Forecasts of the Future. 29 



the littleness of the internal, and the mind, cowed by this unequal 

 struggle, has been unable to advance. 



Here, where physical resources are the most powerful, where vegeta- 

 tion and animals are most abundant, where the soil is watered by the 

 noblest rivers and the coast studded by the finest harbors, the profu- 

 sion of nature has hindered social progress and opposed that accumu- 

 lation of wealth without which progress is impossible. 



Mr. Bates, the naturalist, after a residence of many years on 

 the Amazon, closes his book as follows : 



' ' The superiority of the bleak north to tropical regions is only in its 

 social aspects, for I hold to the opinion that although humanity can 

 reach an advanced state of culture only by battling with the inclem- 

 ency of nature in high latitudes, it is under the equator alone that the 

 perfect race of the future will attain to complete fruition of man's 

 beautiful heritage, the earth." 



Washington, January, 1891. 



