STATE HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. 1 65 



ordered his servants to set it uprij^ht again, and put fresh earth and ma- 

 nure around its roots. The 1 laniaihyad, who must necessarily have per- 

 ished with tlie tree, grateful for what he had done, appeared to him to 

 thank him, offering at the same time to grant any favor he might ask. 

 He replied, the act was one of piety, and the consciousness of having 

 performed his duty, was ample re\vard to him. She then promised to 

 hless him with continueil prosperity, that his fields should teem with 

 abundant harvests, and his flock increase a hundred fold, which accord- 

 ingly came to pass. But in the lapse of time a severe adverse calamity 

 hefel him. Th'nking that the Hamadryad had violated her promise, to 

 avenge himself he cut down the oak. Immediately he was paralyzed 

 and rendered helpless, his fountains no longer sent forth water, his streams 

 dried up, his lands, parched b\- drought, were sterile, and he finally perished 

 \\ ith luniger." 



This must suflice as evidence that in the earlier ages, ere history or 

 even tradition was born, man had learned an important lesson, which if 

 he had reduced to practice, the aspect of the globe and the distribution 

 of mankind would have been far different than what they no^v are. The 

 waters of the Dead Sea would still flow in to tli^e Gulf of Suez; the 

 river whose dry bed was traced by Belzoni through the centre of the 

 Great Sahara, and which is called by the Arabs " the river without an\' 

 water," would still bring its tribute to the Mediterranean. The plains of 

 Assyria and Babylon would still be the seats of opulence, population, 

 and power; Sahara, Gobi, and other deserts would find neither name nor 

 location on our maps; and Spain, Palestine, Egypt, and other arid and 

 sterile regions would still be the granaries of the world. 



There have been received certain sayings, as though they embodied 

 unquestionable historical truths; for instance, that the children of Adam 

 followed the Sun, and that " Westward the Star of Empire takes its 

 way." Some have gone so far as to suppose that innate instinct deter- 

 mined this assumed course in man. Like many other dogmas, accepted 

 as true without investigation, these sayings will not stand the ordeal of 

 close scrutinv. The migi-ations of the Toltecs and Aztecs, on our own 

 continent, ha\-e been from north to south, while those of the Egyptians 

 have been the reverse, from south to north. It is only true of the 

 Asiatics and Europeans that they migrate from east to west. Philo- 

 sophically, therefore, no innate law of humanity is even supposable as 

 presiding over, and directing these migrations. 



The direction of human migrations is not determined by an inherent 

 law; for, if it w^ere, it w^ould be as irreversible as solar and planetary 

 motion. It receives its entire impulse from a necessity imposed by man's 

 own agency. The edge of a forest being set on fire, the consuming 

 element travels necessarily in the direction not yet wasted by it. So it 

 is with man. He is a waster of forests, and hence in his migrations he 

 follows the receding forests, wdiether they lie norfli, east, south, or west. 



While man remained a savage, and lived by the chase, forests not 

 only supplied his simple wants, but also aftbrded him shelter alike 

 against the scorching heats of summer and chilling blasts of winter. 



