveling and the scenes through which they pass is in it-
self a source of health ; and though you, of course, love
your children better than I do, and better, indeed, than
any one does for who knows so well as I that no love
can equal the love of a mother ? still, even you could not
watch them more carefully than I do ; and, as you would
be the first to acknowledge, you would watch them with
less knowledge both of what should be guarded against
and what should be done. The' boys are, and have been
all along, in perfect health. ... As the boys were vac-
cinated three years ago, there is no occasion to repeat the

356 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

operation. The protection is complete. There are in-
stances of persons having the small-pox who have been so
recently vaccinated, just as there are instances of persons
having the small-pox twice. But there are also instances
of people being killed on the railroad ; and as there are no
railroads in Palestine or Syria, we may fairly put one dan-
ger against the other, both being about equal. . . . Mean-
while, do not be uneasy ; I pray you, do not be uneasy. I
know well what I am doing, and I know how much de-
pends on my doing it properly. Besides, if you give way
to anxiety, you will make yourself ill ; and, if you get ill,
my excellent friend Huth will hate me as the cause, and,
maybe, will poison me in my food when I come home.
So be of good cheer."

They had not got cabins together, as Buckle had taken
his before it was decided that the boys should accompany
him ; but they were not separated even for one night, for,
on the day they started, the two gentlemen who had berths
in Mr. Buckle's cabin good-naturedly exchanged, and they
were all together. To this Mr. Buckle alludes in one of his
letters : " I had a little difficulty about getting them into
my cabin, because I had to talk over two different gentle-
men, the inmates of it. But, somehow or other, I generally
end by getting my own way, and we are now all together."

Buckle at this time was aged thirty-nine, but looked
fully forty-five, and would have looked even older but for
the rich brown color of his hair. A tall and slender, but
not thin figure, slightly bowed ; a dignified carriage ; a
bald head, with the hair brushed over it, as in the frontis-
piece ; the beginnings of a beard ; a short, slightly aquiline
nose ; a high forehead ; and singularly vivacious eyes made

KINDNESS. 357

up a figure which struck one as refined, notwithstanding
his shabby, though by no means slovenly, dress. He wore
for the journey an old swallow-tailed coat, o a cut that
was somewhat out of date, but such as I have seen worn
by old-fashioned men ten years after his death, a double-
breasted brown waistcoat, and dark trousers. In cold
weather he wore an old brown overcoat, which he had
worn for many years, and hoped to wear many years more ;
for, as he says in one of his letters, " My maxim is econ-
omy, not parsimony; and, though I never throw away
money, I never spare it on emergencies." He thought
that men should be careless of their dress, and had a great
contempt for those who decked out their persons with
jewels. But he liked to see women pay attention to dress,
and once said, " it was a woman's duty to look well," as
long as they did not pay too much ; though he would
rather see a woman careless than vain, and slovenly than
devote all her thought to personal decoration.

His care and attention to the two boys was unremitting,
and during the first two or three days, while they were
still sea-sick, he used even to fetch them books, wrappers,
and all they needed. The only books he had brought with
him were, Sharpe's " History of Egypt," Osborn's " Monu-
mental History of Egypt," 1 Martineau's "Egypt, Past
and Present," EusselFs "Egypt," Bonn's "Herodotus,"
Milman's "History of the Jews," "Murray," the Bible,
" Shakespeare," and " Moliere," and he allowed no others,
because he wished to drive the boys by very weariness to
read the books he had brought, knowing well that, since
they were accustomed to read, and as there was little that

1 Which he thought did not add to the reputation of its author.

358 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

could amuse them on board, they would require no other
inducement to read on the history of the country they were
about to visit. His plan was perfectly successful, and they
not only read, but took a pride in reading. For himself, be-
sides talk, his chief amusement was draughts with a gentle-
man on board, who happened to be a good player, but who
could never understand how it was that Buckle always won.

Nothing of interest occurred during the voyage, with
the exception of some wonderful theatricals brought out
by the sailors, who acted a tremendously sensational piece
called " Eed-hand, the Gypsy." They painted their sce-
nery themselves, with foliage Miat might have been drawn
by an ancient Egyptian ; and the only drawback to the full
enjoyment of the play was that the Orchestra shut out all
view of the stage. The usual sights were seen, the rock
of Gibraltar examined, and the view enjoyed from St.
George's Gallery. Yaletta was also visited, and the Church
of St. John duly admired. The sea, which had been rather
rough until Gibraltar was reached, was like glass from
there to Alexandria.

At landing, the usual scene occurred, familiar now to
all the world. Little has changed since then. As soon as
the Indian passengers had gone off, a boat was selected
from the surrounding flotilla, and the party made for a
wooden pier, so tightly packed with yelling Arabs that at
first it seemed impossible to land. A plentiful use of the
stick from the presiding sheik at length made it possible.
How the luggage got up was a mystery ; but it did, and a
seething mass of blue and white cotton rags fought a battle
over it. More use of the stick, and each piece of baggage
took a pair of legs to itself, and went off in different di-

ALEXANDRIA. 359

reetions. It assembled again, however, where a few offi-
cials were lounging outside a shed, and was all thrown
down in a heap in the open street. A faint show was
made of opening the biggest box, but five shillings made
everything comfortable. The Arabs shouldered their bur-
dens, stood in a row to be counted, and then started for
the Hotel de 1'Europe. On the way there was a constant
bombardment of donkeys, who are shoved by their drivers
pertinaciously in the way ; and, as the quarter just about
the landing-place is inhabited chiefly by natives, the streets
are so narrow that walking through the donkeys is diffi-
cult. Soon a grave-looking Oriental, in Turkish dress, ac-
costed Mr. Buckle, and showed him papers ; he was a
dragoman, and was showing his testimonials from former
travelers. Buckle promised to inquire about him, and the
hotel was at last reached. Here Mr. Buckle, after his
usual custom, engaged rooms on the top floor of the hotel.
These were nice and cool, the thermometer showing only
Y6 ; and he then sallied forth to the bank, for it was only
10 A. M., and made inquiries about the dragoman, Hassan
Yyse ! so called because he had served the explorer of the
Pyramids ; for the Arabs put the surname first, and then
take a distinguishing title after it. The inquiries being
satisfactory, he was engaged, and the day was finished with
dinner at the t'dble-d'hdte, and a cup of coffee at a Turkish
coffee-house.

Buckle spent the first day or two in making purchases
of tobacco, Turkish slippers, a pipe, and other prepara-
tions ; seeing Pompey's Pillar, and what part of the Cata-
combs was visible for the pasha had lately had them shut
up, as it was reported that some treasure had been found

360 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

there. But the greatest difficulty was finding a boat, or
dahabeeyeh, as they are called, concerning which, and other
things, he wrote the following very interesting letter :

"... The heat is intense, and I keep both the boys
indoors the greater part of the day. I have tried in vain
to get a good European servant, so I see after everything
myself, and am extremely particular about their ablutions
and change of linen, so absolutely necessary in such a cli-
mate as this. We received your very welcome letters yes-
terday, having ourselves writen to you the day before.
"We also wrote from Gibraltar and Malta. I hope that we
shall start for Cairo in two or three days ; but the difficul-
ties are great, owing to the railroad being washed away by
the unusually high rise of the Nile. The demand for
boats is consequently enormous, and the prices the owners
ask are fabulous. I have seen several boats to-day, and
one man demanded 35 from here to Cairo, a journey of
three to four days at the outside. I have been forced to
expose myself nearly all day to the sun boat-hunting, and
am rather exhausted; but I feel in better health and
spirits than at any time during the last three years. 3 Es-
pecially I am conscious of an immense increase of brain
power, grasping great problems with a firmness which, at
one time, I feared had gone from me for ever. I feel that
there is yet much that I shall live to do. Once you asked
me how I rated myself in comparison with Mill. I now
certainly fancy that I can see things which Mill does not ;
but I believe that, on the whole, he is a greater man than 1
am, and will leave a greater name behind him. This is
egotistical, but I am only so to those I care for ; and my

2 1. e., since the death of his mother.

ALEXANDRIA. 361

letters are intended to be sacredly private to you and your
husband, though I am always willing that my dear old
friend Capey 3 shall see them but NO ONE ELSE.* Tell
him, with my best love, that I have received his letter, and
will write to him from Cairo* 5 Your sons are everything
I could wish ; they attach themselves much to me, and I
to them. A Scotchman on board said, 'Why, dear me,
sir, how fond those boys do seem of you ! ' And so I am
sure they are. I hope and believe that this journey will
be an epoch in their lives, morally and intellectually.
They are very diligent in reading ; but I never prescribe
any hours or daily task, merely telling them that the only
reward I require for watching over them is that they
should acquire knowledge. . . .

" Tobacco and pipes are very cheap ; everything else
enormously dear : ale, two shillings a bottle ; soda-water,
one shilling; miserable carriages, six shillings an hour;
and so forth. And yet with all this the labor market is
in such a state that an unskilled laborer earns with diffi-
culty twopence a day. "Wages low and profits high."

At length he found a suitable boat, iron built, and with
superior fittings not so luxurious as many that are now
on the Kile, but incomparably superior to those of Miss
Martineau's time. It belonged to Abdallah Pasha, a Euro-
pean, had the reputation of being fast, and was called El

3 The Rev. George Capel, an old friend of both Mr. Buckle and the
Huths, and the means of introduction between them.

4 This is the first time this passage has seen the light ; but, now that
both Mr. Buckle and Mr. Mill are dead, there is no longer any occasion to
suppress it.

6 This letter ivas written, but I have not seen it, and do not know whether
it exists.

362 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Ableh, or the Wild One. Its hire was 60 a month, a
largish sum then, but nothing to what is now given.
Buckle ordered it to proceed to Boulak as soon as it could
be got ready, for the railway had been repaired sooner
than was expected, and it would have been useless to daw-
dle away time on a canal. The exposure to the sun, how-
ever, brought on so sharp a choleraic attack that he had
to keep his bed the greater part of the day, and only set
out for Cairo on the next. But when he got to Cairo he
was so little the worse for it that, despite his six hours?
railway journey, he spent the evening in " exploring "
that city with some friends he had made on board the
Ceylon.

The party put up at the Hotel d' Orient, which at that
time had the garden of the Esbeekeey eh almost under its
windows. Cairo has changed wofully for the worse since
then. The best half of this garden has been built over ;
and what remains is laid out in French style, with grass
that won't grow, and broken and dirty little gas-lamps
round its little ponds. Then it was open to every one,
and, though nothing in comparison with a good European
garden, it was beautiful in dusty Cairo, with its luxuriant
native vegetation. The dahabeeyeh was not expected to
arrive for a week, and in the mean while Buckle's time
was fully occupied in seeing Cairo. His ordinary practice
was to rise at six, read Sharpe's " Egypt," or " Murray,"
or some other book on the country ; walk fifteen minutes,
and breakfast at nine. He then went about sight-seeing
or paying visits ; took a light lunch of bread and fruit
about one o'clock, and dined at six ; played a game of
backgammon with one of the boys, but not immediately

OAIEO. 363

after dinner, and always for some stake, generally a half-
penny, because he considered that even a small stake pre-
vented reckless play ; read again from eight to ten, and
then went to bed ; or sometimes retired a little earlier, lit
a cigar, and read as long as it lasted.

So well and joyous did he feel here that he made up
his mind to continue his journey to Palestine, and with
this object bought Kobinson's "Biblical Eesearches " ;
and an Arabic grammar and dictionary, for the purpose of
studying Arabic. He soon found, however, that his brain
was not yet strong enough to allow him to study so diffi-
cult a language, and had to put it aside.

From Cairo he writes as follows, 15th November,
1861:

" We hope to leave here for Thebes to-morrow, pro-
vided the boat can be provisioned by then. It is a first-
rate boat ; and, as we shall be in it three months, I am
doing what I know you would do if you were here, spar-
ing no expense in laying in every comfort that can insure
health. I feel the responsibility of your dear children,
perhaps more than I expected, but I am not anxious ; for
I am conscious of going to the full extent of my duty,
and neglecting nothing; and when a man does this, he
must leave the unknown and invisible future to take care
of itself. ... If the boys improve still further in health,
and if I find that they are reaping real intellectual bene-
fit, I propose taking them in February to Jerusalem, and
thence making excursions in Palestine explaining to
them at the same time the essential points in Jewish his-
tory, and connecting it with the history of Egypt. The
few books which I require can be got here; all except

364 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

one, viz.,.-.' Stanley's Sinai and Palestine.' This you (all
my letters are to you and your husband jointly) will please
to get, and send to Briggs, at Cairo; also some letter
stamps, and a letter of credit on Jerusalem, or some place
as near Jerusalem as possible. I shall write to England
by this mail for more money for myself, and therefore I
shall only use your letter of credit to about the extent
of your boys' expenses. Furthermore, I shall want a let-
ter of credit on Constantinople, as I propose sailing for
that city direct from Palestine, and then ascending the
Danube to Vienna (now a very easy journey), and meeting
you all there in May or June. To make sure, it may be
advisable to send, by separate mails, duplicate letters of
credit on Jerusalem and Constantinople. I could draw all
the money here, but there is the chance of robbery in the
desert. There is NO FEAR OF VIOLENCE, for I shall have
the best escort that monev can procure. My maxim is
economy, not parsimony ; and, though I never throw away
money, I never spare it on emergencies. If in the spring
there are any disturbances in Arabia or Syria, be you well
assured that I shall not set forth there. I find that my
reputation has preceded me here ; and as I know, conse-
quently, some influential persons, and among them a pasha
and a bey, I shall have the best information as to what is
going on in the countries through which we are to pass.

" I am better than I have been for years, and feel full
of life and thought. How this country makes me speculate !
I am up at six o'clock every morning, and yet there seems
no day so much is there to see and think of. I try to
pour some of my overflowings into the little chaps ; time
will show if I succeed, but I think I shall do something

UP THE NILE. , 365

toward making them more competent
than they would otherwise be.

" And now, my dear Mrs. Huth, do you seriously ex-
pect that I am going to answer your questions of casuistry
about going to church, expressing free opinions, and fuller
amusement questions which it would take pages to an-
swer. All I can say is that the true Utilitarian philoso-
phy NEVER allows any one, for the sake of present and
temporary benefits, either to break a promise or tell a
falsehood. Such things degrade the mind, and are there-
fore evil in themselves. But, if you made a promise to
your child, and then found that keeping this promise
would ruin the health of your child, what sort of mother
would you be if you were to keep your promise ? The
other point is more difficult ; but 7 would not hesitate to
tell a falsehood to save the life of any one dear to me
though I know that many competent judges differ as to
this ; and in the present state of knowledge the problem
is perhaps incapable of scientific treatment : it is, therefore,
in such cases, for each to act according to his own lights."

The boat did not arrive till Tuesday, 20th November,
when Ayrton Bey, a friend of Buckle's, who had also
once occupied the boat, called to tell him that it was at
Shoubra. Thither Buckle and the boys walked, and had
their first sail up to Boulak. The next day they took up
their abode on board ; but delay in provisioning and then
contrary winds prevented a start before Sunday, 25th ; and
altogether the journey up to Thebes was not a very rapid
one.

But for all that the days passed quickly enough. The
hours kept were much the same as at Cairo. Buckle took

366 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

care to have his daily walk before breakfast, and generally
managed to get another walk of about an hour in the course
of the day. Sometimes he read in the forenoon, sometimes
he was engaged in ticketing and cataloguing antiquities,
which he now began to collect, and in which he took a
great interest. The afternoon was spent in games of back-
gammon, in smoking, and reading, or in teaching the boys
ecarte and draughts ; but he always expected them to read
the greater part of the morning ; and he taught them to
make maps of Egypt and Palestine. During the walks he
questioned them on what they had read, told them stories,
and taught them elementary physiology, explaining the
human anatomy, and even making them remember its bar-
barous nomenclature, knowing well that a knowledge of
anatomy without this would be like a knowledge of geog-
raphy without the names, but always taking especial care
that these should not be merely names to them, but repre-
sent real ideas. If there was any rule as regards their
health which he particularly wished to impress upon them,
he told them anecdotes of cases in which they had been
disregarded, with all the dreadful consequences ; and such
anecdotes were indelibly fixed in their memory. He would
also make them write out lists of dates, such as the Con-
quest of Egypt by Cambyses, by Alexander, and Amrou ;
the taking of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar ; the founda-
tion of Samaria ; the Conquest, by Titus, etc., etc., and
carry these lists about with them, so as easily to fix them
in their memory ; while, to see that they did so, he would
question them while on their walks. As before, however,
he never forced the boys to read ; he only made them un-
derstand that he was pleased if they did, and hurt if they

UP THE NILE. 367

did not ; and, as a further and perhaps necessary precaution,
where the choice lies between Robinson's dry researches
and Shakespeare, he removed the latter.

Buckle's own account of his system of education is given
in the following letter :

" 14th December, 1861.

" The journey up the Nile, though slow, has not been
dull, as we have plenty of occupation ; and the boys, I am
truly pleased to say, are most anxious to instruct themselves,
and without any pressure on my part they read quite as
much as I wish. Lest the long confinement should be in-
jurious, I stop the boat twice every day, and we walk with
an escort on shore. Then, and in the evening, I talk to
them about what they have seen and read, and, having en-
couraged them to state their opinions, I give them mine,
and explain how it is that we differ. They have accumu-
lated a great number of historical and geographical facts.
But that is not my chief object ; what I aim at is, to train
theni to consider everything from the largest and highest
point of view that their years and abilities will allow. To
this I make everything subordinate, save and except their
health. At first they were evidently bewildered by the
multiplicity of new details which crowded on their minds ;
but gradually those details took a regular and orderly form,
spontaneously arranging themselves under general heads.
To hasten this movement, without overworking their brains,
is the most difficult part of my undertaking. But I will
venture to say that if you could now see them you would
be convinced that their health must have been well attend-
ed to ; while if you could talk to them, you would be
equally well satisfied respecting the other part of the ques-

368 BUCKLE'S LITE AND WKITINGS.

tion. Perhaps this sounds too much like praising myself ;
but your children are so far from you that I had rather be
deemed vainglorious than conceal facts concerning them
which it will please you to hear. . . .

"Besides the general history and geography of the
East, I am teaching the boys by conversation (for I have
no books on the subject) the elements of physiology, and
explaining to them the general laws which connect animals
with plants. Two or three days ago I first began to pro-
ceed further, and opened up the relations which the ani-
mal and vegetable kingdoms bear to the mineral world.

was never weary of listening and asking questions.

. . . His eyes quite sparkled, and beamed with light, as
he traversed (though, of course, very indistinctly) the field
of thought.

" You have, I suppose, received a letter which I wrote
from Cairo. ... If so, I must trouble you to send to the
same address another parcel, containing Josephus's f His-
tory of the Jewish War ' ; his c Own Life,' and his < Anti-
quities of the Jews.' As these are for the boys, they must
all be in English. The translation of the c Jewish "War '
by Traill is better than the old one by Whist on. I also
want Jahn's ' Hebrew Commonwealth,' and a volume on
the history, etc., of Palestine, published in the Edinburgh
Cabinet Library ; likewise a very small volume on human
physiology, forming part of Chambers's Educational Course.
I am not quite certain as to the title, but you can hardly
mistake it, as the subject is the physiology of man, and it
is a thin one-and-sixpenny or two-shilling book, with cuts.
Then, some more thin writing paper, and a small but good
revolver, with a leather belt in which it can be worn such

EDUCATION. 369

belts are made expressly. The revolver should be as light
as is consistent with its being an effective weapon. But
you know that I am not expert with fire-arms ; it must
not, therefore, have any needless complications, . . .

" The boys' Bible has no Apocrypha ; and I want to
explain to them the character of that most remarkable
Maccabsean revolution which broke out two centuries be-
fore Christ. If, therefore, you can buy the Apocrypha
separate, and in a portable form, do so ; but it is not worth
while to send out another whole Bible, as my memory
will enable me to explain the main points without it.

" We live in great comfort, and indeed luxury : an
iron boat, with good bedrooms, and a saloon that could
dine eight persons ; and we sail quicker than any boat on
the Nile. I have engaged the cook the Rothschilds had
when they were in Egypt. He is really a first-rate cook,,
and makes, I think, the best bread I ever tasted. I let the
boys live generously ; but I carefully watch the effect of
their food, and occasionally put them on a spare diet,, to
avoid medicine. . . . They get up before seven, and go
to bed at 8.10. The latter part of the arrangement they
don't always approve of, but they never resist me when
they see I am in earnest; and I ,am peremptory on this
point; believing that early sleep is of supreme importance
to them, living as they do amid such exciting scenes, and
with their attention continually on the stretch. . . ."

Perhaps the following two letters from the two boys,
written for the same post as the above, will show more
clearly than anything the nature of this education :

" We have been on the Mle about three weeks, and
expect to be at Thebes in a few days. We have not seen

370 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITHSTGS.

any temples or tombs yet, except the tombs at Siout, which
is the capital of Upper Egypt. The tombs there are not
nearly as good as we shall see when we are coming back.
But I have picked up a piece of mummy cloth ; and I
have bought a little idol of our donkey-man, which I gave
twenty paras for (which is equal to three farthings). Mr.
B. says that it is sure to be real, because it does not pay to
forge such cheap things. You can not think how jolly it is.
Mr. B. lets us do what we like ; and the only lessons we do
as yet is reading. . . . We have seen no crocodiles yet, but
Hassan says that we shall see plenty by-and-by. I mean to
buy a small one, and send it home to be stuffed, unless I get
a letter to the contrary when we get back to Cairo. I have
made a little map of Egypt, and I mean to mark the places
that we have been to, and then send it to you when we get
back to Cairo. This letter will be posted at Thebes, and
we have told Briggs to forward your letter there. The
Egyptian post goes as far as Assouan, which is at the first
cataract. Mr. B. thinks of going to Nubia, as far as the
second cataract ; but it depends on the size of the other
boat which we shall have to hire at the first cataract. In
your next letter tell me if you would like a mummied cat.
I am not quite sure whether I shall be able to get it, but I
think I can. Ask Mr. C. if he would like one too ; as I
am afraid there is no chance of getting any models ; but
I shall try and get a photograph of the Pyramids. The
wind has just got up, and we are sailing fast; if it keeps
so we may get to Thebes to-morrow ; but we are only
going to post letters there, and then go on, for we do not
mean to see any remains till we come back. We have got
about the best boat on the Nile, and the best cook, and a

EDUCATION. 371

very good dragoman, who was a long time with Colonel
Vyse, who explored the Pyramids, and discovered some
chambers in them. I have read Sharpe's History of
Egypt,' and Martineau and Russell's * Egypt,' and He-
rodotus, and now I am reading the c History of the Jews.'
I shall not tell you anything about Mr. B.'s plans for Syria
and Palestine and Mount Sinai, as he will most likely tell
you more about it than I could ; but won't it be jolly to
go to all these places ! "We are all jolly, and Bucky is a
brick.

" Please answer about the crocodile and all that, or

else I shall not know what to do. ... Tell that

Mr. B. says there is no fear of the Arabs stealing us, be-
cause it would not be worth their while ; but he is afraid
they will steal him, because he is such a nice little fellow."

The second letter is as follows :

"... I have finished Sharpe's 'History of Egypt'
and Milman's c History of the Jews'; and now I am go-
ing to begin the Bible, and read all about the Jews in
there. "We have been talking to Mr. B. about physiology,
and he says, when we have finished reading about Egypt
and Palestine, he will write for a book about it. We have
got a very good boat ; it is built of iron, and has beaten
three boats already that started two days before us. I
have made a map of Egypt and a map of Asia Minor.
To-day I saw rafts of pottery coming from Kenneh. "We
have got a very good cook. He can make plum-pudding,
and he can make Irish stew as well as Mr. Buckle's cook.
Here we always have marmalade and curry for breakfast.
The time here is about six hours faster than in England,
because we are so much farther east. It is about as hot

372 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

here as it was last summer in England. Mr. Buckle has
been explaining to us the relation of minerals and plants
and animals to each other, and the way in which animals
get minerals through plants; and that while animals are
poisoning the air, plants are purifying it. ... I have
finished reading Herodotus, Martineau, and KusselPs
' Egypt.' When w r e came to Alexandria, Mr. Buckle
allowed us two shillings a week."

Thus was the time passed daily on the Kile, until six
o'clock brought the proof of the cook's skill, which we
have seen praised so highly in his letter. After dinner
he sat with the boys in semi-darkness for a quarter of an
hour or so, playing and joking with them, till they gen-
erally ended in a violent romp, and now and then a smash
of crockery or windows. A breakage, however, had to be
paid for. Buckle himself boasted that he had never broken
anything since he was quite a youth, with the exception
of one tumbler, which had slipped through his fingers on
a very cold day j and he gave the boys a special allowance
to pay for their breakages, with the result that such acci-
dents were not nearly as common as they otherwise would
have been, for the boys had plenty of use for their money.
They, too, took an interest in antiquities and curiosities,
and. began to form a collection, in which they were much
assisted by Buckle, and allowed to think that the assistance
was reciprocal.

A good wind brought the dahabeeyeh to Thebes on
the 14th December, with " all well and in high spirits."
They immediately landed, and, after seeing Luxor, visited
Karnak, "that wonderful tenvple," as Buckle can not re-
sist calling it in his diary. The following day Luxor was

THEBES. 373

again visited, and then he crossed the Nile, and saw the
Memnones the temples of the Memnonium and Me-
deenet Haboo, and finally, after dinner, went^to Karnak,
" and saw that prodigious ruin by moonlight."

" One thing I will say," he afterward wrote from Cairo,
" that everything which travelers relate of Egypt fails to
give an idea of the real wonders of this most interesting
country. To tell you that I have seen a single ruin (the
temple of Karnak at Thebes) which, when complete,
measured a mile and a half in circumference, sounds very
strange; but that is nothing when compared with the
amazing grandeur of the colossal statues, and the pillars
which support the edifice. And, then, the minute finish
of the sculpture which covered the walls of the Egyptian
temple is as noticeable as their grandeur."

And again he writes to another friend :

" To give you even the faintest idea of what I have
seen in this wonderful country is impossible. ~No art of
writing can depict it. If I were to say that the temple
of Karnak at Thebes can even now be ascertained to have
measured a mile and a half in circumference, I should,
perhaps, only tell you what you have read in books ; but I
should despair if I were obliged to tell you what I felt
when I was in the midst of it, and contemplated it as a
living whole, while every part was covered with sculptures
of exquisite finish, except where hieroglyphics crowded on
each other so thickly that it would require many volumes
to copy them. There stood their literature in the midst
of the most magnificent temples ever raised by the genius
of man. I went twice to see it by moonlight, when the
vast masses of light and shade rendered it absolutely ap-

374 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

palling. But I fear to write like a guide-book, and had
rather abstain from details till we meet. One effect, how-
ever, I must tell you that my journey has produced upon
me. Perhaps you may remember how much I always pre-
ferred form to color ; but now, owing to the magical effect
of this, the driest atmosphere in the world, I am getting
to like color more than form. The endless variety of hues
is extraordinary. Owing to the transparency of the air,
objects are seen (as nearly as I can judge) more than twice
the distance they can be seen in England under the most
favorable circumstances. Until my eye became habituated
to this, I often over-fatigued myself by believing that I
could reach a certain point in a certain time. The result
is a wealth and exuberance of color which is hardly to be
credited, and which I doubt if any painter would dare to
represent. ... If you were here, and felt as I do what it
is to have the brain every day over-excited be constantly
drunk with pleasure you would easily understand how
impossible much letter- writing becomes, and how impatient
one grows of fixing upon paper ' thoughts which burn.'
But, as you know of old, if my friends were to measure
my friendship by the length of my letters, they would do
me great injustice."

Color was, however, his oldest love, to which he now
returned, and with even more ardor and devotion after
seeing Petra, with its perpendicular walls of living rock,
honeycombed with temples, dwellings, and tombs, and
streaked with colors so bright, so various, and yet in such
perfect harmony that no one who has not actually seen it
can form any idea of the general effect an effect which
is further heightened by the tumbled masses of rock and

TALK WITH MR. LONGMORE. 375

the bushes and trees which hang on every ledge and
spring from every fissure.

The view over the Libyan plain of Thebe$ is perhaps
the most beautiful, and certainly the most characteristic,
in Egypt. For beyond fields of lupins and waving corn
still sit the two colossi, as they have sat for three thousand
years now, alas ! sadly battered, but yet majestic in their
solitary grandeur. A little to the right and behind is the
Memnonium, with its background of the Libyan hills,
which catch the parting rays of the sun on their white and
broken cliffs, and the slope of the Assaseef, riddled with
gaping tombs. Still further on the right are the remains
of the temple of El Goorneh, and a collection of mud
huts of the same name ; while on the extreme left are the
huge mounds and mighty ruins of the temple of Medeenet
Haboo.

A final look at the latter temple, and at certain tombs
of the Assaseef and its neighborhood ; and then, at five
o'clock on the 16th, sail was made for Assuan, which the
Ableh reached on the 22d.

As is usual, however, a halt had been made at Esneh,
to allow the crew to bake their bread ; and Buckle occu-
pied his spare time in visiting the shamefully neglected
temple of this place. Here were two other boats the
Fortunata, on board of which was Mr. Longmore, who has
since written an interesting account of his meetings with
1 Buckle during the journey; and the Canopus, occupied
by two clergymen. On board the latter, Mr. Longmore
made Buckle's acquaintance, and thus records the conver-
sation : " Though he smoked continuously during our
interview, he was by no means solely occupied with that

376 BUCKLE'S LIFE- AND WETTINGS.

recreation, for he talked nearly as continuously. A good
deal of the time during which we were on board the Ca-
nopus together, he spent in maintaining that a constitu-
tional country like England was never so well governed as
when the sovereign was either a debauche or an imbecile.
In proof of this rather paradoxical position, }ie instanced
the reign of Henry the Third ; and Charles the Second, to
which we owe our Habeas Corpus Act, and one he still
more admired, de non Corriburendo Hereticos / 8 and those
of George the Second and George the Third as the
reigns in which we had made the greatest progress. With
the Pharaohs and Ptolemies of Egypt, and other absolute
monarchs, it was different, for they, if energetic men,
could do what they liked with the resources they gov-
erned, and thus leave to posterity such wonderful monu-
ments of their magnificence as we had recently been
admiring on the banks of the JSTile. 7 "Subsequently,
during the same visit to the Canopus," continues Mr.

* This proposition is sketched out in that part of the Introduction to the
" History of Civilization " which refers to the attempt of the Spanish govern-
ments to improve the people. On the Act de non Comburendo Hereticos he
has the following : " By the old law of England the bishops were not al-
lowed the luxury of burning heretics, except by the authority of a writ
issued by the king in council. But Henry the Fourth procured a law order-
ing that all heretics were to be judged by the bishop of the diocese, and, if
found guilty, to be burnt without any reference to the consent, or even to
the knowledge, of the crown."-Pp. 120, 121, vol. L, "Buckle's Posthumous
and Miscellaneous Writings "; fragment on " Bishops," under the "Reign
of Elizabeth."

7 He could not, however, have meant that under capable despots there is
as much progress as under imbecile monarchs in free constitutions. What
he probably said was, that these monuments were raised because the govern-
ment was despotic in its strictest sense, which implies misery to the people.
And, secondly, that under a despotic government the country is wholly de-
pendent on the capability of its ruler progressing under a great man, and
going back again under a reckless or foolish one.

