d that as
the intellect is enlightened, their influences become circumscribed, and
must gradually almost entirely disappear. In the primitive state of the
race, climate, soil, food, and scenery, are all-powerful; but among an
enlightened people, the effects of heat and cold, of barren or
exceedingly productive soils, etc., are entirely modified. This omission
has given his enemies an excellent opportunity for a display of their
refutory powers, of which they have not failed to avail themselves.

The historian is a theorist, yet no controversialist. He states his
facts, and draws his conclusions, as if no ideas different from his own
had ever been promulgated. He never attempts to show the fallacies of
any other author, but readily understands that if he establishes his
system of philosophy, all contrary ones must fall. How fortunate it
would have been for the human race, if all innovators and reformers had
done the same!

That which adds to the regrets occasioned by his loss, which must be
entertained by every American, is the circumstance that his forthcoming
volume was to be devoted to the social and political condition of the
United States, as an example of a country in which existed a general
diffusion of knowledge. Knowing, as all his readers do, that his
sympathies are democratic, and in favor of the elevation of the masses,
we had a right to expect a vindication-the first we ever had--from an
English source. At the time of his death he was traveling through Europe
and Asia for his health, intending to arrive in this country in autumn,
to procure facts as a basis for his third volume, and the last of his
introduction.

Although his work is an unfinished one, it will remain a lasting
monument to the industry of its author. He has done enough to exhibit
the necessity of studying and writing history, henceforth as a
_science_; and of replacing the chaotic fragments of narrative, called
history, with which the world abounds, by a systematic statement of
facts, and philosophical deductions. Some other author, with sufficient
energy and industry, will--not finish the work of Mr. Buckle, but--write
another in which the faults of the original will be corrected, and the
omissions filled; who will go farther in defining the relative
influences of the three powers which control civilization, during the
different stages of human progress.

AN ANGEL ON EARTH.

Die when you may, you will not wear
At heaven's co