Writing History of Civilization in England[edit]
In July 1840 Buckle, his mother, and his sister Mary spent almost a year in Europe, with "extended stays in Germany, Italy, and France. Buckle studied the language, literature, and history of each place they visited." Buckle taught himself to read eighteen foreign languages.[5]
By 1840, Buckle had decided "to direct all his reading and to devote all his energies to the preparation of some great historical work". During the next seventeen years he worked ten hours a day toward that purpose. By 1851 Buckle had decided that his "great historical work" would be "a history of civilization". During the next six years, he was engaged "in writing and rewriting, altering and revising the first volume". It was titled the History of Civilization in England and was published in June 1857.[6]
Private life[edit]
Because he was uneasy about his health, Buckle "rose, worked, walked, dined, and retired with remarkable regularity". His inheritance "enabled him to live comfortably", but he spent money prudently with two exceptions: fine cigars and his collection of 22,000 books. Buckle and his mother enjoyed giving dinners for friends and dining out. Buckle was mostly deemed to be "a good conversationalist" because of his "deep knowledge of a wide range of subjects". On the other hand, some thought him "tedious or egotistical" with a tendency "to dominate conversations". He won the first British chess tournament in 1849.[5]
False accusation[edit]
The pornographic publisher John Camden Hotten claimed that his series of flagellation reprints The Library Illustrative of Social Progress had been taken from Buckle's collection, but this was untrue, as reported by Henry Spencer Ashbee.[8][9]
Death of his mother (1859)[edit]
On 1 April 1859, Buckle's mother died. Shortly after, under the influence of this "crushing and desolating affliction", he added an argument for immortality to a review he was writing of John Stuart Mill's essay On Liberty.[6] Buckle's argument was not based on theologians "with their books, their dogmas, their traditions, their rituals, their records, and their other perishable contrivances". Rather he based his argument on "the universality of the affections; the yearning of every mind to care for something out of itself". Buckle asserted "it is in the need of loving and of being loved, that the highest instincts of our nature are first revealed." As if reflecting on his mother's death, Buckle continued that "as long as we are with those whom we love ..., we rejoice. But when "the enemy [death]" approaches, "when the very signs of life are mute ... and there lies before us nought save the shell and husk of what we loved too well, then truly, if we believed the separation were final ... the best of us would succumb, but for the deep conviction that all is not really over." We have "a forecast of another and a higher state". Thus, Buckle concludes, "it is, then, to that sense of immortality with which the affections inspire us, that I would appeal for the best proof of the reality of a future life".
He also said, "If immortality be untrue it matters little if anything else be true or not."[10]
Other women in Buckle's life[edit]
Although love for his mother dominated his life, there were other instances of his love for women. At seventeen, he fell in love with a cousin and "challenged a man to whom she was engaged". He fell for another cousin, but his parents objected.[11]
In 1861, when Buckle went to Egypt, he invited "one Elizabeth Faunch, the widow of a carpenter, to join him.... Mrs. Faunch refused his invitation, but there is some evidence that the two had been engaged in a liaison for some time."[5]
Last travels and death[edit]
The death of his mother in 1859 combined with the exhausting work on the second volume of the History of Civilization in England and its publication in 1861 invoked a decision by Buckle to go to Egypt to recover from exhaustion. He toured Egypt. Then, feeling better, Buckle traveled to Palestine and Syria. He died of typhoid fever in Damascus, Syria, on 29 May 1862 and was buried there. A sister provided a gravestone with the epitaph "I know that he shall rise again". The sister of the British consul in Damascus added: "The written word remains long after the writer; The writer is resting under the earth, but his works endure".[5]
"The Influence of Women on the Progress of Knowledge"
"Mill on Liberty" (a review)
A Letter to a Gentleman respecting Pooley's Case
History of Civilization in England
Three volumes edition
Fragment on the Reign of Elizabeth
Unpublished fragments
The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle
Three volumes edition, edited by Helen Taylor
The Miscellaneous and Posthumous Works of Henry Thomas Buckle
Two volumes new and abridged edition, edited by Grant Allen
Collected essays
One volume, editor not named
On Scotland and the Scotch Intellect, University of Chicago Press (1970). ("Consists of the introductory matter from v. 1 of the 1st ed. of the author's History of civilization in England (London, 1857) and the Scottish sections of the first and only ed. of v. 2 (London, 1861) plus his "Analytical table of contents ... All omissions are indicated by ellipses.") xxxviii, 414 p. 23 cm.