TALK WITH MR. LONGMORE. 377

Longmore, " some reference being made to modern spir-
itualism, Mr. Buckle graphically narrated his experiences
during a seance at which he had been present* shortly be-
fore leaving London. This seance took place in the house,
he said, of a Cabinet Minister, who, he was quite satisfied,
would not have lent himself to any collusive trickery to
facilitate the proceedings of the mediums. The chief of
these was Mr. Home ; and various marvelous phenomena
were produced, more particularly the floating of a large
circular drawing-room table in mid-air. These manifesta-
tions Mr. Buckle was unable to explain on any known
physical laws. * But,' he added, ' while I can not admit
there is anything supernatural about them, I think it quite
possible there may be a development of some new force
well worthy of scientific investigation.' He afterward
mentioned that Mr. Home called on him shortly after the
seance, and told him that he was anxious that he, a man
well known in the literary world, and recognized as no
granter of propositions he had not duly examined for him-
self, would take up the subject of spiritualism, and after
sufficiently testing the reality of its phenomena in doing
which Mr. Home offered every assistance in his power
announce to the world to what conclusion he had come.
Mr. Home volunteered that, whenever Mr. Buckle wished
it, he would readily come to his house, and perform his
experiments there, so that there might be no suspicion of
apparatus or collusion being employed to deceive him. In
conclusion, Mr. Buckle told us he was so pleased with Mr.
Home that he was quite willing to agree to his proposal ;
but that, the second volume of his book being then nearly
ready for press, his time had been so occupied with it that

378 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

he was quite unable to take the subject of spiritualism up
before his health broke down, and he was compelled to
leave England. But he was resolved to investigate it on
his return home a return which, alas ! never took place." '
At Assouan Mr. Buckle again met Mr. Longmore;
and, since with returning strength his love of conversa-
tion was also returning, seeking a cultivated companion
to whom he could talk during his projected tour in Pales-
tine, he invited him to accompany him during that jour-
ney ; but Mr. Longmore was unfortunately obliged " re-
luctantly to decline." 9 Here arrangements were made
for hiring another boat ; for, though all but the very big-
gest dahabeeyehs can pass the cataract, yet, as El Ableh
was built of iron, any damage she might receive in the
passage could not have been repaired in so primitive a
place. To a wooden boat an occasional bump against a
rock does no harm, and the only danger that is run is the
chance that the boat may escape down the rapid a dan-
ger which is effectually guarded against by ropes made
fast to rocks ; the boat is then hauled up a little farther
and again made fast, while the first ropes are loosed, and
the process repeated. 10

8 From Mr. J. A. Longmore's account in the "Athenaeum," p. 115, No.
2361, for 25th January, 1873.

9 "Athenaeum," p. 115, 25th January, 1873.

10 Mr. Glennie says : " Still grander, however [than ascending], was the
shooting of this first cataract, on our descending the Nile three weeks after-
ward. Some travelers do not risk it ; nor, I believe, did Mr. Buckle ; but I
found it one of the most glorious sensations I ever experienced." " Pilgrim
Memories," p. 21. A truly heroic feat ! which strangely recalls to us the
anecdote told to Pepys of the passage of a Frenchman through London
Bridge : " Where, when he saw the great fall, he began to cross himself and
say his prayers in the greatest fear in the world, and, soon as he was over,
he swore, * Morbleu ! c'est le plus grand plaisir du monde.' " " Pepys's Di-
ary," 8th August, 1662.

NUBIA. 3Y9

The boat engaged for the Nubian trip was little better
than a common merchantman, the wild prototype of the
civilized dahabeeyeh. Many windows were broken ; and
though Buckle had a letter of introduction to the Gov-
ernor of Assouan from his Cairene friends, all his power
was unable to produce a square inch of glass, and they
had therefore to be patched up with paper. Two days
were occupied in transferring stores, during which Buckle
visited the Cataracts, the island of Elephanta, and " the
beautiful island of Philse," and also bought a great many
antiquities.

He started on the 24th December, came back on the
8th January, and the next day the party rode back to the
dahabeeyeh, which seemed quite a palace after the wretched
boat they had just left. " We have all been, and are re-
markably well," he writes. "The journey into Nubia,
notwithstanding its many discomforts, was in the highest
degree curious and instructive ; and, as I took extra pre-
cautions as regards diet and health, it did us no harm. . . .
The heat in Nubia was intense. On Christmas Day, at
half-past eight in the evening, it was in my cabin 81
Fahrenheit, though the sun had been excluded all day.
Not one Egyptian traveler in ten enters Nubia; but, as
you see, I felt confident in bringing us all well out of
it ; and now that we have been there, I would not have
missed it for five hundred pounds. I feel very joyous,
and altogether full of pugnacity, so that I wish some
one would attack me I mean, attack me speculatively.
I have no desire for a practical combat." And to his
aunt he writes from Cairo : " The Nubian part of the
journey I had to perform under circumstances of con-

380 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

siderable discomfort in a common trading boat ; but ev-
ery step was to me so full of interest that I was amply
repaid."

Everything was ready for the departure, but the wind
blew strongly from the north, and forced a delay. Here
a Mr. Glennie, who was in a dahabeeyeh on its way up,
took the opportunity of having the news of the Prince
Consort's death to communicate, to call on Buckle and in-
troduce himself. The conversation on that occasion was,
as always with Buckle, extremely animated, and, as Mr.
Glennie says, was chiefly on spirit-rapping, as was the
conversation with Mr. Longmore at Esneh. There is,
however, this difference between the two conversations as
recorded by Mr. Longmore and Mr. Glennie that, while
at Esneh Buckle said that he was unable to explain the
phenomena on any known physical laws, and added,
"While I can not admit there is anything supernatural
about them, I think it quite possible there may be a devel-
opment of some new force well worthy of scientific in-
vestigation," " at Assouan he is declared to have believed
they were supernatural, and performed by spirits, though
the movements of table and chairs might not be ; and to
have listened with respectful attention and admiration to
the explanation, that u just as the molecular motion of one
organ of an animal body varyingly affects, and is affected,
by the dynamic equilibrium of every other organ, so
may individual bodies, conceived as systems of motion,
not only varyingly affect and be affected by each other,
through a mechanically conceived medium, but such in-
fluence may be a consequence of mental actions which, if

11 "Athenaeum," p. 115, 25th January, 1873.

LOVE OF ANTIQUITIES. 381

they have all mechanical equivalents, would, through a
medium, be mechanically communicable." 12

Though Buckle was an admirable listener, I do not
think he would have had patience to listen to eight pages
of this. Be this as it may, however, Buckle, as he pre-
viously asked Mr. Longmore, now asked Mr. Glennie to
join him on his tour in Palestine, and accepted, as he al-
ways was ready to accept, an invitation to spend the even-
ing on board Mr. Glennie's boat. His diary of this day has
the following entry : " Thursday, 9th January, 1862. The
Nile. Eoseat6.40. Breakfast at 8. At [9] left the boat
we had been in to Wady Half eh, and, riding to Assouan,
embarked there in our old boat. Walked 1 hour. Dined
at 6. Spent the evening in the dahabeeyeh of a Mr. Glen-
nie, who called on me this afternoon. In bed at 10.10,
and to 11.40 read the Bible."

On the following morning, notwithstanding the strong
north wind, a start was made. Buckle made but few en-
tries concerning what he saw, but he remarks at Edfoo,
" Carefully examined the magnificent temple there, which
is the most complete and interesting in all Egypt." Ever
since he had left Thebes especially he had taken the great-
est interest in collecting antiquities and curiosities, with
which he intended to form a museum in the stable belong-
ing to his house. " Connecting these with my reading,"
he said, " I think I shall make a very interesting collec-
tion." Nothing came amiss to him ; specimens from the
various quarries of Egypt, Nubian and Arab dresses, orna-
ments, weapons, and utensils, and as many antiquities as
he could collect not confining himself to objects bearing

12 Glennie, " Pilgrim Memories," pp. 9-17.

382 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WKITINGS.

an art value, but also buying ancient head-rests, mummy
linen, wooden bolts and spoons, and mummy heads, hands,
and arms. He loved to trace the likeness between the an-
cient and modern forms of utensils and weapons ; and took
so great an interest in everything that he often said, were
he only rich enough, he would have all the hieroglyphics
in Egypt copied. The following extracts from his cata-
logue will give some idea of what he collected : 18

" 4. Part of a mummy-case, found in the Libyan sub-
urb of Thebes, 22d January, 1862. This is curious from
the similarity to our mutes with their wands two of the
Genii.

" 8. The sun in the sacred boat. Found in the Libyan
suburb of Thebes, 20th January, 1862. Tablets of this
sort were worn suspended round the neck of the Egyptian
judges, and are the supposed origin of the Urim and Thum-
mim of the Hebrews. See Martineau's < Eastern Life,'
1850, pp. 379, 380.

"43. A piece of mummy-covering, found in the Lib-
yan suburb of Thebes, 20th January, 1862. This is curi-
ous, as showing how the Egyptians used to represent their
enemies on their shoes, for the purpose of trampling on
them. From the long noses the captives are probably in-
tended for Jews. 14

13 Compare Mr. Glennie's, " He interested himself comparatively but lit-
tle in the ancient hieroglyphics of Egypt," and " He admired the art of Osi-
rianism, though he dismissed its faith as superstition, and was hence, per-
haps, more anxious to preserve its idols than to understand its gods." Pp.
49, 54, " Pilgrim Memories," where a good deal more of the like nonsense
may be found.

1 Compare the story of 'Ala ed-Deen Abu-sh-shamat, in which 'Ala ed-
Deen is ordered to be hung by the Khaleefeh. But a friend of his repaired
to the prison, and said to the jailer, " Give us some one who is deserving of

LOVE OF ANTIQUITIES. 383

" 89. A stool used by the Abyssinian women to lean
their elbows on. It was made at Gondar, and I bought it
of an Abyssinian at Assouan, on 23d December, 1861. I
have seen exactly the same stool represented in some of
the Egyptian tombs.

" 232. Model of the stool, or wooden pillow, used by the
ancient Egyptians to rest the head on. It was found in a
tomb in the Libyan suburb of Thebes, 16th December, 1861.
Exactly the same kind as is now used by the Abyssinians.

" 226. A gilt figure of the sacred tau, or sign of life.
It was presented to the king when he assumed the govern-
ment, and the early Christians of Egypt adopted it in place
of the cross.

" 4:14:. Four small cymbals, played with the finger and
thumb. They were made at Cairo, where I bought them
17th February, 1862. They supply the place of castanets
in the Almeh dance, and were the origin of the Spanish
Castanet. ' Wilkinson's Ancient Egyptians,' 1854, Yol. I.,
pp. 98, 99.

"416. The sling commonly used in Egypt to drive
birds from the field. It will hold several stones. Such
slings are often represented on the old Egyptian monu-
ments. This was made at Cairo, where I bought it on 7th
February, 1862.

being put to death." And he gave him one who was the nearest of men in
resemblance to 'Ala ed-Deen, who was hung in his stead. But now the
Khaleefeh wanted to see the body. " So the Khaleefeh went down, accom-
panied by the Wezeer Jaaf ar, and proceeded to the gallows ; and raising his
eyes he saw that the body which was hanging there was not that of 'Ala ed-
Deen." " How do you know ? " asked the Wezeer ; and to his reply that
this body is long, and the face is black, explains that these are the results
of hanging. But the Khaleefeh has the body cut down, and finds written
on the heels of the corpse the names of the two Sunnee saints, whereas 'A1&
ed-Deen was himself a Sunnee.

384 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" 456. The ordinary Egyptian darabooka, or drum. It
is used all through Egypt, and nearly every boat on the
Nile is provided with one. Precisely the same instrument
is depicted on some of the oldest Egyptian monuments.
This I bought at Cairo, 19th February, 1862.

"483. A specimen of the ancient Egyptian bricks,
made of Nile mud and straw. I took this on 13th Janu-
ary, from the walls of Eileithyas, now called El Kab, situ-
ated about fifty miles south of Thebes.

" 339. An imperfect figure of Atome, which I bought
at Cairo on llth February, 1862. His head is decorated
with the lotus and plumes, and feather of Ammon. See
Birch's ' Gallery of Antiquities,' pp. 21, 22, where he is
called Nofre-Athom. He is the Athmon, or Athmoo, of
Champollion, Wilkinson, and Rosselini. According to
Mrs. Lieder, he was the great god of Heliopolis, and was
the parent of mankind the same as Adam.

"344. A rare, and unusually perfect figure, which I
bought from the Odelschachi collection at Cairo, 7th Feb-
ruary, 1862. It is like Fig. 16 in Birch's ' Gallery of
Antiquities,' except that Isis and Nepthys are not sup-
porting its sides. It represents Pthah f in his two-fold
capacity of Pthah and Socharis.' In his human type he
is ' standing upon two crocodiles ; perched upon his shoul-
ders are two hawks, which indicate his dominion over the
upper and lower hemispheres.' ' The goddess Pasht, bear-
ing on her head the solar disk, and with long wings pen-
dent from her arms,' considered as Merepthah, or the
(goddess) loving Pthah, < aids him behind.' BIECH, pp.
15, 16. l Pthah, or Ptah, was the principal deity and pro-
tector of the ancient city of Memphis.' BIECH, p. 13.

THE PYRAMIDS. 385

' His worship was of the highest antiquity, his name ap-
pearing on monuments coeval with the Pyramids them-
selves.' BIKCH, p. 14. The fact of this figure of Pthah
wanting Isis and Nepthys at the sides proves, says Mrs.
Lieder, its great antiquity."

Six days were spent at Thebes, two of which were de-
voted almost entirely to antiquity hunting, and the others
to sight-seeing, and such antiquities as chance offered. On
the 20th January, El Ableh again started, but Buckle
wrote nothing concerning the sights he saw, or deeds he
did, during his journey down the Nile except the descrip-
tion of Thebes already quoted, and a pleasant account of
his visit to Abydos, concerning which he says : " That I
have not already been thrown is a marvel, seeing that
among other audacious feats I went from the Nile " to
Abydos on a donkey, with a cloth for a saddle, and two
pieces of rope for stirrups, and in this wretched plight had
to ride between eight and nine hours." From his diary it
appears that he only rested three quarters of an hour at
Abydos, and returned " quite exhausted."

The last sight before reaching Cairo was the Pyramids.
Donkeys were obtained from Cairo "jolly-spirited don-
keys," as one of the boys writes, " such as we had not had
for a long time up the Nile." "With his usual care, Buckle
had warned the boys not to look down on their way up the
Pyramids. He himself went up also, but took thirty-eight
minutes, and, finding the first passage too difficult, he did
not go inside.

At Boulak the boat was moored, but the party were so
comfortable in it, and were so much better treated than

16 Girgeh.
25

386 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

they would have been at a hotel, that they continued to
live on board, notwithstanding that the cost was nearly
double.

" We have anchored one and a half miles from Cairo,"
he writes, "as I think living on the ISTile more healthy
than being in a hotel. I shall therefore keep on the boat,
and all my establishment, including my virtuous and noble-
minded cook, until we start for the desert. As to Cookey,
please God ! he and I will never part till the Asiatic part
of the journey is ended.

" I am glad that you thought of night-caps ; but I did
not write for them, because I did not wish to give needless
trouble, and excellent Arab caps can be bought here. I
had quite determined to provide myself with them. In-
deed, I never let the boys be out at all after sunset without
seeing that their ears, etc., are covered with a pocket-hand-
kerchief, which I prefer to a scarf, as less heating.

" I make no doubt that we can reach Vienna by June ;
but to hurry ourselves would spoil all, and be too fa-
tiguing, as for about three months all our traveling will
be on camels and horseback. How long do you think of
staying at Yienna ? and would it matter if we did not ar-
rive there till the first week in July ? I suppose you will
remain at least a month ; and I shall be glad of a little
rest to push on the boys in their knowledge, so that they
may return to England with everything gathered up and
thoroughly digested.

" Good-by ! keep up your spirits, and look to the fu-
ture with confidence. All will go well."

And in a postscript he asks, " Have you heard aught
of the Spanish translation of my History? "

EEPLY TO MR. HUTH. 387

In an interesting letter written a few days before to
the father of the boys, he writes :

" You ask me about Mill's ' Political Economy,' and
in asking you hit one of the very few blots made by that
very great man. Mill has, perhaps, fewer prejudices than
any living writer ; but he has never quite got rid of the
influence of the old doctrinaire school. The traditions of
that school were handed down to him by his father direct
from Jeremy Bentham ; and, though Bentham was one of
the most eminent thinkers this or any other country has
ever possessed, he was so unversed in the art of life (as
distinguished from the science) that if he had possessed the
requisite power he would have inflicted more misery upon
England than has ever been inflicted on it by any single
man. ' Meddle, meddle, meddle,' is always the cry of the
speculator, unless he be practitioner as well as speculator.
Your knowledge of practical affairs enables you to see, as
it were instinctively, that this is wrong ; though to prove
it to be wrong needs a long, a refined, and an intricate
argument. When a man can demonstrate that a thing
ought to be, the temptation is almost irresistible to cry out
it shall be. And yet compulsion and interference are so
essentially mischievous that it is often better (I believe I
may say it is always better) to tolerate the worst social
evils than to seek to remove those evils by the coarse hand
of the legislator. The present state of things in England
concerning inheritance and succession is no doubt very
bad, and does great harm ; but, unless you can convince
society of the harm, any alteration of the law would defeat
its own aim by provoking a reaction. The history of hu-
man affairs in modern times is the history of these reac-

388 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

tions, all of which have been full of danger, and none of
which would have occurred if men would bide their time,
and would only condescend to sap bad institutions before
they try to overthrow them.

" I am very glad that you like 's letters ; but I

assure you that I have not the least hand in them. I
make a point of never seeing what the boys write, or of
suggesting to them what they should write, except that
I sometimes remind them to let you know about their
health. may possibly have repeated part of my con-
versation about what we had seen together. However
this may be, I have no hesitation in saying that both the
boys are much improving. Their habits of industry (I
mean industry as a pleasure) are so formed that it is quite
a pleasure to me to see them take up their books ; and
they are beginning to talk with eagerness about saving
their money when they go home to form a library of their
own. told me a day or two ago that he now won-
dered that he could ever have liked story-books when
books of history and travels were so much more inter-
esting. He added, that he should get his mamma to give
him other books in exchange for his story-books, since
these . . . were by no means good enough for him.

" Such aspirations are not to be laughed at ; still less
are they to be repressed. . . .

"About the 19th or 20th we shall, I hope, cross the
desert to Sinai, and if possible go from Sinai through Pe-
tra to Jerusalem. If, as constantly happens, Petra should
be unsafe, we shall return to Cairo, after seeing Sinai ;
and from Cairo cross the desert, at the north by El Arish,
to Gaza and Hebron. Directly we get to Cairo I shall

EEPLY TO ME. HUTH. 389

begin to make preparations, and buy the tents, furniture,
etc. In Palestine and Syria I do not intend to go into
hotels anywhere, nor even at Jerusalem. They are often
damp and dirty, and I am satisfied that tent-life, with
proper precautions, may be made extremely healthy. But
I have as yet found few travelers who will take these
precautions ; and three or four parties on the Nile who
wished to travel with us to Jerusalem, under one common
arrangement, have turned back, and declined my plans as
too extravagant. And yet, if I know anything of myself,
there is no one less extravagant than I am. But in these
countries (especially when we shall undergo the fatigue of
traveling eight or nine hours every day for weeks on cam-
els or on horseback) comfort and health are synonymous.
I shall buy at Cairo iron bedsteads and good thick blan-
kets ; and, looking at these and other appliances, my drag-
oman calculates that we shall need eighteen or twenty
camels. At present we have three servants our dragoman
(i. e., Hassan), an excellent cook, and a boy about eighteen
or nineteen ; the boy is dull and inefficient, so I shall get
rid of him at Cairo, 18 but the other two I shall take on
with me. Instead, therefore, of the badly cooked, in-
digestible stuff which most Eastern travelers eat at the
khans, or in large towns at the hotels," we shall be well
fed ; and, if I can succeed in keeping the boys' digestive
functions in complete order, I have not the smallest fear
of the fatigue and exposure hurting them. I shall supply

16 Or, as one of the boys has it : " Instead of our fool of a boy, we are
going to have a man to wait on us, who has been in the desert before. Mr.
B. says that it makes him mad to talk to the boy we have now."

17 This is all changed now, and travelers generally have their own cooks.
Even in 1862 people were beginning to travel more luxuriously.

390 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WHITINGS.

my servants well with fire-arms, and have the best escort
that can be procured. My present plan is to buy three
horses at Cairo, and have them sent on to meet us when
we enter Palestine; for some of the best horses in the
world, the fine old Arab breed, are to be had at Cairo ;
and they are perfectly docile and capable of long-continued
exertion qualities in which the Syrian horses are very
inferior.

" This will be a very expensive journey ; but looking
at the objects to be attained by it, I shall not grudge the
cost, and (unless I am greatly mistaken in your views con-
cerning the boys) you will not grudge it either. At all
events, it is clear that if the journey is to be made by boys
not very strong, and by a man not much stronger, it would
be madness to spare money, when money will increase the
chance of impunity. Perhaps you will think it unneces-
sary for me to have said thus much ; and I know that in
a mere pecuniary point of view such considerations can
not trouble you. Still, no one likes to incur expense with-
out knowing the reason why, and I have thought it just
to give you these details. That you will be amply repaid
in the improvement of your boys, I confidently believe ;
and most assuredly if I had not believed it nothing would
have induced me to take them.

" I hope that the thinness of the envelope will not pre-
vent this from reaching you safely ; but I have no thicker
ones, and none are to be procured here. We shall send
home two cases of antiquities. Some of them are valu-
able, and very fragile. They will be packed with great
care, and sent to Messrs. Briggs, at Alexandria, who will
forward them to you by the first ship which goes direct to

MES. LIEDER. 391

London. Please to be present yourself when they are ex-
amined at the Custom-house. They contain nothing but
antiquities, on which there is now no duty ; bu& be so kind
as to see that every article which is looked at is replaced
in the paper in which it is wrapped, as such paper bears
generally some particulars respecting it, which I should be
sorry to lose."

At Cairo he greatly increased his collection of antiqui-
ties, buying at various dealers', but chiefly from a museum
called the Odeschalchi. These he catalogued carefully in
the way which we have seen, and the same entry was on
the paper wrapper of the article when packed. In this he
was much assisted by a Mrs. Lieder, the wife of the Lu-
theran clergyman at Cairo, who had for twenty years her-
self been collecting antiquities, chiefly figures, and afforded
Mr. Buckle every assistance looking at his antiquities
which he brought to show her, assigning their period, and
finally having them packed in her own house. She and
her sister delighted in Buckle's conversation ; and though
the talk was chiefly on the country and antiquities, yet the
author remembers one occasion when they asked him to sit
down and explain the accusation against him of attacking
religion (!) in his book. Buckle sat down, and spoke for
at least half an hour with an uninterrupted flow of words,
explaining the real position he maintained ; but the effort
was rather too much for him, and he had to lie down in
his little cabin for the rest of the day. So energetic the
mind, so weak and feeble and faint the vesture of decay
that closed it in !

"We have seen that Buckle counted on at most sixteen
days' detention at Cairo, but his actual stay was twenty-

392 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

seven days. The following letter, dated 23d February,
will explain his generous reason :

" You will be surprised to find that we are still here.
But I have (with some hesitation) determined to postpone
our departure till after the arrival of the Delta, which,
according to your letter, received five days ago, should
leave Southampton on the 12th, and should reach Alexan-
dria on the 25th or 26th. The truth is that the boys are
getting on so admirably, and Josephus's ' Antiquities of
the Jews ' is so essential for their study of Palestine, that
I have deemed it advisable to forego the advantage of an
earlier start, rather than stop the course of their reading,
now that their minds are fresh and eager. Had we left
here on the 19th, it would have been impossible to receive
this very important book until we reached Jerusalem, and
perhaps (so uncertain are the means of transit in the East)
we should not have received it till we were at Beyrout,
about the beginning of May. Although, therefore, the
camels have been engaged since the 19th, as well as the
servants of whom I take, besides the cook and Hassan,
two well-armed men, and also two of the most influential
sheiks belonging to the tribes through which we pass (these
are in addition to the camel-leaders, etc.) I am still keep-
ing on the boat and crew, living en prince with these splen-
did establishments. But, seriously speaking, while I see
the dear little fellows so eager about knowledge, I could not
deprive them of another chance of getting their unfortu-
nate and long-delayed book. When I told that you

had written to say that the ( Antiquities of the Jews ' were
not coming with the first parcel, I really thought he would
have cried, so piteous was his disappointment ; and

STAY AT CAIRO. 393

was nearly as bad. I am sure that you did all in your
power to push matters on, but the delay has been vexatious
for several reasons. However, I shall have everything in
preparation to enter the desert directly Josephus is deliv-
ered ; so that the 28th will, I hope, see us fairly oif. In
the desert I purpose husbanding our strength by traveling
slowly ; and every five or six days I shall encamp for an
entire day, if I see the least symptoms of over-fatigue.
Consequently we shall have plenty of time for reading,
and, I trust, plenty of vigor for talking. At present we
are all in high health and spirits.

"The revolver strikes me as very beautiful, but my
admiration is the admiration of ignorance. The books,
shirts, etc., were all quite right. ..."

During this stay at Cairo he read much, viz., Kenrick's
" History of Egypt," Birch's " Gallery of Antiquities," St.
John's " Turks in Europe," Eenan's interesting Introduc-
tion to " Le Livre de Job," Eenan's " Etudes d'Histoire
Eeligieux," besides finishing the Old Testament, which
he had begun on the Nile. But this was only in the inter-
vals and odd corners of his time, which was chiefly spent,
as I have already said, at Mrs. Lieder's and her antiqui-
ties, and in seeing Cairo, and his friends and acquaint-
ances, among whom Mr. Thayer, the American Consul-
General, by his exceeding kindness occupied a prominent
place.

The account of Buckle in Cairo is admirably given
by an American gentleman who met him there, 18 and to

is p ers onal Keminiscences of the late Henry Thomas Buckle," in the
"Atlantic Monthly," for April, 1863, pp. 488-499 ; and I quote as nearly as
possible his own words.

394 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

whom he was introduced, as well as to Mr. Thayer, at a
dinner given by Mr. C., which took place at an hotel
called the Eestaurant d' Auric, on February 5th. Buckle,
he says, talked with a velocity and fullness of facts that
was wonderful. The rest could do little but listen and
ask questions. And yet he did not seem to be lecturing ;
the stream of his conversation flowed along easily and
naturally. Nor was it didactic ; Buckle's range of reading
has covered everything in elegant literature, as well as the
ponderous works whose titles make so formidable a list at
the beginning of his History ; and as he remembers every-
thing he has read, he can produce his stores upon the mo-
ment, for the illustration of whatever subject that happens
to turn up.

He expressed a strong hope that England would take
no part against America, and do nothing to break the
blockade. His next volume was to be on the United
States and Germany, and would contain a complete view
of the German philosophy ; but he will visit America be-
fore he writes. Although appreciating the great work of
De Tocqueville, he complains of the general inadequacy
of European criticism upon America. Gasparin's books,
by the way, he has not seen. For his own part, he con-
siders the subject too vast, he says, and the testimony too
conflicting, to permit him to write upon it before he has
seen the country ; and meanwhile he scrupulously abstains
from forming any conclusive opinions. Subject to this
reservation of judgment, however, he remarked that he
was inclined to think that George the Third forced the
Americans prematurely into democracy, although the nat-
ural tendency of things in both countries was toward it ;

HIS APPRECIATION OF YOUNG MEN. 395

and lie thought that perhaps we had established a political
democracy without having yet achieved an intellectual
democracy ; the two ought to go hand in hand together.
The common people in England, he said, are by far the
most useful class of society. He had been especially
pleased by the numerous letters he had received from
working-men who had read his book. These letters often
surprised him by the acuteness and capacity displayed by
their writers. The nobility would perish utterly, if it
were not constantly recruited from commoners. Lord
Brougham was the first member of the secular peerage
who continued after his elevation to sign his name in full,
" H. Brougham," which he did to show his continued sym-
pathy with the class from which he sprang. Buckle re-
marked that the history of the peasantry of no European
country has ever been written, or ever can be written, and
without it the record of the doings of kings and nobles is
mere chaff. Surnames were not introduced until the elev-
enth century, and it is only since that period that geneal-
ogy has become possible.

Another very pleasant thing, continues this writer, is
Mr. Buckle's cordial appreciation of young men. He re-
peated the story that, when Harvey announced to the
world his great discovery of the circulation of the blood,
among the physicians who received it was none above the
age of forty. Mr. Thayer told him of some of his friends
who had read his book with especial satisfaction. He evi-
dently took pleasure in this sort of appreciation, and said
that this was the class of readers he sought. " In fact, the
young men," he said, " are the only readers of much value ;
it is they who shape the future." He said that Thackeray

396 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

and Delane had told him he would find Boston very like
England. He knew but few Bostonians. He had cor-
responded with Theodore Parker, whom he considered a
remarkable man ; he had preserved but one of his letters,
which he returned to Mrs. Parker, in answer to her re-
quest for materials to aid in preparing the memoir of her
late husband. Buckle says that he does not generally pre-
serve other than business letters."

He had anecdotes to tell of Johnson, Lamb, Macaulay,
Yoltaire, Talleyrand, etc., and quoted passages from Burke
and from Junius at length, and in the exact words. Junius
he considered proved to be Sir Philip Francis. He told a
good story against Wordsworth, contained in a letter from
Lamb to Talfourd, too personal to publish, but which the
latter had shown to the present Lord Aberdare. Lamb
says that Wordsworth, who worshiped nobody but him-
self, affected to slight Shakespeare said he was a clever
man, but his style had a good deal of trick in it, and that
he could imitate him if he had a mind to. " So you see,"
writes Lamb, " there's nothing wanting but the mind." 20

Mr. Buckle had a very low opinion of the ancient
Egyptian civilization, differing in this respect altogether
from Hekekayan Bey, an Armenian, a well-read, intelli-
gent man, and formerly Minister of Public Instruction,
who was one of the company. 21 Buckle declared that the
machines, as figured on the monuments, etc., are of the
most primitive kind ; and that learning, by all accounts,

19 This letter did not arrive, and must have been lost in the post.

20 Buckle kept a small Commonplace Book for anecdotes, and this is
among them i

51 Author of a " Treatise on the Chronology of the Siriadic Monuments,"
1863.

BUCKLE'S OPINION OF TURKISH CIVILIZATION. 397

was confined to the priests, and covered a very narrow
range, exhibiting no traces of acquaintance with the higher
useful arts. He says that it is a fallacy to suppose that
savages are bodily superior to civilized men. Captain
Cook found that his sailors could outwork the islanders.
For Turkish civilization he had not the slightest respect, and
said that he could write the whole of it on the back of his
hands ; and here Hekekayan Bey cordially agreed with him.

Mr. Thayer asked him, if in England he had been sub-
jected to personal hostility for his opinions, or to anything
like social ostracism ? He said generally not. A letter
from a clergyman to an acquaintance in England, express-
ing intense antipathy to him, although he had never seen
the writer, was the only evidence of this kind of opposi-
tion. 22 " In fact," said he, naively, " the people of England
have such an admiration of any kind of intellectual splen-
dor that they will forgive for its sake the most objection-
able doctrines."

