364 Comparative Physical (ieography. 



and yet there is no more of isolation. The accessible nature of all 

 these regions, as we have seen, makes contact easy, and facilitates 

 their action upon each other; a blending is possible, and it takes 

 place. The formation of great monarchies, embracing the whole of 

 Western Asia, from India to Asia Minor, from the steppes of Turan 

 to the deserts of Arabia, is a fact renewed at every period of their 

 history. Assyria, Babylonia, Persia, reunite successively, under the 

 dominion of the same conqueror, all these various nations. But no 

 one knew so well as Alexander how to break down all the fences 

 which kept them apart. The lofty idea which reigned in the mind 

 of that great conqueror, that of fusing together the East and the 

 West, carried with it the ruin of the special civilizations of the East, 

 and the universal communication of Hellenic culture, which should 

 combine them in one spirit, and drew the whole of that part of the 

 world into the progressive movement which Greece herself had im- 

 pressed on the countries of the West. 



Egypt, alone, in her isolation, represents, up to a certain point, 

 the nature of Eastern Asia. Yet she, too, was compelled to yield to 

 the social and progressive spirit of Greece, which soon brought her 

 into the circle of relations with the nations of the West. 



Thus the people and the civilizations of Western Asia were saved 

 from the isolation and egoism so fatal to China and to India. They 

 perished in appearance, but it was only to sow among the very na- 

 tions who were their conquerors, the prolific seeds of a fairer growth, 

 of which the future should gather the fruits. 



Europe, in her turn, has a character quite special, the principal 

 features of which we have already pointed out in a former Lecture. 

 Although constructed upon the same fundamental plan with the two 

 Asias, it is only the peninsular headland of all this continent. Here 

 are no more of those gigantesque forms of Eastern Asia, no more of 

 those boundless spaces, no more of those obstacles against which the 

 forces of man are powerless, of those contrasts which sunder the op- 

 posite natures, even to incompatibility. The areas conti'act and shrink; 

 the plateaux and the mountains are lowered, and the continent opens 

 on all sides. None of those mortal deserts to cross, — none of those 

 impassable mountain chains, which imprison the nations. From the 

 foot of Italy to the North-Cape, from the coasts of the Atlantic to 

 the shores of the Caspian, there is no obstacle which a little art may 

 not overcome without . much effort. The whole continent is more 

 accessible, it sec-ms more wieldy, better fashioned for man. 



And yet, all the contrasts of both Asias exist, but they are soft- 

 ened, tempered. There is a Northern world, and a Southern world, 

 but they are less different, less hostile ; their climates are more 

 alike. Instead of the tropical plains of India, we find there the 

 fields of Lombardy ; instead of the Himalaya, the Alps ; instead 

 of the plateaux of Thibet, those of Bavaria. The contrasts are even 

 more varied, more numerous still. The table-land of the South is 



