PHYSICAL AND INTELLECTUAL ENERGY. 705 



zation, than in any other part of the world : for 

 it produced Bacon, Shakspeare, Milton, Chat- 

 ham, and Watt, who have surpassed all the 

 poets, philosophers, orators, and inventors of an- 

 tiquity. The population of a small island has 

 acquired more wealth and power than was ever 

 possessed by any other nation ; and has done 

 proportionally more towards the diffusion of use- 

 ful knowledge throughout the civilized world. 

 We are also indebted to Germany, whose climate 

 is nearly the same as that of Britain and France, 

 for the noble invention of printing, the great dis- 

 coveries of Copernicus, Kepler, and Humboldt, 

 who was the greatest naturalist of the nineteenth 

 century. 



It has been said that " there is nothing more 

 difficult to explain fully, than the immense supe- 

 riority of Europe over the other quarters of the 

 world." But I shall endeavour to show that it 

 is, because the climate of middle and southern 

 Europe is more temperate and uniform. In the 

 first place, there is nothing better established by 

 history, than the superiority of man in tempe- 

 rate latitudes. The once populous and wealthy 

 nations of Egypt and Syria were conquered by 

 the Persians, Medes, Greeks, and Romans, the 

 Chinese by the Tartars, Italy by the Germans, 

 Goths, and Huns, northern Africa by the Ro- 

 mans, and the East Indies by the British, who 

 are now invading China. 