He told the company that the portion of his book
which relates to Spain had been translated into Spanish."
Mr. Thayer remarked that to this circumstance, no doubt,
we may ascribe some part of the modern regeneration of

82 Compare the Rev. A. K. H. Boyd's " I have mildly vented my indigna-
tion ; and I now, in a moral sense, extend my hand to Mr. Buckle. Had he
come up that corkscrew stair an hour or two ago, I am not entirely certain
that I might not have taken him by the collar and shaken him. And had I
found him standing on a chair in the green behind the church, and indoc-
trinating my simple parishioners with his peculiar notions, I have an entire
conviction that I should have forgotten my theoretical assent to the doctrine
of religious toleration, and by a gentle hint to my sturdy friends procured
him an invigorating bath in that gleaming river." P. 650, vol. lix., " Fra-
ser's Magazine," No. 354, for June, 1859.

23 At the instance, risk, and under the superintendence of Mr. Henry
Huth. But Mr. Buckle was enjoined not to mention this fact.

398 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Spain, the leading statesmen being persuaded to a more
liberal policy ; but this view Buckle disclaimed, with an
eagerness seeming to be something more than the offspring
of modesty.

After dinner, continues the contributor to the " Atlan-
tic Monthly," we returned to Mrs. R.'s apartments, where
we had tea. Buckle and Hekekayan now got into an ani-
mated discussion upon the ancient Egyptian civilization,
which scarcely gave the rest of us a chance to put in a
single word. It was, however, exceedingly interesting to
sit and listen. Indeed, although there was nothing awful
about Buckle, one felt a little abashed to intrude his own
remarks in such a presence. We staid until near midnight,
and then, taking our leave, Buckle accompanied S. and
myself as far as the door of our hotel. Buckle received
most kindly all suggestions made to him of books to be
read on American affairs, and people to be seen in the
United States.

On February 9th Buckle dined with Mr. Thayer at
the Hotel des Ambassadeurs. Buckle was in excellent
spirits, and, as before, was the life of the party. They had
been terribly afraid lest he and Hekekayan should get into
another long disputation, for the excellent Bey had forti-
fied himself with new materials ; but the ladies were taken
into their confidence to aid in turning the conversation,
should it be necessary, all of which made a great deal of
entertainment; but there proved to be no occasion for
anything of the sort.

Buckle told some capital stories : among them, one
against Alison, almost too good to be true, namely, that in
the first edition of his History he mentioned among the

HIS COMPLIMENT TO MR. THAYER. 399

causes of the French Kevolution " tlie timber duty," be-
cause he had read in a' French pamphlet that there were
popular discontents about the droits de timbre. Alison's
History, he said, is the very worst that ever was written. 24
He cited the definition that " fine writing is that which is
true without being obvious." In the course of the conver-
sation in which, as before, Buckle touched points in the
whole circle of literature and science, giving quotations
even in Hebrew from the Talmud and the Bible he made
a very pretty compliment to his host, introduced as adroit-
ly as from the lips of a professed courtier, but evidently
spoken on the moment. It was something in this way :
Hekekayan and Buckle were in argument, and Buckle

24 He has many, and by no means complimentary, remarks on Alison's
History in various parts of his writings : " Began to read for the first time
' Alison's History of Europe,' of which I looked through his very superficial
view of the ultimate results of the French Revolution at the end of the
fourteenth volume." " Diary," 26th May, 1851. " In Alison's ' Principles
of Population ' . . . there are some singularly superficial remarks upon the
poor-laws and population. . . . Amid all this nonsense, Alison has one good
remark. . . . " Pp. 453, 454. "Alison actually supposes 'that prices
inevitably rise in an old and wealthy community, from the great quantity of
the precious metals in the existing currency which their opulence enables
them, and their numerous mercantile transactions compel them, to keep in
circulation, and consequently,' etc., etc. !!!" P. 528, vol. i., "Posthumous
Works." " The ordinary compilers, such as Sir A. Alison." P. 329, note.
The reign of William the Third is " frequently misunderstood even by those
who praise it. Thus, for instance, a living writer informs us," that William
the Third had "the art of overcoming the ignorant impatience of taxation
which is the invariable characteristic of free communities." P. 368, note.
Talking of the reign of harles the First : " Sir A. Alison notices in his
History (vol. iv., p. 213), * how widely the spirit of discontent was diffused'
in 1796 ; and the only wonder is, that the people were able to keep it in
bounds. That, however, is a question which writers of his stamp never
consider." P. 456, note. " The common opinion, put forth in ' Alison's His-
tory of Europe.' "P. 483, note, " History of Civilization," vol. i.

The writer in the " Atlantic," however, adds that he has been unable to
confirm Buckle's anecdote.

400 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

said, " Ah, you mistake a necessary condition for the cause."
" What is cause but necessary condition ? " asked Hekeka-
yan. " Yery different : two men can't fight a duel with-
out meeting ; but every two men who meet don't fight a
duel." " But they couldn't fight a duel without meeting,"
persisted Hekekayan. " Yes," rejoined Buckle ; " but the
meeting isn't the cause of the duel. Why, there could
not be a dinner-party unless the company met ; but our
meeting here to-day isn't the cause of the dinner : the cause
of the dinner is the kindness of our host." " Or rather of
the landlord," said ~N. " Oh no ! of the American Govern-
ment," said C. " Ah," said Buckle, " those things are not
cause : the cause of our good dinner, I maintain, is only
the charming hospitality of the Consul-General."

The next day Buckle again dined with Mr. Thayer,
when he sat next to the writer in the " Atlantic," asked
about American books, and told him his opinion of those
he had read. He said that Quincy's " History of Harvard
University " was the latest book on America he had re-
ceived before leaving England. He preferred Kent's ex-
position of the United States Constitution to Story's, al-
though this also he had consulted and used. He had not
seen Mr. Adams's complete edition of the works of his
grandfather, nor Parton's " Life of Jackson," both of which
he was recommended to read, particularly the chapters in
the former in which are traced the steps in the progress
of making the American Constitutions. He said he would
not visit America till the domestic troubles were composed,
for he desired to see the practical working of the American
institutions in their normal state, not confused and dis-
turbed by the excitements of war. He would go first to

CONTEMPLATED VISIT TO AMEKICA. 401

Boston and New York, the intellectual and commercial
heads, as he said, of the republic ; and to "Washington, the
political capital. He would then like to pass 4 ' from the
Northern into the Southern States, but asked if he could
travel safely in the latter, in view of his extreme opinions
in detestation of slavery. From the Southern States he
said he would wish to pass into Mexico, thence into Peru
and to Chili ; then to cross the Pacific Ocean to Japan, to
China, to India, and so back by the overland route to Eng-
land. This magnificent scheme he had seriously resolved
upon, and proposed to devote to it two or three years. He
undertook it partly for information, and partly for relaxa-
tion of his mental faculties, which he had injured by over-
work, and which imperatively demanded repose. He
asked many questions with regard to matters of detail :
whether he would find conveyance by steamers in the Pa-
cific, and of what sort would be the accommodation in
them and in sailing-vessels. He asked at what season he
had best arrive in the United States, and whether he had
better land at New York or at Boston. Boston, he said,
he regarded as "the intellectual head of the country,
and New York, you know, for trade." His friend an-
swered these questions to the best of his ability, and told
him that he must not omit seeing the "Western country, and
some of the new cities, like Chicago. Buckle asked him
if he knew " a Mrs. Child," who had written him a letter,
and sent him her book about the history of religion. He
had been pleased with the letter and the book.

The conversation became general, and Mr. B , of

New York, told a story of an old Congressional debate, in
which John Randolph derisively compared Edward Ever-

402 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

ett to Kichelieu. Buckle at once said he should regard it
as a compliment of the very highest kind to be compared
to Richelieu. On being asked if he had read Dumas's
novels, he said he had not, although he had felt an inclina-
tion to do so. He asked one or two questions about them,
and gave a rapid generalization of the history of France at
that time.

Mr. Thayer showed him the little stock of books he
happened to have with him in Cairo. Mr. Buckle looked
them over with interest, expressing his opinions upon
them. One of them, Mr. Bayle St. John's little book on
the Turkish question, he borrowed, although he said that
he denied himself all reading on this journey, undertaken
for mental rest, and had brought no books with him.
They got upon the inevitable question of international
copyright, which he discussed in a spirit of remarkable
candor. His own experience was this : Messrs. Appleton
reprinted his first volume without compensation, asking
him to furnish materials for a prefatory memoir, of which
request he took no notice ; 2& afterward, when the second
volume was published, they sent him something I be-
lieve fifty pounds. Buckle's American friend pointed out
a distinction between copyright for the British author
and monopoly for the British publisher. He added that
the American people and their representatives in Con-
gress would not have the least objection to paying a tri-
fling addition to the cost of books, which would make,
upon the immense editions sold of the popular books, a
handsome compensation to the foreign authors, but that
they have very decided objections to the English system
25 See ante, the letter to Mr. Capel, p. 134.

A VISIT FROM MR. HOLYOAKE. 403

of enormously high, prices for books. lie instanced sev-
eral books, which could be bought in the United States
for a quarter or half a dollar, while in England they can
not be purchased for less than a guinea and a half that
is, for seven or eight dollars, although the author gains
very little by these high prices, which, indeed, would be
absolutely prohibitory of the circulation of the books in
the United States. And since the great literary market
of the United States has been created at the public ex-
pense, by the maintenance of the system of universal edu-
cation, it is, perhaps, not unreasonable that the American
legislators should insist upon preserving, by the compe-
tition among publishers, the advantages of low prices of
books in pursuance of a policy which looks to a wide cir-
culation. In Great Britain the publishers follow a differ-
ent policy, and insist upon selling books at high prices to
a comparatively small circle of readers.

Mr. Buckle was kind enough to listen attentively to
this sort of reasoning, and admitted that it was entitled to
some degree of weight. Indeed, he said that he had ear-
nestly wished to bring out a cheap edition of his own
book in England, omitting the notes and references, for
the use of the working classes, of whose appreciation he
had received many gratifying proofs ; 28 he had made his
arrangements for this purpose, but was prevented from
carrying them out by the opposition of his publishers, who
objected that such an edition would injure their interest in
the more costly edition. But Mr. Buckle freely declared

26 Buckle's diary has the following entry, 18th November, 1862: "A
visit from Mr. Holyoake, whom I now saw for the first time, and who wishes
me to publish an edition of my History on common paper for six shillings,
leaving out the notes."

404: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

that he would, in his circumstances, rather forego the
profit on the sale of his book than restrict its circulation.
This conversation led to a description of the reading pub-
lic in America, of the intelligence and independence of
our working people, of their habits of life and of thought,
about which Buckle manifested great interest, asking many
intelligent questions.

On February 13th there was a religious celebration,
including an illumination, in the mosque of the citadel, to
see which Mr. Thayer had invited Mr. Buckle, as well as
the two lads, his traveling companions. But at the last
moment the advice was strongly given on all sides not to
go, lest some bigoted Mussulmans should take offense, and
there might be a disturbance. Not long before, a party
of Englishmen had behaved very badly on a similar occa-
sion, from which resulted a disturbed state of feeling. It,
of course, could not be pleasant to people of any religious
belief to have their ceremonies made a spectacle for curi-
osity ; and although the mudir promised ample protection,
the plan was given up, and, the company being gathered,
they had a pleasant evening together. The presence of

the ladies of Mr. B 's party gave the opportunity to see

Mr. Buckle again under the inspiration of ladies' society,
which he especially enjoys, and in the lighter conversation
suited to which he shines with not less distinction than
when conversing upon abstruse topics.

In the course of the evening, in the midst of conver-
sation, in which he was taking an animated part, Mr.
Buckle exhibited symptoms of f aintness. Fresh air was
at once admitted into the room, which was full of cigar
smoke; water and more powerful restoratives were

DONKEY-RIDING. 405

brought, but these lie declined. After a few minutes' re-
pose upon the divan, he declared that he was perfectly re-
covered, and half an hour afterward took his? leave with
the boys.

On the 15th February Buckle had arranged to visit the
so-called Petrified Forest, behind the Mokuttum range, in
company with Mr. Thayer and several American and Eng-
lish travelers. Mr. Buckle, who was always trying fa-
tigue-saving contrivances for his desert journey, thought
this a good opportunity for trying a camel with the ma-
zetta, a sort of box in which the harem generally travel,
something like a palanquin without the poles, carried on
the back of one camel.

The writer in the " Atlantic Monthly " says : " On look-
ing down from the balcony at the transportation train mar-
shaled for the occasion, amid the admiring gaze of all the
idlers of Cairo, I was at first a little chagrined to find, as
the final result of the various arrangements, that, besides
the camels, the mazetta, the carriage-and-four, and the
proud-stepping horse, there appeared but one donkey that
selected for me. But I was, in truth, very well off. To
begin with, it was not thought prudent that Mr. Buckle
should use the mazetta until the procession had got beyond
the narrow streets of Cairo, lest the camel bearing it should
take fright, and knock the whole thing to pieces against
the wall of a house. Accordingly, he and his charges
took donkeys, and I rode off with them at the head of the
column. By-and-by Mr. Buckle changed to the convey-
ance originally proposed, but a very short experiment (lit-
erally, I expect) sickened him of the mazetta, whose mo-
tion is precisely that of a ship in a storm, and he sent back

406 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

to the town for donkeys. At the next halt the ladies took
him into their carriage, where he found himself, as he said,
' in clover.'

"It pretty soon appeared," he continues, "that the
camel which T. was riding was young and frisky ; the ani-
mal was accordingly pronounced unsafe, and T. changed to
a donkey, which had fortunately been brought along for a

reserve. The Hon. W. S 's camel, from the saddle

becoming unfastened, pitched rider and saddle to the
ground a fall of five or six feet ; fortunately, no harm
was done, and he bravely mounted again. The saddle

upon the camel which the Eev. Mr. S rode split in

two, and the seat must have been a torture ; but he bore
it like a martyr, never flinching. But camel stock had so
far depreciated that I was able to try as much as I liked of
camel-riding now and then, at the same time obliging a
friend by the use of my donkey meanwhile. . . .

" The journey to the forest, about ten miles, was safely
accomplished. "We found the petrifactions duly wonder-
ful. An excellent luncheon was laid out, after which we
had an hour and a half of very entertaining conversation,

in which Mr. Buckle and the Kev. Mr. S held the

leading parts ; all around us as desolate and silent as one
could imagine. It was interesting to observe the manner
in which Buckle estimated eminent names, grouping them
in some instances in threes a favorite conceit with him.
John Stuart Mill, of all living men, he considered as pos-
sessing the greatest mind in the world. Aristotle, New-
ton, and Shakespeare are the greatest the world has pro-
duced in past times. Homer, Dante, and Shakespeare are
the only three great poets. Johnson, Gibbon, and Parr

AN ADDITION" TO THE PAETY. 407

are the three writers who have done the greatest harm to
the English language. For Hallam he had a strong admi-
ration. He spoke of Sydney Smith as the greatest English
wit, and of Selwyn as next to him, and described Macau-
lay's memory as unequaled in conversation." "

However, at last everything was ready, and one of the
boys writes as follows : " We are expecting the c Antiqui-
ties of the Jews ' either to-day or to-morrow, and we are
going to start for Suez on Sunday. The camels are packed,
and are going to start to-day. Mr. B. has allowed another
gentleman to join our party, a Mr. Glennie. We have
seen some of our tent furniture. We have got iron
bedsteads, that fold up and put into a bag, like my fish-
ing-rod, only thicker; we have got four camp-stools,
and little Bucky is going to have an iron chair with a
back to it, that folds up, and a camp-stool to put his legs
on. We have got prepared milk in tin cases, so that we
shall not have to go. without milk as so many people do ;
and we have got preserved tongue in tin cases, because
we have nearly eaten all yours, and boiled beef, and I
don't know what all ; so we won't starve. Other people
only eat mutton, which is the only meat you can get from
the Bedouins. I have read the ' Hebrew Commonwealth.'
Part of it is dry and part interesting ; it gives a history of
the Jews from the time of Moses, B. c. 1500, to the great
Jewish war with the Romans, and the taking of Jerusalem
by Titus, A. D. 71. I am now going to begin the subse-
quent history of the Jews, which is in the same volume

27 Buckle met Macaulay at dinner, 19th June, 1852, at Lord Hatherley's
house, and records two anecdotes related by Macaulay. Buckle's remark on
Lord Macaulay's power of memory is thoroughly borne out by the admi-
rable biography of him written by his nephew.

408 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WEITINGS.

with the < Hebrew Commonwealth.' I think Josephus
will be very interesting, but I have not begun it yet.

has nearly finished it ; but I don't think I shall be

able to read much in the desert, particularly such an im-
mense book as Josephus. 28 "We are very busy to-day pack-
ing up. Mr. B. is packing now, and directly I have fin-
ished this letter I am going to pack so we won't be able
to read much to-day. Mr. B. has put a little blistering-
plaster on my forehead for his own amusement, and won't
let me take it off again. I have got a very small mum-
mied crocodile; it is such a darling little thing that I
know you won't mind it." And the other boy writes :
" Mr. Buckle still often puts on the i rough brown coat '
that you mentioned in your letter, and I mended the
sleeves for him, because he was always putting his arms
through the linings. ... It is raining to-day, the second
time since we have been in Egypt. We are very comfort-
able and jolly, and Mr. Buckle is packing up antiquity
after antiquity every day. I have read Stanley, and I like
it very much ; and now I am reading Josephus, and I like
it better."

On Monday, 3d March, a start was made, but, through
the fault of Hassan, the dragoman, the party just missed
their train, and had to go to the Hotel des Ambassadeurs.
The next day they started for Suez at 12.30, where they
found at the hotel " a Mr. Glennie," as Buckle has entered
in his diary, " who has agreed to join us." This gentle-
man had called on Mr. Buckle at Boulak on the 19th
February, when, as he writes, 29 " He was again kind enough

28 Traill's.

29 " Eraser's Magazine," p. 174, for August, 1863.

IN THE DESERT. 409

to ask me to join him on his further journey, and spoke so
enthusiastically of the historical interest of the desert life,
that I said I should give him an answer next $ay. Next
day our dragoman's contract was signed at the Consulate."

Mr. Longmore, who also met Mr. Buckle here, says :
" After the table (Thote of that day at the Peninsular and
Oriental Hotel, we had a long discussion on the subject
of the different races of man being originally distinct, or
all derived from one stock. Buckle seemed to lean strong-
ly on the latter view of the question ; and when the oppo-
site was rather too strongly maintained by a gentleman
present, I could not but admire the able and effective man-
ner in which Mr. Buckle in a few pithy sentences closed a
discussion likely to become disagreeable." 30

The next day, 5th March, the party, which now in-
cluded Mr. Glennie, crossed over by boat from Suez to
the opposite shore. The water was beautifully clear, and
the rocky bottom visible in every detail ; but toward the
coast it shoals so much that the shore has to be gained on
men's backs. At the landing, camels were waiting, and
the first desert journey was a camel-ride of two miles to
the encampment at 'Am Musa. Here they found another
party encamped, who had just returned from a visit to
Sinai. " We here met," says the Rev. St. John Tyrwhitt,
" for the first and last time with Buckle, the historian of
civilization. Nothing can have been more delightful than
his conversation for the half -hour I passed in his company,
and he was full of life and energy of mind. But his
whole frame seemed slight, and worn to a degree ; and I
thought he was taking mistaken precautions against heat,

30 "Athenaeum," p. 115, 25th January, 1873.

410 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

which would try his strength severely." ' Mr. Glennie
also, as he says, hinted to Buckle once or twice that his
costume was too warm ; but Buckle pointed out that the
Arab chiefs all wore voluminous clothing, and that protec-
tion from heat is as much assured by flannel as protection
from cold." The result of neglect of this precaution is
thus told in Mr. Tyrwhitt's own words : " Little thought
we, on the Red Sea level, of the cold of the granite glens
of Sinai " ; and they suffered " from dysentery, the conse-
quences of heat and cold, and change of living, and long
marches." 33 And Buckle points out, in his letter from
Jerusalem, that those who differed from him, " strong and
vigorous young men as they were, they fared differently
being constantly unwell, and always ascribing their com-
plaints to the wrong cause." 34

Buckle, though described by Mr. Tyrwhitt as " worn
to a degree," was at this time in better health than he had
been for several years. His dress was the same as he had
worn in Egypt, with the exception that he substituted
flannel for his white shirts. These, having been sent out
to him from England, were not a very good fit ; and his
clothing was altogether old-fashioned, and not new, though
it was good ; as an American writer observes, " In this re-

81 In " Vacation Tourists and Notes of Travel," in 1862-'63. Edited by
Fr. Galton, p. 356. London and Cambridge. 1864.

52 " Eraser's Magazine," p. 175, for August, 1863.

33 " Vacation Tourists," pp. 331, 342.

84 Had Mr. Glennie looked in " Murray," he would have seen that Mr.
Porter says : " It is a great mistake to wear linen, or any other thin mate-
rial. Woolen cloth is a non-conductor, and when we are protected by it the
sun's rays fall harmless. . . . Many throw over the whole a white Arab bur-
nus of very thin material, and this affords additional protection against both
heat and dust."" Handbook to Syria and Palestine," vol. L, p. xlv. 1868.

INDIFFERENCE AS TO DRESS.

spect affording a not disagreeable contrast to the studied
jauntiness which Englishmen are apt to affect in their
traveling gear." 35 *

As for the looks of his dress Buckle did not care one
straw. Indeed, he rather preferred doing things in a dif-
ferent way to what was customary. " The immense mass
of mankind," he says, " are, in regard to their usages, in
a state of social slavery, each man being bound under
heavy penalties to conform to the standard of life common
to his own class. . . . Men, not cowards in other respects,
and of a fair share of moral courage, are afraid to rebel
against this grievous and exacting tyranny. The conse-
quences of this are injurious, not only to those who desire
to be freed from the thraldom, but also to those who do
not desire to be freed ; that is, to the whole of society."
Hence, he continues, a sufficient number of experiments
in the art of life are not made, and knowledge is re-
tarded. 38 Hence his unbounded contempt for those who
sneer at a man because he does things in a way different
from what they have been accustomed to, without ever
deigning to inquire into the merits of the case, and some-
times even despite the evident superiority of the new over
the old method. He himself refused to fire salutes on the
Nile, or carry a flag in the desert, merely " because others
did," when he saw no use in it. On one occasion, when
one of the boys put a bottle in the middle of the table,
and Mr. Glennie wished to have it at the corner, he said,

35 "Atlantic Monthly," p. 491, April, 1863. Mr. Glennie adds to his de-
scription of Buckle's dress (which is not correct) the words : u A wide-
awake . . . shaded his un-shaven face." " Fraser's Magazine," p. 175, Au-
gust, 1863. What he is endeavoring to say is, that Buckle wore a beard.

36 " Essay on Mill." " Posthumous Works," pp. 47, 48, vol. i.

412 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

" No, leave it there. I hate to see things always done in
the same way."

The next day Buckle tried his dromedary; but the
following he only rode for little over an hour on that dis-
agreeable animal, the motion of which he describes as
"insufferable," and thenceforth traveled on his Cairene
donkey which he had provided for the emergency. 87

The route was by Wady Ghurundel and "Wady et-Tai-
yibeh, where the sea-shore is reached; and here Buckle
and the boys wandered for an hour before dinner, col-
lecting the shells which lay strewn in abundance along the
sandy shore. The usual way in which the day was passed
like the whole traveling equipage, entirely the arrange-
ment of Buckle was to get up at six, breakfast while the
tents were being struck, start a little before eight, and
generally before the baggage camels were ready ; lunch
generally about twelve, while still on the march,' on a few
figs and biscuits ; then rest for about three hours during
the hottest part of the day wherever there was natural
shade ; or, if there were none, a part of a tent was pitched.
Here Buckle smoked, and talked to Mr. Glennie for a

37 Mr. Glennie erroneously states that Buckle never again tried camel-
riding after that short ride from 'Ain Musa ; and says that it was owing
to his "stiffness" that the motion was so disagreeable. "Pilgrim Mem-
ories," p. 69. The fact is, that the peculiarity of the camel's gait makes it
necessary to swing backward and forward with every step, and this made
Buckle giddy. He also tries to draw a ludicrous picture of Buckle mount-
ing his donkey " one man helping him up, another on the other side hold-
ing the saddle straight, and one holding the animal in case of fright."
Ibid., p. 70. Mr. Glennie does not add that this, apart from exaggerations,
is the way that he himself, and every one else in the East, mounts. One
man holds the stirrup with one hand, and the donkey with the other, or it
would certainly start off ; while, if there is a second man near, or the rider
be a man of consequence, he is always helped up.

MAJOR MACDONALD. 413

time, and then slept ; while the baggage camels had time
to come up, and get a start sufficient to allow of the camp
and dinner being nearly prepared when he aguin came up
to them, about six o'clock. Buckle, who always now rode
his Cairene donkey, was independent of attending Arabs
or camel-leaders. Part of the time he rode by Mr. Glen-
nie, and talked to him ; and for an hour to an hour and a
half he walked, generally with the boys. After dinner,
which, like all other meals, was in the open air, he would
smoke and resume his talk. Then to bed about nine,
where he lit a cigar, and read Jahn's " Hebrew Common-
wealth," Murray, Josephus, or the Bible, for about an
hour before he went to sleep.

The seventh day of traveling saw the party up the
Nukb Badereh, or Pass of the Sword's Point, and into
Wady Maghdrah, or the Yalley of the Cave, so called from
the mines, which, together with many dwelling-places,
tanks, forts, and inscriptions, mark the ancient Egyptian
copper-mines. At that time a Major Macdonald was liv-
ing there, who, as Buckle says in his diary, " received us,
though strangers to him, with great kindness, persuaded
us to stay all day with him, and gave us some turquoises
from the mines which he had discovered." He invited the
party up to his rough dwelling, and regaled them on hot
Arab tortilla or flat cakes of dough baked on a plate of
iron ibex cutlets, and other novelties. He then showed
them the ancient mines, and gave them some ancient flint
arrow-heads, a few small turquoises, and many of another
kind which turned green after a short time, or almost
white. These latter had brought the Major into great
trouble at one time, for, in his ignorance, he had sent both

414 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

kinds to the European markets, and thereby brought the
mines into discredit. He had first discovered them while
wandering over the hills, seventeen years before, and then
came and settled, where he lived for sixteen years, seeing
nobody but Arabs, and yet had not learned the language !
This Buckle spoke of afterward with some contempt. At
that time he had a nephew staying with him, who had
learned to make himself understood in a few months.
The Major spoke of the ancient reservoirs, and explained
how easily the desert might be made productive by simply
damming up some of the torrent-beds, so as to form reser-
voirs. For the desert is fertile wherever irrigated ; and the
rainfall, though it only lasts about a couple of days, is some-
thing tremendous. When asked what he would do if
strangers came to work the mines, he said that he and the
Tawarah Arabs would fight them. His system was to find
the mining tools, and pay his Arabs a percentage on what
they found. Each worked for himself; and whoever
made a lucky discovery of a good vein tried to keep it
secret, though generally without success, as he was soon
tracked by his fellows. The Major also talked of the ter-
rible Arab vendetta, and pointed out a man whose life was
in hourly danger. This Arab was a truculent-looking ruf-
fian, armed with a heavy straight sword, and a gun some
twelve feet long slung across his shoulder, who had quar-
reled with his nephew about a case of candles which had
been washed ashore. The nephew wounded his uncle,
upon which the uncle slew his nephew, and was now being
hunted by his nearest relatives.

Major Macdonald extended his hospitality in the kind-
est way to all comers ; and not long after Buckle's arrival,

SINAI. 415

another caravan appeared, with whom he was destined to
travel during the rest of the desert journey. They also
were invited to dinner, where Buckle was, a"s usual, the
soul of the party.

The following day was a " very fatiguing " journey of
twelve hours, through Wady Mukatteb, to the oasis and
ruined Christian village of Wady Feiran. Dinner was
late, and Buckle exhausted ; but he got up as early as
usual the next day to examine the ruined houses and
church. That day's journey was only six hours' duration ;
but according to Mr. Glennie, he had a long talk with him
all day ; and the following day he was so tired that he
could not talk at all, though he walked from the encamp-
ment to the convent of Sinai, and back again, before dinner.

The party were admitted into the convent after they
had presented the usual letter of introduction, during the
perusal of which Buckle expressed very unflattering re-
marks on asceticism generally, and the monks in particular. 88
He did not like the look of the guest-rooms, and preferred
to remain in his tent, the double roof of which proved use-
ful that night in keeping out a heavy fall of rain. Gebel
Musa, the Sinai of the monks and Arabs, was ascended
the next day, one third of the way by a road practicable
by camels, and the remaining two thirds on foot over loose
stones. On the summit is a little chapel and a mosk the
latter hung all over with votive rags, the former beplas-
tered with dirty prints. Here they rested a couple of
hours, had lunch, and a drink from the cool and refreshing
spring called Moses' Well, which Buckle pronounced to
be the best water he had tasted since he left England.

38 Glennie, "Pilgrim Memories," p. 137.

416 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WBITINGS.

Then they descended to the chapel of Elijah and Aaron,
where the very cave is shown in which Elijah lay hidden.
In the evening Buckle and the other travelers, forming in
all four parties, fired off their revolvers to try them ; but
Buckle had to seek advice from Mr. Gray a gentleman
traveling with another party, to whom he took a great
fancy how to load his weapon. The next day was spent
in seeing the convent, its church, pictures, mosk, and li-
brary, and also in writing home :

" As I know how anxious you must be," he says, " to
have the latest possible news of the desert travelers, I have
arranged to send a Bedouin express on a fleet dromedary
this evening to Suez. He will reach Suez in about three
days with this letter.

" We are all quite well very tired every evening, but
waking up quite fresh and vigorous every morning. Our
average day's journey is seven hours of actual riding, and
we rest about three hours during the day. I hope that
we shall succeed in getting to Akaba, then to Petra, and
from Petra through Hebron to Jerusalem.

" But as there are rumors at Sinai of war among the
tribes, I have sent a Bedouin to Akaba to learn the actual
state of things before I venture to start ; and I shall take
a similar precaution at Akaba in regard to Petra. An
American party leave here to-morrow, without taking any
steps to procure information, and much wish us to go with
them. But I do not like to run the risk, as with, I be-
lieve, one exception, no one has been to Petra during the
last five years. I have sent for the head sheik, Hussein,
and if he will accompany us with an escort, we will go if
not, not. So, as the Irishman said, ' Be aisy now.'

ALONG THE SEA-SHORE. 417

" I am too tired to write more. The excitement and
exquisite interest of the life we are leading are indescrib-
able, but unfit me for every other exertion.

" Our encampment here is 5,500 feet above the level
of the sea the mid-day sun intensely hot, but the morn-
ings bitterly cold."

This was written on the 17th March, a day of rest be-
fore resuming the journey ; but, though unwilling to write,
Buckle was in excellent spirits, for, in a letter written
home at the same time, one of the boys says, " You must

excuse mistakes, because Mr. B will sing ri-too-rall-

loo-rall-loo." Indeed it was not until the latter part of the
journey, when his last illness was already upon him, that
his high spirits and constant flow of fun ever did fail.

