ENVIRONMENT AND HISTORY 209 



developed by opportunities of remunerative effort : 

 an English labourer or artisan is a different man 

 after a few months' experience of the stimulating 

 prospects of Canada. The consciousness of danger 

 may harden the endurance of a community as of 

 an individual. We may wonder whether Rome 

 would have been great had there not been before 

 her the fear of Carthage. In quite recent times 

 we have seen Australia drill herself under appre- 

 hensions of Japan, and South Africa draw herself 

 together to confront the menace of a large and 

 vigorous black population. 



: RS 



It is, then, indisputable that the influences 

 of environment have powerfully affected the 

 course of human history have encouraged or 

 retarded the steps by which man has slowly 

 emerged from the darkness of primaeval savagery. 

 We may give further illustrations. Unassisted by 

 art man cannot compete with dense vegetation : 

 forest-clad regions have never been the homes of 

 an original civilization. In tropical countries 

 races that dwell beneath the shadow of trees 

 become trammelled with a shyness or timidity 

 which is as incurable as the instinctive nervous- 

 ness of the lynx: they are enslaved by the gross- 

 est and cruellest forms of superstition, and by 

 habits which resist all changeful impulses. The 

 most savage and untamable of the native races 

 of America are those which inhabit the dark 

 forests of the Amazon : and of Africa and India 

 it may generally, though not universally, be 

 stated that humanity is least advanced where 

 foliage is densest. In the temperate regions a 

 forest life is less degrading ; but it appears to 

 blunt and depress human faculties, and it may be 

 doubted whether the German tribes which roamed 



