CHAP. XVII GEOGRAPHY AND CHARACTER 317 



they live, has been frequently pointed out by historians, ethno- 

 graphers, and geologists. Buckle, for example, in a well-known 

 passage in his History of Civilisation} has drawn a most in- 

 structive contrast between the geographical conditions of India 

 and of Greece, and shown how their influence can be traced in 

 the characters of the inhabitants of the two countries. Thus 

 he points out that in India nature is all-powerful ; for example, 

 the mountains are so high that they cannot be scaled, and the 

 rivers so broad that they cannot be bridged ; while the climate 

 is an alternation of torrid drought and torrential rains, of pro- 

 longed calms and irresistible tornadoes. The powers of man 

 are feeble in comparison, and he is therefore dwarfed and 

 overawed. In Greece, on the other hand, nature is moderate 

 in all things : the hills are low, the streams small, the rains 

 evenly distributed, and the climate temperate. Man's individual 

 development is therefore stimulated, and not repressed. In 

 India nature is colossal, and therefore man is puny. In Greece 

 nature is mild, and therefore man is strong. 



A similar connection between the temperament of the 

 Semites and the physical features of their surroundings has 

 been remarked by other writers. As Prof Keane expresses 

 it, the Semitic intellect is " less varied but more intense [than 

 the Aryan], a contrast due to the monotonous and almost 

 changeless environment of yellow sands, blue skies, flora and 

 fauna limited to a few species, and mainly confined to oases 

 and plains reclaimed by irrigation from the desert, everywhere 

 presenting the same uniform aspect. Hence to the Semites 

 mankind is indebted for little philosophy and science, but for 

 much sublime poetry associated with many profound concep- 

 tions of a moral order." "" Draper, again, has shown that 

 Europe illustrates the same principle ; for the climate of that 

 continent progressively modified the Asiatic tribes that entered 

 it, until they resembled the races among which they settled, 

 and until a condition of " ethnical equilibrium " had been thus 

 attained.^ 



und Gelehrten aus dein Dcutschen Schuizgehieteji and in the new Zcitschrift fiir afrika- 

 nische und ocea?iische Sprachen. 



^ H. T. Buckle, History of Civilisation in England {^A. 1885), vol. i. pp. 137-146. 



" Art. "Semitic Race," Cassell' s Storehouse of Infortnaiioti, vol. viii. (1894), p. 72. 



•* J. W. Draper, Hisfory of th^ Intellectual Development of Europe, vol. i. (ed. 1875), 

 PP- 34-35- 



