earthquake felt in a given time is of small importance, but Mr. Buckle used this inaccurate statement to build a theory upon it, and he has repeated that statement with Professor Mallet's volume before him. In the teeth of this evidence, that the number of earthquakes, in the whole Peninsula, does not exceed one sixteenth of those recorded in other parts of Europe, he deliberately repeats his assertion, that in Spain there have 'been more earthquakes than in all other parts of Europe put ' together, Italy excepted.' Mr. Buckle inveighs with scornful compassion against critics, whom he accuses of ignorance and haste, and he challenges his readers to give the benefit of the 'doubt to the author of a deliberate and slowly concocted work.' But we submit that in this instance the hasty statement of the reviewer is infinitely nearer to the truth than the deliberate and slowly concocted misstatements of physical facts on which Mr. Buckle has erected his fantastic theory of Spanish superstition.*

-

But let us now revert to the passage just quoted. Mr. Buckle asserts that except in the northern extremity of Spain, the heat and dryness of the soil are favoured by the extreme difficulty of irrigation. Now, it so happens, and it is inconceivable that Mr. Buckle should be ignorant of the fact, that the most ancient and the most perfect systems of irrigation to be seen in Europe occur in the south of Spain, especially in the Vega of Granada and the Huerta of Valencia, and nothing can surpass the fertility of those favoured regions. But what is the reason? These works were constructed by the Moors. They remain to this

* Mr. Buckle complains with great bitterness of his anonymous critics, but all his critics are not anonymous: for example, in a letter written by M. de Tocqueville to one of his friends in May, 1858, and published in his Correspondence, we find the following passage:

'Have you heard of a book which has just come out, and which has suddenly raised its author, previously unknown, to the dimensions of a first class lion? This noble animal is called Mr. Buckle. His book is an introduction, in 800 pages, to a history of mankind (that is all), which he proposes successively to publish. The spirit of the work seems to me to merit especial attention. It is illiberal and passionately anti-Christian. Is it not strange that such doctrines as these can lead to a great literary success in England, where I was told the other day that every year the restraint of religious traditions became more strict and almost tyrannical?' (Tocqueville Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 438.)

It is not undeserving of remark that Mr. Buckle's first volume called forth these expressions of derision and aversion from one of the most liberal and philosophical thinkers of this age.

day a monument of their ingenuity and industry; and they prove that the deplorable condition of agriculture throughout a great part of Spain arises not from natural and general causes of climate and soil, but from the habits and character of the present inhabitants of the country. Spain has been inhabited in different ages by many different races. Her provinces still bear the stamp of an extreme dissimilarity. A Catalan and an Andalusiana Castilian and a Gallego are not sons of the same mother. Quantos payzes, tantos costumbres. The Spain of Rome, with her Boetic legion, encamped round the walls of Italica or Cordova, was one dominion; the Spain of the Moorish dynasties, then at the highest pitch of Mohammedan civilisation, wealth, taste, and learning, was another empire; the Spain of Christian faith and Christian chivalry, long pent in the Sierras of the North, and divided among a heptarchy of princes, fought its way through eight centuries of bloodshed, until it culminated in the triumph of the Catholic kings. Under these successive revolutions the face of the country has more than once been entirely transformed. Population has risen and declined-agriculture has been perfected and forsaken-literature, art, architecture, have undergone the same vicissitudes. But if the fate of nations is predetermined by fixed natural causes, these have never varied. It is man, not the soil or the climate, that has changed. And as it is certain that nothing can be more dissimilar than the state of Spain in these different periods of her history, we are led irresistibly to the conclusion, that the fixed natural aspect of a country is but a secondary element in its destiny; and that its history consists not in the fertility or aridity of its soil, but in the character of the race inhabiting it, and the events by which they are affected. Indeed, Mr. Buckle himself is so far aware of these facts that after having spoken at page 7, of the 'difficulty of establishing habits of agricultural industry' in Spain, he states, at page 65, that the best systems of husbandry then known were practised by the Moriscoes, who tilled and irrigated with indefatigable • labour.' These contradictions are not uncommon with Mr. Buckle. In the next page, after describing the pastoral condition of Spain, he adds: —

'Under such circumstances every thing grew precarious, restless, and unsettled; thought and inquiry were impossible; doubt was unknown; and the way was prepared for those superstitious habits, and for that deep-rooted and tenacious belief, which have always formed a principal feature in the history of the Spanish nation.' (P. 8.)

We are at a loss to conceive how it comes to pass, that when

everything is precarious, restless, and unsettled,' 'thought and inquiry are impossible,' and the way is prepared for 'deep and ⚫ tenacious belief.' Mr. Buckle's own philosophy is essentially precarious, restless, and unsettled; but we have no apprehension that it will ever lapse into a deep and tenacious belief.

Mr. Buckle has well pointed out that the history of Spain is conspicuously marked by three great contests, all of them partaking of a religious character, and exciting the religious passions of the inhabitants. The first was the contest of the Arian Goths against the Frankish Catholics, in the sixth century, when the war for national independence became a war for national religion, and an intimate alliance was formed between the Arian kings and the Arian clergy. The second was the contest with the Moors; the third was the contest with the Reformation. But in the Arian war Spain was on the side of liberal and national opinions, assailed by the authority of the Roman Church. Late in the sixth century, the Latin clergy converted their Gothic masters, and the Spanish government becoming orthodox,' says Mr. Buckle, naturally conferred upon its teachers an authority equal to that wielded by the 'Arian hierarchy.'* The inference is questionable, and the phrase Spanish government,' as applied to the Reyes Gotos' of the seventh century, still more so; but the fact that great power was early acquired by the Church in Spain is certain. We venture, in spite of Mr. Buckle, to think that it was fortunate for the future existence of the country as a Christian nation that it was so. For what occurred in the following century?

