SUGGESTIONS OF SOCIOLOGY. 509 



tions still remain on the merely interpretative plane. 

 Nor can it readily be otherwise, for experimenting 

 on man can only be done indirectly. It is, however, 

 of much interest to observe how many workers, from 

 many different sides, are now emphasising the en- 

 vironmental — the geographic — factor. There is a 

 renewal of confidence in the aphorism — Histories 

 alter oculus gcograpliia! ^' Tell me the geography 

 of a coimtry," Victor Cousin said, " and I will tell 

 you its future.'' 



That the characteristics of a race are in part due 

 to the influence of the physical environment was an 

 idea familiar to Montesquieu and to Humboldt and 

 characteristic of Le Play and of Buckle, and perhaps 

 there is no one who would now think of maintaining 

 a direct negative. But those who admit the reality 

 of the factor are not unanimous as to its power. The 

 question is, how much we can legitimately make the 

 environment responsible for. Thus Buckle regarded 

 the environmental factor as of special importance in 

 relation to what he called primary civilisations, while 

 later on the influence of people on people became 

 more momentous. In other words, man has loosened 

 the grip of the environment, and in many cases his 

 emancipation has ma,de him callous. 



It is obvious that the configuration of a country 

 may imply concentration, isolation, accessibility; 

 and that climate may partly account for sluggishness 

 or industry, for carelessness or forethought; and 

 that many consequences will follow from the re- 

 sources of the soil, and the nature of the fauna and 

 flora. The influence of the environmental factor is 

 expounded in many books, e.g., Fairbanks' Outlines 

 of Sociology ; it seems more appropriate to our pur- 

 pose to borrow from that work a quotation from 