The next day and before, of course, the messenger
had returned from Akaba a late start was made, because,
having fresh camels, the burdens had to be redistributed.
The route lay for the most part along the sea-shore. It was
here, as Buckle looked across the deep blue sea of Akaba
to the many-tinted mountains of the opposite shore, that
he again burst out with the conviction, already expressed
in Egypt, that the beauty of color was superior to form ;
and felt, what before he had little more than reasoned, how
great was the stimulus of natural beauty to the imagina-
tion. "With the aid of the boys he collected many shells,
and specimens of red and white coral ; and, as an instance
of his method of education, I may here mention that the
boys one day at dinner told him how they had been amus-
ing themselves by knocking off the tails of lizards, to
see how these jumped, while the lizards ran away as if no-
ting had happened. Mr. Glennie remarked that it was
27

418 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

very cruel, and ought to be put a stop to ; but Buckle
quietly said that it was the nature of boys to be cruel, and
that they would know better when they grew older. The
consequence was that they, who had resented Mr. Glennie's
remarks, and would probably not have attended to an order,
were ashamed of what they had done, and did so no more.
The only adventure on the march, which lasted five days,
was one that Mr. Glennie relates, that Buckle only just
escaped the spring of -a cobra, which had been disturbed
by his donkey, and, after his fashion, gave the incident a
ridiculous turn by jokingly inveighing against the blind-
ness of fate, through which the career of a great philoso-
pher might have been cut short by the merest accident or
the most contemptible agent. 89

On the sixth day there was a halt for the return of the
messenger, and the next saw them encamped amid the
palm-groves of Akaba, hard by the old square castle, and
in company with three other parties, two American and
one English.

From Tuesday to Saturday the tents remained pitched,
while the principals of each party were negotiating with
Sheik Mohammed for protection and an escort to Petra.
For some time the 'Alawin had been waging war with the
Fellahin of that place, and consequently for the last five
years the whole neighborhood had been in so unsettled a
state that no travelers could venture into it. The last
party had been attacked, one person killed, and another
died of fright. Now, however, the 'Alawin had to a cer-

39 Glennie, " Pilgrim Memories," p. 174. Mr. Glennie, with surprising
naivete, relates this as having been said in sober earnest. But, then, Mr.
Glennie was in the habit of taking jokes in this way.

THREE CLERGYMEN. 419

tain extent gained the mastery, and the Fellahin were a
kind of powerful feudatories entitled to a share of the
backsheesh indeed, but unable to oppose the entry of trav-
elers who enjoyed the protection of the powerful Sheik
of the 'Allawin.

There was plenty of leisure for conversation while the
negotiations were going on, and Buckle particularly talked
to Mr. Gray, who writes as follows :

" Notwithstanding Mr. Buckle's anti- Christian opinions,
one would have thought that in the desert at least our fel-
low travelers would have availed themselves of the oppor- ,
tunity afforded them of studying such a man as Mr. Buckle.
Yet all, with the exception of Mr. Glennie himself a free-
thinker and myself, kept out of his way. During many
years' wanderings throughout the world, I have never met
any one whose general knowledge or conversational power
could be compared for a moment with that of Buckle :
whether in botanizing up Sinai, or geologizing at Petra, in
astronomy, medicine, chemistry, theology, or languages
every thing and every subject appeared to me handled as
if by a professional. And yet, however much one dif-
fered from him, his kindly mode of reasoning with me
against what he believed to be erroneous views was always
so pleasant and fascinating that I could not resist return-
ing again and again to his arguments.

" Singularly enough, there were three clergymen in the
combined parties a Church of England, a German Luther-
an, and an American Baptist ; and I remember, because it
struck me very forcibly, that one day, when the German
was defending some point of religious doctrine, Buckle
pointed out that he had omitted one or two stronger argu-

420 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

merits in his favor, which he proceeded to give. It was
quite evident to me that few priests or parsons existed
who were qualified to defend their respective creeds bet-
ter than was Mr. Buckle himself any one of them. I took
an early opportunity of letting Mr. Buckle know that,
both as a Scotchman and a Catholic, I had read with much
interest his account of Presbyterianism, adding that, as
Catholics were accustomed to stripes, his castigation of
Catholicism also was only one of many wounds inflicted
upon us ; whereas even royalty coquetted with the former
in Scotland, and Presbyterians were astounded at his pre-
suming to lecture them for their misdoings. Mr. Buckle
said that it was satisfactory to him to know that, among
other leading Scotchmen, the editor of the ' Scotsman,' the
late Mr. Kussell, had welcomed his book as a boon to Scot-
land. While on the subject of Scotch intolerance, I re-
member asking Mr. Buckle whether, were he living in
Scotland, he would expect to be most repugnant to the
Presbyterians as a Deist or a Catholic ? He replied at once
that he had no doubt he would be least objectionable to
them as a Deist. My asking him one day what in his
opinion were the strong and what the weak points of
Catholicism and of Protestantism, led up to the following,
to me, memorable remarks : * I understand that the Catho-
lic Church is making great progress in America ; but it
must do so, for what has it to contend against there ? Only
Protestantism, which is inconsistency itself. I, too, was
brought up a Protestant,' he continued, ' and was taught
to regard my private judgment as my birthright, of which
no one could rob me. But when, in making use of my
private judgment, I was led to reject Christianity, an out-

HIS OPINION OF THE SUEZ CANAL. 421

cry was at once raised against me for exercising this very
undoubted right.' Then, turning toward me, he said :
6 Your Church at least is consistent, for it does :r not profess
to allow the right of private judgment. But then it starts
from false premises, for it assumes that Christ was the Son
of God. Prove to me that Christ was the Son of God,
and I, too, at once become a Catholic.' 40

" Among his miscellaneous remarks I remember that,
in a conversation on articles in the ' Times ' and other lead-
ing English papers, he said it was very easy for a man to
sit behind his desk and write an article ; but he found
from experience that these writers seldom cared to discuss
verbally the subject of their articles. "When speaking of
various authors, he occasionally added that a few years
hence their works would be forgotten. A book that would
not descend to posterity was evidently one for which he
had but scant respect. With mighty captains he had no
sympathy. Napoleon, in his eyes, was simply a curse to
civilization. He did not believe in humane generals, and
was much interested in some anecdotes I told him of what
I had seen while serving as a volunteer in the Indian Mu-
tiny. On the subject of the Suez Canal, he believed that
the canal would be made in spite of British opposition, and
insisted that Palmerston had asked Stephenson to put all
the difficulties in the strongest light, in order to prejudice
English public opinion." 41

40 1 give this in Mr. Gray's words, and he adds : " These words made so great
an impression upon me at the time that I took the first opportunity of repeat-
ing them to Mr. Glennie, who acquiesced perfectly in Buckle's avowal." But
it seems to me that the last word ought to be Christian, as it is difficult to
understand how all the doctrines of Catholicism could be deduced from this.

41 From notes kindly communicated to me by Mr. Alexander Hill Gray,
of East Ferry, Dunkeld, N. B.

422 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

After several tedious interviews with the sheiks, who
at first agreed, then threw difficulties in the way, and
finally agreed again, a start was made on March 30th,
with a new escort of wild 'Alawin in place of the gentle
Tawarah Arabs, accompanied by the great sheik himself
on the first day's journey, and then by his uncle. The
party was now a large and powerful caravan, consisting,
with the servants and escort, of 110 well-armed men. To
prevent undue straggling, the mid-day rest was curtailed to
one hour. On the first day a halt was called, as more dif-
ficulties were advanced by the tiresome chiefs. They pro-
fessed to have discovered some new danger, which it
would be necessary to meet by more backsheesh. " I gave
it as my opinion," says Mr. Gray, " that the fellows, know-
ing how anxious we were to reach Petra, were simply en-
deavoring to extort money from us under false pretenses.
Mr. Buckle, anti-Christian though he was in belief, chid
me for want of charity. I enjoyed the reproof, but felt all
the same that, however learned a man might be in Europe,
it was quite possible he might be easily fooled in Asia ;
and I was therefore very glad, when night came on, to
rouse Mr. Buckle with the latest news after he had retired
to rest. The news was simply this : Abd-el-atee, the lead-
ing dragoman of the united party, 42 had suggested to the
sheik that he should demand more money all round, which

42 Still a well-known man at Cairo. "What did his party say of Buckle
before him ? Mr. Warner, whom he afterward served, says he referred to
Buckle as follows : " You no think the Lord he take care for his own ? . . .
When the kin' of Abyssinia, who not believe, what you call infidel, like that
Englishman, yes, Mr. Buckle ; I see him in Sinai and Petra very wise man,
know a great deal, very nice gentleman, I like him very much, but I think
he not believe."" Mummies and Moslems," pp. 318, 319. London, 1876.

"tJe*-* " ~r*-
>> 0* THF,

T
ASCENSION OF MOUNT HOR. ^ ^ 423

money he and the sheik were to divide between
dragoman had no objection to the arrangement, provided
that he obtained his share of what his masters^paid. To
this proposal Abd-el-atee would not consent, and Hassan,
turning traitor, first came to tell me that he had overheard
my conversation with Mr. Buckle, and assured me that
my suspicions were correct. Mr. Buckle never lectured
me again upon want of charity." Buckle's worthy cook,
however, who was no Rustam, was so frightened by stories
of the ferocious Fellahin, and particularly of his last pred-
ecessor at Petra, five years since, who had been shot, that
he swore the triple oath of divorce nothing should induce
him to stir a step forward. The dragoman came in much
perplexity to tell Buckle of this ; for the triple oath is ir-
revocable, and the man who divorces his wife in this way
may not marry her again till some one else has married
and divorced her. 49 Buckle called the man before him,
and, pointing out that he was bound by his contract, gave
him the choice whether he would go on, or return to a
consular prison. The cook became a bachelor.

In the course of the next day, and after much talk, an
agreement was arrived at, and the party began their march
again April 4th. On the way Mount Hor was ascended.
Buckle got up in an hour and a half, tired and hot, and
rubbing his bald head, exclaimed, " No wonder poor old
Aaron died when they dragged him up here ! " Even the
clericals laughed at this unholy remark. But the view

43 y er y ugly men are chosen for this purpose by repentant husbands.
They sometimes, however, refuse to divorce the woman for her former hus-
band to remarry her ; and they can not be compelled. Compare the story
of 'Ala ed-Deen Abu-sh-Shamat. Lane, 1840, vol. ii., p. 274 ; and Ibid.,
" Modern Egyptians," 1842, vol. i., p 262, et seq.

424 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WETTINGS.

from the summit over the neighboring peaks was worth all
the fatigue, and reminded one in its vast expanse, and
the absence of all vegetation but a little straggling grass or
insignificant bush or stunted tree of a raised map spread
before one's feet. Once at the top, an extra backsheesh
was demanded for permission to see Aaron's tomb, and re-
fused by the indignant travelers, who did not care much
to see it. The descent was done in an hour, though
Buckle was forced to draw his revolver on his attendant
savages, who kept pushing him to make him go at what
they considered a suitable rate of speed.

That afternoon the tents were pitched in Petra. In
the evening the whole party had a narrow escape. There
was a quarrel between the sheiks, as they sat round their
camp-fire, on the division of the spoil. The sheik of the
Fellahin drew his sword, and was on the point of killing
the sheik of the 'Alawin, who was unprepared, when the
blow was turned aside by a bystander ; and the angry Fel-
lahin chief went off in a huff, promising that as he " had
the pigeons in his cage, he would not let them go " ; and
intimating that he would occupy the heights, and attack
the party when they attempted to leave. However, the
next day Buckle and some of the others began their sight-
seeing by the pass of the Sik, a narrow rocky passage, the
principal, and probably, in ancient times, only, entrance to
Petra. They had hardly got half way when the dragoman
told them it was dangerous to go on ; that the sheik had
heard the Fellahin were in ambush ahead, and they must
return at once. Buckle quietly asked who was the mes-
senger, and he was pointed out. " Then," said he, " I
will go back ; but I shall take you before the sheik, and

BUCKLE ANGRY WITH ME. GRAY. 425

ask him if your story is true ; and if it be not, you shall
be punished." Upon this the man began equivocating,
saying that he had not been sent by the sheik, but thought
it extremely likely that the Fellahin might be there, etc. ;
and it became at once clear that he had invented the story
merely to save himself the trouble of escorting the travel-
ers about the place. On their return they found poor
Achmet, the cook, the center of a group of Fellahin, who
had found out his cowardice, and were demanding sugar,
tobacco, and everything they had a fancy to. They pointed
out to him the individual who had slain the cook of the
last party, and chaffed him unmercifully.

The only time that Buckle was angry with Mr. Gray
was at Petra. " Finding a snake," writes this gentleman,
" I killed it, and brought it to the door of Mr. Buckle's
tent. ' Take that away from here, if you please,' said he ;
but I enjoyed his discomfiture too much to obey him at
once. He was at first angry, but quickly recovered his
temper, merely remarking that the mate of the dead snake
would certainly take up its abode near his tent if the body
was allowed to remain there. "When the Fellahin at Pe-
tra were becoming troublesome," continues Mr. Gray,
" Mr. Buckle remarked, that ' if they came to his tent with
guns he would probably get under the bed ; but if they
wished to discuss matters quietly with him, to prove he
had no right to be there, he would be happy to offer the
chief a chair.' "

One more day was passed in Petra ; and then on the
Monday the caravan slowly defiled out on the road to
Hebron, with a somewhat uncomfortable feeling that the
sheik of the Fellahin, with his rude and devoted follow-

426 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

ers, might be occupying the heights and prepared to at-
tack. But the presence of the powerful Bedouin sheik
proved a sufficient safeguard, and they passed out in peace.
The journey to Hebron was uneventful. Every evening,
almost, the escort wasted their powder to warn off rob-
bers; and sang to show their numbers. JSTearly every
day they managed to get an alarm of a Bedouin attack ;
and once very nearly had a real affray with the Tiyahah,
near Hebron, who wished the travelers to dismiss the
'Alawin, and take their camels instead. But the demand
was peaceably resisted; and in a few hours more they
were safely encamped at Hebron.

The Prince of Wales, who had been making the tour
of Egypt, and thence gone directly by sea to Palestine,
had succeeded in getting into the mosk which covers the
supposed tomb of Abraham at this place. He had ex-
pressed a wish to the authorities that, since Christians had
once been allowed to enter it, they might in future always
be allowed to do so ; but the wish was expressed in vain.
There was nothing to see, therefore, but the outside. The
Arabs were dismissed, for the desert was now passed.
Horses were substituted for camels, and all enjoyed a gal-
lop for the first time, with the exception of Buckle, who,
indeed, for the last two or three days had been riding on
one of the sheik's horses, as his own donkey had cast a
shoe.

From Hebron to Jerusalem is only one day's travel.
Buckle started at nine, taking Bethlehem on the way,
walking two hours, resting half an hour, and entering
Jerusalem by the Jaffa gate at half -past four. Here he
went to Hauser's Mediterranean Hotel, as it was more

JERUSALEM. 427

convenient than camping outside the town. On the 16th
of April, he writes as follows :

" We arrived here three days ago, after a laost fatigu-
ing and arduous journey through the whole desert of Sinai
and of Edom. "We have traversed a deeply interesting
country, visited by few Europeans and by none during
the last five years, so dangerous was the latter part of the
journey reputed to be. But I had taken my measures
before venturing to go beyond Sinai, and gradually feeling
my way, secured, as I went on, the protection of every
leading sheik, having studied at Cairo their relative power
and position. Having an ample stock of provisions, I was
prepared at any moment to fall back, and return if need
be to Egypt. Three other parties, chiefly Americans,
joined us at Sinai, each having their separate establish-
ment arranged, with their own dragoman, but all, for
greater safety, keeping together till we reached Hebron.
"We were in all fifteen persons, and with our servants and
escort we numbered one hundred and ten armed men.
Nothing but a combination of tribes could hurt us ; and
such a combination I considered to be morally impossible
in the face of the precautions which I suggested, and to
which, after some demur, the other parties agreed. "When
I say morally impossible,' I mean the odds were so large
as not to be worth the consideration of a prudent man.
There were several alarms, and there was undoubted dan-
ger ; but in my deliberate judgment the danger was not
greater than would be encountered in a rough sea with a
good vessel and a skillful captain. Some of our fellow
travelers were in great fear two or three times, and as-
sured me that they had no sleep on those occasions. For

428 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

ray own part, I never was kept awake ten minutes. The
boys behaved exceedingly well. 44 ... I told them always
to keep close to me in the caravan ; they always slept in
my tent ; and, without concealing from them the real state
of affairs, I simply assured them that whatever happened
to them should also happen to me. They believed me.
They were satisfied that I meant what I said ; and I am
more than repaid by their confidence and affection.

" The result is that we have seen Petra as wonderful
and far more beautiful than anything in Egypt. Burk-
hardt, about forty years ago, was the first European who
ever set foot there ; and since then, not more probably than
100 persons have seen it ; that is to say, have really seen
it as we did, at leisure, and spending three whole days
there. Occasionally gentlemen without tents, and with no
food but what they can carry on their own horse, gallop
from Hebron to Petra (about 120 miles) in two days and a
half, reaching Petra in the evening, seeing it by moonlight,
and then gallop back, before the Bedouins and Fellahin are
aware of their presence. The English and other consuls,
and the Governor of Cairo with other persons of influence,
all declared that this was the only way I could see Petra ;
but the hardship of the journey, and the risk of sleeping
in the open air, prevented me from thinking for a moment
of such a plan. Among the English here our journey has
created quite a sensation ; and the result is one of many

44 Being one of the boys mentioned, I may as well state, both for my
brother and myself, that we had such entire and perfect faith in Buckle
that seeing he appeared under no apprehension we believed the danger ex-
tremely remote, and were unconcerned accordingly. Mr. Glennie also was
one of the least alarmed ; but on his laughing at a gentleman of another
party, Buckle reproved him, and said it was extremely natural, as the man
had heart-disease.

PASSAGE THROUGH PETRA. 429

proofs which have convinced me of the profound ignorance
of officials in the East of everything which their own eyes
do not see. I had to collect all my facts through an inter-
preter, but I analyzed and compared them with something
more than official care and precision. Having done so, I
acted ; and I really look back to this passage through Petra
from Egypt as by far the greatest practical achievement of
my life. I believe that you are both laughing, and I am
almost inclined to laugh myself. But I am conceited about
it, and I think I have reason to be so ; for I must, more-
over, tell you that nearly all our party were more or less
ill with fatigue, anxiety, and the extraordinary vicissitudes
of temperature. At 3.30 P. M. the heat was on one oc-
casion 119 Fahr., and before sunrise the next morning
the thermometer had fallen in the tent (and our tent was
by far the thickest and warmest of all) to 42. Headaches,
sickness, bleeding at the nose, and bowel complaints were
very common ; but we three had not even the pain or in-
convenience of any kind, except that. . . . The dear little
kids are now the picture of health, and we are all as brown
as Arabs. . . .

" The truth is that we were the only ones who had
proper food and were properly clothed. "We had plenty of
green vegetables preserved ; also preserved meats of every
kind, and excellent preserved Julien soup ; while others,
day after day, lived upon fowls, tasteless mutton, and hard
biscuits. They also, in spite of my warning, committed
the enormous but very tempting mistake of wearing sum-
mer clothes in hot weather. On the other hand, I and the
boys had on complete winter clothing, which was never to
be changed till going to bed, when I always saw myself that

430 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

the boys had two good blankets over them, however warm
they might be. Poor - - often complained of the heat
when he went to bed ; but I was inflexible as to the blank-
ets, being satisfied that a free and constant action of the skin
is the only safety-valve in this dangerous climate. Others
thought differently, and, strong and vigorous young men
as most of them were, they fared differently being con-
stantly unwell, and always ascribing their complaints to
the wrong cause.

" I am truly sorry to hear of poor CapePs illness, though
I am not much surprised, since for the last few years I
have not been satisfied with his condition. His restless-
ness and irritability are, I fear, the result of disease. Poor
fellow ! it is sad under any circumstances to feel the brains
impaired ; but how infinitely sad when there is nothing to
compensate the mischief nothing, if I may so say, to jus-
tify it. 48 I shall write to him to-day, and do what I can
to soothe him. 47

" It is not quite certain that we shall go to Constanti-
nople, because I have to ascertain the character of the
steamer to Pesth, and the healthiness of the Danube,
which is at times visited by malaria though, I am at
present informed, this is only in autumn. At all events,
you shall have the two or three weeks' notice which you

45 Only about the postal arrangements.

46 " What booteth it to have been rich alive ?
What to be great ? what to be gracious ?
When after death no token doth survive
Of former being in this mortall hous,
But sleepes in dust dead and inglorious."

SPENSEK, " The Ruins of Time," 11. 351-355.
41 This letter I have not been able to find.

HIS THOUGHTFUL KINDNESS. 431

require of our time for being in Yienna ; and as you say
that with this notice you can both of you arrange to be
there at any time, this prevents all difficulty, and leaves
me free to act. In case of my being in Germany before I
can give you due notice, I wish you would tell me if there
is any healthy, and not too dull, watering-place between
Pesth and Yienna, or thereabouts, where we could remain
while awaiting your arrival at Yienna. It will not be ad-
visable that the boys should stay two or three weeks in a
hot and crowded city. Besides, I want to get them on in
German, and it will be quite time enough to visit their
relations after your arrival.

" Thanks for offering to bring the ' Mill on the Floss '
for me to read ; but you could not do so without buying
it, and it is not worth while to do that. So, unless you
have it already, or can borrow it, I should much prefer
waiting, and reading it in London. But I want one or
two books bought for my little boys. I want Newman's
' Hebrew Monarchy ' (published, I think, by Chapman
anonymously, but always ascribed to Frank Newman),
and the < Dictionary of the Bible ' (or some such title),
lately edited by Dr. William Smith, on the same plan as
Smith's i Dictionary of Geography and Mythology ' ; also
ask Capel for the loan of Carpenter's ( Physiology.' This

is for , but as I am not quite certain whether he can

yet enter into it, I would rather not have it bought for
him, especially as I can lend it to him in town, and it is
an expensive book. Therefore, if you can not borrow it,
do not bring it. Carpenter's f Human Physiology,' or his
' General Physiology ' either would do. Finally, for
myself, please to bring some of Schiller's poems, or of the

432 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

minor poems of Goethe, whichever you have ; or any other
German poetry which is good, and which you have al-
ready by you, and will not take up too much room.

" I have so much to see and to do, that I can not an-
swer several questions in your letter, as I would other-
wise. But I must tell you that I am far stronger both in
mind and body than I have been since you knew me, and
I feel fit to go on at once with my work. But I neither
read nor write. I think ; I see ; and I talk. Especially
I study the state of society and habits of the people. "We
shall stay here to the end of this week, and then go to
Jericho, the Jordan, Dead Sea, and Bethlehem, and thence
northward for Nazareth, the Sea of Galilee, Damascus,
Baalbec, etc. I feel boyish enough for anything, and
fancy myself growing younger ; yet I am old, very old-
forty on the 24th of last November. It's a great age."

The day after his arrival, Buckle looked out for a
house to lodge in, for the weather was too wet to make
tent-life pleasant, and the hotel was bad, and its cookery
worse. He was, however, unsuccessful in his search, and
consequently remained at the hotel during the whole of
his stay at Jerusalem. To his stay here may fairly be
ascribed the fever he caught, and finally died of. His
time he spent in seeing all that was to be seen. Of an-
cient Jerusalem there was then but little visible, and hence
the greatest part of his time was devoted to what are sup-
posed by some of the more devout to be the Holy Sepul-
chre and other holy places, excursions, the Garden of
Gethsemane, the lepers' quarter, and the bazaars. Here
Mr. Longmore met him again, but though he regularly
saw him at table tfhdte, he unfortunately kept but little

VISIT TO CHURCH OF THE HOLY SEPULOHEE. 433

record of his conversation. " I accompanied him to the
Church of the Holy Sepulchre," says this gentleman, " and
assisted him in buying a number of rosaries, naade of the
fruit of the Doum palm ; crosses, seals,, paper-cutters, and
such like articles, made from wood of Mount Olivet, of-
fered for sale in the square before the church ; in all of
which he showed more interest than I should have antici-
pated. 48 Next day, at dinner, he said he received a letter,

48 " Athenaeum," 25th January, 1873, p. 115. Buckle came home one
day smiling, and in reply to a question said, rubbing his hands, he had
every reason to feel elated, as he had just beaten a Jew down a halfpenny !
in bargaining for some knickknacks of this sort. Mr. Glennie relates this
as follows : " Once when he had lagged behind, near the Church of the Holy
Sepulchre, as we were on our way by the Via Dolorosa, and St. Stephen's
Gate, to the Garden of Gethsemane, he came up apologizing for having kept
me waiting, but elated with having, in bargaining with a Jew about some
glass bracelets, beat him down from twopence to three-halfpence ; and as
the Jew was always cheating in the court of the Church, even as his fore-
fathers in that of the Temple, I could not refrain from saying that, ' while
going to Gethsemane, I had no eye for glass bracelets.' " " Pilgrim Memo-
ries," p. 297.

This remark, apart from its curious inconsequence, and the inconsistency
of the whole with the fact, is worthy of rescue from Mr. Glennie's ponderous
prose. We must remember that the true Jerusalem was forty or one hun-
dred feet below the filth on which Mr. Glennie was standing ; that the Garden
of Gethsemane is a pleasing (and lucrative) fiction of the monks ; and that
Mr. Glennie, despite this pious expression, does not in a general way ex-
press extreme veneration, even where veneration might not be misplaced ;
as, for instance, the passage, where talking of the Jordan he says " and
that other event, as our good Murray says, ' of still more thrilling interest,
the baptism of God Himself in its sacred waters.' An event, certainly, after
the mention of which it is, I confess, an anti-climax to conclude with the fall
' down flat ' of the walls of Jericho, on the Israelites shouting and blowing
their trumpets. One could, in our respectable caravan, say nothing against
literal belief in these legends ; and so, what expression could one give to
one's contempt of belief, and indignation at pretense of belief, in fables so
puerile, so infantile rather ; what expression but that of utter ignoring of
them, in a gay flirtation ? " etc. (p. 324).

That this is Mr. Glennie's usual tone of thought, and not the reverend,
which so aptly serves to make Buckle out a thoughtless miser, his whole
" Pilgrim Memories " will show. Compare especially pp. 404 and 341.
28

434: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

I think from Thackeray himself, intimating his resignation
of the editorship of the < Cornhill,' and. that he proposed
devoting himself to writing a Life of Queen Anne. On
Good Friday Buckle came in too late for dinner, and had,
in consequence, his food served cold, at which he was very
wroth.* 9 To judge from the gusto with which he talked
of the many capital dinners he had eaten in London, I
think he had a great deal of the gourmet in his tastes.
He was not a great eater, but was rather fastidious in
what he ate. He told me he never got a first-class dinner
in a married man's house the only unfavorable remark
on matrimony I recollect hearing him make. He talked
also a great deal about ciphers, saying that no cipher had
ever been invented which two men then in London,
Wheatstone and De Morgan, could not find out. On the
19th of April," continues Mr. Longmore, "I went with
him to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, to see the so-
called miracle of the descent of fire from heaven into the
tomb of our Saviour, where the Greek Patriarch is shut up
alone. As usual there was a great crowd of Greek pil-
grims crushing and crowding the floor of the church in a
very unpleasant way. Through the American Consul, I
got Buckle a place where he could see at ease, without
being hustled about." 60 This was a loggia in the gallery
of the rotunda looking down upon the sepulchre. The
floor around was so tightly packed with human beings
that it would have been possible to walk over their heads ;
the heat, noise, and babel of voices were beyond descrip-

49 1 find by his diary, however, that Buckle dined at the usual table-cThote
hour, 6.30; and hence conclude that the hour was changed on that day
without his knowledge.

50 " Athenaeum," for 25th January, 1873, p. 116.

THE HURLY-BURLY DONE. 435

tion. The rain was all the while pouring continuously
through the circular opening of the dome of the rotunda
upon the sepulchre beneath. Looking down upon this
seething mass, Buckle had to wait more than three hours,
as the miracle was unpunctual or it was waiting for the
priest, who was unpunctual, as he had to wait for the
pasha, and pashas are always unpunctual. At last the
Patriarch entered the sepulchre, and soon after a flame
issued forth from a sort of pigeon-hole on the side. The
multitude became frantic. Candles were produced, and
the light spread with marvelous rapidity all over the
church, even the galleries contributing to the smoke and
blaze. Men passed the flame round their faces, to prove
that it would not harm them : for was it not of heavenly
origin ? Others produced pieces of rag, which they be-
dewed with grease, in the hope that these drops of wax,
melted in divine fire, and buried with them, would cheat
the devil of his due.

At last the hurly-burly is done, and Buckle returned,
much impressed, to the hotel. Mr. Longmore asked him
what he thought of it? "A great deal," said Buckle;
" pious frauds have been considered allowable in all ages
of the Church." He resumed the subject on another oc-
casion at dinner ; and, talking besides of some processions
he had seen, made some little jocular remarks upon the
dresses of the monks. Seeing how the company were en-
joying these sallies, Mr. Gray, who was seated near him,
coughed audibly. Buckle leaned back in his chair, and said,
" Really, Gray, I would not have said what I did had I
thought it could possibly hurt your feelings." Mr. Gray
answered that Buckle ought to know him better by that

436 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

time, and that he had only coughed to warn him that he
was listening to his remarks, and remind him that he was
a Catholic. However, Buckle turned the conversation by
saying, " You know I do not think as you do ; but, after all,
there are many things equally difficult of belief which the
Protestants accept." " And pray, Mr. Buckle," said the Ger-
man clergyman who sat opposite, " what may those things
be which you find so difficult of belief? " "Well," said
Buckle, " take, for instance, the supposition that Jonah lived
three days in a whale's belly, and then came out still alive."
" Oh," said the German, " but that was a miracle." " That
is an assumption on your part," replied Buckle, a not a
proof that it really occurred." " Then you don't believe in
miracles?" said the German, rather nettled. "If you
mean by a miracle," replied Buckle, " the reversal of the
laws of nature, then I do not." Upon this the German
lost his temper, and left the table; and the two other
clergymen thought it their duty to do likewise. As they
departed, Buckle turned round to the company, and sol-
emnly exclaimed, " See how they flee ! " The conversa-
tion was now centered on religious subjects. Buckle talked
of the prophets, and maintained against some of the com-
pany that Isaiah was the greatest, greater even than Jere-
miah ; astonishing them by the quotations he was able to
give in support of his assertions. After dinner the talk
was still continued. He said he believed in the New Tes-
tament after eliminating the supernatural; that he con-
sidered Jesus Christ the greatest teacher and civilizer of
mankind that ever lived ; declared " that there was that
in His teaching which it was difficult, indeed impossible,
to account for without believing Him to have been divine-

SETTING OUT FOR BETHLEHEM. 437

Ij inspired." In reply to a question whom he placed next
as a civilizer of mankind, he answered without hesitation,
" William Shakespeare." 6a Of the two, however, he placed
Shakespeare first in the order of mind one of " the two
mightiest intellects our country has produced," as he calls
him ; "the greatest of the sons of men" ; "the greatest of
our masters." 63 Indeed, he considered Shakespeare to have
been inspired, as Christ, and as all great minds who pos-
sess true genius, the real breath of God. He afterward
said he had never known but one real atheist, and that he
was a cabinet minister."

On Monday, 21st of April, Buckle and his party set out
for Bethlehem, all on horseback, but the former rejoicing
in the extra comfort of a cavalry saddle, which he had bought
at Jerusalem. In an hour-and-a-half ride Bethlehem was
reached, and then two hours were devoted to the convent,
the Church of the Nativity, and the Greek and Latin chap-
els, the Cave of Adullam, where David longed for the water
of the well of Bethlehem, and the well of Bethlehem with
the water which David longed for. From thence they
rode to Mar Saba, where they had appointed to meet their
companions of the desert. The monastic rules were too
strict to allow of the admission of the ladies of one of the
parties, who consequently had to encamp outside ; but the
monks console themselves for the deprivation of female
society, and cheat their founder, the holy St. Sabas, by
drinking arrack, a liquor which, as it was not invented A.D.
532, and as the saint had apparently no prophetic soul, was

52 J. A. Longmore, in the "Athenaeum," pp. 116, 116. 25th January,
1873.

53 " History of Civilization," vol. i., p. 432 ; vol. ii., pp. 42, 404.