6

'In 711 the Mohammedans sailed from Africa, landed in the south of Spain, and in the space of three years conquered the whole country, except the almost inaccessible regions of the north-west. The Spaniards, secure in their native mountains, soon recovered heart, rallied their forces, and began in their turn to assail the invaders. A desperate struggle ensued, which lasted nearly eight centuries, and in which, a second time in the history of Spain, a war for independence was also a war for religion; the contest between Arabian Infidels and Spanish Christians, succeeding that formerly carried on between the Trinitarians of France and the Arians of Spain. Slowly, and with infinite difficulty, the Christians fought

* Mr. Buckle is hardly warranted in placing the conversion of the Spanish clergy to Latin orthodoxy in the sixth century. The first mass according to the Roman form was celebrated in Aragon, in the monastery of St. Juan de la Pena, on the 21st of March, 1071, and in Castile, in the Grand Mosque of Toledo, on the 21st of October 1086. (Macrie, 'Reformation in Spain,' vol. iii. p. 13.)

their way. By the middle of the ninth century, they reached the line of the Douro. Before the close of the eleventh century, they conquered as far as the Tagus, and Toledo, their ancient capital, fell into their hands in 1085. Even then much remained to be done. In the south, the struggle assumed its deadliest form, and there it was prolonged with such obstinacy, that it was not until the capture of Malaga in 1487, and of Granada in 1492, that the Christian empire was re-established, and the old Spanish monarchy finally restored.

The effect of all this on the Spanish character was most remarkable. During eight successive centuries, the whole country was engaged in a religious crusade; and those holy wars which other nations occasionally waged, were, in Spain, prolonged and continued for more than twenty generations. The object being not only to regain a territory, but also to re-establish a creed, it naturally happened that the expounders of that creed assumed a prominent and important position. In the camp and in the council-chamber, the voice of ecclesiastics was heard and obeyed; for as the war aimed at the propagation of Christianity, it seemed right that her ministers should play a conspicuous part in a matter which particularly concerned them.

Under circumstances like these, the clergy could not fail to extend their influence; or, we may rather say, the course of events extended it for them. The Spanish Christians, pent up for a considerable time in the mountains of Asturias, and deprived of their former resources, quickly degenerated, and soon lost the scanty civilization to which they had attained. Stripped of all their wealth, and confined to what was comparatively a barren region, they relapsed into barbarism, and remained, for at least a century, without arts, or commerce, or literature. As their ignorance increased, so also did their superstition; while this last, in its turn, strengthened the authority of their priests. The order of affairs, therefore, was very natural. The Mohammedan invasion made the Christians poor; poverty caused ignorance; ignorance caused credulity; and credulity, depriving men both of the power and of the desire to investigate for themselves, encouraged a reverential spirit, and confirmed those submissive habits, and that blind obedience to the Church, which form the leading and most unfortunate peculiarity of Spanish history.' (Pp. 13-17.)

But in his anxiety to denounce the two great curses of human society, loyalty and superstition, Mr. Buckle fails to perceive that there may be circumstances, and in Spain there were circumstances, which render even these degrading passions subservient, and indeed essential, to the cause of national existence. What is it that in Eastern Europe has kept alive the spirit of a nation under the detestable yoke of Turkish oppression? The profound attachment of the Greeks to the Eastern Church. What was it that enabled the Spaniard to carry on this tremendous contest of eight centuries? His

VOL. CXIV. NO. CCXXXI.

enthusiastic-if you will, his fanatical-devotion to the Cross and to the Crown. His existence was a perpetual crusade. The cause of his sovereign was the cause of Heaven. These are high-flown sentiments, which Mr. Buckle views with extreme compassion. But the practical result of them was, that Spain resumed her place amongst the Christian nations of Europe, and that if she had had less of bigotry or less of faith, she might have remained subject to a Moorish Khalifate, and have sunk into the condition of those once flourishing Christian provinces which still bear the burden of Mohammedan rulers. Indeed, Mr. Buckle himself acknowledges the force of this argument in another place, where he says that, nothing but the strictest discipline and the most unhesitating obedience could have ' enabled the Spaniards to make head against their enemies. Loyalty to their princes became not only expedient, but neces'sary' (p. 28.). And in another place: the Church and the Crown, making common cause with each other, and being inspirited by the cordial support of the people, threw their 'whole soul into their enterprises, and displayed an ardour which 'could hardly fail to insure success' (p. 34.). Yet he considers these results as only apparently beneficial,' and in the end unsound and even pernicious.

Mr. Prescott has related the same events in a far more philosophical spirit; and however we may deplore with him that this religious fervour of the Spanish character, settled in later days into a fierce fanaticism, it bespeaks an illiberal and partial mind not to recognise the glory which encircled the throne of Isabella the Catholic, the statesmanship of Ferdinand, and even the wisdom and benevolence of such a priest as Cardinal Cisneros. It is true that the religious motive predominated over all other motives in their minds. They engaged in the wars of Granada less to acquire territory than to regain the ancient domain of Christendom; and the same spirit animated Isabella when she engaged in that other enterprise which was to give a hemisphere to her descendants. It is equally true that this religious motive was, after the manner of that age, deeply tinged with intolerance and bigotry. But Mr. Buckle's mind is so constituted, that he sees and abhors the intolerance and the bigotry, without acknowledging the elevation of the motive or the grandeur of the result. Intolerance and bigotry are everywhere hateful, and nowhere so hateful as when they taint the purity and contract the range of noble minds. But what shall we say of an historian who, in dealing with the annals of Spain, and such personages as Isabella and Charles V., can find nothing to record of them but their acts of persecution?

Indeed, to such extravagant lengths has Mr. Buckle carried