The Distribution, Condition, and future Prospects of the Human Race.
MORE than 800,000,000 of human beings are scattered over the face of the
earth, of all nations and kindreds and tongues, and in all stages of
civilization, from a high state of moral and intellectual culture, to
savages but little above the animals that contend with them for the
dominion of the deserts and forests through which they roam. This vast
multitude is divided into nations and tribes, differing in external
appearance, character, language, and religion. The manner in which they
are distributed, the affinities of structure and language by which they
are connected, and the effect that climate, food, and customs may have
had in modifying their external forms, or their moral and mental powers,
are subjects of much more difficulty than the geographical dispersion of
the lower classes of animals, inasmuch as the immortal spirit is the
chief agent in all that concerns the human race. The progress of the
universal mind in past ages, its present condition, and the future
prospects of humanity, rouse the deep sympathies of our nature, for the
high but mysterious destiny of the myriads of beings yet to come, who,
like ourselves, will be subject for a few brief years to the joys and
sorrows of this transient state, and fellow-heirs of eternal life
hereafter.
Notwithstanding the extreme diversity, personal and mental, in mankind,
anatomists have found that there are no specific differences—that the
hideous Esquimaux, the refined and intellectual Caucasian, the
thick-lipped Negro, and the fair blue-eyed Scannavian, are mere
varieties of the same species. The human race forms five great varieties
marked by strong distinctive characters. Many nations are included in
each; distinguished from one another by different languages, manners,
and mental qualities, yet bearing such a resemblance in general
physiognomy and appearance as to justify a classification apparently
anomalous.
The Caucasian group of nations, which includes the handsomest and most
intellectual portion of mankind, inhabit all Europe, except Lapland,
Finland, and Hungary; they occupy North Africa, as far as the 20th
parallel of north latitude, Arabia, Asia Minor, Persia, the Himalaya to
the Brahmapootra, all India between these mountains and the ocean, and
the United States of North America. These nations are remarkable for a
beautifully-shaped small head, regular features, fine hair, and
symmetrical form. The Greeks, Georgians, and Circassians are models of
perfection in form, especially the last, which is assumed as the type of
this class of mankind; of which it is evident that colour is not a
characteristic, since they are of all shades, from the fair and florid,
to the clear dark brown and almost black. This family of nations has
always been, and still is, the most civilized portion of the human race.
The inhabitants of Hindostan, the Egyptians, Arabians, Greeks, and
Romans, were in ancient times what the European nations are now. The
cause of this remarkable development of mental power is, no doubt,
natural disposition, for the difference in the capabilities of nations
seems to be as great as that of individuals. The origin of spontaneous
civilization and superiority may generally be traced to the talent of
some master-spirit gaining an ascendancy over his countrymen. Natural
causes have also combined with mental—mildness of climate, fertility of
soil; rivers and inland seas, by affording facility of intercourse,
favoured enterprise and commerce; and the double-river systems in Asia
brought distant nations together, and softened those hostile antipathies
which separate people, multiply languages, and reduce all to barbarism.
The genius of this family of nations has led them to profit by these
natural advantages; whereas the American Indians are at this day
wandering as barbarous hordes in one of the finest countries in the
world. An original similarity or even identity of many spoken languages
may be adverted to as facilitating communication and mental improvement
among the Caucasian variety in very ancient times.
The Mongol-Tartar family forms the second group of nations. They occupy
all Asia north of the Persian table-land and of the Himalaya; the whole
of Eastern Asia from the Brahmapootra to Behring’s Straits, together
with the Arctic regions of America north of Labrador. This family
includes the Tourkomans, Mongol and Tartar tribes, the Chinese,
Indo-Chinese, Japanese, the Esquimaux, and the Hungarians, now located
in the very heart of Europe. These nations are distinguished by broad
skulls and high cheek-bones, small black eyes obliquely set, long black
hair, and a yellow or sallow olive complexion; some are good-looking,
and many are well-made. A portion of this family is capable of high
culture, especially the Chinese, the most civilized nation of eastern
Asia, although they never have attained the excellence of the Caucasian
group, probably from their exclusive social system, which has separated
them from the rest of mankind, and kept them stationary for ages; the
peculiarity and difficulty of their language have also tended to
insulate them. The Kalmuks, who lead a pastoral wandering life on the
steppes of central Asia, and the Esquimaux, have wider domains than any
other of this set of nations. The Kalmuks are rather a handsome people,
and, like all who lead a savage life, have acute senses of seeing and
hearing. The inhabitants of Finland and Lapland are nearly allied to the
Esquimaux, who are spread over all the high latitudes of both
continents—a diminutive race, equally ugly in face and form.
Malayan nations occupy the Indian Archipelago, New Zealand, Chatham
Island, the Society group, and several other of the Polynesian islands,
together with the Phillipines and Formosa. They are very dark, with lank
coarse black hair, flat faces, and obliquely set eyes. Endowed with
great activity and ingenuity, they are mild and gentle, and far advanced
in the arts of social life, in some places; in others, ferocious and
vindictive, daring and predatory; and from their maritime position and
skill, they are a migratory race. Several branches of this class of
nations had a very early indigenous civilization, with an original
literature in peculiar characters of their own.
The Ethiopian nations are widely dispersed; they occupy all Africa south
of the Great Desert, half of Madagascar, the continent of Australia,
Mindanao, Gilolo, the high lands of Borneo, Sumbawa, Timor, and New
Ireland. The distinguishing characters of this group are, a black
complexion, black woolly or frizzled hair, thick lips, projecting jaws,
high cheek-bones, and large prominent eyes. A great variety, however,
exists in this jetty race: some are handsome both in face and figure,
especially in Ethiopia; and even in Western Africa, where the Negro
tribes live, there are groups in which the distinctive characters are
less exaggerated. This great family has not yet attained a high place
among nations, though by no means incapable of cultivation; part of
Ethiopia appears to have made considerable progress in civilization in
very ancient times. But the formidable deserts, so extensive in some
parts of the continent, and the unwholesome climate in others, have cut
off intercourse with civilized nations; and, unfortunately, the infamous
traffic in slaves, to the disgrace of Christianity, has made the nations
of tropical Africa more barbarous than they were before: while, on the
contrary, the Foulahs and other tribes who were converts to
Mahommedanism 400 years ago, have now large commercial towns, cultivated
grounds, and schools. The Australians and Papuans, who inhabit the
eastern islands mentioned, are the most degraded of this dark race, and
indeed of all mankind.
