SECT. III.] HUNTING LIFE. 339 



ment of civilization. The geographical position of the country, 

 the quality of the surface are no mean elements. 



Unquestionably important as all these elements are, we must 

 be cautious not to exaggerate them. Montesquieu has evi- 

 dently over-estimated the influence of climate by propound- 

 ing the theory that republics can only thrive in cold, despotism 

 only in hot countries, and constitutional monarchies in tem- 

 perate climates. Latterly, it has even been promulgated that 

 moral purity and courage are incompatible with tropical heat, 

 and a love of liberty has been ascribed to mountaineers, etc. 

 Granted that some of these relations actually exist, they must 

 be limited thus far, that dissipation and excesses are more pe- 

 culiar to the southern temperament, and moderation to the 

 nothern temperament. A deduction of the national character 

 and the civilization of nations solely from the nature of the 

 climate and the soil, as Weerth 1 has made, is easily refuted. 

 With regard to the above-mentioned characteristics we are re- 

 minded that the morals of the Kamtschatdales, Aleutes, and 

 some other northern nations are as corrupt as possible ; that 

 the bravery of the Arabs, of some Malays and Negro-tribes is 

 exemplary ; that carnage and cruelty reach a very high degree 

 among many hunting nations of North America ; whilst on the 

 other hand, many inhabitants of the tropics in America, as well 

 as in Africa, are distinguished by their peaceable character, 

 and that mountaineers can more easily escape subjection than 

 the inhabitants of valleys. An innate love of liberty moreover 

 distinguishes the tribes occupying the plains of North America. 

 It is equally inadmissible to transfer the poetical impressions 

 which the civilized man receives from what is grand in nature 

 to the primitive man, as all aesthetical conceptions of nature 

 are partly the reflex of a rich cultivated imagination, which the 

 primitive man does not possess. The religious ideas and 

 legends of primitive peoples prove this sufficiently. Plants, 

 useful or dangerous animals play in them a sensible part, but 

 of the conception of the grand and beautiful in nature 

 there is no trace, nature being exclusively looked at in rela- 



1 " D. Entw. der Menschenrassen," 184-2. 



z 2 