54 " Athenaeum," ut sup.

438 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

not included among the prohibited drinks of his founda-
tion. The whole party started early the next morning
down the rocky road to the Dead Sea, a region which, as
of yore, is still infested with robbers. Thieves accompanied
them, as a visible sign and receipt of the blackmail which
had been levied ; " and at one o'clock, the hottest time of
the day, they arrived at the lowest point of the surface of
the globe, the valley of the Dead Sea. 56 Here Buckle filled
one of the tins he had had made in Cairo for the specimens
of the water of the Nile, Red Sea, Dead Sea, Jordan, and
Tiberias. From this scene of desolation they rode on to
the refreshing waters of the Jordan, and thence to their
encampment at Jericho. The next day they returned to
Jerusalem by Bethany, a place Buckle did not stop at, as
he had already made an excursion to it from Jerusalem.

Having seen all that was to be seen in this disagreeable
and ill-smelling town, Buckle set out the next day. He
had just received a letter from the boys' mother, in which
was copied out the chief part of Mill's notice of the " His-
tory of Civilization," in his fifth edition of the " System of
Logic," 6T where, talking of the causation of social phe-
nomena, he says that Buckle has not only popularized the
great principle of general laws, but clearly and triumph-

55 It is related of a gentleman and his wife who, refusing to pay black-
mail, ventured on this road a few years later, that they were set upon, and
stripped of all they had with the exception of the " Times " newspaper. The
gentleman returned to Jerusalem clad in the body of that journal, while his
wife was forced to content herself with the supplement.

66 It is 1292 feet below the level of the sea. Mr. Glennie takes the oppor-
tunity to sneer at Buckle because he did not expose his feeble person to the
sun in the hottest part of the day in the hottest part of Palestine, " to ex-
perience the singular sensation of being unable to sink." " Pilgrim Mem-
ories," p. 323.

67 Vol ii., 1862, pp. 524, et seq.

A TALK WITH MR. GLENNIE. 439

antly shown that masses are governed bj them in the same
way as individuals are. At the same time he thinks, like
so many others, that Buckle has asserted that morals are of
no effect in civilization, though he agrees with him in at-
tributing to the advance of knowledge the great improve-
ment in moral actions, moral principles remaining very
much the same ; and hence, to the advance of knowledge
the main, the chiefest, and almost exclusive agency in the
advancement of civilization. Hence Buckle's contemptu-
ous remark on the savage at Petra, " Vice is better than
ignorance " ; for well he knew that the worst vice was ig-
norance, just as the greatest sinner is the instigator to sin.
Let a community be vicious if you will, but if they culti-
vate knowledge, true and real knowledge, and not that
semblance which goes under the name of an " acquaintance
with literature," they must improve ; no power on earth
can stop it. This letter gave Buckle great pleasure:
" Only a woman would have thought of sending me these
extracts," said he ; and during the first day's journey he
had a long talk with Mr. Glennie on Mill's remarks."
They encamped that evening at 'Ain-el-Haramiyeh, or
the Eobber's Fountain, a distance of five hours' journey
from Jerusalem, having rested at Bethel an hour and a

58 piig r i m Memories," p. 330. " So gratified, indeed, was Mr. Buckle
that, for the first and last time," says Mr. Glennie, " in my recollection of
him, he expanded in a humorous practical joke presenting one of the fel-
lows of the encircling crowd with a cheap Jerusalem cigar, which, as he
whispered to me, he had found would not draw." This is very probable,
as Buckle had no objection to harmless practical jokes ; it is also very
probable that it was the only one that appeared humorous to Mr. Glennie.
But Buckle would rather have given up smoking altogether than smoke bad
tobacco ; and never, as far as I recollect, bought a cigar in Jerusalem. He
laid in a stock of Manillas at Suez.

440 BUCKLE'S LIFE AKD WRITINGS.

quarter. "But though," as Buckle says in his diary, he
" rose at seven, such was the delay of the muleteers that
we did not leave Jerusalem till eleven." He encamped at
six, and dined at seven o'clock. They reached Nabulus
the next day, at one o'clock, after six hours' ride, including
a rest of twenty minutes. Here he walked up Mount
Gerizim, a fatiguing walk in the hot sun, and then visited
the Samaritan synagogue, saw the Samaritan Pentateuch,
and bought a Samaritan MS. ; and the next day attended
service in the synagogue at 6.30, where all the chiefs of
the few remaining Samaritan families were assembled,
clothed in white, and, to the untrained ear, making a tre-
mendous noise. At about six the same evening he en-
camped at Jen in, just on the edge of the plain of Esdra-
elon, having seen the church of St. John, at Samaria, on
the way. He was up the next day at his usual hour, not-
withstanding that he had been eleven hours in the saddle
the day before, and, with the escort of one picturesque
Arab guard, which is usual in crossing the dangerous plain
of Esdraelon, started at 7.30 and encamped at Nazareth at
2.30. The route followed was that by the mound and
ruins of El-Fuleh, an important spot during the Crusades,
but now of little interest. Indeed, throughout Palestine
the historical spots are of but little interest, and generally of
but little authenticity ; the general features of the country
are, as a rule, the only real points of interest, and not such
tilings as the reputed prison of St. John.

Buckle's system had hitherto battled bravely with the
fever, which, as I have said, must have seized him at Jeru-
salem, but, weakened by the fatigues of the last two days,

THE FATAL ILLltfESS.

lie succumbed at Nazareth for the first time. 59 He did not
give way, however, without a fight. After a bad night he
rose at eight, and enters in his diary, " Much better, but
shall rest here all day. From 10.30 to 12 made notes from
New Testament. Toward afternoon it rained with great
heaviness, and I thought it better to sleep at the convent."
The rain in addition against him was more than he could
bear up against ; and the next morning he woke with a
bad sore throat, which he had felt coming on the evening
before ; he had no appetite, and felt so weak that, with
the exception of two hours in the afternoon, he remained
in bed all day, unable to read. "While Buckle was lying
ill here, Mr. Gray and his party arrived at Nazareth ; " and
although," he observes, " we were told that Mr. Buckle
was lying ill at the monastery, I could not help noticing
that I was the only one who called upon him. He was in
bed, and, pointing to his throat, told me he was sorry that
he could only converse with me in a whisper, but asked
me to sit down near him, and we conversed on various
topics. I shall not easily forget the interest with which
he listened to my narration of how I fell into the hands of
robbers at Shiloh, near Nabulus. He said that he had
been so interested in his journey that he thought of going
next year to Persia, and invited me to accompany him.
Next year I had to travel through Persia with another, for
my friend had performed his last journey. I advised him
to call one of the monks, who was a doctor. He replied,
' I hear he is a Spaniard. Do you believe in Spanish doc-

59 Mr. Glennie hints that this was due to " a certain imprudence of
diet ! " " Pilgrim Memories," p. 365. Buckle was more particular in his
diet than in any other point of physical conduct.

442 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

tors ? ' And I was obliged to confess I had no experience
of them." He doctored himself from a little medicine-
chest he had brought with him from England, and enters
in his diary, "Took six grains compound-rhubarb pill."
But the next morning, " feeling worse, I sent early for an
Armenian doctor. He touched the left tonsil with lunar
caustic, and applied a small blister externally ; told me to
keep very warm, and by no means to get up, and to take
at night another six-grain rhubarb pill." The doctor re-
turned again at seven the following day ; but even then
neither he nor Buckle recognized the true nature of the
disease. He told Buckle that an ulcer was forming, which
he touched with caustic, and then very unwisely ordered
him half a grain of antimony, to be taken every two hours.
"After two doses I found the sickness insupportable,"
says the unfortunate patient, " and I refused to take more,
to the great regret of my Armenian doctor, who visits me
twice a day, and, though a very civil man, is, I fear, a very
ignorant one. He told me to keep in bed all day." " A
restless night, with great prostration, amounting almost to
wandering, confirmed my opinion that I am being badly
treated. When, therefore, the doctor came, at 8 A. M., I
persuaded him to send me some muriate of iron, of which
I took ten drops in a wine-glassful of water. I further
ordered strong mutton broth to be made ; for since Tues-
day 60 I have had nothing stronger than rice-water and
milk ; and at 10 A. M. I got up, and am now writing my
journal (11.15) with the window open. The throat is very
painful when I swallow, but I feel better in all other re-
spects. I would not let the doctor meddle with my throat

60 This was Friday.

THE FATAL ILLNESS. 4A3

this morning, as I wish the ulcer to reach its full size, and
then be lanced." The next day he writes, " Much better,
but, appetite being bad and tongue covered with a coat
like white cream, I took at 6.30 A. M. two of Mr. Morgan's
pills, containing gray powder. Rose at T.30. Ate no
breakfast. Walked half an hour ; the first time I have
been out. In afternoon played backgammon. The only
nourishment I can take is mutton broth with toast, and
occasionally a little milk. But at 6.30 I took half a wine-
glass of brandy in two tumblers of water, and felt better
after it." The next day, Sunday, he was again " much
better ; ate two eggs and drank a cup of milk for break-
fast ; walked half an hour," and even smoked a cigar as
he sat reading under a fig-tree.

But it was only his throat that was better. The in-
sidious disease had not yet mastered him ; but it was
steadily gaining ground, and ever ready to show itself
when given the slightest advantage. All the delay of his
illness mattered little to Buckle himself ; but he felt, and
was always regretting, the enforced delay of Mr. Glennie,
involving a waste of time and money to that gentleman ;
and he started on Monday morning for Tabaria, or Tibe-
rias, but in so weak a state that, as he sadly notes in his
diary, " I could only walk my horse all the way," and had
to rest for two hours and a quarter on the road." He was
a little stronger the next day, and able to stroll about Ta-
baria, see the hot springs, peep for a minute into the bath-
house where he notes that he saw the " people bathing, a

61 I do not wish to reflect on Mr. Glennie by this passage, for he, of
course, knew nothing of Buckle's motive beyond what polite expressions of
regret could convey, or hfe manifest weakness could hint.

444: BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

curious but disgusting scene " and also into the syna-
gogue. He afterward attempted to buy a phylactery from
some of the Jews who were of German origin, and spoke
German to him ; but their demands were so extortionate,
and their German so bad, that he grew quite angry, and
bought nothing. For now he was changed in this respect,
and could no longer keep his temper as before. Not that
he was irascible or fretful ; but little things would irritate
him, in a way that was all the more observable because of
his usually admirable temper in health, and constant flow
of spirits, which now diminished, but never quite left him
up to his death. From Tabaria he rode back to Nazareth,
resting two and a half hours on the way, and " able to trot
and canter a little."

The remainder of his journey is but little more than a
record of illness, weakness, exhaustion, and unabated ener-
gy, interest, and delight in what he saw. He left Nazareth,
and reached Akka, on May 7th, after five and a half hours'
journey and a rest of two hours ; and then walked through
the town and round the fortifications, and looked into the
prison a large dungeon, where thieves and murderers,
the least bad and the very worst, were confined together,
loaded with chains, but otherwise free to do very much as
they liked. They cooked their own food at a large bon-
fire in the middle, and a begging committee sat in perma-
nence behind the grated gate. The next day Buckle rose
with a bad sore throat again, but started all the same at
eight, along the fertile plain of Akka, across the " Tyrian
ladder" a difficult pass on a spur of Lebanon, which
forms the first defense of Tyre and encamped by the ruins
of Alexandroschene. After six hours' riding and two hours'

TYEE. 445

rest lie was " quite exhausted, and fell asleep before din-
ner." He started again the next morning, with his throat
worse than the day before, and resumed his painful march
over the " White Cape," the path of which is more diffi-
cult than that of the Tyrian ladder, and stopped at Ras el
'Ain to examine the enormous reservoirs, which are curi-
ous from the means adopted for raising the water. The
springs are situated in the plain, and gush with such force
from the earth that, if allowed, they would form natural
fountains twenty-five feet high. The ancient inhabitants,
however, knew better than to waste this valuable gift.
They built around each spring a massive wall, of enormous
and unnecessary strength, which formed huge reservoirs
raised above the plain, and supplied various aqueducts till
almost modern times, but now only served to drive a sin-
gle mill. From thence, along the sweep of sand which
has accumulated over Alexander's Mole, he rode to Tyre,
where he went out in a boat to see the columns and other
ruins, which were quite visible under the transparent wa-
ter, though not so visible as they would have been had the
water been smoother. Thence, leaving at about half -past
two, and neglecting to visit the u tomb of Hiram," he
traveled along the plain of Phoenicia, and encamped at a
spot near the mouth of the Nahr el Kasimiyeh, probably
the ancient Leontes, about four o'clock.

During the night there was a long and violent storm,
which, together with the pain he suffered from his throat,
and probably the malaise of typhoid fever, caused him to
sleep very badly. Several times, too, in his anxiety for
the boys under his care, he got up to feel if the rain had
penetrated the double roof of the tent. The day's journey

446 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

was six hours, and lie arrived at Sidon at 3 P. M., where,
he says, he " found rooms in a house," and then, " sent for
the French resident doctor, who turns out to be a very in-
telligent man, and is a friend of Kenan's. He says I only
need rest." He could eat nothing but mutton broth ; and
the next day, after breakfasting in bed, he removed to the
convent, where the monks gave him " excellent rooms."
The following day his throat was " nearly well ; but I feel
very weak," he adds, and only walked a quarter of an hour
during the day. But he amused himself by playing back-
gammon, and looking at some Phoenician antiquities, which
were sent for his inspection, and of which he bought sev-
eral. The French Government were then making excava-
tions in the neighborhood, but Buckle was too weak to visit
them, though he pushed on for Beyrout the next day, en-
camping about half way after being four hours and a half
in the saddle. He rose the next day " stronger, notwith-
standing a bad night," and arrived at Beyrout at 11 A. M.,
14th May, lodging at the Hotel Belle Yue. Here, the
same day, he wrote a letter, of melancholy interest as the
last he ever penned :

""We have arrived here," he says, "all well, after a
journey from Jerusalem entirely beyond all description.
"We diverged westward, after visiting the Sea of Galilee,
in order to travel through Phoenicia. We saw Tyre and
Sidon, and got much valuable information respecting the
excavations conducted there for the last eighteen months
by the French Government. . . .

"To-morrow we shall see the Assyrian remains near
here ; and the next day start for Damascus, Baalbec, and

THE LAST LETTER. 44.7

return to Beyrout by the cedars of Lebanon the oldest
and grandest trees in the world.

"I have most reluctantly abandoned Constantinople;
because, although we should be there and up the Danube
long before the unhealthy season, I am advised that the
nights on the river are occasionally damp, and dangerous
for weak eyes, and I can not quite satisfy myself about the
protection the berths afford. I don't choose to risk my
... to having inflamed conjunctiva, for he has now had
nothing the matter with his eyes for more than five months,
and I intend to bring him back sound and invigorated in
all respects.

" The only other route to Vienna is by Trieste. "We
must therefore take the steamer from here to Smyrna,
Syra, and Athens. We shall see little or nothing of Greece,
as the weather will be too hot. The journey is not-very
interesting, but we have had our fill of interest, and must
think of health.

" I expect to be at Trieste about the middle of June ;
and as you said that the end of July would suit you to
reach Yienna, this leaves me a clear month, which I pur-
pose spending in Gratz, or Gratz, in Styria, on the rail-
road between Trieste and Yienna. It is very healthy, has
fine air, and is well known for masters and education. I
shall take a small house, or part of a large one, have none
but German servants, and work the boys well in German.

" Please, therefore, direct your next letter to Post Of-
fice, Gratz, or Gratz (I find even Germans pronounce it
differently), and send to the same place the books I asked
for in my last letter, viz., Newman's 'Hebrew Monarchy'
(or ' Commonwealth '), published by Chapman, and Smith's

448 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

new ' Dictionary of Biblical History and Geography.' This
is by Dr. William Smith, and the book is on the same plan
as his i Dictionary of Mythology.' To this I now add
Kenrick's < Phoenicia,' as my boys have been much inter-
ested in Phoenicia, and want to know more about it than
I have told them. I shall take apartments in a house at
Gratz for one month, and hope to take back the boys good
Gerinanists. Four weeks' rest and good work will, after
all this excitement, benefit body and mind. Consequently,
if we were finally to name the 1st of August as our day of
meeting it might be well. Send also to Gratz, carefully
packed in a tin canister, two pounds of tea. . . .

" I shall send from here (probably via Alexandria) two
wooden cases. The largest contains nothing but curiosities
shells from the Red Sea, coral, antiquities, etc. ; and
you jnay confidently declare that there is nothing to pay
duty ; but, if opened, the repacking will require great care.
The other and smaller case contains about twenty pounds
of the finest Latakia tobacco, unmanufactured. To pass
this a permit from the customs will, I believe, be required ;
but you will know how to proceed. The tobacco must be
kept in a dry place, of equable temperature, specially avoid-
ing heat."

The same day he brought his dragoman before the con-
sul for not properly fulfilling his contract. It is not un-
usual for these men to behave exceedingly well during the
trip up the Nile, in the hope of being taken on through
Palestine, and then, relying on not being prosecuted, to sup-
ply the party badly during the journey. Hassan had not
brought a sufficient quantity of supplies from Cairo, nor

BEYROUT. 449

had he made up this deficiency where he had the opportu-
nity ; and, moreover, the progress of his illness made Buc-
kle fretful, and the less likely to look over such things.
As Hassan understood Italian best of all European lan-
guages, Buckle spoke his accusation in that tongue, with
the result that Hassan was ordered to refund a part of his
pay. Another symptom had also begun prominently to
show itself. For the last few days, notwithstanding his
weakness, loss of appetite, and bad nights, he had become
restless, and anxious to finish his journey. He felt it im-
possible to come so far, and then leave without seeing Da-
mascus, the dream of his boyhood. A gentleman staying
at the same hotel, seeing how haggard he looked, urged
him to return to Europe and recruit his health ; but in
vain. A great part of the following day was spent in set-
tling with Hassan at the consulate, in engaging another
dragoman, and making arrangements for the continuation
of the journey.

And still neither he nor any one about him recognized
the nature of his disease. " "Walked for one hour about
the town," he writes, May 16th. " Feel better to-day than
I have done yet." If he had only been stricken down
then, or delayed a day or two, we might now see the " His-
tory of Civilization" complete! But at one o'clock he
started by the new French road, the only one in the whole
of Syria or Palestine that can be dignified with the name ;
and having sent on the tents and horses to El-Merj, beyond
which point the road was unfinished, he did the six hours'
journey in a carriage, and arrived again terribly knocked
up. " Oh, this body ! It is no body at all ! " 62 he bitterly

62 Glennie, " Pilgrim Memories," p. 439.
29

450 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

exclaimed. And the next day his appetite was worse,
again, he could only take a little milk for breakfast, and
some of the other symptoms of his disease recurred. Nev-
ertheless, he again set out at nine o'clock, walking his
horse along the road where practicable, and when turned
off by guards, or where the road was unfinished, along the
winding track which did duty for a road. He rested three
and a half hours at mid-day, and during this rest spoke to
Mr. Glennie of his life. 68

" I have spent fourteen years of uninterrupted happi-
ness, which, I imagine, few people can boast of. But,
then, it was spent in work such as few men have cared to
undergo." His mother's illness and death had broken the
spell ; but the wound was doubtlessly healing, and, had he
lived, he would again have been happy, if not as happy as
before. But death was already upon him, and it was not
to be. The whole day he could eat nothing solid ; his din-
ner that evening was only soup. But there was still the
indomitable will the prepotent mind, too powerful for
the overtasked body. Notwithstanding the increasing
gravity of his symptoms, he again rose at six the follow-
ing day, though he had passed a very bad night ; again his
breakfast consisted only of a draught of milk, and his
weakness was so great that he was scarce able to sit his
horse. Three times had he to dismount and rest during
that day's journey; and once, where the valley of the
Abana forms an oasis, in the road between the desert pla-
teau of Sahra and the ridge of Hermon, Mr. Glennie

63 Mr. Glennie puts it at this point of the journey (" Pilgrim Memories,"
p. 440) ; and though I remember the conversation, I do not remember where
it occurred.

ILLNESS INCREASING. 451

heard a cry behind him, "and turning round saw Mr.
Buckle clinging to the neck of his horse. A stirrup had
suddenly given way, and he had been almost thrown. The
effect of this on nerves so overworn by excitement as his
now were can easily be imagined. And, as I assisted him
from his horse, he said ' a sweat of terror had burst over
him.' 64

There was now the rocky ridge of Hermon to surmount,
from whence the magnificent view, so often celebrated by
travelers, burst suddenly upon him. 68 Buckle was deeply
affected, and, dismounting, sat down and gazed upon the
panorama spread below. This was the sight which h#d
filled his childish dreams as he read the " Thousand and
One Nights " at his mother's knee that dear mother he
was so soon to rejoin. This was also the historic plain,
the site of many a speculation of maturer years. Did
the shadows of the illustrious line of Hadad, of the leper
Naaman, the proud Assyrian Lord Cyzicenus, Aretas, or

64 pilgrim Memories," p. 449. Mr. Glennie has thought it judicious to
omit the passage, " He was now quite beyond concealing fear," which he
had in his account furnished in 1863 to "Fraser's Magazine," p. 184.

65 Ariosto describes it as if he had seen it :

<: Delle piu ricche terre di Levante,
Delle piu popolose e meglio ornate
Si dice esser Damasco, che distante
Siede a Gerusal&m sette giornate,
In un piano fruttifero e abbondante,
Non men giocondo il verno, che 1' estate.
A questa Terra il primo raggio tolle
Delia nascente Aurora un vicin colle.

" Per la citta duo fiumi cristallini
Vanno inaffiando per diversi rivi
Un numero infinite di giardini,
Non mai di fior, non mai di fronde privi."

" Orlando Furioso," Canto XVII., xviii., xix.

452 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

Paul, " the man who had done most harm to the world,"
of the Muslims, sword in hand, followed by the graceful
figures of Ghdnim, the son of Eiyoob, the distracted slave
of love, of JSToor ed-Deen, of 'Ala ed-Deen, or Marids and
Jdn, 'Efreets and Perees, again people the smiling plain ?
Did he revert to great historic principles, and, looking
down from this vantage-ground, seeing this sea of foliage
bounded by a desert, the fertilizing streams, the luxury of
position, of color, of climate, and of fertility, again bow to
the great power of nature over the minds and imaginations
of mankind? Long did he gaze at that living picture.
With the hand of death upon him, his keen sense of
beauty had not yet gone. " This is worth all that it has
cost me ! " he exclaimed ; and what it had cost him was,
his life.

That very night as he arrived at the hotel, at eight
o'clock, after a fatiguing ride through the lanes of the
suburb, he sent for the only qualified doctor in the place,
Dr. Nicora, a Frenchman; for, as he describes himself,
he was "utterly prostrate." The doctor gave him no
advice that evening, but called again the following mom-
ing, Monday, 19th. Buckle had again passed a wretched
night ; his tongue was white, he suffered from great and
constant thirst. But the doctor failed to recognize his
disease, and treated it as a common choleraic attack;
ordered him to continue soup, and yolks of eggs beaten
up with a little brandy, but not to take too much milk ;
to allay his thirst he was to take eight to ten drops of
laudanum in a quart decanter of rice-water, two decanters
in the twenty-four hours ; and actually ordered him, con-
trary to the dictates of his appetite, to eat solid food a

ILLNESS INCREASING. 453

cutlet, if possible, twice a day. He accordingly ate a cut-
let for breakfast, and then went out for a walk of naif an
hour's duration in the bazaars, leaning on the arm of his
dragoman. At dinner that day he was unable to sit at the
table, which was spread in the court-yard of this truly
Oriental hotel, between the fountain and the alcove, on
the far sofa of which Buckle was lying, apparently half
asleep. As the soup was being served, he suddenly start-
ed up, crying, " Oh, mon Dieu, je deviens fou ! " There
was a great sensation at the table, and he was taken up-
stairs, but remained delirious the whole evening, though
he was able to undress and go to bed. This attack he at-
tributed to the laudanum he had been ordered to take,
which might have had such an effect on his exhausted and
weakened frame.

On Monday or Tuesday Mr. Glennie had called on the
acting consul, Mr. Sandwith, and informed him that he
was traveling with Mr. Buckle, and that Mr. Buckle was
at present ill. Mr. Sandwith at once sent a message ask-
ing permission to call upon him ; for which he expressed
his thanks, but asked him to defer his visit until he should
be better. In the mean while, Dr. Nicora at last discov-
ered that his patient was suffering from typhoid fever,
and immediately adopted the lowering treatment. He
wanted to bleed him, but Buckle strongly objected, and
only consented at last to be locally leeched, for he knew
well enough the danger of this method of treatment, and
especially of bleeding. 68 Accordingly he refused to follow

66 " The most remarkable symptom of the typhoid poison is the extreme
degree of prostration, both of the physical and of the intellectual powers,
which it produces. . . . Bleeding is most pernicious." See his " Miscella-
neous and Posthumous Works," vol. L, pp. 403, 404.

454 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

the doctor's advice, but treated himself from the small
medicine chest which he had brought with him from Eng-
land, but soon got too weak even to do this, and the doctor
had his own way. He was leeched on Saturday, 24th, Sun-
day, 25th, and Tuesday, 27th, and the lowering treatment
put into full practice.

On Thursday, 22d, Mr. Glennie called again on Mr.
Sandwith, 67 " to say that he could not conveniently stay any
longer, as he was anxious to see Baalbec before quitting
Syria, and intended setting out thither at once. He added
that he considered Mr. Buckle so far better as to justify
his leaving him." 68 "Relieved at hearing a better ac-
count, I ventured," continues Mr. Sandwith, " as soon as
Mr. Glennie had left, to call at the hotel," and on Sunday,
25th, he received Mr. Buckle's permission to visit him.
" I found Mr. Buckle in bed," he says, " with a worn and
anxious look ; and sitting by his bedside I talked with him
for about a quarter of an hour." Buckle spoke with him
of Damascus and his travels ; the old fire began to return^
and he talked with considerable animation, among other
things mentioning, with great admiration, the name of
Dean Stanley, whose mind he considered one of the most
fruitful in the English Church, and of rare independence ;
and incidentally, that religion, being of all others the sub-
ject of most importance to mankind, had consequently
engrossed some of the deepest minds in all ages. Judging
that he was fatigued, Mr. Sandwith then left, at the same
time making arrangements to take the boys, who were
still at the hotel, but no longer in the same room, and

67 " Pilgrim Memories," p. 465.

8 Letter of Mr. Sandwith to Henry Huth.

ILLNESS INCREASING. 455

of whom " lie seemed very fond," for a ride through the
beautiful gardens of Damascus.

On Monday, 26th, Mr. Sandwith called again, with Mr.
Kobson, a missionary, when they found the patient's mind
beginning to wander, and his symptoms generally becom-
ing so grave that they thought it advisable to ask him if
he had any testament to make ; but he was not sufficiently
himself to respond pertinently to their questions. Mr.
Sandwith then persuaded Dr. Nicora to allow him to tele-
graph to Bey rout for an American physician, Dr. Barclay ;
he also procured an Englishwoman, who had had experi-
ence in nursing, to sit with Buckle ; and he and Mr. Kob-
son thenceforward were almost constant in their attendance
at his bedside.

Even now, despite the dreadful state of weakness to
which poor Buckle was reduced, his life might possibly
have been saved. Mr. Sandwith telegraphed on Monday,
26th, at two o'clock in the afternoon ; and allowing two
hours for receipt of telegram and preparation, the doctor
might, with hard riding, have arrived by eight o'clock on
the Tuesday morning. But by the criminal neglect of the
telegraph clerks, Dr. Barclay did not receive it until
twelve hours after it was sent, and then, instead of at once
starting off, he telegraphed back to ask whether his ser-
vices were yet required ; and precious time was lost be-
fore a second telegram, requiring his immediate pres-
ence, reached him. During Tuesday Buckle's mind was
clearer again ; he recognized those around him, often
sweetly smiling when the boys came into the room, but he
was never equal to any sustained mental effort ; his articu-
lation was very imperfect, and toward evening his mind

456 BUCKLE'S LIFE AND WRITINGS.

was wandering again. Dr. Barclay arrived at three o'clock
on Wednesday, 28th, and at once pronounced the case al-
most hopeless. The patient was insensible, breathing
heavily, and his pulse was at 130, feeble and intermit-
tent; there were besides indications of internal haemor-
rhage. Without waiting for Dr. Mcora, lie at once gave
him stimulants; and when that gentleman arrived, he
persuaded him to agree to this method of treatment. 69

About eight o'clock the same evening consciousness be-
gan to return, and he managed to intimate that he wished
to see his little traveling companions. They came in, one
at a time. The first he beckoned to him, and as lie bent
down to kiss him, put his arm round his neck and mur-
mured, " Poor little boys ! " The other sat with him for
about an hour. He had a very quiet night, with intervals
of consciousness ; but at six in the morning a sudden and
very marked change for the worse became but too pain-
fully evident ; and at a quarter past ten he quietly breathed
his last, with merely a wave of the hand.

" I shall never forget the look of intellectual majesty
as well as of sweet dignity which death had stamped upon

69 " I found him apparently moribund, comatose, with stertorous breath-
ing, occasionally spasmodic, involuntary discharges, vomiting a black fluid
like coffee-grounds, pulse very frequent (130 a minute), feeble, and inter-
mitting, and extremities cold. ... I administered an enema of assafcetida,
and ordered brandy and water to be given, and sinapisms to be applied to
extremities. . . . After some two hours the doctor called, and pronounced
the case better than when he called in the forenoon, the pulse having be-
come regular, fuller, and comparatively soft, and a warm perspiration hav-
ing appeared on the forehead and chest. The breathing was also easier and
more natural. After some discussion I induced Dr. Nicora to agree to the
stimulant plan of treatment, viz., carbonate of ammonia, stupes of oil of
turpentine over the abdomen, which was tympanitic, and the brandy to be
continued ; also a blister was applied to the neck, and very strong chicken-
broth administered during the night." Evidence of Dr. Barclay.

DEATH. 457

his features features which, in their sharply defined out-
lines, caused by excessive thinness, bore little resemblance,"
says Mr. Sandwith, "to a photograph of the deceased
which I have since seen." That same afternoon we
carried him to his last resting-place, in .the little Protes-
tant cemetery, " a little company of real mourners the
doctor, Mr. Robson, who had watched with me by the pil-
low of the departed, myself, and those two boys, the sons
of Mr. Huth, who were heart-broken at the sudden loss of
their noble-minded companion and friend." The Syrian
sun shone hotly down as the solemn Anglican burial ser-
vice was read, and mother earth closed over that vesture
of decay which, for so short a time, had enwrapped his
immortal soul.

10 He never had but one taken.

APPENDIX.

MR. GLENNIE'S MEMORIES.

ALL the biographies of any importance have already
received sufficient notice in the course of this work. But
there yet remains one, on the last few months of Buckle's
life, which, coming from the pen of a fellow traveler, and
professing to be records of " Travel and Discussion in the
Birth- Countries of Christianity with the late Henry Thomas
Buckle," would appear to be of greater importance than it
really is.

