360 TRANSACTIONS OF THE AMERICAN INSTITUTE. 



Our green-house is the result of numberless inventions, every 

 one of which has aided something to our facility for enjoying 

 the sight of tropical plants while in their growth. 



Look at the ingenious arts conceived in making our winter 

 garments. They are almost numberless. The economies they 

 have wrought within our remembrance have made room for mil- 

 lions of people, who could not have been clothed without them. 



The machinery invented and prepared in wintry climates 

 extends its influence into tropical regions, and draws away from 

 them the rich growths required for use under our northern skies. 

 And this reaction of inventive genius toward the equator is the 

 new feature of the earth's civilization, which promises to multi- 

 ply beyond all former example or expectation, the numbers of 

 prosperous people, who may live on the surface of the globe. At 

 the head of this new experiment stands the Empire of Brazil, 

 drawing to itself the arts O'f Europe and America, and working 

 out, in equatorial regions, a destiny which is the growing admi- 

 ration of mankind. 



But the firm and permanent reliance for the increase and pre- 

 servation of ingenious arts rests on the countries which have a 

 winter to provide for. Our arts work the mines of Mexico, while 

 Mexico sends no art to us. And, perhaps, we owe it, in some 

 measure, to our winter, that our political weakness has not fallen 

 as low as theirs — that they are receiving a master from the old 

 world, while we are able to preserve our nationality. 



Bad government and bad religion may overwhelm the arts of a 

 nation; and, if that nation lies near the tropics, it may be deso- 

 late during long ages; but, if it lies in a wintry climate, it will 

 rise again by its own inherent impulse, and find its lost arts, or 

 invent new arts. The southern side of the Mediterranean has 

 often been the burying place for arts invented on the north side; 

 but, the countries north of the Mediterranean have risen, and are 

 yet rising even where oppressed by the burdens of bad govern- 

 ment and bad religion, and under the rugged nurture of a wintry 

 climate they are steadily advancing the civilization of the human 

 race. 



Praise is bestowed on ingenious nations and individuals. In- 

 ventors make new room for men to occupy, and we can afford to 

 make them famous. But, the more we investigate the causes of 

 human conduct on the several parts of the earth's surface, the 

 more shall we perceive that climate has done much to make them 



