io6 The Influence of Language and Environment upon the 



principles of good government. The ancient beliefs were under- 

 mined and sapped by the new philosophies, which unfortunately- 

 had but little power to influence the emotional nature of 

 mankind. For want of such an influence, afterwards found in 

 the spread of Christianity, the national character suffered a 

 distinct and disastrous relapse. An irresponsible and immoral 

 government speedily wrought its influence upon the character 

 of the people, and a lack of stability and laxity of morals 

 were soon painfully apparent. The history of mysticism, 

 attributed by some to the character of the climate, by others to 

 the action of assumed cerebral organs, also demonstrates this 

 truth ; for the legal powers among the Hindoos having become 

 vested in the priests, these, for their own purposes, interlarded 

 and overspread them with their own mystic teaching. The 

 consequence was that the exercise of power over the liberty 

 of the subject, combined with a controlling sway over the mind, 

 produced that slavish, superstitious mode of thought and char- 

 acter which it will take centuries of mental freedom to dispel. 

 Look again at the history of the Jews and the so-called Gipsy 

 or Bohemian tribes. You find the same principle prevailing. 

 However scattered they may have become, these tribes or 

 nations, faithfully preserving their own peculiar institutions 

 and their moral training, whether good or bad, always and 

 everywhere manifest the same physiological and mental charac- 

 ter. If, however, forgetting or departing from their own sur- 

 roundings, their social environment, they are influenced by 

 those of other nations, their distinguishing characteristics dis- 

 appear, and others are" developed. Again, in reference to 

 suicide, which has been said to prevail among the denizens of 

 hot climates. A study of this question reveals the fact that 

 among those nations whose religious belief is fatalistic, it is 

 practically unknown, whilst among others in the same clime, 

 who are influenced by a different system, it is by no means un- 

 common. Such is the power of externals over the inner life of 

 the individual. Again, take military bravery. This is not 

 wholly due, as some suppose, to the character of the country, 



