SECT. III.] CAUSES OF CIVILIZATION. 343 



interior of these countries by natural conditions, than to deduce 

 the origin of their civilization from the advantages offered by 

 their geographical position, for, in this respect, that portion of 

 India which is still more favoured has never attained a substan- 

 tive civilization. The peoples of the Deccan, notwithstanding 

 the favours of nature and their intercourse with the Hindoos, 

 are but little civilized. The Celts, also, have remained more 

 stationary than the Teutons, and, though they have often been 

 displaced, and suffered great deprivations, still they were, like 

 the latter, favoured by their geographical position. 



Although, generally speaking, it is quite true that the 

 presence or absence of certain animals, plants, or minerals, in 

 combination with the geographical conditions, partly determine 

 the degree of civilization which may be attained by a people 

 through its own efforts, it is on the other hand also demonstrated, 

 that a great portion of the natural advantages remain neglected, 

 that animals fit for breeding are abandoned to themselves, that 

 cereals are not cultivated, minerals remain hidden in the earth, 

 and all this either because necessity or the requisite knowledge 

 was absent, and thus the natives, notwithstanding the wealth 

 of surrounding nature, never emerged from the state of bar- 

 barism. The influence of natural conditions is best exhibited 

 in peoples whose perfect seclusion guarantees to them the pos- 

 session of their country. The best known instances of that 

 kind are furnished by some islands of the South Sea and the 

 Indian Archipelago. In the latter there are tribes of the Malay 

 race, who not unfrequently, both as regards physical and social 

 development, stand lower than the Papuas of the coasts, and 

 even the Australians of Port Essington. 1 W. Earl 2 also observes, 

 that in the Indian Archipelago the state of cultivation of the 

 natives seemingly depends not so much on race as on sur- 

 rounding nature. Near the sea and on the rivers they usually 

 become navigators, in the table lands agriculturists, for which 

 reason he abandoned his former theory of an immigation of 

 Polynesians to North Australia. In the majority of the Poly- 

 nesian islands we see in earlier periods a harmless, thoughtless 



1 Logan, in " Journal of the Indian Archipelago," vol. i. 



2 " The native races of the Indian Archipelago," p. 235, 1853. 