The American race, who occupy the whole of that continent from 62° N.
lat. to the Straits of Magellan, are almost all of a reddish brown or
copper colour, with long black hair, deep-set black eyes, aquiline nose,
and often of handsome slender forms. In North America they live by
hunting, are averse to agriculture, slow in acquiring knowledge, but
extremely acute, brave, and fond of war, and, though revengeful, are
capable of generosity and gratitude. In South America many are
half-civilized, but a greater number are still in a state of utter
barbarism. In a family so widely scattered great diversity of character
prevails, yet throughout the whole there is a similarity of manners and
habits which has resisted all the effects of time and climate.
Each of these five groups of nations, spread over vast regions, is
accounted one family; and if they are so by physical structure, they are
still more so by language, which expresses the universal mind of a
people, modified by external circumstances, of which none have a greater
influence than the geographical features of the country they inhabit—an
influence that is deepest in the early stages of society. The remnants
of ancient poetry in the south of Scotland partake of the gentle and
pastoral character of the country; while Celtic verse, and even the
spoken language of the Highlander, are full of poetical images of war
and stern mountain scenery. This is particularly to be observed in the
noble strains of Homer, and in the heroic poems of the early Hindus,
which reflect the lofty and sublime character of eastern scenery.[188]
As civilization advances, and man becomes more intellectual, language
keeps pace in the progress. New words and new expressions are added, as
new ideas occur and new things are invented, till at last language
itself becomes a study, is refined and perfected by the introduction of
general terms. The improvement in language and the development of the
mind have been the same in all nations which have arrived at any degree
of refinement, and shows the identity of human nature in every country
and climate. The art of printing perpetuates a tongue, and great authors
immortalize it; yet language is ever changing to a certain degree,
though it never loses traces of its origin. Chaucer and Spenser have
become obscure; Shakespeare requires a glossary for the modern reader;
and in the few years that the United States of America have existed as
an independent nation, the colloquial language has deviated from the
mother-tongue. When a nation degenerates, it is split by jealousy and
war into tribes, each of which, in process of time, acquires a peculiar
idiom, and thus the number of dialects is increased, though they still
retain a similarity; whereas when masses of mankind are united into
great political bodies, their languages by degrees assimilate to one
common tongue, which retains traces of all to the latest ages. The form
of the dialects now spoken by some savage tribes, as the North American
Indians, bears the marks of a once higher state of civilization.
More than 2000 languages are spoken, but few are independent; some are
connected by words having the same meaning, some by grammatical
structure, others by both; indeed the permanency of language is so
great, that neither ages of conquest, nor mixing with other nations,
have obliterated the native idiom of a people. The French, Spanish, and
German retain traces of the common language spoken before the Roman
conquest, and the Celtic tongue still exists in the British Islands.
By a comparison of their dialects, nations far apart, and differing in
every other respect, are discovered to have sprung from a common, though
remote origin. Thus, all the numerous languages spoken by the American
Indians, or red men, are similar in grammatical structure: an intimate
analogy exists in the languages of the Esquimaux nations who inhabit the
arctic regions of both continents. Dialects of one tongue are spoken
throughout North Africa, as far south as the oasis of Siwah on the east,
and the Canary Islands on the west. Another group of cognate idioms is
common to the inhabitants of Equatorial Africa, while all the southern
part of the continent is inhabited by people whose languages are
connected. The monosyllabic speech of the Chinese and Indo-Chinese shows
that they are the same people; and all the insular nations of the
Pacific derived their dialects from some tribes on the continent of
India and the Indian Archipelago. Cognate tongues are spoken by the
Tartars, Mandtchoux, Fins, Laplanders, many of the Siberian nations, and
by the Hungarians.
The Persian, Arabic, Greek, Latin, German, and Celtic tongues are
connected by grammatical structure, and words expressive of the same
objects and feelings, with the Sanscrit, or sacred language of India;
consequently, the nations inhabiting that vast extent of country from
the mouths of the Ganges to the British Isles, the coast of Scandinavia
and Iceland, must have had the same origin. “The words that fall
thoughtlessly from our lips in the daily vocations of life are no idle
sounds, but magic symbols which preserve for ever the first migrations
of the race, and whose antiquity makes Greece and Rome appear but of
yesterday.”
The number of languages spoken from the Ganges to Scandinavia, differing
so widely from one another, is a proof of the strength of individual
character in nations, which can so powerfully impress its peculiarities
on the same mother tongue. In fact every nation, as well as every
individual, has its own physical, moral, and intellectual organization,
which influences its language and its whole existence.
In the Indo-Germanic nations, which have been dominant for ages,
civilization has been progressive, though not without interruptions.
Providence has endowed these nations with the richest and most
ornamental gifts. Imagination has been liberally granted, and embodied
in all that is sublime and beautiful in architecture, sculpture,
painting, and poetry. In strength of intellect and speculation, in
philosophy, science, laws, and the political principles of society, they
have been pre-eminent.
The prevailing races of mankind now inhabiting Europe are the Teutonic,
Celtic, and Sclavonian. In the greater part of the continent these races
are mixed, but the blood is purely Teutonic throughout Iceland,
Scandinavia, round the Gulf of Bothnia, in Denmark, Germany, and the
east of England from Portsmouth to the Tyne. Pure Celtic blood is
confined to the Basque Provinces in Spain, the south and south-west of
France, a part of the Grisons and Switzerland, and some part of Great
Britain. The Sclavonian blood is widely dispersed in middle Russia, from
the Ural Mountains to the west of the Valdai table-land, and from
Novogorod to the lower course of the Don. The three races have been much
improved by mixture, in appearance, energy, and versatility of mind.
It is extraordinary that nations should lose their vitality without any
apparent cause; throughout the Indian Archipelago there is no longer any
one great Malayan nation, in Europe pure Celtic blood has been on the
decline for twenty centuries, and even the mixed Celtic variety has not
increased in proportion to the Teutonic, although for 2000 years they
have been exposed to the same external circumstances.
At present the Teutonic race, including the inhabitants of North America
and the British colonies, considerably outnumber the Celtic, though its
numbers were far inferior in ancient times. The Teutonic variety has
subdued and even exterminated the other varieties in its progress
towards the west; it is undoubtedly the most vigorous, both in body and
mind, of all mankind, and seems destined to conquer and civilize the
whole world. It is a singular fact, whatever the cause may be, that the
Celts are invariably Catholic, while the Teutonic population is inclined
to Protestantism.
