112 Bai*on Alexandei* von Humboldt on the Physiognomy 



in which the horizontal division of a continent, or the higher 

 development of its form, operates as Avell on the civilization 

 as on the whole state of cultivation of nations ; for he ascribes 

 peculiar advantages to the very vai'ied configuration of our 

 small continent.* Africaf and South America, which, in 

 other respects also, exhibit so close a resemblance in their con- 

 figuration, have, of all the great masses of land, the simplest 

 foiTH of coasts. It is only the eastern coast of Asia which, 

 being, as it were, broken up by the eastern currents of the 

 sea| (^fractus ex cequore terras), presents a configuration of a 

 very varied natux'e. There we have peninsulas and neigh- 

 bouring islands alternating with one another from the equa- 

 tor to lat. 60'. 



The Atlantic ocean presents all the characters of a great 



inii3ortant to climatology and human civilization, of continents having 

 uniform, and those having indented coasts : — " Begioncs vcl per sinus luna- 

 tos in longa cornua porrectce, angulosis littorum recessibus quasi membratim 

 discerplce, vel spatia patcntia in immcnsiim, quorum littoranullis incisa angvlis 

 ambit sine anfractu Oceamts" (pp. 81 and 182.) With regard to the relation 

 of the extent of coasts to the area of the continent (which is, at the same 

 time, the measure of the accessibility of the interior), see my investiga- 

 tions in Berghaus Annalen dcr Erdhinde, vol. xii., 1835, p. 490, and P%- 

 sikal. Alias, 1839, No. 3. p. 69. 



* Strabo, lib. ii., p. 126, Casaub. 



t Pliny, (v. i.) says of Africa — Nee alia pars terrarum pauciores recipit 

 sinus. The small Indian peninsula on this side of the Ganges, with its 

 triangular shape, also presents a third very analogous form. In the ancient 

 literature of Greece, opinions prevailed of a regular configuration of the 

 solid land. It was said that there were four gulfs, of which the Persian 

 was placed opposite to the HjTcanian {i. e. to the Caspian Sea) — (Arrian, 

 vii., 16 ; Plut. in Vita Alexandri, cap. 44 ; Dionys. Perieg., v., 48, and 

 630, pp. 11 and 38, Bernh.) The four gulfs and the isthmuses were 

 even alleged, according to the optical fancies of Agesianarus, to be re- 

 flected on the disc of the moon (Phit. dc Facie in Orbe Lunce, pp. 921, 19.) 

 Regarding the terra q^tadrifida, or the four solid lands, of which two were 

 said to lie to the north, and two to the south, of the equator, see Ma- 

 crobius, Comm, in Son nium Sei2nonis, ii., 9. I have subjected this portion 

 of ancient geography', as to which much perplexity prevails, to a new 

 and careful examination, in my Examen Crit. dc I'Hist. de la Geogr, t. i., 

 p, 119, 145, 180-185; and also my Asie Centrale, t. ii., pp. 172-178. 



t Fleurieu ia the Voyage dc Marchand Anio^ir du Monde, t. iv., 

 pp. 33-42. 



