158 



stantly pressing upon the people, "affected the tone of 

 their national character." Associations were engen- 

 dered in the mind which made the imagination predom- 

 inate over the reason and infused into .the people a spirit 

 of reverence rather than one of inquiry. All the sur- 



FIGUBE 56. Confidence-inspiring Environment of Greece, the beautiful 



Vale of Tempe. 



rounding natural conditions encouraged a disposition, 

 to neglect the investigation of natural causes and to 

 ascribe events to the intervention on the part of super- 

 natural agencies. 46 Man, contrasting himself with the 

 force and majesty of nature, feels a sense of inferiority, 

 and hardly cares to scrutinize the details of which such 

 imposing grandeur consists. 



The hypothesis of isolation which Miss Semple ad- 

 vances in contradistinction to Buckle's theory, seems on 



4 Buckle, op. cit., 1873, p. 126. 



