The Philosophy of History. 13 



culturo or manufactures should be grouped together here- The 

 chief of these are climate, fertility of soil, access to the sea or 

 navigable waters, level or mountainous surface, and workable 

 veins of metallic ores. There is a school of historians who insist 

 that these physical conditions explain all or nearly all the great 

 movements of history. And one historian of this school has gone 

 so far as to make climate tha sole cause of our civil war, and to 

 prophesy therefore that as north and south have different climates 

 they must always be hostile, and to predict a succession of wars 

 between them. . 



The physical conditions of the earth will doubtless explain 

 much of its history. The first civilizations of the earth sprang up 

 in the semi tropical alluvial valleys of the Nileand the Euphrates, 

 where the conditions of lile are so easy that a denss population 

 can be supported. The sea coasts have been favorable to enter- 

 prise, and the mountains to freedom. The tropic and the frigid 

 zones have nourished indolent savages ; the temperate zones have 

 been the abode of civilized man. Iron or bronze have been the 

 necessities, and gold and silver the luxuries, that mark the begin- 

 ning of civilization. Had England remained connected with the 

 continent in historic as in geologic ages, Henry YIII and Charles 

 I could have become despots, and Napoleon could have conquered 

 her. Climate and soil made cotton king, and slavery profitable 

 enough to be worth fighting for. 



But the physical conditions of the earth will not explain every- 

 thing. The valleys of the Euphrates and the Tigris were once 

 the seat of emj)ire, why are they so no longer ? The same sun 

 shines on the same soil, watered by the same rivers ; the physical 

 conditions are the same as when Babylon, or Nineveh or Bagdad 

 stood in splendor; but other causes are weighing on that fair 

 land. The creed of Mohammed and the greed of the Turk are 

 stronger to destroy than climate and soil are to build up. Eng- 

 land and Japan are strangely alike in their physical conditions, 

 but while England has lived a thousand years of healthful pro- 

 gress, Japan lay in the sleep of feudalism, till awakened by 

 American cannon. Other causes must be sought for the growth 

 and decay of nations besides their geography. 



