SECT. III.] EFFECTS OF CLIMATE. . 331 



physical precocity which is the effect of climate shortens the pe- 

 riod of infancy (the long duration of which has been considered 

 as a distinguishing feature of man above brutes) , so that shortly 

 after puberty both sexes enter into new relations, in which they 

 are burdened with cares for others which leave them neither the 

 inclination nor the leisure for their own further development. 



If, moreover, as is frequently the case in the torrid zone, 

 nature yields her gifts freely in supporting man, labour and 

 mental activity naturally languish, and the mind is rendered 

 passive. Again, if nature, as in very cold climates, bestows 

 her gifts too sparingly, the great effort to obtain the actual 

 necessaries of life consumes all powers ; and there results, in 

 this case also, though from opposite causes, a proportionate 

 desire of rest and a mental obtuseness, which prevent any 

 attempt at a higher civilization. The Pisang or Banana tree, 

 which is for the inhabitant of the torrid zone what the cereals are 

 for West Asia and Europe, produces in the same space twenty 

 times as much aliment as the latter. " We often hear in the 

 Spanish colonies the assertion, that the inhabitants of the Tierra 

 calicnte cannot raise themselves from the state of apathy in which 

 they have been sunk for centuries, until a royal decree orders 

 the destruction of the Banana plantations/' 1 As, moreover, 

 lakes and rivers contain innumerable birds, it is conceivable 

 that the want of domestic animals cannot be much felt. In Nica- 

 ragua, and also in Costa Rica, a small family may, for six 

 cents, buy as much food (chiefly beans) as they require for 

 a week. 2 Hence, there is no inducement to labour in these 

 parts. Gruyot 3 observes, that, with regard to the effect of sur- 

 rounding nature on man, the native of the tropics may be com- 

 pared with the son of a princely house, and he of the north 

 with the son of a beggar, he of the temperate zone as belong- 

 ing to the middle classes, which state alone experiences all the 

 impulses for labour and civilization. History confirms it, that 

 all cultured nations, and especially such as have taken the initia- 



1 Humboldt und Bonpland, " Reise," ii, p. 12 ; Humboldt, " Neu-Spanien," 

 iii, pp. 12, 23, 142. 



2 Squier, "Travels in Central America/' i, p. 274, 1853; Wagner and 

 Scherzer, " Costa Rica," p. 147, 1856. 



3 " Grundz. der vgl. Erdkunde," p. 227, 1851. 