Various other races inhabit Europe, much inferior in numbers to those
above mentioned, though occasionally mixed with them, as the Turks,
Fins, the Samojedes, who live on the shores of the White Sea and in the
north-east of Russia, and the Hungarians, the higher class of which are
a fine race of men, and on a par with the most civilized of the European
nations. There are many mixed Tartar tribes, chiefly in the south and
east of the Russian territories; also Jews and Gipsies, who live among
all nations, yet mix with none.[189]
The inhabitants of Great Britain are of Celtic and Teutonic origin. The
Celtic blood is purest in Cornwall and the Scilly Islands, in Wales, and
the Isle of Man: in the highlands of Scotland and the Hebrides it is
more mixed than is generally supposed, as plainly appears from the
frequency of red hair and blue eyes. In some parts of Ireland there is
pure Celtic blood, but throughout the greater part of that country it is
mixed, although the Celtic character predominates; but in Ulster, where
the earliest colony settled, the blood is purely Teutonic. In Ireland
the difference in the organization of the two races is strongly marked:
placed under the same circumstances, the Teutonic part of the population
has prospered, which, unfortunately, has not been the case with the
Celtic.[190]
The dialects spoken in the Celtic districts are closely allied to the
Semitic languages of Asia, and to one another. The Cornish is worn out,
the Manx is nearly so, and the Gaelic is declining fast in the highlands
of Scotland.
The Roman invasion had no effect on the Anglo-Saxon or old English, a
language of Teutonic origin, but the Normans in ancient times had
altered it considerably, and in modern times the English tongue has
unfortunately been corrupted by the introduction of French, Latin, and
Latinized words. Scotch spoken throughout the Lowlands of Scotland is a
language independent of the English, though of the same stock; it is
derived from the low German, the Frisian, Dutch, and Flemish, and
differs widely from the Anglo-Saxon.
No circumstance in the natural world is more inexplicable than the
diversity of form and colour in the human race. It had already begun in
the antediluvian world, for “there were giants in the land in those
days.” No direct mention is made of colour at that time, unless the mark
set upon Cain, “lest any one finding him should kill him,” may allude to
it. Perhaps, also, it may be inferred that black people dwelt in
Ethiopia, or the land of Cush, which means black in the Hebrew language.
At all events, the difference now existing must have arisen after the
flood, consequently all must have originated with Noah, whose wife, or
the wives of his sons, may have been of different colours, for aught we
know.
Many instances have occurred in modern times, of albinos and red-haired
children having been born of black parents, and these have transmitted
their peculiarities to their descendants for several generations, but it
may be doubted whether pure-blooded white people have had perfectly
black offspring. The varieties are much more likely to have arisen from
the effects of climate, food, customs, and civilization upon migratory
groups of mankind; and of such, a few instances have occurred in
historical times, limited, however, to small numbers and particular
spots; but the great mass of nations had received their distinctive
characters at a very early period. The permanency of type is one of the
most striking circumstances, and proves the length of time necessary to
produce a change in national structure and colour. A nation of
Ethiopians existed 3450 years ago, which emigrated from a remote country
and settled near Egypt, and there must have been black people before the
age of Solomon, otherwise he would not have alluded to colour, even
poetically. The national appearance of the Ethiopians, Persians, and
Jews, has not varied for more than 3000 years, as appears from the
ancient Egyptian paintings in the tomb of Rhameses the Great, discovered
at Thebes by Belzoni, in which the countenance of the modern Ethiopian
and Persian can be readily recognized, and the Jewish features and
colour are identical with those of the Israelites daily met with in
London. Civilization is supposed to have great influence on colour,
having a tendency to make the dark shade more general, and it appears
that, in the crossing of two shades, the offspring takes the complexion
of the darker and the form of the fairer. But as there is no instance of
a new variety of mankind having been established as a nation since the
Christian era, there must either have been a greater energy in the
causes of change before that time, or, brief as the span of man on earth
has been, a wrong estimate of time antecedent to the Christian period
must have made it shorter.[191]
Darkness of complexion has been attributed to the sun’s power from the
age of Solomon to this day—“Look not upon me, because I am black,
because the sun hath looked upon me;” and there can be no doubt that, to
a certain degree, the opinion is well founded. The invisible rays in the
solar beams, which change vegetable colours, and have been employed with
such remarkable effect in the Daguerreotype, act upon every substance on
which they fall, producing mysterious and wonderful changes in their
molecular state—man not excepted.[192]
Other causes must have been combined to occasion all the varieties we
now see, otherwise every nation between the tropics would be of the same
hue, whereas the sooty Negro inhabits equatorial Africa, the Red man
equinoctial America, and both are mixed with fairer tribes. In Asia, the
Rohillas, a fair race of Affghan extraction, inhabit the plains north of
the Ganges: the Bengalee and the mountaineers of Nepaul are dark, and
the Mahrattas are yellow. The complexion of man varies with height and
latitude; some of the inhabitants of the Himalaya and Hindoo Koosh are
fair, and even a red-haired race is found on the latter. There are
fair-haired people with blue eyes in the Ruddhua mountains in Africa.
The Kabyles, that inhabit the country behind Tunis and Algiers, are
similar in complexion to the nations in high northern latitudes. This
correspondence, however, only maintains with regard to the northern
hemisphere, for it is a well-known fact that the varieties of the
numerous species in the great southern continents are much more similar
in physical characters to the native races of the torrid zone, than any
of the aboriginal people of the northern regions. Even supposing that
diversity of colour is owing to the sun’s rays only, it is scarcely
possible to attribute the thick lips, the woolly hair, and the entire
difference of form, extending even to the very bones and skull, to
anything but a concurrence of circumstances, not omitting the invisible
influence of electricity, which pervades every part of the earth and
air—and possibly terrestrial magnetism.
The flexibility of man’s constitution enables him to live in every
climate, from the equator to the ever-frozen coasts of Nova Zembla and
Spitzbergen, and that chiefly by his capability of bearing the most
extreme changes of temperature and diet, which are probably the
principal causes of the variety in his form. It has already been
mentioned that oxygen is inhaled with the atmospheric air, and also
taken in by the pores on the skin; part of it combines chemically with
the carbon of the food, and is expired in the form of carbonic acid gas
and water; that chemical action is the cause of vital force and heat in
man and animals. The quantity of food must be in exact proportion to the
quantity of oxygen inhaled, otherwise disease and loss of strength would
be the consequence. Since cold air is incessantly carrying off warmth
from the skin, more exercise is requisite in winter than in summer, in
cold climates than in warm; consequently, more carbon is necessary in
the former than in the latter, in order to maintain the chemical action
that generates heat, and to ward off the destructive effects of the
oxygen, which incessantly strives to consume the body. Animal food,
wine, and spirits, contain many times more carbon than fruit and
vegetables, therefore animal food is much more necessary in a cold than
in a hot climate. The esquimaux, who lives by the chace, and eats 10 or
12 pounds weight of meat and fat in 24 hours, finds it not more than
enough to keep up his strength and animal heat, while the indolent
inhabitant of Bengal is sufficiently supplied with both by his rice
diet. Clothing and warmth make the necessity for exercise and food much
less, by diminishing the waste of animal heat. Hunger and cold united
soon consume the body, because it loses its power of resisting the
action of the oxygen, which consumes part of our substance, when food is
wanting. Hence, nations inhabiting warm climates have no great merit in
being abstemious, nor are those guilty of committing an excess who live
more freely in colder countries. The arrangement of Divine Wisdom is to
be admired in this as in all other things, for, if man had only been
capable of living on vegetable food, he never could have had a permanent
residence beyond the latitude where corn ripens. The Esquimaux, and all
the inhabitants of the very high latitudes of both continents, live
entirely on fish and animal food. What effects the difference of food
may have upon the intellect is not known.
