3 INFLUENCE OF CLIMATE. 



same thing is going on : advances in knowledge are advances in power. The civilized 

 man of these days is a wholly different being from the man who lived a thousand years 

 ago, and the conditions which determine his position have totally changed. With us 

 the position both of empires and of individuals is fixed by the possession of knowledge 

 knowledge which is incessantly on the advance. Wherever intelligence has been given, 

 there is a requirement to join in the advancing march. The Indian stands still, and 

 the penalty is death. 



23. These severe results are brought about by universal laws laws which were 

 not. intended for individual cases. In the system of the universe an individual is not 

 known, but action takes place on masses. Nor are the laws of Nature ever bent to give ' 

 benefits to or bring punishment on any individual. They go into effect with an inex- 

 orable decision. The earth in her course pursues an irresistible march, and tides rise 

 and fall in the sea with a fixed fatality. In the affairs of men the same unwavering 

 destiny is observed, and whether it be in the case of an empire or a man, resistance to -f- 

 the course of events ends in an inevitable doom. He who resists the progress of civi- 

 lization, meets the same fate as he who resists the cataract of Niagara. There is no 

 waywardness in Providence, no partialities, and no hates. It is written, " He maketh 

 his sun to shine on the good and the evil, and sendeth his rains on the just and on the 

 unjust." 



24. From these considerations, therefore, we may gather that the laws of Nature 

 contain provisions for the extinction and removal of successive races ; operations which 

 are carried on by the action of physical powers. As the death of an individual arises 

 from the action of external agents, so, in the same manner, does the disappearance of 

 a tribe : and hence we see that, as existence is under this control, it cannot take place 

 except when physical circumstances conspire ; as they change, so, also, must the vari- 

 ous forms of life undergo corresponding mutations. 



25. In the constitution of all organized beings, water enters as the leading ingredient 

 of their fluid parts ; it is therefore obvious that there is a very limited range of temper- 

 ature in which the processes of life can be carried on. These thermometric limits are 

 between 32 and 212 Fah. Life, therefore, is comprised within a range of 180 degrees. 



26. In this manner we might proceed to show how the existence of individuals and 

 races is completely determined by external conditions. How, for the same reason that 

 an individual dies, so too does a tribe become extinct. Pursuing these considerations, 

 we might show how closely the development of the intellect itself is connected with 

 them ; we might compare the effect of climates in the torrid, the temperate, and the 

 frigid zone, and show how history bears out the truth of these views. We might ap- 

 peal to individual experience for the enervating effects of hot climates, or to the com- 

 mon understanding of men as to the great control which atmospheric changes exercise, 

 not only on our intellectual powers, but even on our bodily well-being. It is within a 

 narrow range of climate that great men have been born. In the earth's southern hemi- 

 sphere, as yet, not one has appeared, and in the northern they come only within certain 

 parallels of latitude. I am not speaking of that class of men who, in all ages and in 

 every country, have risen to an ephemeral elevation, and have sunk again into their na- 



