OUR HOMES. 61 



of soil and climate." Within a particular zone, these living forms 

 attain their full development, but deteriorate when transferred to 

 a difierent zone. Man is not an exception to this law. It is seen 

 that only on a limited portion of the earth's#Burface has man de- 

 veloped to the full extent his physical and intellectual vigor. 

 Naturally the weakest and most defenceless of the mammalia, 

 during- his long infancy his food mtist be artificially prepared and 

 his body artificially clothed. Below the other animals in keenness 

 of vision, in rapidity of movement, in strength, and in the acute- 

 ness of most of the senses, yet being endowed with reason, by its 

 exercise he can make up for all these deficiencies, can repel or sub- 

 due all other animals, and make them subservient to his uses. 

 " He can clothe himself to endure the rigor of^an arctic winter, 

 and can shield himself from the burning rays of a tropical sun ; he 

 can lay up a stock of provisions in one quarter of the globe to be 

 consumed in another;" and at this day the intellectual man, 

 through his intimate commercial relations, commands the luxui'ies 

 of every climate. " Other animals live in the immediate vicinity 

 of the region which affords them the means of subsistance, and 

 hence their migrations are determined by this cause." 



While, therefore, the range of man is greater than that of 

 any other organism, whether vegetable or animal, yet, out- 

 side of certain lines of temperature, that range is at the expense 

 of his physical and mental powers. At one extreme he becomes 

 eifeminate and incapable of vigorous and prolonged exertion ; at 

 the other he becomes dwarfed in stature, and so unremitting are 

 the exertions required to procure the means of sustenance, that 

 the animal propensities are developed at the expense of the intel- 

 lectual, and his instincts become little exalted above those of 

 the beasts of prey. In the region embracing the happy mean, 

 where the climate is such as to invigorate the system, and nature 

 is so far genial as to require the appropriation of a part of his time 

 onVy to secure the means of support, leaving a portion to be de- 

 voted to the cultivation of the intellect, man attains his full physi- 

 cal and intellectual development ; and here is seen that system of 

 artificial wants and refinements which is peculiarly the offspring 

 of a high civilization. 



This favored region is traced on the Eastern Hemisphere by the 

 isotherms of forty degrees and seventy degrees of mean tempera- 

 ture. In this zone has originated almost every name associated 

 with greatness. Outside of this zone a very different social econ- 