A nation or tribe driven by war, or any other cause, from a warm to a
cold country, or the contrary, would be forced to change their food both
in quality and quantity, which in the lapse of ages might produce an
alteration in the external form and internal structure. The probability
is still greater, if the entire change that a few years produces in the
matter of which the human frame is composed be considered. At every
instant during life, with every motion, voluntary and involuntary, with
every thought and every exercise of the brain, a portion of our
substance becomes dead, separates from the living part, combines with
some of the inhaled oxygen, and is removed. By this process it is
supposed that the whole body is renewed every 7 years; individuality,
therefore, depends on the spirit, which retains its identity during all
the changes of its earthly house, and sometimes even acts independently
of it. When sleep is restoring exhausted nature, the spirit is often
awake and active, crowding the events of years into a few seconds, and,
by its unconsciousness of time, anticipates eternity. Every change of
food, climate, and mental excitement, must have their influence on the
reproduction of the mortal frame; and thus a thousand causes may
co-operate to alter whole races of mankind placed under new
circumstances, time being granted.
The difference between the effects of manual labour and the efforts of
the brain appears in the intellectual countenance of the educated man,
compared with that of the peasant, though even he is occasionally
stamped with nature’s own nobility. The most savage people are also the
ugliest. Their countenance is deformed by violent unsubdued passions,
anxiety, and suffering. Deep sensibility gives a beautiful and varied
expression, but every strong emotion is unfavourable to perfect
regularity of feature; and of that the Greeks were well aware when they
gave that calmness of expression and repose to their unrivalled statues.
The refining effects of high culture, and, above all, the Christian
religion, by subduing the evil passions, and encouraging the good, are
more than anything calculated to improve even the external appearance.
The countenance, though perhaps of less regular form, becomes expressive
of the amiable and benevolent feelings of the heart, the most
captivating and lasting of all beauty.[193]
Thus, an infinite assemblage of causes may be assigned as having
produced the endless varieties in the human race; but the fact remains
an inscrutable mystery. But amidst all the physical vicissitudes man has
undergone, the species remains permanent; and let those who think that
the difference in the species of animals and vegetables arises from
diversity of conditions, consider, that no circumstances whatever can
degrade the form of man to that of the monkey—or elevate the monkey to
the form of man.
Animals and vegetables, being the sources of man’s sustenance, have had
the chief influence on his destiny and location, and have induced him to
settle in those parts of the world where he could procure them in
greatest abundance. Wherever the chace or the spontaneous productions of
the earth supply him with food, he is completely savage, and only a
degree further advanced where he plants the palm and the banana; where
grain is the principal food, industry and intelligence are most
perfectly developed, as in the temperate zone. On that account the
centres of civilization have generally been determined, not by a hot,
but by a genial climate, fertile soil, by the vicinity of the sea-coast
or great rivers, affording the means of fishing and transport, which
last has been one of the chief causes of the superiority of Europe and
Southern Asia. The mineral treasures of the earth have been the means of
assembling great masses of men in Siberia and the table-land of the
Andes, and have given rise to many great cities, both in the Old and the
New World. Nations inhabiting elevated table-lands and high ungenial
latitudes have been driven there by war, or obliged to wander from
countries where the population exceeded the means of living—a cause of
migration to which both language and tradition bear testimony. The
belief in a future state, so universal, shown by respect for the dead,
has no doubt been transmitted from nation to nation. The American
Indians, driven from their hunting-grounds, still make pilgrimages to
the tombs of their fathers; and these tribes alone, of all uncivilized
mankind, worship the Great Spirit as the invisible God and Father of
all—a degree of abstract refinement which could hardly have sprung up
spontaneously among a rude people, and which must have been transmitted
from races who held the Jewish faith.
It is probable that America had been peopled from Asia before the
separation of the continents by Behring’s Straits, and there is reason
to believe that the location of various races of mankind, now insulated,
may have taken place before the separation of the lands by mediterranean
seas; whilst others, previously insulated, may be now united by the
drying up of inland seas, as those which covered the Sahara desert, and
the great hollow round the Caspian Sea, of which it and the Black Sea
are probably the remnants.
M. Boué has observed that mountain chains running nearly east and west
establish much more striking differences among nations than those which
extend from north to south—a circumstance confirmed by observation
through the history of mankind. The Scandinavian Alps have not prevented
the countries on both sides from being occupied by people of a common
descent; while the feeble barrier of the Cheviot Hills, between England
and Scotland, and the moderate elevation of the Highland mountains, have
prevented the amalgamation of the Anglo-Saxons and the Celts, even in a
period of high civilization. The Franks and Belgians are distinct,
though separated by hills of still less elevation. For the same reason
the Spaniards and Italians differ far more from their neighbours on the
other side of the eastern and western chains, than the Spaniards do from
the Portuguese, or the Piedmontese from the Provençals. A similar
distinction prevails throughout Asia; and in America, where all the
principal chains run north and south, there is but one copper-coloured
race throughout the continent, which stretches over more climates than
Europe and Africa, or even than Asia and Australia, united. It is along
chains running north and south that the fusion of languages takes place,
and not along those of an easterly and westerly direction. From Poland,
for instance, there are intermediate insensible gradations through
Germany into France; while in crossing from a German district of the
Alps to the valleys of Italy, different tribes and different languages
are separated by a single mountain. Even wars and conquest have ever
been more easy in one direction than in the other. The difference in the
fauna and flora on the two sides of the great table-land and mountains
of Asia is a striking illustration of the influence which high lands
running east and west have on natural productions, and thus, both
directly and indirectly, they affect the distribution of mankind.
The circumstances which thus determine the location of nations, and the
fusion or separation of their languages, must, conjointly with moral
causes, operate powerfully on their character. The minds of mankind, as
well as their fate, are influenced by the soil on which they are born
and bred. The natives of elevated countries are attached to their
mountains; the Dutch are as much attached to their meadows and canals;
and the savage, acquainted only with the discomforts of life, is unhappy
when brought among civilized man. Early associations never entirely
leave us, however much our position in life may alter, and strong
attachments are formed to places which generate in us habits differing
from those of other countries.
