ANTAGONISM BETWEEN MAN AND NATURE. 181 



tutions constitute, indeed, great revolutions ; but vast as is their magnitude 

 and importance, they are, as we shall see, insignificant in comparison with 



the contingent and unsought results which have flowed from them 



In short, without man, lower animal and spontaneous vegetable life would 

 have been practically constant in type, distribution, and proportion, and the 

 physical geography of the earth would have remained undisturbed for indefi- 

 nite periods, and been subject to revolution only from slow development, 



from possible, unknown cosmical causes, or from geological action 



There are parts of Asia Minor, of Northern Africa, of Greece, and even 

 of Alpine Europe, where the operation of causes set in action by man has 

 brouo-ht the flice of the earth to a desolation almost as complete as that of 

 the moon ; and though, within that brief space of time which we call 'the 

 historical period,' they are known to have been covered with luxuriant woods, 

 verdant pastures, and fertile meadows, they are now too far deteriorated to 

 be reclaimable by man, nor can they again become fitted for liuman use, 

 except through great geological changes, or other mysterious influences or 

 agencies of which we liave no present knowledge, and over which we have 

 no prospective control. The earth is fast becoming an unfit home for its 

 noblest inhabitant, and another era of equal human crime and human im- 

 providence, and of like duration with that through which traces of that 

 crime and that improvidence extend, would reduce it to such a condition 

 of impoverished productiveness, of shattered surface, of climatic excess, as 

 to threaten the depravation, barbarism, and perhaps even extinction of the 

 species." * 



The above quotation has been extended to considerable length, partly 

 because it seemed necessary to do so in order that the author's ideas might 

 be fairly displayed, and partly, also, because the work from which the extract 

 has been made is one which has passed through several editions,! and which 

 is generally considered to be of high authority. It is not easy to make out 

 exactly in what really consists this assumed destructive influence of man, 

 the alarming consequences of which are so vividly depicted in the volume 

 in question. A perusal of the whole work gives the strong impression that 

 by far the most important agency in the business is the cutting down of the 

 forests, the disastrous effect of which on climate, as maintained by so many 

 writers, has already been so fully set forth and commented on in the pre- 



* 1. c, pp. 34 - 44, passim. 



t It has also been translated .and republished in Europe, with marked approval. 



