20 
and so far, he is responsible for the resulis of his circumstances 
upon himself. We cannot say this of the animals below him; 
they lack this power of guiding and arranging; in modern para- 
phrase, they are the result of their environment—of their physical 
surroundings. This environment, asit changes through the ages, 
so re-acts upon them that they are compelled either to change 
also, or else to disappear. But man, in his proud self-conscious- 
ness, in spite of all the metaphysician and the philosopher may say, 
thinks and feels himself to be well-nigh independent of his surround- 
ings,—that he is ruler and lord of the earth,—that he can shape 
his own destinies.—and that if he cannot altogether resist physical 
influences, as indeed he would not wish to do, he can toa large 
extent choose them for himself. 
Not altogether so; yet at the present time it is trué to a greater 
extent than it has ever been before. Now, in this age of science, 
theoretical and practical, he laughs at nature, scorns her power, 
and compels her to serve him. The massive mountain ranges have 
no terror for him; he bores holes through them, calls them 
tunnels, and rides through them on his iron horse. The sea does 
him service by bearing up his fleets for commerce or for war; even 
the depths of ocean have been compelled to yield up their secrets 
to him, and he is quite prepared to bore holes even down there. 
Distance is nothing ; he talks audibly with his friend 500 miles 
away, he has harnessed the lightning, and forced it (in a milder 
mood) to carry his messages round and round the globe. Certainly 
now, if ever, it is true only to a-small extent, that ‘‘man is the 
creature of circumstances.” 
But it was not always so,—certainly not in the old stages of 
man’s history. The farther back we carry our studies in the 
development of mankind, the less able we find him to control or 
even to guide the circumstances of his environment; the more we 
find him controlled and guided by nature itself, until at last we 
see him raised only a little above the level of the other creatures, 
as much acted on by his physical surroundings as any of them. 
And then he developed in different directions, along different lines ; 
according to these influences, the man of the hot plains of India 
developed differently to the man of Siberian wastes; the man of 
the mountain and plateau differently to the man of the valley and 
plain ; the man of the forest differently to the man of the dreary 
steppes. And hence we find tribes possessing different characters, 
differing in powers and capabilities ;—some energetic, prepared to 
overcome any difficulty that may present itself; some, always 
ready to give way under it ;—one country noted for its patriotism 
its ‘* Courage never to submit or yield;” another for its pusillan- 
imity ;—one people marked out for empire and victory, another 
fit only to be slaves. 
