BUCKLE, HENRY THOMAS, an author who attained a sudden notability in 1857 by the publication of the first volume of a work entitled The History of Civilization in Eng land. He was born at Lee, in Kent, Nov. 24, 1823, and was for a very short time at Dr. Holloway's school in Kentish-town, near London. No other school and n4 university claims credit for his education, which, nevertheless, was in the highest degree liberal. An easy fortune and a large library enabled Mr. B. to gratify, without any sort of impediment or restraint, an all-absorbing love of letters. After bringing out a second volume of his work in 1S61, he undertook a journey to the east, in order to restore his health and extend his knowledge. Having spent the winter in Egypt, he went over the desert to Syria, caught typhus fever by the way, and died at Damascus, May, 1862.
B.'s plan involved, before tracing the particular history of English civilization, a gen eral consideration of the progress of those European countries, England, France, Ger many, Scotland, Spain, and America, in which the elements of modern civilization are originally found. The two volumes published arc occupied with this preliminary ex amination, which they do not even complete. His objects, however, are clear. They are (1) to discover what is the essential spirit of a nation's history apart from particular men and events, and (2) to trace out the causes of the progress which has been made in England and France. Under the first head B. endeavors to show that the spirit or char
acter of a people is dependent on material circumstances, such as soil, climate, food, aspect of nature, and the like, and to be sought for in these; under the second head occurs the theory, the vigorous application of which by B. has startled and offended many readers—viz., that the progress of society depends upon skepticism; that the re tarding force is credulity; and that the excessive " protection 't exercised by governments, the nobility, the church, etc., over the " people," has dwarfed and held back the spirit of freedom and civilization. These and other positions are defended by B. with great in genuity and lucidity of argument and expression, and have been admitted, even by his opponents, to contain much sound truth. He is accused—perhaps not unjustly—of being often one-sided, and of drawing sweeping deductions from an imperfect survey of the facts. He is said to have been one of the chess-players in the world. See his Mis cellaneous and Posthumous Works, edited by Miss Helen Taylor; and Pilgrim Memories, by J. S. Stuart Glennie.