The work which Mr. Buckle contemplated was designed to supply this
_desideratum_ in respect to History. It was an endeavor to discover 'the
Principles which govern the character and destiny of nations,' an effort
'to bring up this great department of inquiry to a level with other
departments,' 'to accomplish for the history of man something
equivalent, or at all events analogous to, what has been effected by
other inquirers for the different branches of Natural Science,' and 'to
elevate the study of history from its present crude and informal state,'
and place 'it in its proper rank, as the head and chief of all the
Sciences.'

At the outset of his undertaking, we have ample evidence that the
capacious-minded Englishman had fixed upon no less a labor than '_to
solve the great problem of affairs; to detect those hidden circumstances
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, which is
nothing less than to unite into a single science all the laws of the
moral and physical world_.' He was thus bent, doubtless with only a
vague apprehension of the nature of the problem, on the discovery of
that Unitary Law, whose apprehension is so anxiously awaited, _which is
to cement the various branches of our Knowledge into a Universal
Science, and furnish an Exact basis for all our thinking_.

The Method which Mr. Buckle employed in the prosecution of his
magnificent design was the Inductive. He made 'a collection of
historical and scientific facts,' drew from them such conclusions as he
thought they suggested and authorized; and then applied the
Generalizations thus obtained to the elucidation of the career of
various countries. When we consider the nature of the work undertaken