342 PSYCHOLOGICAL INVESTIGATION. [PART II. 



must present the greatest development ; but that the transition 

 from a primitive state to a higher degree of civilization was 

 rendered more easy in Europe than elsewhere is very doubtful, 

 since geographical conditions alone do not constitute positive 

 impulses to civilization. 



The relative influence of geographical conditions on culture 

 is shown in many instances. The influence of the sea on the 

 progress of nations depends partly on the nature of the 

 coasts. Good harbours promote trade, colonization, etc. ; a de- 

 ficiency in this respect obstructs them. All this, however, 

 depends on the development of the art of navigation ; where 

 this is wanting the sea obstructs trade and civilization. Latham 

 observes justly, 1 that for the Turk on the Hellespont a small 

 stream presented an obstruction, owing to the absence of 

 means for water carriage. Hence it is unscientific to gene- 

 ralize d priori in respect to the influence of land and water as 

 means of natural intercourse or the spreading of nations. The 

 desert, the prairie, or the ocean are limits which confine the 

 spreading of tribes or peoples, or ways which favour it, 

 accordingly as the camel, horse, or ship are available for 

 service. The degree of civilization of the people itself 

 alone proves decisive. The inhabitants of the oases in the 

 African deserts are under the influence of the caravan trade, 

 which impresses the character of a considerable portion of the 

 North Africans with a strikingly uniform stamp ; they are 

 necessarily traders, but neither the geographical conditions, 

 nor even the possession of the camel, would have made 

 them so if, ignorant of cattle breeding, they had abandoned 

 this' animal to itself, as the native Americans did with the 

 horse. 



Streams, bays, the vicinity of the sea, all invite emigration, but 

 they do not impel to it, least of all do they influence the savage, 

 who has no desire to see the world, but gladly remains where 

 he finds support unless driven away by want or enemies. It 

 seems, therefore, more correct to attribute the stability of 

 Chinese and Indian civilization to the relative isolation of the 



1 " Natural history of the varieties of man," p. 129, 1850. 