The Baltic and Mediterranean Seas have had no inconsiderable share in
civilizing Europe; one combined with a cold and gloomy climate, the
other with a warm and glowing sky, have developed dissimilar characters
in the temperament and habits of the surrounding nations, originally
dissimilar in race. The charms of climate, and the ease with which the
necessaries of life are procured, were favourable to the development of
imagination in the more southern nations, and to an indolent enjoyment
of their advantages. In the north, on the contrary, the task imposed
upon man was harder, and perhaps more favourable to strength of
character. The Dutch owe their industry and perseverance to their
unceasing struggle against the encroachments of the ocean; the British
are indebted to their insular position for their maritime disposition,
and to the smallness of their country and the richness of their mines,
for their manufacturing and colonizing habits; the military propensities
of the French, to the necessity of maintaining their independence among
the surrounding nations, as well as to ambition and the love of fame.
Thus, external circumstances materially modify the character of nations,
but the original propensities of race are never eradicated, and they are
nowhere more prominent than in the progress of the social state in
France and England. The vivacity and speculative disposition of the Celt
appear in the rapid and violent changes of government and in the
succession of theoretical experiments in France; while in Britain the
deliberate slowness, prudence, and accurate perceptions of the Teuton
are manifest in the gradual improvement and steadiness of their
political arrangements. “The prevalent political sentiment of Great
Britain is undoubtedly _conservative_, in the best sense of the word,
with a powerful under-current of _democratic tendencies_. This gives
great power and strength to the political and social body of this
country, and makes revolutions by physical force almost impossible. It
can be said, without assumption or pretension, that the body politic of
Britain is in a sounder state of health than any other in Europe; and
that those know very little of this country, who, led away by what they
see in France, always dream of violent and revolutionary changes in the
constitution. Great Britain is the only country in Europe which has had
the good fortune to have all her institutions worked out and framed by
her in a strictly _organic_ manner—that is, in accordance with _organic
wants_, which require different _conditions_ at different and
_successive_ stages of national development—and not by _theoretical
experiments_, as in many other countries which are still in a state of
excitement consequent upon these experiments. The social character of
the people of this country, besides the features which they have in
common with other nations of Teutonic origin, is, on the whole,
domestic, reserved, aristocratic, and exclusive.”[194]
In speculating upon the effects of external circumstances, and on the
original dispositions of the different races of mankind, the stationary
and unchanged condition is a curious phenomenon in the history of
nations. The inhabitants of Hindostan have not advanced within the
historical period; neither have the Chinese. The Peruvians and Mexicans
had arrived at a considerable degree of civilization, at which they
became stationary, never having availed themselves of their fine country
and noble rivers; and their conquerors, the Spaniards, degenerated into
the same apathy with the conquered. The unaccountable gipsies have for
ages maintained their peculiarities in all countries; so have the Jews
and Armenians, who by the perseverance with which they have adhered to
their language and institutions, have resisted the influence of physical
impressions.
The influence of external circumstances on man is not greater than his
influence on the material world. He cannot create power, it is true, but
he dexterously avails himself of the powers of nature to subdue nature.
Air, fire, water, steam, gravitation, his own muscular strength, and
that of animals rendered obedient to his will, are the instruments by
which he has converted the desert into a garden, drained marshes, cut
canals, made roads, turns the course of rivers, cleared away forests in
one country, and planted them in another. By these operations he has
altered the climate, changed the course of local winds, increased or
diminished the quantity of rain, and softened the rigour of the seasons.
In the time of Strabo, the cold in France was so intense, that it was
thought impossible to ripen grapes north of the Cevennes: the Rhine and
the Danube were every winter covered with ice thick enough to bear any
weight. Man’s influence on vegetation has been immense, but the most
important changes had been effected in the antediluvian ages of the
world. Cain was a tiller of the ground. The olive, the vine, and the
fig-tree have been cultivated time immemorial: wheat, rice, and barley,
have been so long in an artificial state, that their origin is unknown;
even maize, which is a Mexican plant, was in use among the American
tribes before the Spanish conquest; and tobacco was already used by them
to allay the pangs of hunger, to which those who depend upon the chace
for food must be exposed. Most of the ordinary culinary vegetables have
been known for ages, and it is remarkable that in these days, when our
gardens are adorned with innumerable native plants in a cultivated
state, few new grains, vegetables, or fruits have been reclaimed; the
old have been produced in infinite variety, and many brought from
foreign countries: yet there must exist many plants capable of
cultivation, as unpromising in their wild state as the turnip or carrot.
Some families of plants are more susceptible of improvement than others,
and, like man himself, can bear almost any climate. One kind of wheat
grows to 62° N. latitude; rye and barley are hardier, and succeed still
farther north; and few countries are absolutely without grass. The
cruciform tribe abounds in useful plants, indeed that family, together
with the solanum, the papilionaceous and umbelliferous tribes, furnish
most of our vegetables. Many plants, like animals, are of one colour
only in their wild state, and their blossoms are single. Art has
introduced the variety we now see in the same species, and, by changing
the anthers of the wild flowers into petals, has produced double
blossoms: by art, too, many plants, natives of warm countries, have been
naturalized in colder climates. Few useful plants have beautiful
blossoms—but if utility were the only object, of what pleasure should we
be deprived! Refinement is not wanting in the inmates of a cottage
covered with roses and honeysuckle; and the little garden cultivated
amidst a life of toil, tells of a peaceful home.
Among the objects which tend to the improvement of our race, the
flower-garden and the park adorned with native and foreign trees have no
small share: they are the greatest ornaments of the British Islands; and
the love of a country life, which is so strong a passion, is chiefly
owing to the law of primogeniture, by which the head of a family is
secured in the possession and transmission of his undivided estate, and
therefore each generation takes pride and pleasure in adorning the home
of its forefathers.
Animals yield more readily to man’s influence than vegetables, and
certain classes have greater flexibility of disposition and structure
than others. Those only are capable of being perfectly reclaimed that
have a natural tendency for it, without which man’s endeavours would be
unavailing. This predisposition is greatest in animals which are
gregarious and follow a leader, as elephants, dogs, horses, and cattle
do in their wild state; yet even among these some species are
refractory, as the buffalo, which can only be regarded as
half-reclaimed. The canine tribe, on the contrary, are capable of the
greatest attachment, not the dog only, man’s faithful companion, but
even the wolf, and especially the hyæna, generally believed to be so
ferocious. After an absence of many months, a hyæna which had been the
fellow-passenger of a friend of the author’s in a voyage from India,
recognized his voice before he came in sight, and on seeing him it
showed the greatest joy, lay down like a dog and licked his hands. He
had been kind to it on the voyage, and no animal forgets kindness, which
is the surest way of reclaiming them. There cannot be a greater mistake
than the harsh and cruel means by which dogs and horses are too commonly
trained; but it is long before man learns that his power is mental, and
that it is his intellect alone that has given him dominion over the
earth and its inhabitants, of which so many far surpass him in physical
strength. The useful animals were reclaimed by the early inhabitants of
Asia, and it is very remarkable, notwithstanding the enterprise and
activity of the present times, that among the multitudes of animals that
inhabit America, Central and Southern Africa, Australia and the Indian
Archipelago, 4 only have been domesticated, yet many may be capable of
becoming useful to man. Of 35 species, of which we possess one or more
domestic races, 31 are natives of Asia, Europe, and North Africa; these
countries are far from being exhausted, and a complete hemisphere is yet
unexplored. An attempt has been made to domesticate the Llama, the
Dziggetai, Zebra, and some species of Indian deer, but the success is
either doubtful or the attempt has not been followed up. Little has been
left for modern nations but the improvement of the species, and in that
they have been very successful. The variety of horses, dogs, cattle, and
sheep is beyond number. The form, colour, and even the disposition, may
be materially altered, and the habits engrafted are transmitted to the
offspring, as instinctive properties independent of education. Domestic
fowls go in flocks on their native meads when wild. There are, however,
instances of solitary birds being tamed to an extraordinary degree, as
the raven, one of the most sagacious.
