Chap. V. CIVILISED NATIONS. 167 



" shewn a particle of desire that its civil institutions 

 " should be improved." Progress seems to depend on 

 many concurrent favourable conditions, far too complex 

 to be followed out. But it has often been remarked, that 

 a cool climate from leading to industry and the various 

 arts has been highly favourable, or even indispensable 

 for this end. The Esquimaux, pressed by hard necessity, 

 have succeeded in many ingenious inventions, but their 

 climate has been too severe for continued progress. 

 Nomadic habits, whether over wide plains, or through 

 the dense forests of the tropics, or along the shores of 

 the sea, have in every case been highly detrimental. 

 Whilst observing the barbarous inhabitants of Tierra 

 del Fuego, it struck me that the possession of some 

 property, a fixed abode, and the union of many families 

 under a chief, were the indispensable requisites for 

 civilisation. Such habits almost necessitate the culti- 

 vation of the ground ; and the first steps in cultivation 

 would probably result, as I have elsewhere shewn, 9 from 

 some such accident as the seeds of a fruit-tree falling 

 on a heap of refuse and producing an unusually fine 

 variety. The problem, however, of the first advance of 

 savages towards civilisation is at present much too diffi- 

 cult to be solved. 



Natural Selection as affecting Civilised Nations. — In 

 the last and present chapters I have considered the 

 advancement of man from a former semi-human con- 

 dition to his present state as a barbarian. But some 

 remarks on the agencv of natural selection on civilised 

 nations may be here worth adding. This subject has 

 been ably discussed by Mr. W. R. Greg, 10 and previously 



9 ' The Variation of Animals and Plants under Domestication,' vol. i. 

 p. 309. 



10 ' Fraser's Magazine,' Sept. 1868, p. 353. This article seems to 

 have struck many persons, and has given rise to two remarkable essays 



