352 Comparative Physical Geography. 



The continents of the North considered as the theatre of His- 

 tory ; u4sia-Europe ; contrast of the North and South ; its in- 

 fluence in history ; conflict of the barbarous nations of the 

 North nitii the civilized nations of the South ; contrast of 

 the East and West ; Eastern Asia a continent by itself and 

 complete ; its nature ; the Munyolian Race belongs peculiarly 

 to it ; character of its civilization ; superiority of the Hindoo 

 Civilization ; reason why these Nations have remained sta- 

 tionary ; Western Asia and Europe ; the country of the truly 

 historical races ; Western Asia ; physical description ; its his- 

 torical character ; Europe — the best organized for the deve- 

 lopment of man and of societies ; America — future to which it 

 is destined by its physical nature. 



The result of the comparison which we have made between the 

 northern continents and the southern continents,* in their most ge- 

 neral characteristics, has convinced us, if I do not deceive myself, 

 that what distinguishes the former is not the wealth of nature and 

 the abundance of physical life, but the aptitude which their struc- 

 ture, their situation, and their climate, give them, to minister to the 

 development of man, and to become thus the seat of a life much su- 

 perior to that of nature. The three continents of the north, with 

 their more perfect races, their civilized people, have appeared as the 

 historical continents, which form a marked contrast to those of the 

 south, with their inferior races and their savage tribes. 



Since this is the salient feature which distinguishes them, and 

 which secures to thein decidedly the first place, we shall proceed to 

 study them more in detail as the theatre of history. 



We know beforehand, that the condition of an active, complete de- 

 velopment, is the multiplicity of the contrasts, of the differences — 

 springs of action and reaction, of mutual exchanges, which excite 

 and manifest life under a thousand diverse forms. To this principle 

 corresponds, in the organization of the animal, the greater number 

 of its special organs ; in the continents, the variety of the plastic 

 forms of the soil, the localization of the strongly characterised phy- 

 sical districts, the nature of which stamps upon the people inhabit- 

 ing them a special seal, and makes them so many complicated but 

 distinct individuals. 



The various combinations of grouping, of situation, with regard 

 to each other, placing them in a permanent relation of friendship or 

 hostility, of sympathy or of antipathy, of peace or of war, of inter- 

 change of religions, of manners, of civilization, complete this work, 

 and give that impulse, that progressive movement, which is the trait 

 whereby the historical nations are recognised. 



* The northern continents are Europe, Asia, and North America ; the south- 

 ern continents are Africa, Southern Asia, and South America. 