Man’s necessities and pleasure have been the cause of great changes in
the animal creation—and his destructive propensity of still greater.
Animals are intended for our use, and field-sports are advantageous by
encouraging a daring and active spirit in young men, but the utter
destruction of some races, in order to protect those destined for his
pleasure, is too selfish. Animals soon acquire a dread of man, which
becomes instinctive and hereditary; in newly-discovered uninhabited
countries, birds and beasts are so tame as to allow themselves to be
caught; whales scarcely got out of the way of the ships that first
navigated the Arctic Ocean, but now they universally have a dread of the
common enemy: whales and seals have been extirpated in various places;
sea-fowl and birds of passage are not likely to be extinguished, but
many land animals and birds are vanishing before the advance of
civilization. Drainage, cultivation, cutting down of forests, and even
the introduction of new plants and animals, destroy some of the old, and
alter the relations between those that remain. The inaccessible cliffs
of the Himalaya and Andes will afford a refuge to the eagle and condor,
but the time will come when the mighty forests of the Amazons and
Orinoco will disappear with the myriads of their joyous inhabitants. The
lion, the tiger, and the elephant will be known only by ancient records.
Man, the lord of the creation, will extirpate the noble creatures of the
earth—but he himself will ever be the slave of the canker-worm and the
fly. Cultivation may lessen the scourge of the insect tribe, but God’s
great army will ever, from time to time, appear suddenly—no one knows
from whence; the grub will take possession of the ground, and the locust
will come from the desert and destroy the fairest prospects of the
harvest.
Though the unreclaimed portion of the animal creation is falling before
the progress of improvement, yet man has been both the voluntary and the
involuntary cause of the introduction of new animals and plants into
countries in which they were not natives. The Spanish conquerors little
thought that the descendants of the few cattle and horses they allowed
to run wild, would resume the original character of their species, and
roam in hundreds of thousands over the savannahs of South America.
Wherever man is, civilized or savage, there also is the dog, but he too
has in some places resumed his native state and habits, and hunts in
packs. Domestic animals, grain, fruit, vegetables, and the weeds that
grow with them, have been conveyed by colonists to all settlements.
Birds and insects follow certain plants into countries in which they
were never seen before. Even the inhabitants of the waters change their
abode in consequence of the influence of man. Fish, natives of the
rivers on the coast of the Mexican Gulf, have migrated by the canals to
the heart of North America; and the mytilus polymorphus, a shell-fish
brought to the London Docks in the timbers of ships from the brackish
waters of the Black Sea and its tributary streams, has spread into the
interior of England by the Croydon and other canals.
The influence of man on man is a power of the highest order, far
surpassing that which he possesses over inanimate or animal nature. It
is, however, as a collective body, and not as an individual, that he
exercises this influence over his fellow-creatures. The free-will of
man, nay, even his most capricious passions, neutralize each other, when
large numbers of men are considered. Professor Quetelet has most ably
proved, that the greater the number of individuals, the more completely
does the will of each, as well as all individual peculiarities, moral or
physical, disappear, and allow the series of general facts to
predominate, which depend upon the causes by which society exists and is
preserved. The uniformity with which the number of marriages in Belgium
occurred in 20 years, places the neutralization of the free-will of the
individual man beyond a doubt, and is one of many instances of the
importance of average quantities in arriving at general laws.
Certainly no event in a man’s life depends more upon his free will than
his marriage, yet it appears from the records in Brussels, that nearly
the same number of marriages take place every year, in the towns as well
as in the country, and, moreover, that the same constancy prevails in
each province, though the numbers of the people are so small, that
accidental causes might be more likely to affect the general result than
when the numbers are larger. In fact the whole affair passes as if the
inhabitants of Belgium had agreed to contract nearly the same number of
marriages annually, at each stage of life. Young people may possibly be
in some degree under the control of parents, but there can be no
restraint on the free will of men of 30 and women of 60 years of age,
yet the same number of such incongruous marriages do annually take place
between men and women at those unsuitable ages—a fact which almost
exceeds belief. The day fixed for a wedding is of all things most
entirely dependent on the will of the parties, yet even here there is
regularity in the annual recurrence. (See Table on next page.)
With regard to crimes also, M. Quetelet observes that the same number of
crimes of the same description are committed annually, with remarkable
uniformity, even in the case of those crimes which would seem most
likely to baffle all attempt at prediction. The same regularity occurs
in the sentences passed on criminals: in France, in every hundred trials
there were sixty-one convictions regularly, year after year.
Forgetfulness, as well as free-will, is under constant laws: the number
of undirected letters put into the post-office in London and in Paris is
very nearly the same year after year respectively—in London they amount
to 2000: so that even the deviations from free-will proves the
generality and the constancy of the laws that govern us.
Scientific discoveries and social combinations, which put in practice
great social principles, are not without a decided influence; but these
causes of action coming from man, are placed out of the sphere of the
free-will of each: so that individual impulse has less to do with the
progress of mankind than is generally believed. When society has arrived
at a certain point of advancement, certain discoveries will naturally be
made; the general mind is directed that way, and if one individual does
not hit upon the discovery, another will. Therefore, on the disputes and
discussions of different nations for the honour of particular inventions
or discoveries, as for example the steam-engine, a narrow view of the
subject is taken; they properly belong to the age in which they are
made, without derogating from the merits of those benefactors of mankind
who have lessened his toil or increased his comfort by the efforts of
their genius. The time had come for the invention of printing, and
printing was invented; and the same observation is applicable to many
objects in the physical, as well as to the moral world. In the present
disturbed state of society the time is come for the termination of the
feudal system, which will be swept away by the force of public opinion,
though individuality merges in these general movements.
