264 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY 



scenes of the most important historical developments for several cen- 

 turies. From the temperate zones have come the great explorers and 

 adventurers of the past, and are coming the exploiters and colonizers 

 of to-day. In the occurrence of the temperate zone seasons lies much 

 of the secret — who can say how much of it? — of the energy, ambition, 

 self-reliance, industry, thrift, of the inhabitants of the temperate 

 zones. The monotonous heat of the tropics and the continued cold of 

 the polar zones are both depressing. Their tendency is to operate 

 against man's highest development. The seasonal changes of the tem- 

 perate zones stimulate man to activity. They develop him physically 

 and mentally. They encourage higher civilization. A cold, stormy 

 winter necessitates forethought in the preparation of clothing, food and 

 shelter during the summer. Carefully planned, steady, hard labor is 

 the price of living in these zones. Development must result from such 

 conditions. In the warm, moist tropics, life is too easy. In the cold 

 polar zones it is too hard. Temperate zone man can bring in what he 

 desires of polar and tropical products, and himself raises what he 

 needs in the great variety of climates of the intermediate latitudes. 

 Near the poles the growing season is too short. In the moist tropics it 

 is so long that there is little inducement to labor at any special time. 

 The regularity and the need of outdoor work during a part of the year 

 are important factors in the development of man in the temperate 

 zones. Where work is a necessity for all, labor becomes dignified, well- 

 paid, intelligent, independent. Behind our civilization there lies what 

 has been well called a " climatic discipline " — the discipline of a cool 

 season which shall refresh and stimulate, both physically and mentally, 

 and prevent the deadening effect of continued heat. On the other hand, 

 a very long winter is about as unfavorable as a very long summer. If 

 outdoor work is seriously interrupted, progress is retarded. It is not 

 surprising to learn that the difficulty of keeping farm-hands through 

 the long winter has in the past been a handicap in western Canada, 

 and that it was urged against the abolition of slavery in Eussia that it 

 would be impossible, without some form of compulsion, to keep farm- 

 hands through the winter. 



Northward Movement of Civilization in the North Temperate Zone. 

 — The gradual migration of the center of civilization away from the 

 tropics, and the highest development of the human race, not where life 

 is easiest, but in extra-tropical latitudes, are significant. " Slowly 

 but surely," as Benjamin Kidd says, 3 " we see the seat of empire arid 

 authority moving like the advancing tide northward. The evolution of 

 character which the race has undergone has been northwards from the 

 tropics." From the Mediterranean region, where the world's civiliza- 

 tion, its commerce and its power were long centered, westward through 

 Spain and Portugal, the migration continued farther and farther 



'"Control of the Tropics," 51-52. 



