THE MORAL INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 41 



inundated all the coast-lands of the Mediterranean originally 

 emanated from the plains of Latium ; and, if Mr. Katkoff's prog- 

 nosis should be fulfilled by the disintegration of the American 

 Union, it would be safe to predict that the larger part of our 

 present territory would be reconsolidated by some eupeptic low- 

 land State, Missouri or Michigan, and that the Alleghanies 

 would maintain their independence by the stubborn resistance 

 of their highlanders. The nomadic herders of western Texas, 

 too, might prolong that resistance for many years ; but, on the 

 whole, the march of the new empire would follow the course of 

 the Mississippi, for the double reason that the stream of con- 

 quest has generally moved seaward and southward. Russia will 

 not rest till her fleet rides the eastern Mediterranean as well as 

 the Euxine. Tamerlane avowedly intended to extend his empire 

 to the Atlantic ; and, from the campaigns of King Cyrus to the 

 expansive enterprises of Victor Emanuel, nine out of ten inter- 

 national wars have ended with the victory of northern nations 

 over their southern neighbors. The goddess of fortune would 

 decline to be crowned with a fur cap, and the sun of the south 

 that turns a lynx into a lion does not necessarily reverse the 

 process in the case of the human animal ; but it is true that a 

 rigorous climate evolves superior " staying power," and in war 

 ■the last shout is worth a dozen challenges. The history of Eu- 

 rope might, indeed, encourage the idea that certain northern na- 

 tions love war for its own sake, though Prof. Vogt informs 

 us that gratuitous combativeness is a sign of specific inferiority. 

 " Ants and wasps that tackle every wayfarer," says he, " can not 

 compete with the species that reserve their energy for serious 

 emergencies, and without the protection of the dog-fancier the 

 breed of bull-dogs would speedily succumb to their preposterous 

 propensities." Waspish aggressiveness would rather seem to be 

 a product of sterile plains, that appear to bristle with stilettos as 

 spontaneously as with cactus-thorns — the brigandage of Turkis- 

 tan and stony Araby having its exact analogue in the kidnap- 

 ping and train-robbing rowdyism of our arid Southwest. 



Nor is it quite certain that the " Instinct of industry " can be 

 considered an exclusive product of the higher latitudes. When 

 all northern Europe was still slouching in bear-skins, Egypt and 

 Phoenicia were buzzing hives of industrial activity. Our North 

 American Indians had only wigwams when Mexico was studded 

 with palaces. But here, too, the virtue of perseverance seems to 

 have prevailed against the talent of initiation, and the energy of 

 the North, Once started in the arena of industrial competition, 

 has managed to distance the earlier enterprise of the South. 



Civilization, in the modern sense of the word, is, however, to 

 a large extent founded on the activity of the instincts of co-op- 



