National Life and Character 297 



that they can prosper only in the temperate zones, 

 north and south. 



Four hundred years ago the temperate zones were 

 very thinly peopled indeed, while the tropical and 

 sub-tropical regions were already densely populated. 

 The great feature in the world's history for the last 

 four centuries has been the peopling of these vast, 

 scantily inhabited regions by men of the European 

 stocks; notably by men speaking English, but also 

 by men speaking Russian and Spanish. During 

 the same centuries these European peoples have for 

 the first time acquired an enormous ascendency over 

 all other races. Once before, during the days of 

 the Greco-Macedonian and Roman supremacy, Eu- 

 ropean peoples possessed a somewhat similar su- 

 premacy ; but it was not nearly as great, for at that 

 period America and Australia were unknown, Africa 

 south of the Sahara was absolutely unaffected by 

 either Roman or Greek, and all but an insignifi- 

 cant portion of Asia was not only without the pale 

 of European influence, but held within itself im- 

 mense powers of menace to Europe, and contained 

 old and peculiar civilizations, still flourishing in their 

 prime. All this has now been changed. Great En- 

 glish-speaking nations have sprung up in America 

 north of the Rio Grande, and are springing up in 

 Australia. The Russians, by a movement which has 

 not yet fired the popular imagination, but which 

 all thinking men recognize as of incalculable im- 

 portance, are building a vast State in northern Asia, 

 stretching from the Yellow Sea to the Ural Moun- 



