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soil not so rich as to breed habits of indolence, placed its people where 

 they could achieve prodigies; and its advanced civilization, arts, laws, 

 architecture, statuary and literature, both poetic, historical and phil- 

 osophical, were the outcome of these tavorable conditions. In Italy, 

 with a climate still nearer perfection, the results were on a vaster scale 

 than in Greece, and culture was broader, especially in law and general 

 knowledge. But when in the Roman Senate there was no longer the 

 cry that " Carthage must be destroyed," when accumulated wealth and 

 luxurv had done their deadly work, as they did in Greece, the climate, 

 too warm and humid to invite the Koman character to hard mental 

 labour, allowed the sceptre to depart from Italy, and to be upheld by a 

 sturdier race in a colder clime. In France, where the climate is some- 

 what colder than Italy, and from its various genial and sunny climatic 

 influences sprung a sparkling and vivacious literature peculiar to its 

 race. But luxury has done its work there, and it is the colder and 

 more northern climate where no extremes occur, and where food is 

 raised eminently fitted to produce a robust physique, and not to pam- 

 per the appetite, where intellectual grandeur culminates. England, 

 Ireland and Scotland are proofs of this, and Germany goes hand in 

 hand. The productions of these countries are not so spontaneous as 

 to beget indolence, and i-eaction of the system against the cold sets the 

 powers of the mind into vigorous action. These northern nations pre- 

 sent mental results that live ; facts are reached by induction, imagina- 

 tion is rich and varied, but not wild and sensual, and patient research 

 marks all their literatur-e. On this continent the influences of climate 

 are plain to all. Tbe greyer skies and severer climate of the North 

 control man's character and activities, whilst the Southerner gives him- 

 self up more to the indolence engendered by the influences of a hotter 

 atmosphere. 



American literature lies in the north, and Canada and the Northern 

 States have produced and are producing the literature and mental energy 

 of the continent. When men are settling a country there is but little 

 chance for mental products. Their minds are absorbed in organizing, 

 buildino-, shaping. Thought is like carbon ; to crystallize into the dia- 

 mond needs time, and the most favourable of surrounding influences. 

 Yet the very fusion of so many diverse characteristics of blood, locality 



