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! 
Anthropo-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.” ? 
' F, Ratzel (1844-1904); Ellen C. Semple (1863-). 
2 Influence of Geographic Environment, Preface. 