How Mr. Buckle made Mr. Glennie's acquaintance ; how,
feeling his health improve, and his love of conversation re-
vive, he sought a companion for the remainder of his jour-
ney, and, failing the company of any one else, secured that
of Mr. Glennie, has already been described. How they met
at Suez, and continued their travels together until Mr. Buckle
was struck down at Damascus with typhoid fever ; how Mr.
Glennie, unwilling to waste his time in attendance on his dy-
ing companion, left for Baalbec, and Mr. Buckle died, has
also been related, and need not be repeated. The main facts,
indeed, were already known soon after Buckle's death. Well,
then, may Mr. Glennie have been thought to be one speaking
with authority, and his work considered not only an impor-
tant contribution to Buckle's biography, but also as a shrine
wherein much of his conversation was treasured up.

The book is a curious one. There is much in it about
" Oneness " and the " Ideal." We are told that Christ and
the chief priest and elders were in the habit of talking Greek

460 APPENDIX.

to each other ; * and we are treated to such brilliant flights
of eloquence and imagination as the passage : " How Ely-
sian were life, all gathering for each other, on the strand of
our little star- island, the beautiful shells of natural law, and
bathing in the gleaming sea of the Infinite ! " What is even
more curious to any one who ever met Buckle is the extraor-
dinary fact that in most cases Mr. Glennie seems to monopo-
lize the conversation, while Mr. Buckle only ventures to put
in occasionally a " Well ! " or " How so ? " or announce the
fact that it is time for lunch. But, if the reader be indul-
gent, he will pass this over, considering that the unequal
length of the paragraphs may be due to the fact that Mr.
Glennie has had thirteen years to work up the arguments
he urged, while Mr. Buckle's interjections come in very use-
fully to help Mr. Glennie along, and wind him up again, as
it were, when he has run down. However, this indulgence
can not last long ; for looking more carefully at Mr. Buckle's
reported conversation, we feel irresistibly impelled to exclaim
with the " Athenaeum," " In Mr. Buckle's lifetime he talked
sense, but here he is made to talk nonsense." Occasionally,
indeed, we do come across a sentence, a fragment, an oasis
in the dreary waste of words, which Buckle's friends would
recognize as his ; such as his quotation to Mr. Glennie : " I
can find you an argument, but not understanding." And
yet, notwithstanding this natural deficiency, Mr. Glennie has
undertaken to supply Mr. Buckle with arguments some
from passages in the "History of Civilization," some from
his "Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works," and others, to
judge from internal evidence, from his own dreams.

How, it may be asked, could two boys, the one but fif-
teen, the other but twelve, presume to doubt Mr. Glennie's

1 " Most pertinent is the question of the chief priests and elders of the
people : 'Ez/ iroia Qovvia ravra. iroie'is ; /col ris ffoi eSw/cei/ r^v Qovffiav ravirriv ;
' By what authority doest Thou these things ? and who gave Thee this au-
thority ? ' And that question can not now be answered by a refusal to
answer it OuSe 670? \fyo vfuv Iv iroia l^oviria ravra iroiw ' Neither tell I
you by what authority I do these things.' " See p. 298.

a Page 246.

APPENDIX. 461

report of conversations, which were not addressed to them,
of which they took no notes, which they frequently did not
listen to, and could rarely have remembered or even have
understood ? The answer is very simple. Notwithstanding
that Mr. Glennie has waited until nearly all was published
that poor Buckle left behind him ; notwithstanding his as-
sertion that he has " given all Mr. Buckle's more important
opinions in the very words of his published writings," 8 he
has not read those writings so carefully but what he has
attributed to Buckle in many instances the exact opposite of
what he says " in his published writings." Such a proof of
the worthlessness of Mr. Glennie's record was, indeed, unne-
cessary for those who knew Mr. Buckle at all intimately.
Buckle's sentiments, behavior, and whole tone of conversa-
tion, as here given, are so utterly different from those of the
Buckle they knew, that they saw at once that Mr. Glennie
was quite incompetent to produce anything at all similar to
what he really must have said.

Mr. Buckle's conversations have been already described
in the body of this work ; they were always interesting,
whether a discussion of the summum bonum or mere badi-
nage. Though vain men were not always pleased to meet
him, they listened gladly enough, however they might in-
wardly chafe at their inability to shake his argument.
" There was nothing awful about Buckle," says a writer in
the " Atlantic Monthly " ; and he enjoyed a joke, and made
one, as well as anybody. He would listen with deference to
anybody who wished really to arrive at the truth ; but " if,"
says Mr. Longmore, 4 " indeed he saw symptoms of conceit,
or impudent dogmatism, on the part of an opponent, he was
down upon him like a sledge-hammer ; and I have often pit-
ied a poor wretch who had to submit to be pounded to
pieces by him, though I must say the victim generally richly
deserved it. ... He never prosed, and woe betide him who
became prosy in his company. In a single lucid sentence or

3 Preface, p. xiii.

4 " Athemeum," 25th January, 1873, p. 114.

462 APPENDIX.

two he took up the threads of the arguments over which the
proser was driveling, and completely shut him up, by clearly
explaining to the company what there seemed no prospect of
his being able, in any reasonable time, to make clear him-
self."

His conversations with Mr. Glennie were no exceptions
to this rule. Here was a young man, whom Buckle thought
to be clever and desirous of knowledge ; he intended to
write a book on the " History of British Law " ; he was go-
ing to publish it in two years. Nothing could be more
likely to enlist Buckle's sympathy, nothing more powerful
to move him to point out the road most likely to lead an
earnest worker in the right direction. He very early ex-
plained to Mr. Glennie how impossible it was to write any-
thing worth reading without having previously studied all
that had been written of importance on the subject, and
without having formed and exercised one's self in a good
style of writing. He ought to devote at least ten years
more to preparation. As he sat inside his tent with the boys
at 'Ain Musa, the first evening of the desert life, he smiled,
and nodding toward the form of Mr. Glennie, who stood
outside in his red tarboosh, said, " The tall man in the red
cap thinks he is going to write a book in two years." Mr.
Glennie's first scientific work was published just ten years
after.

Mr. Glennie seems to have omitted this conversation on
his projected work, so we will go on to the first that he does
give : on Buckle's estimation of the character of the Scotch.
In this, Mr. Buckle asks Mr. Glennie what he thinks it was
so excited the anger of his countrymen. 6 Mr. Glennie an-
swers, that Buckle should have read more of the ballad liter-
ature of Scotland instead of the religious publications exclu-
sively. To this Buckle is made to say nothing more than
what has been published long ago in his History. Mr. Glen-
nie then observes that he thinks " civilization in Scotland,
and its history, can not be truly represented as a whole with-'

6 Page 104.

APPENDIX. 463

out taking due account of both these parties (i. e., the fanat-
ical majority and the skeptical minority) ; so, the fanatical
Christian section can not be truly judged except except it
be justified." Buckle is surprised, and Mr. Glennie goes on
to explain that " these men had but drunk too deeply of
dogmatic Christianity," 6 and to that should be attributed
their intolerance, their belief in themselves, the patience of
their flocks, their assumption of, and the public acquiescence
in, their claim to be divinities on earth ! And Buckle has
no direct answer to make to this ! He has nothing to say to
the assertion that these men are pardonable because they
only adopted literally, and believed without question, the
words of the Bible ! He allows Mr. Glennie, according to
Mr. Glennie's account, to slip on to another question, which
we shall presently notice, and says nothing ! Why, pages of
his History might be quoted in answer ! He pardons
them, indeed, in that they kept alive the spark of liberty :
" One thing they achieved, which should make us honor their
memory, and repute them benefactors of their species. At
a most hazardous moment, they kept alive the spirit of na-
tional liberty. . . . This is their real glory, and on this
they may well repose. They were the guardians of Scotch
freedom, and they stood to their post. Where danger was,
they were foremost." 7 He pardons them for that, and tells
us that the real cause of their conduct was the circumstances
under which they were placed. To impute blame to them,
would be to blame the laws of nature. We do not, indeed,
blame a man because he is criminal ; we blame his education.
At the same time, we can hardly praise him for his wicked-
ness. He undoubtedly has a certain amount of free will,
and he might have been better. Nor, even if he has no free
will whatever, will our opinion be modified. We admire the
well made and strong, not the weak and the crippled. Be-
cause the Scotch Covenanters did one good thing, shall we
neglect to censure those things they did which were bad ?

6 Page 113.

7 " History of Civilization," vol. ii., p. 258.

464: APPENDIX.

Shall we praise them for their ignorance and intolerance,
their ascetism and tyranny, because they refused to allow
any sort of tyranny but their own ? However, undisturbed
by anything of this sort, the conversation is thus continued :

"B[uckle]. I have not yet happened to study the his-
tory of Buddhism.

" A[uthor, i. e., Mr. Glennie]. No study can, I think, be
more instructive with reference to the origin and character
of Christianity as a great historical phenomenon. For Bud-
dhism is the Eastern correlate of Christianity," etc.

"B. Well, I fear that I must admit the truth of your
other allegation, and that it was really out of expediency
rather than principle that the toleration of Christian com-
munities historically arose.

"A. Not in Christianity, therefore, which ever was as
to this day, wherever it has the chance, it is bitterly anti-
tolerationist," etc. 8

Had Mr. Glennie read Mr. Buckle's Commonplace
Books, instead of merely looking into the index, had he
carefully looked through the " History of Civilization," had
he even kept a catalogue from the sale of Mr. Buckle's
library, he might have avoided so grave a mistake. In this
catalogue may be found the titles of numbers of books which
Buckle could not have read without studying Buddhism ; 9

8 Page 115.

9 "History of Civilization," vol. i., p. 2, note 7. From the Sale Cata-
logue I select the following :

" Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal." Calcutta. 8vo.

" European Speculations on Buddhism." By B. H. Hodgson. Vol. Hi.,
pp. 382-387. 1834.

" Further Remarks on M. R6musat's Review of Buddhism." By B. H.
Hodgson. Vol. iii., pp. 425-431. 1834.

"Notices on the Different Systems of Buddhism, extracted from the
Tibetan Authorities." By A. C. Korosi. Vol. vii., p. 142, et seg.

" Review of L'Histoire du Buddhism Indien, par E. Burnouf." By Dr.
E. Roer. Vol. xiv., part ii., pp. 783-809. 1845.

" A Few Gleanings in Buddhism." By Colonel Low. Vol. xvii., part,
ii., pp. 591-618. 1848.

" Asiatic Researches, or Transactions of the Society Instituted in Ben-
gal," etc. Calcutta. 4to.

APPENDIX. 465

while in the Commonplace Book, Buckle has several notes
on Buddhism. And Mr. Glennie must teach Buckle, for-
sooth, that " Buddhism is the Eastern correlate of Christi-
anity." The remark was made long ago by Southey, who,
though he did not see the entire bearing of the subject, yet
writes : " I think I have discovered that one of the great
Oriental mythologies was borrowed from Christianity that
of Buddha, the Fo of the Chinese ; if so, what becomes of
their chronology ? " and is copied into Buckle's Common-
place Book, as an instance of the advance of religious
knowledge in England in 1805. 10 Moreover, if this is not
enough, the whole scope and tenor of Buckle's studies might
have taught Mr. Glennie better ; and, further, since we only
have Mr. Glennie's word for the assertion, he must not com-
plain if I, too, assert, that when talking on Fichte to my
mother he explained the relation of Fichte's philosophy to
Buddhism, and said that the latter " was a most philosophi-

" On Egypt and other Countries, etc., from the Ancient Books of the
Hindus." By Fr. Wilford. Vol. iii., art. xiii., pp. 412, et seq.

" On Singhala, or Ceylon, and the Doctrines of Bhooda, from the Books
of the Singhalaise." By Capt. Mahony. Vol. vii., art. ii., pp. 32-56.

" Introductory Remarks intended to have accompanied Capt. Mahony's
Paper on Ceylon and the Doctrines of Buddha," etc. By J. H. Harrington.
Vol. viii., appendix, p. 503, et seq.

" On the Religion and Literature of the Burmas." By Fr. Buchanan.
Vol. vi., art. viii., pp. 163-308.

" The Mahawanso, in Roman Characters, with the Translation subjoined,
and an Introductory Essay on Pali Buddhistical Literature." By the Hon.
G. Tumour. Ceylon, 1837. 4to.

" Transactions of the Royal Asiatic Society of Great Britain and Ire-
land." London. 4to.

" Sketch of Buddhism, derived from the Buddha Scriptures of Nipal."
By B. H. Hodgson. Vol. ii., art. xiii., pp. 222-257, and appendix, pp.
Ixxvii.-lxxxii.

" On Buddha." By James Low. Vol. iii., art. iii., pp. 57-65.

" A Disputation respecting Caste, by a Buddhist," etc. By B. H. Hodg-
son. Ibid., pp. 160-169.

"Journal Asiatique." Paris. 8vo. 1822-1848. Contains many pa-
pers on Buddhism.

Also other and general works.

10 Buckle's C. P. B., art. 1986. See, also, art. 1779.
30

APPENDIX.

cal creed." Even the beginning of Mr. Glennie's sentence,
No study can, I think, be more instructive," is, with the
exception of the " I think," extremely like Buckle's diction.
And then Mr. Buckle has, as he fears to admit, Mr. Glen-
nie's teaching that Christians only became tolerant from
expediency ! This is Mr. Buckle's own teaching, as far as
concerns the immediate cause. But it is not the ultimate
cause, which Buckle has so frequently pointed out in his
History ; " while, as for Mr.' Glennie's teaching, " Not in
Christianity, therefore, which ever was as to this day,
wherever it has the chance, it is bitterly anti-tolerationist,"
it only differs in being involved and confused from Mr.
Buckle's contemptuous reference to that " meddling and in-
tolerant spirit which, in every age, has characterized eccle-
siastical legislation." 12 Mr. Glennie then goes on to say
that the principle of toleration is contrary to Christian be-
liefs, since it involves a denial that belief in its dogmas is
necessary for salvation. 13 And Buckle, instead of pointing
out that it does nothing of the sort," is made to give the
totally irrelevant answer that the Covenanters were ascetic.
Mr. Glennie, in defending the bigotry and intolerance of the
Covenanters, finds it necessary to point out to Mr. Buckle
that this was due to their creed, and that, however pernicious
this creed was, they should be treated with honor for the
self-sacrificing devotion which has given them a place in the
history of Christian fanaticism. To which Mr. Buckle an-
swers, that he can not excuse this fanaticism on the score of
its being the natural result of Christian teaching. 15 What
an honorable position to take " a place in the history of
Christian fanaticism ! " Mr. Glennie deserves credit for his
powers of muddling what is so exceedingly clear in the
"History of Civilization." Buckle says that in keeping

11 Compare, e. g., chap. viii. and p. 481, vol. i.

12 See vol. i., pp. 520, 521, 524, and vol. ii., p. 405, of the " History of
Civilization."

13 Page 116.

14 E. g., " History of Civilization," vol. i., p. 506.

15 Page 118.

APPENDIX. 46Y

alive Scottish liberty they did a real good. " Herein, they
did a deed which should compensate for all their offenses,
even were their offenses ten times as great"; 1 ? and shows
that " the real cause of their conduct was the spirit of their
age, and the peculiarities of their position. None of us can
be sure that if we were placed exactly as they were placed
we should have acted differently. ... In Scotland the age
was evil, and the evil rose to the surface. . . . We should,
in fairness to the Scotch clergy, admit that the condition of
their country affords the best explanation of their conduct.
. . . Let us not be too forward in censuring the leading
actors in that great crisis through which Scotland passed." "
In this there is sense ; but where is the honor of a place in
Christian fanaticism ? Is it likely, too, that Buckle would
have made such a lame answer to Mr. Glennie's extraordi-
nary proposition, as merely to say that their fanaticism was
not the " natural fruits of Christian beliefs " ? He would
have said that the practice of Christianity is the result of
the state of civilization ; and, moreover, that pure Christi-
anity inculcates no monstrous persecution. But instead, he
only "courteously" admits "that there was something in
what" Mr. Glennie has said. 18

" Mr. Buckle set everything on style," says Mr. Glennie,
" attacht (sic) the greatest importance to its cultivation, and
declared that it so influenced men that that alone would pre-
serve one's fame. Hence it was that the poets were so pop-
ular, and that the influence of their pernicious fancies was
so great." And then he actually adds : " My dissent from
this rather strongly expressed opinion as to the influence of
the poets only provoked a more explicitly contemptuous de-
nunciation of them, except the two or three greatest, and
particularly Shakespeare and Moliere." ] I will merely quote
a few words from Buckle's " History of Civilization " : " In
England, especially, there is, among physical inquirers, an

16 " History of Civilization," ii., p. 259.

17 " History of Civilization," vol. ii., pp. 257-259.
is pilgrim Memories," p. 121.

19 Page 169.

408 APPENDIX.

avowed determination to separate philosophy from poetry,
and to look upon them, not only as different, but as hostile.
Among that class of thinkers, whose zeal and ability are be-
yond all praise, and to whom we owe almost unbounded ob-
ligations, there does undoubtedly exist a very strong opinion,
that, in their own pursuit, the imagination is extremely dan-
gerous, as leading to speculations, of which the basis is not
yet assured, and generating a desire to catch too eagerly at
distant glimpses before the intermediate ground has been
traversed. That the imagination has this tendency is unde-
niable. But they who object to it on this account, and who
would, therefore, divorce poetry from philosophy, have, I
apprehend, taken a too limited view of the functions of the
human mind, and of the manner in which truth is obtained.
There is, in poetry, a divine and prophetic power, and an in-
sight into the turn and aspect of things, which, if properly
used, would make it the ally of science instead of the enemy.
By the poet, nature is contemplated on the side of the emo-
tions ; by the man of science, on the side of the understand-
ing. But the emotions are as much a part of us as the un-
derstanding ; they are as truthful ; they are as likely to be
right. Though their view is different, it is not capricious.
They obey fixed laws ; they follow an orderly and uniform
course ; they run in sequences ; they have their logic and
method of inference. Poetry, therefore, is a part of philos-
ophy, simply because the emotions are a part of the mind.
If the man of science despises their teaching, so much the
worse for him. He has only half his weapons ; his arsenal
is unfilled. . . . And I can hardly doubt that one of the
reasons why we, in England, made such wonderful discoveries
during the seventeenth century, was because that century
was also the great age of English poetry. The two mighti-
est intellects our country has produced are Shakespeare and
Newton ; and that Shakespeare should have preceded was, I
believe, no casual or unmeaning event. Shakespeare and
the poets sowed the seed which Newton and the philosophers
reaped." s And again he says : " To these cases of the ap-
80 " History of Civilization," vol. ii., pp. 602-504.

APPENDIX. 469

plication of what may be termed the ideal method to the in-
organic world, I will add another from the organic depart-
ment of nature. Those among you who are interested in
botany, are aware that the highest morphological generaliza-
tion we possess respecting plants is the great law of meta-
morphosis, according to which the stamens, pistils, corollas,
bracts, petals, and so forth, of every plant are simply modi-
fied leaves. It is now known that these various parts, dif-
ferent in shape, different in color, different in function, are
successive stages of the leaf epochs, as it were, of its his-
tory. The question naturally arises, who made this discovery ?
Was it some inductive investigator ? . ,. . Not so. The dis-
covery was made by Goethe, the greatest poet Germany has
produced, and one of the greatest the world has ever seen.
And he made it, not in spite of being a poet, but because
he was a poet." 21

These few passages are sufficient, I should suppose, to
convince even Mr. Glennie that he has made an egregious
blunder in attributing to Mr. Buckle sentiments adverse to
poetry ; and that he might easily have corrected his memory
or his note-book in the course of the twelve years which
elapsed between this reported conversation and the publica-
tion of it. 22 The fact is that Buckle was constantly quoting
poetry ; that he had all the best parts of the poets by heart ;
and that he read Shakespeare, Homer, Goethe, Dante, Milton,
Corneille, and Moliere with ever-increasing admiration and
pleasure. No. What he probably did say to Mr. Glennie
was, that ideas alone would not produce a good style ; and
that to acquire a good style it was necessary to study the
best authors, as he himself had done. This was another les-
son kindly given to Mr. Glennie, which he would have done
well to profit by.

21 " Lecture on the Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge."
S2 It is not a little extraordinary that Mr. Glennie makes this mistake,

seeing that he admits having read Buckle's published writings (preface, p.

xiii.), and particularly mentions having heard the lecture, from which he

walked home, as he kindly informs the world, " to the rooms I then had in

Mount Street " (p. 102).

470 APPENDIX.

But Mr. Glennie is not content with attributing a dislike
to the poets to Mr. Buckle ; he also makes him deny the
value of the imagination in science. " I got into discussion
with Mr. Buckle," he says, " on the necessary qualifications
of the historian. I maintained, and he at length partially
admitted that, for the truly great historian was requisite,
not only the analytic power of the philosopher, but the
sympathetic insight of the poet." * Now, if there was any
one thing which Buckle insisted on more than another in all
his writings, it was precisely this. The whole of the lecture
he gave particularly turned on it ; the " History of Civiliza-
tion " teems with passages deprecating the neglect of the ima-
gination, which he shows to be one of the most important
means of scientific investigation. After the passages which
I have quoted above, it is hardly necessary to quote any
more ; yet, since Mr. Glennie may fancy that this does not
apply to history, I will quote yet another passage but one
from the many which might be quoted. In his account of
the Scotch intellect, he compares Hume and Adam Smith :
" But Hume, though a most accomplished reasoner, as well as
a profound and fearless thinker, had not the comprehensive-
ness of Adam Smith, nor had he that invaluable quality of
the imagination without which no one can so transport him-
self into past ages as to realize the long and progressive
movements of society, always fluctuating, yet, on the whole,
steadily advancing. How unimaginative he was appears,
not only from the sentiments he expressed, but likewise from
many traits in his private life. It appears, also, in the very
color and mechanism of his language ; that beautiful and
chiseled style in which he habitually wrote, polished as
marble, but cold as marble too, and wanting that fiery enthu-
siasm and those bursts of tempestuous eloquence which, ever
and anon, great objects naturally inspire, and which rouse
men to their inmost depths. This it was, which, in his
* History of England ' that exquisite production of art,
which, in spite of its errors, will be admired as long as taste
remain among us prevented him from sympathizing with
23 pilg r i m Memories," p. 314.

APPENDIX. 471

those bold and generous natures, who, in the seventeenth cen-
tury, risked their all to preserve the liberty of their country.
His imagination was not strong enough to picture the whole
of that great century, with its vast discoveries, its longings
after the unknown, its splendid literature, and, what was bet-
ter than all these, its stern determination to vindicate free-
dom, and to put down tyranny. His clear and powerful un-
derstanding saw these things separately, and in their various
parts, but could not fuse them into a single form because he
lacked that peculiar faculty which assimilates the past to
the present, and enables the mind to discern both with al-
most equal ease. That Great Rebellion, which he ascribed
to the spirit of faction, and the leaders of which he turned
into ridicule, was but the continuation of a movement which
can be clearly traced to the twelfth century, and of which
such events as the invention of printing, and the establish-
ment of the Reformation, were merely successive symptoms.
For all this, Hume cared nothing. In regard to philosophy,
and in regard to the purely speculative parts of religious
doctrines, his penetrating genius enabled him to perceive
that nothing could be done, except by a spirit of fearless
and unrestrained liberty. But this was the liberty of his
own class ; the liberty of thinkers, and not of actors. His ab-
sence of imagination prevented him from extending the range
of his sympathy beyond the intellectual classes, that is, be-
yond the classes of whose feelings he was directly cogni-
zant. It would, therefore, appear, that his political errors
were due, not, as is commonly said, to his want of research,
but rather to the coldness of his temperament. It was this
which made him stop where he did, and which gave to his
works the singular appearance of a profound and original
thinker, in the middle of the eighteenth century, advocating
practical doctrines, so illiberal, that, if enforced, they would
lead to despotism, and yet, at the same time, advocating
speculative doctrines, so fearless and enlightened, that they
were not only far in advance of his own age, but have, in
some degree, outstripped even the age in which we live." !
24 " History of Civilization," vol. ii., pp. 458-460.

472 APPENDIX.

This is what Mr. Glennie calls opposing the value of the
imagination of the historian !

The next long conversation which Mr. Glennie reports to
us is on the non-effect of moral truth on the progress of civ-
ilization. What Buckle is made to say, when there is any-
thing at all in his remarks, is merely a succession of extracts
from the "History of Civilization"; and what Mr. Glennie
says is chiefly remarkable for the way in which he utterly
misunderstands Buckle's position, and the way in which he
ventures to say things which not only Buckle but any edu-
cated man could easily refute. 36 However, Mr. Buckle was,
as usual, wof ully defeated, and meekly says, " Well, I think
it is time for lunch." After lunch, however, Buckle takes
heart of grace, and renews the conversation with the new
weapon of the state of morality in the middle ages. " Mr.
Buckle thought he had me there," says Mr. Glennie. 28 But
how miserable was his defeat ! Mr. Glennie was quite calm ;
his cheeks blanched not ; he firmly withstood the shock ;
and then quietly overwhelmed his antagonist with a speech
of two or three pages in length. It was Prince Giglio and
Captain Hedzoff over again. Mr. Glennie's argument was,
of course, quite unanswerable. Mr. Buckle had, indeed,
caught a Tartar when he " thought he had him there," and
could only slink away crestfallen to the innermost recesses of
his tent.

It is a remarkable thing, and speaks volumes for Mr.
Buckle's courage, that, notwithstanding his repeated and
almost invariable defeats, he should still continue to wage
an impotent war against his invincible antagonist. The sub-
ject of the next conversation is the materialistic view of the
greatest happiness, 27 a subject in which Buckle was deeply

85 Mr. Glennie says, for example (pp. 198, 199), that Buckle attributes
the rise of every new religion to the acquirement of new knowledge;
whereas, what Buckle did say was, that no new religion advances civiliza-
tion or influences the people, unless it is accompanied by an increase of
knowledge. It is merely the old religion with a new name, and the people
act as they did before it was introduced.

SB piig r i m Memories," p. 200.

27 Ibid., pp. 206-219.

APPENDIX.

interested. In this the reader will notice with astonishment
that, while Mr. Glennie delivers himself of some three hun-
dred lines of print, Buckle is unable to manage even one
hundred. Perhaps some Philistine, who has not read Mr.
Glennie's volume, may urge that Buckle, being a good writer
and conversationalist, might have made his sentences more
pithy, straight, and to the point ; while Mr. Glennie labored
on, like the horse in the mill, ever circling, but never nearer
to the point around which he works. But if he reads, he
will find this theory untenable, for Buckle's style in this con-
versation is no better than Mr. Glennie's. He will find no
trace of that manysidedness which is so distinguishing a
characteristic of Buckle's reasoning, and which we may illus-
trate, for instance, by a reference to the letter on J. S. Mill
which he wrote from Cairo. 28 The doctrine here attributed
to him is poorly materialistic. In it there is no room for
love. Buckle had no love ! No room for poetry. No room
for anything but cut-and-dried selfishness ! There is, indeed,
nothing new in this conversation beyond the fact that Mr.
Glennie understands the subject no better than he does Mr.
Buckle.

It would be wearisome tp the reader, and perhaps it is
not possible for me, exhaustively to criticise all the conver-
sations which Mr. Glennie has reported. We can not read
them without seeing that he is deeply indebted to Buckle ;
that the barren soil has brought forth something it would not
otherwise have been capable of. But the crop is so intermin-
gled with tares and weeds that it is valueless. What I have
just said of the last conversation is again applicable to the
next it is all Mr. Buckle encouraging Mr. Glennie to state his
opinions, and no Mr. Buckle then stating his, and examining
where they differed. But that the conversation took place
as Mr. Glennie writes it, I, for one, do not believe. We may
allow, for instance, that Mr. Glennie quoted Aristotle in the
original Greek, as he before says he quoted Socrates. 29 The
thing is possible, though hardly probable. But, that he had

28 See p. 387.

29 " Pilgrim Memories," pp. 75, 222.

474: APPENDIX.

to add a translation for Buckle's benefit ! If the translation
was meant for the reader only, then why was it not put in a
note, like the translation to the quotation which he says he
made from Hegel in the original German ? 80 But it will not
do to pass all that follows over. There is one, in which Mr.
Glennie professes to give an account of a conversation he
again had with Mr. Buckle, on the relative influence of moral
and intellectual knowledge, and in which a German clergy-
man who was traveling with another party took part. Of the
one, he merely says : " Mr. Buckle, with his deism, which,
notwithstanding all his anti-theological zeal, he but obscurely
saw to be but a specially indefensible theology, agreed with
the German." Of himself he says : "For myself, however,
I thought with Hume, the great founder of the Scottish
school, and the coinitiator with Kant of a new period of
European philosophy. . . . Nor, as I maintained, was this
a mere open question. . . . As to the origin of this hypoth-
esis, it is to be found in the earlier stage of men's concep-
tions of causation, which Hume (in that profound theory
of 'The Natural History of Religion,' of which Comte's
* Law of the Three Periods ' was little more than a f ormu-
lizing) was the first adequately to distinguish as the theo-
logical stage, in its three progressive periods of vulgar
polytheism (called by Comte 'fetichism'), polytheism, and
monotheism." 81

The reader will bear in mind that Mr. Glennie is telling
this to Mr. Buckle, and then will turn with me to the " His-
tory of Civilization," Vol. I, p. 229, Note 22, and read as
follows, on Hume's method : " The historical facts he intro-
duces are merely illustrations ; as any one will see who will
read * The Natural History of Religion ' in ' Hume's Philo-
sophical Works,' Edinburgh, 1826, Yol. IV., pp. 435-513. I
may mention that there is a considerable similarity between
the views advocated in this remarkable essay and the relig-
ious stages of Comte's ' Philosophic Positive '; for Hume's

80 A translation, moreover, which is poor literally, and grammatically
bad. See " Pilgrim Memories," p. 240, note.
. 31 "Pilgrim Memories," pp. 250-252.

APPENDIX.

early form of polytheism is evidently the saml
fetichism, from which both these writers believe that mono-
theism subsequently arose, as a later and more refined ab-
straction. That this was the course adopted by the human
mind is highly probable, and is confirmed by the learned
researches of Mr. Grote. See his ' History of Greece,' Vol.
I, pp. 462, 497, Vol. V., p. 22. The opposite and more
popular opinion, of monotheism preceding idolatry, was held
by most of the great earlier writers, and is defended by
many moderns, and among others by Dr. Whewell (' Bridge-
water Treatise,' p. 256), who expresses himself with consid-
erable confidence ; see also ' Letters from Warburton to
Kurd,' p. 239. Compare Thirlwall's ' History of Greece,'
Vol. I., p. 183, London, 1835, with < Einige Funken des Mono-
theismus ' of Kant, ' Kritik der reinen Vernunf t,' in ' Kant's
Werke,' Vol. II., p. 455."

The next conversation is on the question of hereditary
genius, which Buckle had justly said was not proved. In
this conversation Mr. Glennie does not make him say any-
thing new ; but he says in the course of it : " And with
characteristic frankness, he pointed to the phrenological indi-
cations of his own head his forehead having been, before he
became bald, not even apparently by any means very high or
broad ; and yet but it was the circumstances of his
life." 32

This passage is " not even apparently by any means very "
clear, or grammatical. What does Mr. Glennie mean ? That
Buckle having lost his hair had gained a " phrenological in-
dication ? " That having lost his hair his forehead suddenly
bulged out and became " apparently by every means very
high and broad ? " Or does he mean to say that his forehead
was an imposture, and looked high only because he was bald ?
What were the " circumstances of his life " ? To bewilder
us still more, Mr. Glennie adds the following mysterious note
after the word " frankness " in this passage : " Compare an-
ecdote above quoted from the ' Atlantic Monthly.' " What

32 Pilgrim Memories," p. 339.

476 APPENDIX.

anecdote ? The " Atlantic Monthly " says nothing whatever
on the question. As it happens, I do recollect the circum-
stance to which Mr. Glennie thus obscurely alludes, though
I can not unravel the mysteries of his report. In talking on
phrenology, Buckle, as a kind of argument that working the
brain did raise the forehead, pointed to his own, and told
Mr. Glennie that as a youth he had had a very low forehead,
whereas now it was patent to all (and may be seen by the
only photograph ever taken of him) that his forehead was
remarkably high and broad. Let the reader understand this
from Mr. Glennie's report, if he can.

