INFLUENCES OP ENVIRONMENT 10!) 



finds ultimate expression in rigid usages or grotesque 

 mythologies. 



One final influence of physical environment upon the 

 mind of man is suggested by Oscar Peschel."''* The 

 founders of the great monotheistic religions of the world, 

 Zoroaster, Moses, Buddha, Christ, and Mohammed, be- 

 long to the subtropical zone. This zone is one which con- 

 tains many vast deserts. "Every traveler who has 

 crossed the deserts of Arabia and Asia Minor speaks en- 

 thusiastically of llioir l)eauties; all praise their atmos- 

 phere and brightness, and tell of a feeling of invigoration 

 and a perceptible increase of intellectual elasticity; hence 

 between the arched heavens and the unbounded expanse 

 of plain a monotlicisticframe of jiii2Ld_necessarily steals 

 upon the children of the desert." ^^ Forest scenery dis- 

 tracts the attention to a thousand forms and sounds, the 

 sunl)eams play through the openings in the trees on the 

 trembling and shining leaves, there are marvelous forms 

 of gnarled roots and branches, there is the creaking and 

 the sighing, the whispering and the rustling of the trees 

 together with the sounds and voices of animals and in- 

 sects. But in the desert one is impressed with only the 

 vast expanse of plain and over all the constant dome of 

 the heavens.^"'^ Elijah retired into the desert. John the 

 Baptist preached in the desert. Christ prepared him- 

 self for his career by passing fort}^ days and forty nights 

 in the desert. IMohammed lived for a long time as a 

 shepherd and made frequent journeys across the 

 desert.^^ 



-'5 The Races of Man, from the German. Kow York, 1S04. p]>. :n4-318. 



54 Ibid 



55 See figures GO and (U. 

 5« Ibid. 



