150 THE LAWS OF ORGANIC 



nishedby natural adaptations of the system, such 

 as the more confined distribution of the blood, ma- 

 terially assisted by the manners, dress, and mode 

 of living peculiar to the latitude of the country. 



CLXII. In the most northern climates, the 

 inhabitants do not enjoy the same extensive va- 

 riety of seasons that others in more favourable 

 situations possess. Spring and autumn are not 

 the half of their year, the former, to habituate, 

 by imperceptible degrees and long duration, the 

 constitution to bear the oppressive heat of sum- 

 mer, the latter, by a similar wise design, to 

 temper the approach of winter. The animal and 

 vegetable life of these regions is enlivened but 

 for a short time by the rays of summer, and ex- 

 hibits little of the energies of the same invigora- 

 ted by a genial clime, in the development of 

 muscular power, or in the expansion of the intel- 

 lectual faculties, or in the profusion of flowers 

 and fruits. If it were possible for nature to be 

 partial in her gifts, the miserable inhabitants of 

 these climates might be adduced as an illus- 

 tration ; but if she has deprived them of the ele- 

 vated charms of social life, the pleasures of re- 

 finement, or the luxuries of taste, she has given 

 them fewer necessities, and these of a kind more 

 readily supplied. 



CLXIII. Nature has not only been provident 

 in harmonizing the mind of man to his situation, 

 but has also been careful to provide him with an 