_The following Table, which is one of the most curious of statistical
documents, was formed by Professor Quetelet from
the Register of Marriages at Brussels_:—
+------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------+
| MARRIAGES IN BELGIUM IN THE YEARS |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| | | 1841 | 1842 | 1843 | 1844 | 1845 |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| {| Women of 30 years of | | | | | |
| {| age and under | 12,788 | 12,422 | 12,368 | 13,024 | 13,157 |
| Men of 30 years of {| Women from 30 to 45 | 2,630 | 2,626 | 2,406 | 2,375 | 2,438 |
| age and under, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 93 | 121 | 125 | 129 | 102 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 7 | 6 | 8 | 5 | 8 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 6,122 | 5,803 | 5,617 | 4,948 | 5,810 |
| Men from 30 to 35 {| Women from 30 to 45 | 5,531 | 5,396 | 5,100 | 5,205 | 4,981 |
| inclusive, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 529 | 542 | 479 | 493 | 532 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 18 | 12 | 18 | 21 | 21 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 376 | 346 | 380 | 355 | 346 |
| Men from 45 to 60 {| Women from 30 to 45 | 896 | 879 | 896 | 951 | 993 |
| inclusive, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 461 | 447 | 433 | 462 | 460 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 23 | 19 | 29 | 36 | 28 |
| | | | | | | |
| {| Women of 30 and under | 48 | 35 | 45 | 41 | 36 |
| Men from 60 and {| Women from 30 to 45 | 139 | 147 | 133 | 119 | 125 |
| above, to {| Women from 45 to 60 | 153 | 170 | 137 | 112 | 145 |
| {| Women from 60 upwards | 62 | 52 | 48 | 50 | 31 |
| | +--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
| Annual Number of Marriages | 29,876 | 29,023 | 28,220 | 29,326 | 29,210 |
+---------------------+-----------------------+--------+--------+--------+--------+--------+
Though each individual is accountable to God for his conduct, it is
evident that the great laws which regulate mankind are altogether
independent of his will, and that liberty of action is perfectly
compatible with the general design of Providence. “A more profound study
of the social system will have the effect of limiting more and more the
sphere in which man’s free-will is exercised, for the Supreme Being
could not grant him a power which tends to overthrow the laws impressed
on all the parts of creation: He has traced its limits, as He has fixed
those of the ocean.”
Man is eminently sociable; he willingly gives up part of his free-will
to become a member of a social body; and it is this portion of the
individuality of each member of that body, taken in the aggregate, which
becomes the directrice of the principal social movements of a nation. It
may be greater or less, good or bad, but it determines the customs,
wants, and the national spirit of a people; it regulates the sum of
their moral statistics; and it is in that manner that the cultivation or
savageness, the virtues or the vices, of individuals have their
influence. It is thus that private morality becomes the base of public
morality.
The more man advances in civilization the greater will be his collective
influence, for knowledge is power; and at no time did the mental
superiority of the cultivated races produce such changes as they do at
present, because they have extended their influence to the uttermost
parts of the earth by emigration, colonization, and commerce. In
civilized society the number of people in the course of time exceeds the
means of sustenance, which compels some to emigrate; others are induced
by a spirit of enterprise to go to new countries, some for the love of
gain, others to fly from oppression.
The discovery of the New World opened a wide field for emigration. Spain
and Portugal, the first to avail themselves of it, acquired dominion
over some of the finest parts of South America, which they have
maintained till lately a change of times has rendered their colonies
independent states. Liberal opinions have spread into the interior of
that continent, in proportion to the facility of communication with the
cities on the coasts, from whence European ideas are disseminated. Of
this Venezuela and Chile are instances, where civilization and
prosperity have advanced more rapidly than in the interior parts of
South America, where the Andes are higher and the distance from the sea
greater. Civilization has been impeded in many of the smaller states by
war, and those broils inevitable among people unaccustomed to free
institutions. Brazil would have been further advanced but for slavery,
that stain on the human race, which corrupts the master as much as it
debases the slave.
Some of the native South American tribes have spontaneously made
considerably progress in civilization in modern times; others have
benefited by the Spanish and Portuguese colonists; and many have been
brought into subjection by the Jesuits, who have instructed them in some
of the arts of social life. But these Indians are not more religious
than their neighbours, and, from the restraint to which they have been
subject, have lost vigour of character without improving in intellect;
so that now they are either stationary or retrograde. Extensive regions
are still the abode of men in the lowest state of barbarism: some of the
tribes inhabiting the silvas of the Orinoco, Amazons, and Uruguay are
cannibals.
The arrival of the colonists in North America sealed the fate of the red
men. The inhabitants of the Union, too late awakened to the just claims
of the ancient proprietors of the land, have recently, but vainly,
attempted to save the remnant. The white man, like an irresistible
torrent, has already reached the centre of the continent; and the native
tribes now retreat towards the far west, and will continue to retreat,
till the Pacific Ocean arrests them, and the animals on their
hunting-grounds are exterminated. The almost universal dislike the
Indian has shown for the arts of peace has been one of the principal
causes of his decline, although the Cherokee tribe, which has lately
migrated to the west of the Mississippi, is a remarkable exception; the
greater number of them are industrious planters or mechanics; they have
a republican government, and publish a newspaper in their own language,
in a character lately invented by one of that nation.
No part of the world has been the scene of greater iniquity than the
West Indian islands—and that perpetrated by the most enlightened nations
of Europe. The native race has long been swept away by the stranger, and
a new people, cruelly torn from their homes, have been made the slaves
of hard task-masters. If the odious participation in this guilt has been
a stain on the British name, the abolition of slavery by the universal
acclamation of the nation will ever form one of the brightest pages in
their history, so full of glory: nor will it be the less so, that
justice was combined with mercy, by the millions of money granted to
indemnify the proprietors. It is deeply to be lamented that our brethren
on the other side of the Atlantic have not followed the example of their
fatherland; but in limited monarchies the voice of the people is
listened to, while republican governments are more apt to become its
slave. The Northern States have nobly declared every man free who sets
his foot on their territory—and the time will come when the Southern
States will sacrifice interest to justice and mercy.
It seems to be the design of Providence to supplant the savage by
civilized man in the continent of Australia as well as in North America,
though every effort has been made to prevent the extinction of the
natives. Most of the tribes in that continent are as low in the scale of
mankind as the cannibal Fuegians, whom Captain Fitzroy so generously,
but so ineffectually, attempted to reclaim. Some of the New Hollanders
are faithful servants for a time, but they almost always find the
restraint of civilized life irksome, and return to their former habits,
though truly miserable in a country where the means of existence are so
scanty. Animals and birds are very scarce, and there is no fruit or
vegetable for the sustenance of man.
