ENVIRONMENTAL SCHOOL OF SOCIOLOGISTS III 



the most fertile land or both. That is, Buckle points out correla- 

 tions rather than causes. 



(6) Finally, his analysis of the mind or internal factor is faulty. 

 It is impossible to evaluate separately the operations of thought, 

 feeling and will. The self functions as one and to separate the 

 working of the intellect and the moral factor is like trying to 

 decide which comes first the chicken or the egg. 



Since he did not pretend to be a scientist, as did Spencer, we 

 should not criticize him too harshly when he invades the field of 

 science. He did his task in calling attention, as neither Comte 

 nor Spencer had done, to the mighty influence of the physical 

 environment on social progress, in pointing out that evolution 

 took a new turn when it had developed the human organism 

 including the brain of man, and in emphasizing that distinction 

 most important in our discussion, between what Professor 

 Carver and others call passive and active adaptation. 



The task of setting forth the relation between the physical 

 environment and social progress, so well begun by Buckle, has 

 been carried forward by Friedrich Ratzel, W. Z. Ripley, and 

 others. The work of the former has been interpreted with some 

 modifications by his pupil and disciple, Ellen Churchill Semple, 

 and furnishes an important contribution to the doctrine of social 

 progress by passive adaptation. 



Ratzel-Semple 1 



A nthropo-Geography 



"Ratzel," says Ellen Churchill Semple, in her book, Influence of 

 Geographic Environment, " performed the great service of placing 

 anthropo-geography on a secure scientific basis. He had his 

 forerunners in Montesquieu, Alexander von Humboldt, Buckle, 

 Ritter, Kohl, Peschel and others; but he first investigated the 

 subject from the modern scientific point of view, constructed his 

 system according to the principles of evolution, and based his 

 conclusions on world-wide inductions, for which his predecessors 

 did not command the data." 2 



1 F. Ratzel (1844-1904); Ellen C. Semple (1863-). 



2 Influence of Geographic Environment, Preface. 