What is the value of conversations recorded as are these ?
They give us no new knowledge, for all that is of value in
them had been already published before Mr. Glennie wrote.
They give us not only no true idea of what Buckle was in
conversation, but they do give us a most wrong and harmful
and untrue idea. Buckle is used simply as a peg upon which
Mr. Glennie may hang his own views ; Buckle begs expla-
nations, and Mr. Glennie explains ; Buckle says " How so ? "
and Mr. Glennie adds some more explanation. Look at the
conversation related on pages 345-364 ; would not any one,
unacquainted with Buckle's works, put him down as a fool ?
Buckle is always wandering from the subject ; logical Mr.
Glennie is always bringing him back. Buckle seeks to es-
cape by turning the conversation ; 8S victorious Mr. Glennie,
with true magnanimity, allows it. Buckle has the misfortune
to utter the word " toleration " ; but Mr. Glennie is instant-
ly down upon him with : " I exceedingly dislike the word.
Toleration, properly speaking, can be, and has in fact his-
torically been, offered only by those who endeavored to carry
off their inability to suppress by an insolent assumption of
superiority in permitting. Letting the word, however, pass,
my views," etc., etc. 34 As if Mr. Glennie ever dared to
talk like this ! or as if Buckle, despite his marvelous pa-
tience, would have allowed so insolent an " assumption of
superiority of permitting ! " Mr. Glennie here talks some

33 Page 353. & Page 350.

APPENDIX. 477

four hundred lines ; while Buckle does not take even one
hundred and fifty. Mr Glennie quotes a passage from the
Greek Testament, and translates it for Buckle's benefit. 35
Therefore we must draw the conclusion that Buckle did not
know Greek, while Mr. Glennie knew Aristotle's works, Soc-
rates, and the New Testament by heart. He is, indeed, a
wonderful man, with a wonderful memory ; a memory, how-
ever, which nevertheless is strangely unable to retain Buckle's
conversation. Look again at the matter of these conversa-
tions. Mr. Glennie is allowed to go on with but half an-
swers from Buckle, while any one with even a tolerable ac-
quaintance with Buckle's habit of thought could double
them. All that Mr. Glennie says here could have been ea-
sily refuted out of the " History of Civilization."

At last Buckle tired of Mr. Glennie's arguments about
" Oneness " and " Mutual Determination," and endeavors to
prove from his inner consciousness the great effect of moral
laws on the progress of civilization told him that if he
wanted to prove it he must do so historically, and offered
him all the assistance in his power. So magnificent an offer
was, of course, accepted with proper gratitude by Mr. Glen-
nie, who said, " Of course I shall acknowledge the assistance
from you in my preface," or words to that effect. But
Buckle answered that he need do nothing of the sort : " I
have made my reputation ; you have yours still to make."
I have seen no mention of this conversation in Mr. Glennie's
" Pilgrim Memories."

If these conversations are valueless, there yet remains a
good deal of description of scenery, which may be interest-
ing, though it can not, of course, differ very much from the
descriptions in " Murray's Guide," if both be true. But the
reader will find that the resemblance is even greater than he
would at first have been led to expect, as though " Murray "
had had a prophetic view of what Mr. Glennie was going to
write, and had forestalled him. I put a few passages side
by side :

35 Page 363.

478

APPENDIX.

Mr. Porter, in "Murray's Guide,"
published 1868.

" Damascus and its plain burst
at once upon our view. The
change is so sudden, so unex-
pected, that it seems like some
glorious vision. . . . This distance
lends enchantment to the view.
. . . Tapering minarets and swell-
ing domes, tipped with golden
crescents, rise up in every direc-
tion from the confused mass of
white terraced roofs; while in
some places their glittering tops
appear above the deep green fo-
liage, like diamonds in the midst
of emeralds . . . Away on the
south the eye follows ... a long
green meadow, stretching from
near the mouth of the gorge to
the western side of the city. The
Barada winds through it ..."
(p. 435).

And again :

Mr. Porter.

"Napoleon called it the key
of Palestine. . . . The Phoenician
Accho took the Greek name Ptol-
emais. ... In 1229 it became the
chief seat of the Kingdom of Je-
rusalem, and the headquarters
of the Templars, the Teutonic
Knights, and the Knights of St.
John. The latter took the title
of St. John of 'Akka ; which, in
the French orthography, St. Jean
d'Acre, became the current ap-
pellation of the city in Europe.
The city was now a Babel of
tongues, races, and rulers. Gib-

Mr. Glennie, in " Pilgrim Memo-
ries," published 1875.

" And suddenly nere there
bursts on us a wondrous scene.
Below us, at the foot of the bar-
ren mountains, stretched, far aa
the eye, in the clear Eastern air,
could see, a vast desert. But in
its center was a long strip, wide
toward the north, and narrowing
southward, of the most gloriously
rich vegetation. Amid the deep
green foliage was a confused mass
of white terraced roofs. Over
these rose countless swelling
domes and tapering minarets,
glittering, here and there, like
diamonds set with emeralds. And
outside this Paradise-city, and
between it and the desert, lay a
wide and beautiful meadow, in
the midst of which gleamed a
winding stream " (p. 450).

Mr. Glennie.

" Our first day's journey was
down to the sea at Akka the
* Key of Palestine,' as it was
called by Napoleon St. Jean
d' Acre. . . . Soon after, we passed
through the gates, and rode along
streets that occupy the site of
those of the Phoenician Accho
and Greek Ptolemais ; of what
was once the chief place of the
mediaeval kingdom of Jerusalem ;
the headquarters of the Knights
of the Temple, the Teutonic
Knights, and the Knights of St.
John (from whom the town has

APPENDIX. 479

bon well remarks . . . 'a mourn- its modern name of St. Jean
ful and solitary silence prevailed d'Acre) ; the general gathering-
along the toast which had so long place of the Crusaders ; and the
resounded with the WOKLD'S DE- seat of those congresses in which
BATE ' " (pp. 355-357). all the princes of Europe met,

when these now silent shores
'resounded,' as again they may,
4 with the world's debate.' GIB-
BON, ' Decline and Fall,' vol. vii.,
close of chapter on ' Crusades.' "

I have no more space fx>r any further illustration of this
curious identity between the versions of Mr. Porter and
Mr. Glennie. But the curious reader may readily find some
more for himself by examining "Murray" whenever he
comes across a descriptive passage in the " Pilgrim Memo-
ries."

There remains but one more subject, which Mr. Glennie
will doubtlessly be grateful to me for calling attention to.
"I was, I believe," says Mr. Glennie, "myself the first to
make any inquiry about Mr. Buckle's grave. In answer to
a letter of mine, Dr. Barclay thus wrote, under date Beirut,
November 24, 1864 : ' I also wrote at the same time to
Mr. Rogers, H. B. M. Consul at Damascus, asking, as you
desired, for a pencil sketch of the grave ; and in reply was
informed that not even a stone or mark of any kind indi-
cated the spot of interment ! Shortly afterward, Mr. R.
came on to Beirut, when I spoke to him on the subject, and
showed him your letter.' Toward the close of 1865, Mr.
Rogers was visited by his sister. And through her zeal it
was that, in the autumn of 1866, nearly four years and a
half after his death, the grave of Mr. Buckle was at length
marked by a simple monument."

Now, I do not know what impression this passage leaves
on the mind of the reader ; but on my first perusal it ap-
peared to me that Mr. Glennie claimed for himself the honor
of having directed the attention of Miss Rogers to the fact
that there was no memorial marking Buckle's last resting-
se "Pilgrim Memories," p. 468.

480

APPENDIX.

place. No doubt Mr. Glennie did not suppose that such a
construction could be put upon his words, and will be only
too happy to have the matter clearly set forth. The truth
is, he had not the remotest connection with it. He, no doubt,
did write a letter to Dr. Barclay asking for the particulars
of Buckle's death, and no doubt asked at the same time for
a sketch or photograph of the tomb which he, as every one
else, supposed was there, for the purpose of ornamenting his
"Pilgrim Memories." Dr. Barclay wrote back to say there
was none ; and there the matter dropped. This was in No-
vember, 1864. Toward the end of 1865, Miss Rogers went
out to join her brother, who was Consul at Damascus ; and
on February 8, 1866, accompanied him to the Protestant
cemetery, to visit the grave of a near relative. She went
with the full expectation of also seeing Buckle's tomb; and
was greatly surprised, and very much shocked, to find no-
thing but a rounded mound over his remains. "Buckle's

grave is not far from X 's," she writes home two days

later, " but it is unmarked 1 I am surprised that no orders
have been given for a stone to mark the resting-place of such
a man ! I should like to receive instructions from some of
his admirers to have a simple slab put over the spot, before
people forget where it is. It would not cost much, for I
would draw the inscription, and see it properly cut." This
letter was sent by Mrs. Rogers to her friend Major Bell, who
knew Buckle well from his writings, and greatly admired
him. He also was astonished to see " that there was not a
stone to mark the place of Henry Buckle's remains, and at
once took an extract from" her "letter, and communicated
with two of Buckle's most intimate friends, Mr. John Dick-
inson and Mr. Henry Huth. Both of these were surprised
and shocked to hear of such neglect." Mr. Henry Huth
wrote at once to Mrs. Allatt, Buckle's only surviving sister,
and she at once wrote in reply : " Thank you so much for so
kindly writing to me on a subject which you know deeply
interests me. After my dear brother's death I had nothing
to do with the settling of affairs, but was certainly under the
^impression that a stone had been set." She gratefully ac-

APPENDIX. 481

cepted Miss Rogers's kind proposal to put up a tomb, at the
same time sending the English epitaph. This was communi-
cated through Major Bell to Miss Rogers at Damascus, who
wrote back as follows : " Thank you heartily for helping me
to fulfill my wish with regard to the grave of Henry Buckle.
I would NOT under any circumstances have left Damascus
with his last resting-place unmarked and unprotected ; but
of course it was more consistent that his sister should have
the opportunity and privilege of dedicating a stone to his
memory, and of giving instructions about it. Immediately
on my return from Baalbec I went to the stone-mason's ba-
zaar, and visited shop after shop, carefully inspecting the
work in marble and stone then in hand, that I might judge
of the comparative skill of the workmen, and of the kind of
design they would be most likely to carry out satisfactorily.
I have not quite decided about it yet ; but my chief object
will be to insure (as far as the nature of things will permit)
the durability of the monument. I shall try to interest one
of my native friends here about it, that the grave may be
kept in order after my departure from this city."

The tomb was finished by 30th October, 1866 ; and up to
the year 1871, or 1872, Mr. Glennie, I understand, had not
even heard that there was one ; but, happening to see a
photograph of it in Major Bell's copy of the " History of
Civilization," he wrote on the 26th February 1875, to Mrs.
Bell : " I remember seeing in Major Bell's copy of Buckle's
' History of Civilization ' a photograph of his tombstone. I
should be much obliged if your friend Miss Rogers would
kindly give the particulars of the time, circumstances, etc.,
of the erection of the tombstone." This Miss Rogers did ;
and the account I have given, showing that to Miss Rogers
is entirely and solely due the honor of the first initiation, as
the subsequent erection of the tombstone, is no doubt what
Mr. Glennie intended to convey to his readers ; but he has
been unfortunate in his choice of language, and this explana-
tion therefore became necessary.

I have now done with Mr. Glennie's "Pilgrim Memo-
ries " ; and trust I shall never have to resume so disagree-

482 APPENDIX.

able a theme. If he feel aggrieved at my treatment of his
work, he has only himself to blame. The publication of
these " memories," made it incumbent on every friend nay,
on every human being who honors justice and is able to
wield a pen to defend Buckle from the insinuations which
they convey ; and shall not I, who loved him, vindicate his
memory ? In so doing, I have restricted myself to the bare
proof of the worthlessness of Mr. Glennie's book ; and I sin-
cerely hope that I may never be compelled to enlarge on a
subject which I have taken up with reluctance, and finish
with relief.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGEAPHT.

A. K. H. B. See under " Boyd."

"Albion, the Liverpool," 13th April, 1863. " Keminiscences of Mr.

Buckle." See " Hale, Oh."
"Allgemeine Zeitung, die": " Nachwirkung des ' philosophischen

Radicalisms ' in der englischen Litteratur." Augsburg. Nos.

316, 317, for 12th and 13th November, 1861, pp. 5153-5155, and

5167-5171.
" Henry Thomas Buckle." Ibid., No. 165, for 14th June, 1862,

pp. 2745, 2746.
"American Quarterly Church Review and Ecclesiastical Register."

New York. 8vo :
" Responsibility of Belief." Art. iii., vol. xv., pp. 392-404, No. 3

(whole No. 59), for October, 1863.
" The Two Theories of Civilization." Art. ii., vol. xvi., pp. 20-34,

No. 1 (whole No. 61), for April, 1864.
" Positivism." Art. iii. Ibid., pp. 35-56.
" Buckle's History of Civilization in England." Art. vi., vol. xvii.,

pp. 103-119, No. 1 (whole No. 65), for April, 1865.
"Athenaeum, the," London. 4to:

" The History of Civilization in England." Pp. 850, 851, No. 1549,

for 4th July, 1857.
" The History of Civilization in England." Pp. 717, 718, No. 1753,

for 1st June, 1861.
" Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle."

Pp. 801-803, No. 2356, for 21st December, 1872.
" Reminiscences of Mr. Buckle," by J. A. Longmore. Pp. 114-116,

No. 2361, for 25th January, 1873.

" Copy of a Letter addressed to the City of London Chess Maga-
zine," by von der Lasa. P. 262, No. 2469, for 20th February,

1875.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

"Atlantic Monthly," the: "Personal Reminiscences of the Late
Henry Thomas Buckle," [by Oh. Hale]. Vol. xi., pp. 488-499,
No. 66, for April, 1863. Boston. 8vo.
" Bell's Weekly Messenger," London, fol. : " History of Civilization

in England." No. 3365, p. 6. June 8th, 1861.
" Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine," London:
" Buckle's History of Civilization." Vol. Ixxxiv., pp. 515-535, No.

617, for November, 1858.
" Scotland and her Accusers." Vol. xc., pp. 267-283, No. 551, for

September, 1861.
" Mr. Buckle's Scientific Errors." Vol. xc., pp. 582-596, No. 553,

for November, 1861.
" Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle."

Vol. cxiv., pp. 382-388, No. 695, for September, 1873.
" Blatter fur literarischer Unterhaltung." Leipsic. 4to :
" Geschichte der Civilization in England." Pp. 721-732, No. 40,

for 1st October, 1861.
Bouiller, Francisque : " Moral et Progres," pp. 201-230. Paris, 1875.

8vo.

B[oyd], A. K. H., "Concerning Man and his Dwelling Place." In
"Eraser's Magazine," vol. lix., pp. 645-661, No. 354, for June,
1859. London.

"Bradford Review": "The History of Civilization in England."
Pp. 6 and 6, for March 10 and 17, 1860, Nos. 113 and 114,
vol. iii.
Ibid., pp. 6 and 6, Nos. 187 and 189, for July 6 and 13, 1861,

vol. v.
Buckle, Henry Thomas : " History of Civilization in England," vol. i.

London, 1857, 8vo.

Ibid., 1858, 8vo. Ibid., 1861, 8vo. Ibid., 1864, 8vo.
Buckle, Henry Thomas :

" History of Civilization in England." Vol. ii. London, 1861, 8vo.
Ibid., 1864, 8vo. Ibid., 1867, 8vo.

" History of Civilization in France and England, Spain and Scot-
land." London, 1866, 3 vols., post 8vo.
Ibid., 1868, 1869, 1871, 1872, 1873, 1878.

" History of Civilization in England." From the second London
edition. To which is added an Alphabetical Index. New York,
1861. 2 vols., 8vo.
" Geschichte der Civilization in England." Deutsch von Arnold

Ruge. Leipsic and Heidelberg, 1860. 2 vols., 8vo.
Ibid., nebst einer kurzen Lebensbeschreibung des Verfassers.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 485

[Translated by David Asher, from "Eraser's Magazine" for

September, 1862.] Leipsic and Heidelberg, 1868, 2 vols., 8vo.
" Histoire de la Civilization en Angleterre." Traduction autorisee,

par A. Baillot. Paris and Brussels [printed at Brussels]. 5 vols.

8vo, 1865.

And four Russian translations.

"Essays," with a Biographical Sketch. Leipsic, 1867. 8vo.
The Sketch is from " Eraser's Magazine " for September, 1862.
"Essays von, Verfasser der Geschichte der Civilization," nebst

einer kurzen Lebensbeschreibung des Verfassers. Aus dem

Englischen tibersetzt von David Asher. Leipsic and Heidelberg.

8vo.

" The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge. A Dis-
course delivered at the Royal Institution, on Friday, the 19th

March, 1858." In "Eraser's Magazine," vol. Ivii., pp. 395-407,

No. 340, for April, 1858.
Reprinted in Littell's " Living Age." Boston, United States. 3d

series. Vol. i., pp. 883-893, No. 734, for 19th June, 1858.
Buckle, Henry Thomas :

An Abstract of the above. In the " Reports of the Proceedings of

the Royal Institution of Great Britain." Vol. ii., part viii., pp.

504, 505. London, 1858.
" De Invloed der Vrouwen op de Ontwikkeling van Kennis. Eene

Voolezing, door wijlen H. T. Buckle gehouden, gevolgd door een

Berigt omtrent het Leven van dien Schrijver. Naar het Engelsch

door." . . . H. Pimentel 's Gravenhage, 1872, 8vo.
" Mill on Liberty." In " Eraser's Magazine," vol. lix., pp. 509-542,

No. 353, for May, 1859.
"A Letter to a Gentleman respecting Pooley's Case." London,

1859, 8vo.
" Fragment on the Reign of Elizabeth, from the Posthumous Papers

of Henry Thomas Buckle." In " Fraser's Magazine," vol. Ixxv.,

pp. 163-186, No. 446, for February, 1867; and vol. Ixxvi., pp.

135-150, No. 452, for August, 1867.
"The Miscellaneous and Posthumous "Works of Henry Thomas

Buckle." Edited, with a Biographical Notice, by Helen Taylor.

London, 1872. 3 vols., 8vo.
" Ideen aus Buckle's Geschichte der Civilization." Leipsic and

Heidelberg, 1868, small 8vo.
" Overzigt van Buckle's Geschiedenes der Beschaving." By H.

Pimentel. 's Gravenhage. 8vo. Deel i., 1869 ; Deel ii., 1870.

2d edition, 1873. 2 vols., 8vo.

486 SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Burton, Hill: "Buckle's History of Civilization." In the "Scots-
man" for December 28, 1861, and January 1, 1862.
Reprinted as a pamphlet: "Phylax on Buckle."

Calcutta Review : " The History of Civilization in England." Vol.
xxxv., pp. 281-323, No. TO, for December, 1860. 8vo.

" Chess Player's Magazine," London, 8vo : " Mr. Henry Thomas
Buckle." Vol. ii., pp. 1-45, No. 8, for February, 1864. Portrait.

" Christian Examiner," Boston : " Buckle's History of Civilization."
[By Theodore Parker.] Vol. Ixiv. (5th series, vol. ii.), pp. 233-
276, No. 206, for March, 1858. Art. iv.

" Buckle's Treatment of History." Art. iii., vol. Ixxiv. (5th se-
ries, vol. xii.), No, 235, for January, 1863.

" Christian Observer," London, 8vo : " Buckle's History of Civiliza-
tion in England." Vol. Iviii., pp. 685-707, new series, No. 249,
for September, 1858.

Reprinted, entitled, " Examination of Buckle's History of Civiliza-
tion in England, by a Country Clergyman." London, 1858, 8vo.
" Buckle's History of Civilization in England." Vol. Ixi., pp. 476,
477, new series, No. 282, for June, 1861.

Colburn's "New Monthly Magazine," London, 8vo: "Buckle's His-
tory of Civilization in England." Vol. cxiii., pp. 162-184. No.
450, for June, 1858.

Reprinted in " Littell's Living Age," Boston, U. S. 8vo, 3d series.
Vol. ii., pp. 464-480. No. 741, for August, 1858.

Coleridge, John Duke: "Mr. Buckle and Sir 'John Coleridge." In
" Eraser's Magazine," vol. lix., pp. 635-645, No. 354, for June, 1859.
London, 8vo.

" Cornhill Magazine," London, 8vo : " The Study of History." Vol.
iii., pp. 666-680, No. 18, for June, 1861 ; and vol. iv., pp. 25-41,
No. 19, for July, 1861.

"Daily News": "The History of Civilization." P. 2, July 22,
1861. [By Miss Martineau.]

"Daily Scotsman": "The Influence of Women on the Progress of
Knowledge." April 12, 1858.

Droysen, J. G. : " Erhebung der G-eschichte zum Rang einer Wissen-

schaft." In Von Sybel's " Zeitschrift." 1862.
Reprinted in Droysen's " Grundriss der Historik," 1867. 2d edi-
tion, Leipzig, 1875, 8vo.

Drummond, R. B. : "Free Will in Relation to Statistics." A lecture
containing some suggestions in way of reply to certain objec-
tions advanced to the Doctrine of Free Will by Mr. Buckle, etc.
London, 8vo, 1860.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 487

"Dublin University Magazine," 8vo: "Buckle's History of Civiliza-
tion." Vol. li., pp. 12-28, No. 301, for January, 1858.

"Edinburgh Evening Courant": "Mr. Buckle on Civilization in
Scotland." 1st notice, July 2, 1861 ; 2d notice,, July 9, 1861 ;
3d notice, July 19, 1861.

"Edinburgh Review," 8vo: "Buckle's History of Civilization in
England." Art. vil, vol. cvii., pp. 465-512, No. 218, for April, 1858.
"Buckle's History of Civilization in England." Art. vii., vol.
cxiv., pp. 183-211, No. 231, for July, 1861.

Etienne, Lois : " Le Postivisme dans 1'Histoire." In the Revue des
Deux Mondes, 38th year, 2d series, vol. Ixxiv., pp. 375-408, No.
2, for March 15, 1868. Paris, 8vo.

" Examiner, The," London, fol. : " Buckle's History of Civilization."

P. 615, September 28, 1861. No. 2800.
" Scottish Character," by " G." Pp. 36, 37, January 18, 1862.

" Falkirk Herald ": "Buckle's History of Civilization in England."
January 9, 1862.

Fischer, E. L. : " Ueber das Gesetz der Entwickelung auf psychisch-
ethischem Gebiete auf naturwissenschaftlicher Grundlager mit
Rucksicht auf Ch. Darwin, Herbert Spencer, und Th. Buckle "
(sic). Wurzburg, 1875, 8vo.

Fiske, John : " Mr. Buckle's Fallacies." Originally written, Septem-
ber, 1861, and reprinted in " Darwinism and other Essays."
London, 8vo, 1879. Art. ix., pp. 130-191. Together with a re-
print of a critique written March, 1876, entitled, " Postscript on
Mr. Buckle." Art. x., pp. 192-203.

Flint, R. : " The Philosophy of History." Vol. i. 1874. London

and Edinburgh, 8vo.

"Henry Thomas Buckle." In the "Encyclopaedia Britannica,"
9th edition, vol. iv., pp. 421-423. Edinburgh, 1876, 4to.

" Eraser's Magazine for Town and Country." London, 8vo : " Buckle's
History of Civilization in England " [by T. C Sanders]. Vol.
Ivi., pp. 409-424, No. 334, for October, 1857.
"The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge," by
Henry Thomas Buckle. Vol. Ivii., pp. 395-407, No. 340, for
April, 1858.
"Mill on Liberty," by Henry Thomas Buckle. Vol. lix., pp. 509-

542, No. 353, for May, 1859.
"Mr. Buckle and Sir John Coleridge," by John Duke Coleridge.

Vol. lix., pp. 635-645, No. 354, for June, 1859.
" Concerning Man and his Dwelling Place," by A. K. H. B[oyd].
Ibid., pp. 645-661.

488 SPECIAL BIBLIOGEAPHY.

"Some Remarks on Mr. Buckle's History of Civilization," by Th.

Mayo. Vol. lx., pp. 293-300, No. 357, for September, 1859.
" Henry Thomas Buckle." Vol. Ixvi., pp. 337-345, No. 393, for

September, 1862.
"Mr. Buckle in the East," by J. S. S. Glennie. Vol. Ixviii., pp.

171-189, No. 404, for August, 1863.

"Fragment on the Reign of Elizabeth, from the Posthumous Papers
of Henry Thomas Buckle." Vol. Ixxv., pp. 163-186, No. 446, for
February, 1867.

Ibid. Vol. Ixxvi., pp. 135-150, No. 452, for August, 1867.
Froude, J. A. : " On the Science of History." In the Proceedings of
the Royal Institution of Great Britain. Vol. iv., pp. 180-199,
part iii., No. 39. London, 8vo, 1864.
Reprinted in " Short Studies on Great Subjects."
"Gentleman's Magazine and Historical Review," London, 8vo:
"Buckle's History of Civilization." 3d series, vol. iii., pp. 246-
261, for September, 1857.

Glennie, J. S. S.: "Mr. Buckle in the East." In "Eraser's Maga-
zine," vol. Ixviii., pp. 171-189, No. 404, for August, 1863.
"Pilgrim Memories, or Travel and Discussion in the Birth-Coun-
tries of Christianity with the late Henry Thomas Buckle." Lon-
don, 1875, 8vo.
Another edition. 1876, 8vo.

"The New Theory of History and the Critics of Pilgrim Memo-
ries." London, 1876, 8vo.

[Hale, Charles] : " Personal Reminiscences of the late Henry Thomas
Buckle." In the " Atlantic Monthly," vol. xi., pp. 488-499, No.
66, for April, 1863. Boston and London. 8vo.
Holyoake, G. J. : " The Case of Thomas Pooley, the Cornish Well-
sinker." London, 8vo [1857].
"Illustrated Times": "History of Civilization in England." 7th

September, 1861.

"Journal of Speculative Philosophy," St. Louis, Mo., U. S., 8vo:
"Mr. Buckle and the Aufklarung," by J. H. Stirling. Vol. ix.,
pp. 337-400, No. 4, for October, 1875.

Lange, F. A. : " Geschichte des Materialismus nnd Kritik seiner Be-
deutung in der Gegenwart." 2 vols., 8vo. Iserlohn, 1873 and
1875.

Laurent, F. : "La Philosophic de J'Histoire." Paris, 8vo, 1870.
" Law Magazine and Law Review, or Quarterly Journal of Jurispru-
dence." London, 8vo: Art. i., " Sir John Taylor Coleridge and
Mr. Buckle." New series, pp. 263-284, No. 14, for August, 1859.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 489

"Literary Gazette, The, and Journal of Archaeology, Science, and

Art." 4to. London :

"History of Civilization in England." First notice: Part vi., pp.
581, 582, No. 2109, for 20th June, 185T. Second notice : Ibid.,
pp. GOT, 608, No. 2110, for 27th June, 1857.
Ibid., new series : " Buckle's Civilization in England." Vol. vi.,

pp. 507-509, No. 153 (2313), for 1st June, 1857.
Ibid., " Mr. Buckle on the History of Civilization." A series of
five letters, signed " T." :

Vol. vi., pp. 594, 595, No. 156 (2316), for 22d June, 1861.
" vii., p. 19, " 158 (2318), for 6th July "

" " pp. 40, 41, " 159 (2319), " 13th " "
" " pp. 65, 66, " 160 (2320), " 20th " "
" p. 80, " 161 (2321), " 27th " "

Reprinted in the Scottish Press, q. v.

Littre*, . : "De 1'Histoire de la Civilisation en Angleterre, par
Buckle." In "La Philosophie Positive," Revue dirig6e par .
Littre et G. Wyrouboff, pp. 54-84, No. 4, for January, 1868.
Paris, 8vo.

Longrnore, J. A. : " Reminiscences of Mr. Buckle." In the " Athense-
um," pp. 114-116, No. 2361, for 25th January, 1873.

" London Review ": "Buckle's History of Civilization in England,"
pp. 716, 717, June 15, 1861, fol.
This is a distinct publication from the following :

" London Review " : " History of Civilization." Art. i., pp. 301-325,
January, 1862. 8vo.

"Macmillan's Magazine," Cambridge and London, 8vo : Part i., "Mr.
Buckle's Doctrine as to the Scotch and their History," by D.
Masson. Vol. iv., art. i., pp. 177-189, No. 21, for July, 1861.
Part ii., " The Weasel Wars of Scotland and the Scottish Reforma-
tion." Ibid., art. vii., pp. 309-322, No. 22, for August, 1861.
Partiii., "Scotland in the Seventeenth Century." Ibid., art. vii.,
pp. 370-383. No. 23, for September, 1861.

"Magasin fur die Literatur des Auslandes " : "Buckle's Geschichte
der Civilisation." 29th year, vol. Iviii., pp. 338-340, No. 29, for
July 18, 1860.

Ibid., 30th year, vol. lx., pp. 404-406, No. 34, for August 21, 1861.

" Manchester Weekly Express and Guardian " : " History of Civiliza-
tion in England." Supplement, p. 1, August 17, 1861.

Marselli, N. : " Scienza della Storia." Turin, 8vo, 1873.

Masson, David : " Mr. Buckle's Doctrine as to the Scotch and their

490 SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

History." Part L In " Macmillan's Magazine," vol. iv., art. i.,
pp. 177-189, No. 21, for July, 1861.
Part ii., " The Weasel Wars of Scotland and the Scottish Ref orma-

tion." Ibid., art. vii., pp. 309-322, No. 22, for August, 1861.
Part iii., "Scotland in the Seventeenth Century." Ibid., art. vii.,

pp. 370-383, No. 23, for September, 1861.

"Recent British Philosophy; a Review, with Criticisms." Lon-
don, 8vo. 3d edition, 1877.

Mayo, Thomas: "Some Remarks on Buckle's History of Civiliza-
tion." In "Eraser's Magazine," vol. lx., pp. 293-300, No. 357,
for September, 1859.
Mayr, Richard : " Die Philosophische Geschichtsauffassung der Neu-

zeit." Vienna, 8vo, 1877.
Mill, J. S. : "A System of Logic." London, 8vo, 2 vols., 5th edition,

1862.

" Morning Post " : " The History of Civilization." P. 3, July 31, 1861.
"National Review " : "On Civilization and Faith." Yol. vi., pp. 198-

228, No. 11, for January 1, 1858. London, 8vo.
Ibid., vol. xiii., p. 237, No. 25, for July, 1861.

"North American Review," Boston, U. S., 8vo: "History of Civili-
zation in England." Yol. Ixxxvii., pp. 388-423, No. 181, for
October, 1858, art. v.
Ibid.: "Buckle's History of Civilization in England." Yol. xcii.,

pp. 519-559, No. 193, for October, 1861, art. ix.
Ibid. : " Henry Thomas Buckle, his Problem and his Metaphysics,"
by J. H. Stirling. Yol. cxv., pp. 65-103, No. 236, for July, 1872,
art. iv.
"North British Review," Edinburgh, 8vo: "Recent Publications."

