BUCKLE, I1ENuy THOMAS (1821-C2). An English historian, who became famous upon the publication of the first volume of the work en titled The History of Civilization. He was born at Lee, Kent, November 24, 1821, and came of a well-known London family of merchants and ship-owners. Ile was a delicate child, and after a short session at a school in Kentish Town his further studies, at his request, were pursued at home, under the direction of his father and mother. In his thirty-first year he had a knowl edge of nineteen modern languages. The death of his father in 1840 left him an independent fortune, which enabled him to travel and devote himself to literature. From 1840 to 1844 he traveled in Europe, and it was during this period that he resolved to write a history of the Middle Ages. In 1S51 he enlarged the scope of his work, and during the next six years was engaged in writing, rewriting, altering, and revising the first volume of his ist ory of ririlization, which appeared in 1857. It achieved immediate suc cess throughout Europe and America. Buckle was elected a member of various exclusive clubs, and on March 19, 1858, the first and only lecture that he ever delivered was given at the Royal Institute. Ilis topic was "The Intluenee of Women on the Progress of Knowledge." This lecture was published in Fraser's Magazine (London. April, 1858). The second volume of his History of Civilization appeared in January. 1861, and he then sought recuperation in travel through the Orient. Ile contracted typhus fever at Nazareth, and died at Damasens, :May 29, 1862, in his forty-first year.
Bilekle's fame has diminished rather than in creased with age. and critical estimates of his
work vary as to its value. Ilis great work is in reality an unfinished introduction. which seeks to establish history as an exact science, by a novel method of study and deduction. Before tracing the particular history of English civili zation, lie enters into a general consideration of the progress of those countries—Great Britain, Germany, France, Spain, and the United States —in which the elements of modern civilization originated. The two volumes are occupied with this preliminary examination, which they do not even complete. llis objects, however, are (dear. By ingenious but non-conclusive evidence lie maintains that climate, soil, food, and the mutabilities of nature form the character of a people; that skepticism is the true source of intellectual progress; that the retarding force is credulity; and that the excessive protection exer cised by governments, the nobility, the Church, and other agencies over the people, has dwarfed and retarded the spirit of freedom and civiliza tion. Idis, work is characterized by high ideals, vigor, and elegance of style; but although his arguments are admitted to contain much sound truth, he is accused of being frequently one sided, and of drawing sweeping deductions from an imperfect survey of facts. Consult: Miscel laneous and Posthumous Works of H. T. Buckle, edited by Miss Taylor (London. 1872; new edi tion by Grant Allen, 1885) : Huth, Life of (London, 1880) Robertson, Buckle and Ilis Critics ( London. 1895).