56 NATIVES OF GREENLAND. 



energy, activity, and simplicity ; the other comparatively 

 gross, plodding, and inactive. The mountaineer, striding 

 over his hills, is roused to action by the gust that shakes 

 the oak above his slumber ; a light meal fits him for the 

 toils of hardy life ; and in the quick ardent glance, and 

 sinewy step, are evolved those energies derived to him 

 from his situation, and which he fancies have descended to 

 him from his sire. Rarely, however, is such a situation the 

 nursery of science. It is in the champaign country that 

 the historian will find the origin of all those arts by which 

 modern society is now so much improved. 



The early dispersion of mankind could not have been at- 

 tended with those remarkable effects all at once. Centuries 

 must have passed before the various ramifications could drop 

 into separate nations ; and climate, situation, and habits 

 must have exercised their powers long before national dis- 

 tinctions could be recognized. The tide of population de- 

 scending into the more temperate regions, spread over the 

 limits of Europe, and filled it with a race of men who were 

 equally removed from the enervating softness of Asiatic 

 climate, and the more severe and chilling influence of frost. 

 On this point rests the main distinction. 



Heat, as has been before observed, when in excess, pro- 

 duces effects similar to those of excessive cold. Hence 

 as population is traced north or south from a certain 

 assumed line, the high, august forehead, the erect figure, 