Yol. xxix., pp. 556-558, No. 58, for November, 1858, art. xi.
Ibid. : " History of Civilization in England." Yol. xxxv., pp. 253-

288, No. 69, for August, 1861, art. x.
Oettingen, A. von : " Die Moralstatistik, und die Christliche Sitten-

lehre." Erlangen, 1870, 8vo.

The second edition, 1874, does not give so much space to the dis-
cussion of Buckle.

Parker, Theodore : " Buckle's History of Civilization." In the " Chris-
tian Examiner," vol. Ixiv., pp. 233-276, No. 206, for March, 1858,
art. iv., Boston, U. S., 8vo.
Reprinted in Ms "Works." London, 1865, 8vo, vol. xii., pp.

107-149.

Pimentel, H. : " Overzigt van Buckle's Geschiedenes der Beschaving."
Deel i., 1869. Deel ii., 1870. 's Gravenhage, 8vo.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 401

Second edition, 1873, 2 vols.

"De Invloed der Yrouwen op de Ontwikkeling van Kennis. Eene
Yoolezing, door wijlen H. T. Buckle gehouden, geyolgd door een
Berigt omtrent het Leven van dien Schrijver." Naar het Eng-
elsch. 's Gravenhage, 1872, 8vo.

"Preussische Jahrbtiche": "Englische Geschichtsphilosophie." Vol.
ix., pp. 501-527. 5te Heft, for May, 1862. Berlin, 8vo. By F.
Vorlander.

" Quarterly Review," London, 8vo : " History of Civilization in Eng-
land." Vol. civ., pp. 38-74, No. 207, for July, 1858, art, ii.
Reprinted in "Littell's Living Age," Boston, U. S. 8vo. Vol. ii.,

pp. 668-688. No. 744, for 28th August, 1858.
Ibid., "Scottish Character." Vol. ex., pp. 139-179, No. 219, for
July, 1861.

Re*musat, Ch. de: " De la Civilisation Moderne." In the "Revue des
Deux Mondes," 28th year, 2d series, vol. xviii., pp. 5-44. Ire
livraison, for 1st November, 1858.

"Revue des Deux Mondes," Paris, 8vo: "De la Civilisation Mo-
derne," by Ch. de Re"musat. 28th year, 2d series, vol. xviii.,
pp. 5-44. Ire livraison, for November 1, 1858.

"Revue des Deux Mondes": "Le Positivisme dans 1'Histoire," by
Louis fitienne. Vol. Ixxiv., pp. 375-408, No. 2, for 15th March,
1868.

Rougement, F. de : " Les Deux Cite"s " " La Philosophic de 1'Histoire
aux Diff e" rents Ages de l'Humanit6." 2 vols., Paris, 8vo, 1874.

[Sanders, T. C.] : " Buckle's History of Civilization in England." In
the " Saturday Review," vol. iv., pp. 38, 39, No. 89, for llth
July, 1857.

" Buckle's History of Civilization in England." In "Eraser's Maga-
zine," vol. Ivi., pp. 409-424, No. 334, for October, 1857.

" Saturday Review," London, fol. : " Buckle's History of Civilization
in England " [by T. C. Sanders]. Vol. iv., pp. 38, 39, No. 89,
for llth July, 1857.
Ibid. : "Mr. Buckle and Sir John Coleridge." Vol. vii., pp. 585-

587, No. 185, for 14th May, 1859.

Ibid. : " Buckle's History of Civilization." Vol. xi., pp. 561, 562,
No. 292, for 1st June, 1861.

" Scotsman, The " : " History of Civilization in England." 1st art.,
December 28, 1861 ; 2d art., January 1, 1862. [By J. Hill Bur-
ton.]
Reprinted as a pamphlet : " Phylax on Buckle."

" Scottish Press " : " Mr. Buckle on the History of Civilization in

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Scotland." A series of five articles, signed " T.," and ending Octo-
ber 5, 1861.

Smith, Goldwin : " Lectures on the Study of History," delivered in

Oxford, 1859-'61.
Second edit., 12mo. Oxford and London, 1865.

Solovfiv, N. : " Mill, Comte, and Buckle, and the Enfranchisement of
Women." Moscow, 8vo, 1870.

" Spectator, The," London, f ol. : " Buckle's History of Civilization in

England." Pp. 651, 652, No. 1512, for 20th June, 1857.
Ibid. : " Mr. Buckle's Second Volume on Civilization." 1st art.,
pp. 616, 617, No. 1719, for June 8, 1861; 2d art., pp. 642, 643,
No. 1720, for June 15, 1861.

Stirling, J. Hutchinson : " Henry Thomas Buckle, his Problem, and
his Metaphysics." In the "North American Review," Boston,
U. S., 8vo, vol. cxv., pp. 65-103, No. 236, for July, 1872,
art. iv.

"Mr. Buckle and the Aufklarung." In the "Journal of Specula-
tive Philosophy," St. Louis, Mo., U. S., 8vo, vol. ix., pp. 337-
400, No. 4, for October, 1875.

" Times, The," London : " Buckle's History of Civilization in Eng-
land." P. 5, No. 22,810, for 13th October, 1857.
Ibid.: " Mr. Buckle's New Volume." 1st art., pp. 8, 9, No. 24,016,
for 20th August, 1861 ; 2d art., p. 8, No. 24,018, for 22d August,
1861 ; 3d art., p. 10, No. 24,019, for 23d August, 1861.

" Tablet, The " : " Buckle's History of Civilization." P. 570, Septem-
ber 7, 1861.

Taylor, Helen: "Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry
Thomas Buckle, with a Biographical Notice." 3 vols., 8vo.
London, 1872.

Tyrwhitt, Rev. R. St. John : " Sinai." Pp. 325-356, of Vacation
Tourists and Notes of Travel in 1862-'63. Edit, by Fr. Galton.
London and Cambridge, 1864, 8vo.

" Universe, The," London : " A History of Civilization in England."
1st art., p. 6, No. 38, for 24th August, 1861 ; 2d art., p. 3, No.
39, for 31st August, 1861.

Vorlander, F. : " Englische Geschichtsphilosophie." In the Preussi-
sche Jahrbucher. Vol. ix., pp. 501-527, 5te Heft for May, 1862.
Berlin, 8vo.

Wallace, Mackenzie : " Russia." 2 vols., 8vo. London, 1877.

Weiss, John: "Life and Correspondence of Theodore Parker." 2
vols., 8vo. London, 1873.

" Westminster Review," New Series. London, 8vo : " History of

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 493

Civilization in England." Art. iv., vol. xii., pp. 375-399, No.
24, for October, 1857.

Ibid. : " History of Civilization in England." Art. vii., vol. xx.,
pp. 187-207, No. 39, for July, 1861.

SPECIAL CHESS BIBLIOGRAPHY.

" Athenaeum," London, 4to : " Copy of a Letter written to the " City
of London Chess Magazine," by M. v. der Lasa. P. 262, No.
2469, for 20th February, 1875.

Bird, H. E. : Chess Masterpieces, etc., etc. London, 8vo, 1875.
Game No. Pages Played in Between

62 59, 60 1857 Buckle and Boden.

67 63, 64 1851 " Loewenthal.

68 64, 65 1851 " Loewenthal.

69 65, 66 1851 " Schulder.

70 66, 67 1849 " Williams.

" Chess Player, The," edited by Kling and Horwitz, London, 1851 -'53,
12mo.

Vol. i., p. 112, No. xiv., for October 18, 1851.
Vol. in., pp. 2, 3, No. lii., for July 10, 1852.

" i. (sic) p. 34, No. iii., for August 28, 1852.

" Chess Player's Chronicle," edited by Howard Staunton, etc. Lon-
don, 8vo, 1841-'61.
First Series :

Vol. iv., 1843, pp. 195, 196, 198, 201, 266.
" vi., 1846, " 130, 198, 235, 236, 331-335, 360, 362.
" vii., 1846, " 46, 53, 54, 55, 213, 214, 349, 407, 408, 410.
" viii., 1847, " 50, 97, 257, 353, 368.
" ix., 1849, " 46, 260, 303, 327.
" x., 1849, " 65, 67, 68, 113, 115, 143, 145, 184, 186, 228,

230.

" xi., 1850, " 76, 112, 174, 347.
" xii., 1851, " 6, 266, and 30, 62, 81, 86, 88, 89, 91, 94, 247,

248, 281, 373.
" xiii., 1852, " 278.
New Series :

Vol. ii., 1854, pp. 212, 240, and 155, 180.
" iii., 1855, " 353, and 102, 204, 236.
" iv., 1856, " 20, and 93, 94, 125.

494 SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Third Series :

Vol. i., 1859, p. 180.
"Chess Player's Magazine, The," London, 8vo: "Mr. Henry Thomas

Buckle." Vol. ii., pp. 1-45, No. 8, for February, 1864.
City of London "Chess Magazine, The," London, 8vo; edit, by W.

N. Potter. Vol. i., 1875, pp. 165-168, 288.
"Field, The," London, fol. :

No. 4, for Jan. 22, 1853, vol. i., p. 61, between Buckle and Bird.
" 5, " Jan. 29, 1853, " i., p. 77, " "

" 30, " July 23, 1853, " ii., p. 82, " Barnes (2).

" 32, " Aug. 6, 1853, " ii., p. 140, " (2).

" 37, " Sept. 10, 1853, " ii., p. 261, " "

" 48, " Nov. 26, 1853, " ii., p. 524, " "

" 65, " Mar. 25, 1854, " iii., p. 275, " "

"Illustrated London News, The," London, fol. :
No. 148, for Mar. 1, 1845, vol. vi., p. 144, between Buckle and

Kennedy.

" 182, " Oct. 25, 1845, " vii., p. 267, " "

" 220, " July 18, 1846, " ix., p. 42, " Anon.
" 287, " Oct. 30, 1847, " xi., p. 283, " Medley.
" 368, " Apr. 28, 1849, " xiv., p. 274, " 0. F. Smith.
" 371, " May 19, 1849, " xiv., p. 323, " Kieseritzky.
" 436, " July 13, 1850, " xvii., p. 52, " C. F. Smith.
" 464, " Jan. 11, 1851, " xviii., p. 32, Committee of Chess

Tournament.

" 471, " Feb. 22, 1851, " xviii., p. 163, "

" 488, " May 31, 1851, " xviii., p. 481, "

" 510, " Aug. 16, 1851, " xix., p. 219, between Buckle and

Loewental.

" 513, " Aug. 30, 1851, " xix., p. 267, " "

" 531, " Nov. 29,1851, " xix., p. 643, Anglo-French Match.
" 535, " Dec. 13, 1851, " xix., p. 707, Games with

Loewental.
" 538, " Dec. 27, 1851, ". xix., p. 771, between Buckle and

Loewental.

" 558, " May 8, 1852, " xx., p. 383, Eeview on Staunton's

Tournament.
" 579, " Sept. 28, 1852, " xxi., p. 210, between Buckle and

Schulder.

Kennedy, Captain H. A. : " Mr. Buckle as a Chess Player." In the
"Westminster Chess Club Papers," vol. vi., pp. 23-25, No. 62,
for June, 1873, London, 4to.

SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY. 495

Lasa v. Heydebrandt u. d. : " Henry Thomas Buckle." In the
" Schachzeitung." Leipzig, 8vo. Pp. 194, 195, Nos. 7 and 8,
for July and August, 1862.

" A Letter on the Chess Play of Henry Thomas Buckle." In the
" City of London Chess Magazine." London, 8vo. Vol. i., p.
288. 1875.
Ibid. : In the " Athena3um." London, 4to. P. 262, No. 2469, for

20th February, 1875.
La Re"gence, "Journal des Echecs." Paris, 8vo. (Successor to La

Palamede).
First Series :
No. 1, for Jan., 1849, pp. 28- 30, Game between Buckle and

Kieseritzky.

" 2, " Feb., 1849, pp. 50- 53, " (2).

" 3, " Mar., 1849, pp. 80- 84, " (2).

" 4, " April,1849, pp. 109-111, "

11 5, " Aug., 1851, pp. 241-246, " (2).

Second Series :

No. 2, for February, 1856, pp. 53, 54, 328, between Buckle and

Tassinari.
" Schachalmanach," Erste (and only) Jahrgang. Leipzig, 12mo, 1846.

Pp. 172, 173, Game between Buckle and Captain Kennedy.
"Schachzeitung," in Monatlichen Heften herausgegeben von der

Berliner Schachgesellsch aft. Berlin, 8vo:

No. 3, for Sept., 1846, pp. 87-89, Game bet. Buckle and v. d. Lasa.
" 6, " Dec., 1846, p. 183, Letter from Kieseritzky.
" 8, " Aug., 1848, p. 305, Bledow on Buckle in Berlin, and

game with Carisien.
" 11, " Nov., 1855, pp. 348, 349, game between Buckle and

Tassinari.
" Schachzeitung," Geriindet von der Berliner Schachgesellschaft,

Organ fur das gesammte Schachleben. Leipzig, 8vo :
Nos. 7 and 8, July and August, 1862, pp. 194, 195, Notice of

Buckle's death, by v. d. Lasa.
Ditto, pp. 237, 238, Games with Kieseritzky, Smith, and Loew-

enthal.
Staunton, Howard : " The Chess Player's Handbook." London,

12mo, 1875 :
Game between Buckle and Captain Kennedy, pp. 74, 75.

" Harrwitz, pp. 125, 126.

" The Chess Player's Companion." London, 12mo, 1875 :
Two games between Buckle and Staunton, pp. 167-169.

496 SPECIAL BIBLIOGRAPHY.

" The Chess Tournament," a Collection of Games played at this

celebrated assemblage, etc. London, 12mo, 1873 :
Match between Buckle and Loewenthal, pp. 225-242.
Williams, Elijah : " Horss Divamanse," a selection of one hundred
and fifty Original Games at Chess, by leading Masters, princi-
pally played at the Grand Divan, etc., etc. London, 12mo, 1852 :
Between Buckle and Brown, Games No. 2, 7, 10-13, 24.
" Simons, " 32-54, 64, 68.

Smith, 69, 77, 78.

" Maude, " 75.

" Williams, " 99-102.

" Kepping, 116.

INDEX

AARON'S tomb, 424.
Abydos, 885.

Achmet's divorce, 423.

Adoption, 328.

'Ain el Haramiyeh, 439.

'Am Musa, 409.

Akaba, 418.

Akka, 444.

Alexandria, 358.

Alexandroschene, 444.

Alison's "History," 398, 399.

Allatt, death of Robert, 291.

Ambition, 10, 25, 41, 290.

America, proposed visit to, 135, 401 ;
the state of, 174, 175, 281, 394,
400 ; copyright law of, 403 ; the
"History of Civilization" in, 124,
134, 337, 338.

Ancestry of Buckle, 10, 11.

Animals, kindness to, 326, 417, 418.

Antiquities, collection of, 366, 381,
ct seq., 391.

Arab vengeance, 414.

Arts, relative idealization of the, 21,
22 ; advance of the, 303.

Assouan, 378-381.

Athengeura, election to the, 214, 215.

Austrian customs, 35.

Avarice, charge of, 46 ; difference be-
tween, and parsimony, 46, 47, 364.

BETHEL, 439.
Bethlehem, 426, 437.
32

Beyrout, 446 ; prosecution of Hassan
at, 448, 449.

Biography is not history, 206.

Birmingham, manners in, 347.

Birth of Buckle, 11.

Blackheath, stay at, 280, et seq.

Blasphemy, punishment for, 252, 253,
263.

Blind, happiness of the, 81.

Bodin and the " History of Civiliza-
tion," 202, 204, 205.

Books, purchases of, 31, 45 ; Buckle's
rate of reading, 24, 39 ; the method
of reading, 39, 40 ; the love of, 110.

Bossuet and the " History of Civiliza-
tion," 203.

Boulogne, illness at, 33; stays at,
111, 290.

Bowyear, correspondence with Mrs.,
121, 234, 239, 249, 287, 288, 290,
297, 334, 351, 373.

Brighton, stays at, 17, 259, et seq. ;
278, 279, 294, et seq. ; 322.

Buckle, Sir Cuthbert, 10.

Buckle, Mrs., her Calvinistic views,
16 ; character of, 74 ; eagerness to
see her son's book, 113, 114; the
dedication to, ibid. ; ill health of,
38, 53, 63, 86-88, 90, 91, 94, 108,
110, 113, 118, 121, 123, 223,225,
229, 233, 234 ; approaching death
of, 239, 245; death of, 245; her
son's grief, 246, et scq., 290, 291,
330, 342-344, 350.

498

INDEX.

Buclde, Thomas H., 10, 14, 16.
Buddhism a necessary study for theo-
logians, 346.

CAIRO, stay at, 363, 386, et seq.
Camel-riding, 412.

Capel, correspondence with Mr., 124,
132, 134, 268, 277, 286, 297, 323,
330, 331.

Carolside, stay at, 333, 336, 353.
Carshalton, stay at, 294, et seq., 323,

et seq.

Catholic, Roman, Church, Comte's es-
timate of the, 192, 194; compared
with the Protestant, 420, 421.
Charity of Buckle, 46, 47, 212, 288,

322.
Charles I., fragment on, not extant,

3], 32.

Chess, Buckle's skill in, 20, 28-30,

34, 35, 95 ; great tournament of

1851, 55, et seq.', championship,

59 ; at Dublin, 65.

Children, love of, 283-285, 309, 324,

327, 348 ; adoption of, 328.
Clairvoyance, 347.
Cobras in the desert, 418, 425.
Coleridge, Judge, and Pooley's case,

254-278, 285.

Coleridge, the answer of Mr. J. D.,
260, 268, 269, 271, 276; publica-
tion of Buckle's reply to, 277.
Color and form, 36.
Comte, Augt., how to read, 76 ; his
want of practical knowledge, 49 ;
his belief in phrenology, 63 ; igno-
rance of political economy, 151,
197; compared with Buckle, 191-
199, 209, 211, note.
Condorcct on morals and civilization,

211, note.

Conversational powers of Buckle, 66,
67, 302, 309, et seq., 322, 349, et
seq., 409, 419.
Copyright in America, 403.

Cornwall, tour in, 131.
Corporal punishment, 326, 348.
Correspondence of Buckle with Mrs.
Bowyear, 121, 234, 239, 249, 287,
288,290,297,334,351,373; with Mr.
Capel, 124, 132, 134, 268, 277, 286,
297, 323, 330, 331 ; with Mr. Grey,
222 ; with Mrs. Grey, 75, 77, 90, 94,
95, 98, 99, 106, 111, 119, 122, 222,
237, 242, 249, 272, 278, 284, 295,
333; with Mrs. Grote, 320, 322,
352; with Lord Hatherley, 125,
127; with Mrs. Hutchinson, 292;
with Mr. Huth, 293, 294, 387, 392,
416; with Mrs. Huth, 307, 315,
336, 352, 354, 360, 363, 367, 379,
386, 416, 427, 446 ; with the sons
of Mr. Huth, 294; with Mr. Ch.
Kingsley, 258 ; with Mrs. Mitchell,
292, 317-319, 322, 331 ; with Mr.
Parker, 100, 102, 104, 106, 114,
116, 117, 131, 216, 218, 230, 231,
240, 241, 257, 259, 268, 271, 272,
274-276, 285, 286 ; with Mr. Theo-
dore Parker, 135, 280; with Miss
Shirreff, 76, 78, 80-83, 85-87, 91,
93, 95-98, 107, 108, 110, 111, 117,
118, 124, 219, 221, 223, 225-227,
229, 232-236, 261, 264, 280, 296,
317; with Mr. Thackeray, 292;
with Sir Ch. Wheatstone, 130 ; with
Major Woodhead, 63; with Mrs.
Woodhead, 244, 291, 332.

Country and town, comparison be-
tween the, 53, 63, 64, 77, 90, 106,
333.

Cousins, marriage between, 52.

Crime, sameness in, 145, 146, 347.

Critics and criticism, 139, etseq., 183,
184, 286.

Crystal Palace, visit to the, 72, 73.

DAMASCUS, first view of, 451;
death of Buckle at, 456.
Darwin's " Origin of Species," 292.

INDEX.

499

Dead Sea, 438.

Death of Buckle, 456.

Deduction and induction, 120, 133.

Descartes not persecuted, 122,123.

Diary, the first entry in Buckle's, 24 ;
a part lost, 52, note.

Draughts, Buckle's skill in, 20, 358.

Dress, carelessness as to, 313, 357,
411; attention should be paid to,
by women, 313, 329, 357; impor-
tance of warm, in the desert, 410.

Dublin, chess at, 65.

), 381.

Education, Buckle's, 12, et seq.,
23, 24 ; views on, 51, 79, 80, 84,
85, 91, 300, 301, 311, 312, 324-326,
341, 357, 361, 366, et seq., 388, 418,
431.

Egypt, idea of visiting, 351, et seq. ;
departure for, 354, landing in, 358 ;
the ancient civilization of, 376, 396,
398 ; departure from, 408.

Emotions, the truth of the, 248.

English civilization, why placed first,
170 ; richness of the, language, 316.

Epochs in literature, 318.

Esdraelon, the plain of, 440.

Esneh, 375.

Evolution, 93, 292.

Extravagance, charge of, 363, 389,
390, 393.

FILEY, stay at, 331.
Fire-arms, little skill in the use
of, 369.

Food and civilization, 125, 141, 142,
152, 206.

Form and color, 36, 374.

Free trade, 15.

Free will, 143, et seq.

French history, 133, 173, 174; pov-
erty of the, language, 316 ; under
Napoleon III., 328; taste, 329;

translation of the " History of
Civilization," 334.
Fiileh, el, 440.

AMES, Buckle's skill in, 20, 362,

Gebel Musa, 415, 416.

Gerizim, Mount, 440.

Germany, history of, 174, 175, 329 ;
the "History of Civilization" in,
334.

Gethsemane, the garden of, 432.

Ghost, a, at Munich, 36, 37.

Gibraltar, 358.

Greek fire, miracle of the, 434, 435.

Grey, correspondence with Mr., 222 ;
with Mrs., 75, 77, 90, 94, 95, 98,
99, 106, 111, 119, 122, 222, 237,
242, 249, 272, 278, 284, 295, 333.

Grotc, correspondence with Mrs., 320,
322, 352.

HALLAM, acquaintance with, 19,
26.

Hassan, prosecution of, 448, 449.

Hatherley, correspondence with Lord,
125, 127.

Health of Buckle, as a boy, 11, 13-
15, 17; as a youth, 36, 37 ; as a
man, 93, 94, 97, 99, 111-113, 118,
220, 225, 234, 244, 261, 278, 279,
280, 284, 287, 290, 294, 296, 297,
308, 309, 320-322, 330, 332, 340,
344, 353, 362, 364, 432; the last
illness, 440, 441, 449, et seq.

Health, the compatibility of, with
delicacy of feeling, 90, 317.

Hebrew quotations, 399.

Hebron, 426.

Herne Bay, stay at, 223.

" History of Civilization," the early
plans concerning, 18, 24, 26, 61,
62; progress of vol. one, 92, 94,
100; publication of vol. one, 96,

500

INDEX.

101, 102, 104-118, 123; dedication
of, 114 ; reception of vol. one, 124,
135, 213, ct seq., 224, 225, 240, 334,
335; criticism on vol. one, 107,
108, 122, 123, et seq., 139, et seq.,
230, 231, 287 ; progress of vol. two,
133, 135, 282, 285, 287, 292, 293,
294, 296, 298 ; publication of vol.
two, 298, 317, 320; reception of
vol. two, 332, 334, 335, et seq. ;
analysis and plan of, 139-181;
prospect of its completion, 112,
1S2; curtailment of, 184; origi-
nality of, 187-212 ; the place of,
in history, 212, 213.

Holyoake, interview with Mr., 297.

Ilor, ascent of Mount, 423, 424.

Hull, stay at, 331.

Hutchinson, correspondence with
Mrs., 292.

Huth, correspondence with Mr., 293,
294, 387, 392 ; with Mrs., 307, 315,
336, 352, 354, 360, 363, 367, 379,
386, 416, 427, 446 ; with the sons
of Mr., 294.

Huth, correspondence of the sons of
Mr., concerning Buckle, 294, 370,
371, 407, 408.

IMAGINATION, want of, in crimi-

-L nals, 347.

Immortality, the proof of, 246-248,

304, 305.

Income of Buckle, 47.
Individual and mass, difference of

laws for the, 126, 127, 133, 207.
Induction and deduction, 120, 133.
Inheritance of genius, 156, 215, 216.
Ireland, tour in, 64.
Italy, stay in, 19, 35, 36.

JENlN, 440.
Jerusalem, stay at, 426, et seq.
Jordan, 438.

KANT, and the " History of Civ-
ilization," 207-209.
Kent, anecdote of the Duchess of,

311; death, ibid.
Kingsley, correspondence with Mr.

Ch., 258.
Kintore, plan of the History written

for Lord, 61, 62.
Knowledge immortal, 64.

T EGISLATORS not reformers,

JLj 167, 168, 201.

Leonard's, stay at St., 307-314.

Leontes, the river, 445.

Library, description of Buckle's, 38,

126.
Linguistical knowledge, 19, 36, 37,

399.
Literature, and progress, 166 ; should

punish as well as persuade, 257 ;

epochs in, 318.

Literature, Royal Society of, 66.
Longmore, Mr., conversations with,

375, 376, 378, 409.
Love, a proof of immortality, 246-

248.

Loves, early, 51, 52, 350.
LyelPs " Geology," 89, 93

MACAULAY, Lord, death of,
292, 338 ; memory of, 407.

Macdonald, reception by Major, 413,
414.

Machiavelli and the " History of Civ-
ilization," 202.

Malta, 360.

Man not the center of the universe,
208.

Margate, stay at, 284, et seq., 320.

Mar Saba, 437.

Mass and individual, difference of
laws for the, 126, 133, 208.

Mazetta, trial of the, 405.

Memory, powerful, of Buckle, 67-71,

INDEX.

501

212, 399, 436; use of, in teaching,
92.

Merj, el, 449.

Mill, John Stuart, "Logic," 93, 318;
" Political Economy," 89, 93, 387,
388 ; " Essays," 290 ; " Utilitarian-
ism," 345 ; " On Liberty," 240, 241,
245 ; compared with Buckle, 360 ;
on Buckle, 438.

Miracles, conversation on, 436.

Mitchell, correspondence with Mrs.,
292, 317, 318, 319, 322, 331.

Montesquieu and the " History of "Civ-
ilization," 204-207.

Moral knowledge not a factor in the
progress of civilization, 126-129,
156, et seq., 211, 264, 287, 288, 289,
341, 342, 439.

Mourning, refusal to go into, for the
Duchess of Kent, 311 ; a sham
without sorrow, 326.

Munich, stay at, 36, 37.

Music, no knowledge of, 21, 22 ; acute-
ness of Buckle's ear to tone, 309,
324.

A-TABULUS, 440.

J-N Nahr el Kasimiyeh, 445.

Natural science, study of, by Buckle,

53, 63.

Nazareth, 441, 444.
Normandy, tour in, 53, 54.
Novels, the value of, 96, 97.
Nubia, journey in, 379, 380.
Nukb Badereh, 413.

ORIGINALITY defined, 187-191 ;
want of, in crime, 145, 146,
347, 348 ; in social life, 411.

PAINTINGS, views on, 36.
Parker, correspondence with
Mr., 100, 102, 104, 106, 114, 116,
117, 131, 216, 218, 230, 231, 240,

241, 257, 259, 268, 271, 272, 274,

275, 276, 285, 286.
Parker, correspondence with Mr. The-
odore, 135, 280/281.
Parsimony and avarice, the difference

between, 46, 47, 364.
Petra, stay at, 424, et seq., 428, 429.
Petrified forest, visit to the, 405, et

seq.

Phrenology, 63.

Pleasure, the importance of, 306.
Political economy, views on, 15, 84,

89, 93, 313.
Political Economy Club, election to

the, 215.

Political views, 15, 23.
Pooley's case, 241, 250-278, 285.
Practicality, 47, et seq., 98, 230, 231,

236, 237 ; little, of genius, 47.
Profession, ideas of taking a, 15, 17-

19, 37.
Pyramids, the, 385.

RAS el 'Ain, 445.
Reading, Buckle's course of,
as a child, 11 ; great power of, 24,
25, 39; method in, 39, 40; while
traveling, 54 ; not in public libra-
ries, 136.

Religion of Buckle, 14, 23, 198 ; effect
of, on progress, 162, 166, 198.

Residence of Buckle, 11, 24, 38.

Royal Institution, lecture at the, 216
-218.

Royal Society of Literature, 66.

Ruge, Dr., 295.

Russia, the " History of Civilization "
in, 124, 334, 335.

QIAMARITANS, the, 440.

O Skepticism, in what sense used

by Buckle, 141.
Schooling of Buckle, 12, 13.
Schools, girls', 312, 313.

502

INDEX.

Scotch history, 135, 174, 239, 240.

Sculpture, views on, 36.

Shirreff, Miss, acquaintance with, 75 ;
correspondence with, 76, 78, 80, 81,
82, 83, 85, 86, 87, 91, 93, 95, 96, 97,
98, 107, 108, 110, 111, 117, 118, 124,
219, 221, 223, 225, 226, 227, 229,
232, 233, 234, 235, 236, 261, 264,
280, 296, 317.

Sidon, 446.

Sinai, convent of, 415 ; ascent of, 415,
416.

"Skye,"336, 340.

Smoking, love of, 45, 46.

Sociability, 65, 66.

Spanish history, 135, 136, 174 ; Trans-
iation of the " History of Civiliza-
tion," 332, 334, 397.

Species, the origin of, 93, 292.

Spencer's " First Principles," 306.

Spirit rapping, 346, 347, 377, 380.

Stanley, opinion of Dean, 346, 454.

Style, study given to, 41, 42 ; beauty
of Buckle's, 42, 43 ; advice on, 80,
81.

Suez, 408.

Suez canal, the, 421.

Suicide, the sinfulness of, 305.

Sutton, stay at, 336-351.

TEA, how to make, 48.
Thackeray, correspondence with
Mr., 292.
Thebes, 372, 385.
Three states, Comte's law of the, 193,

210.

Tiberias, 443, 444.

Town and country, comparison be-
tween, 63, 63, 64, 77, 90, 106, 333.

Transcendentalism, 119, et seq., 154,

199.
Translations, place of, in literature,

109.

Travel, the importance of, 351.
Tunbridge Wells, stay at, 64, 107, et

seq., 230, 292.
Turquoise mines, 414.
Tyre, 445.

TILITARIANISM, 288, 345,365.

~T~T~AXITY worse than greediness,

V 313.
Vico and the " History of Civilization,"

200-205.

Vinci, Leonardo da, 303.
Voltaire and freedom, 253, 254.

WADY FEIRlN, 415.
Wady Ghurundel, 412.

Wady Magharah, 413.

Wady Mukatteb, 415.

Wady Taiyibeh, 412.

War, views on, 73.

Wheatstone, correspondence with Sir
Ch., 130.

Whitby, stay at, 332.

Women, and education, 78, 79, 92,
216, 229, 300, 312, 313, 324, et seq. ;
lecture on the influence of, 216 ; the
rights of, 242-244.

Woodhead, correspondence with Ma-
jor, 63; concerning Major, 119;
with Mrs., 244, 291, 332.

Work, power of, 212.

THE END.

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