310 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



tion to its use or its danger, and the fear with which it in- 

 spires man. 



No less caution is required in estimating the influence of 

 geographical condition on human civilization. Gruyot deduces 

 from geographical conditions alone, the axiom, that the peoples 

 of the three large northern continents of the globe have the mis- 

 sion to undertake the psychical development of humanity, whilst 

 those of the southern parts have only to follow them, and that 

 some have no substantive power whatever to become civilized 

 by their own efforts. 



If the question were merely to decide which countries are, in 

 consequence of their geographical condition, most capable of 

 promoting civilization, Europe would certainly bear away the 

 palm. C. Hitter 1 has shown that Europe possesses propor- 

 tionately the greatest coast-line, that the positions of its 

 islands and peninsulas are excellent, whilst other quarters 

 of the world are much less favoured by nature. Thus 

 the interior of Africa is almost shut out of this advantage ; 

 the interior of Asia seems destined for ever to remain the 

 home of nomadic life ; whilst the forelands and peninsulas of 

 this part are by nature rendered accessible to civilization. 

 Hitter also points out with regard to Egypt, 2 that the seclusion 

 of that country by the desert, the regular rise of the Nile, the 

 condition of all fertility, the absence of tide, and some other 

 circumstances, have naturally led to that concentration of acti- 

 vity and seclusion which distinguished old Egyptian civilization. 

 Whilst the peoples beyond the valley of the Nile remained 

 nomadic, those within the valley passed easily from a pastoral 

 to an agricultural life, and the river stimulated their scientific 

 efforts in the development of navigation, water- works, and in- 

 directly, geometry, astronomy, and chronology. That the 

 stationary character of civilization in some peoples is frequently 

 owing to the disadvantages of surrounding nature has been ex- 

 emplified in the Bretons. 3 A nomadic life was impossible in 



1 TJeber rauml. Anordnungen auf d. Aussenseite des Erdballs in d. 

 Abh. d. Berl. Akad., 1849. 



2 " Erdkunde," i, p. 875. 



3 Courson, " Hist, des peuples Bretons," i, p. 186, 1846. 