Slavery has been a greater impediment to the improvement of Africa than
even the physical disadvantages of the country—the great arid deserts
and unwholesome coasts. A spontaneous civilization has arisen in various
parts of Southern and Central Africa, in which there has been
considerable progress in agriculture and commerce; but civilized man has
been a scourge on the Atlantic coast, which has extended its baneful
influence into the heart of the continent, by the encouragement it has
given to warfare among the natives for the capture of slaves, and for
the introduction of European vices, unredeemed by Christian virtues. Now
that France and England have united in the suppression of this odious
traffic, some hopes may be entertained that their colonies may be
beneficial to the natives, and that other nations may follow their
example, in which, however, they have been anticipated by three
Mahommedan sovereigns; the Sultan has abolished the slave market in
Constantinople, Ibrahim Pasha on his return from France and England gave
freedom to his bondsmen in Egypt, and the Bey of Tunis has abolished
slavery in his dominions.
The French are zealous in improving the people in Algiers, but the
constant warfare in which they have been embroiled ever since their
conquest must render their success in civilizing the natives at least
remote. The inhabitants of those extensive and magnificent countries in
the eastern seas that have long been colonized by the Dutch have made
but little progress under their rule.
The British colony at the Cape of Good Hope has had considerable
influence on the neighbouring rude nations, who now begin to adopt more
civilized habits. When Mr. Somerville visited Litako, the natives for
the first time saw a white person and a horse, and were scantily clothed
with skins. When Dr. Smith visited them 20 years afterwards, he found
the chief men mounted on horseback, wearing hats made of rushes, and an
attempt made to imitate European dress.
Colonization has nowhere produced such happy results as among the
amiable and cultivated inhabitants of India, who are sensible of the
benefits they derive from the impartial administration of just and equal
laws, the foundation of schools and colleges, and the wide extension of
commerce.
All the causes of emigration have operated by turns on the inhabitants
of Britain, and various circumstances have concurred to make their
colonies permanent. In North America, that which not many years ago was
a British colony has become a great independent nation, occupying a
large portion of the continent. The Australian continent and New Zealand
will in after ages be peopled by a British race, and will become centres
of civilization which will spread its influence to the uttermost islands
of the Pacific. These splendid islands, possessing every advantage of
climate and soil, with a population in many parts far advanced in the
arts of civilized life, industry, and commerce, though in others savage,
will in time come in for a share of the general improvement. The success
that has attended the noble and unaided efforts of Sir J. Brooke in
Borneo, shows how much the influence of an active and benevolent mind
can in a short time effect.
The colonies on the continent of India are already centres from which
the culture of Europe is spreading over the East.
Commerce has not less influence on mankind than colonization, with which
it is intimately connected; and the narrow limits of the British Islands
have rendered it necessary for its inhabitants to exert their industry.
The riches of our mines in coal and metals, which produce a yearly
income of 24,000,000_l._ sterling, is a principal cause of our
manufacturing and commercial wealth; but even with these natural
advantages, more is due not only to our talents and enterprise, but to
our high character for faith and honour.
Every country has its own peculiar productions, and by an unrestrained
interchange of the gifts of Providence the condition of all is improved.
The exclusive jealousy with which commerce has hitherto been fettered,
shows the length of time that is necessary to wear out the effects of
those selfish passions which separated nations when they were yet
barbarous. It required a high degree of cultivation to break down those
barriers consecrated by their antiquity; and the accomplishment of this
important change evinces the rate at which the present age is advancing.
A new era in the history of the world began when China was opened to
European intercourse; but many years must pass before European influence
can penetrate that vast empire, and eradicate those illiberal prejudices
by which it has so long been governed.
Two important triumphs yet remain to be achieved over physical
difficulties by the science and energy of man, namely, the junction of
the Pacific and Atlantic Oceans at the Isthmus of Central America, and
the union of the Red Sea with the Mediterranean at that of Suez. The
first seems to be on the eve of accomplishment, and, in conjunction with
the treasures with which the auriferous district of California is said
to abound, may bring about a complete revolution in the tide of affairs;
and that country, hitherto so completely separated from the rest of the
world and so little known, will become a new centre of civilization,
whose influence will be diffused over the wide Pacific to the shores of
the eastern continent; the expectation of Columbus will then be
realized—of a passage to the East Indies by the Atlantic. Should the
Mediterranean and Red Sea be united by a water communication,
Alexandria, Venice, and the other maritime cities of southern Europe may
regain, at least in part, the mercantile position which they lost by the
discovery of Vasco da Gama.[195]
The advantages of colonization and commerce to the less civilized part
of the world are incalculable, as well as to those at home, not only by
furnishing an exchange for manufactures, important as this is, but by
the immense accession of knowledge of the earth and its inhabitants,
that has been thus attained.
The history of former ages exhibits nothing to be compared with the
mental activity of the present. Steam, which annihilates time and space,
fills mankind with schemes for advantage or defence: but however
mercenary the motives for enterprise may be, it is instrumental in
bringing nations together. The facility of communication is rapidly
assimilating national character. Society in most of the capitals is
formed on the same model; and as the study of modern languages is now
considered a part of polite education, and every well-educated person
speaks more than one modern tongue, one of the great barriers to the
assimilation of character amongst nations will be removed.
Science has never been so extensively and so successfully cultivated as
at the present time: the collective wisdom and experience of Europe and
the United States of America is now brought to bear on subjects of the
highest importance in annual meetings, where the common pursuit of truth
is as beneficial to the moral as to the intellectual character, and the
noble objects of investigation are no longer confined to a philosophic
few, but are becoming widely diffused among all ranks of society, and
the most enlightened governments have given their support to measures
that could not have been otherwise accomplished.[196] Simultaneous
observations are made at numerous places in both hemispheres on
electricity, magnetism, on the tides and currents of the air and the
ocean, and those mysterious vicissitudes of temperature and moisture,
which bless the labours of the husbandman one year, and blight them in
another.
The places of the nebulæ and fixed stars, and their motions, are known
with unexampled precision, and the most refined analyses embrace the
most varied objects. Three new satellites and six new planets have been
discovered within four years, and one of these under circumstances the
most unprecedented. In the far heavens, from disturbances in the motions
of Uranus which could not be accounted for, an unknown and unseen body
was declared to be revolving on the utmost verge of the solar system;
and it was found in the very region of the heavens pointed out by
analysis. On earth, though hundreds of miles apart, that invisible
messenger, electricity, instantaneously conveys the thoughts of the
invisible spirit of man to man—results of science sublimely
transcendental.
Vain would be the attempt to enumerate the improvements in machinery and
mechanics, the canals and railroads that have been made, the harbours
that have been improved, the land that has been drained, the bridges
that have been constructed; and now, although Britain is inferior to
none in many things, and superior to all in some, one of our most
distinguished engineers declares that we are scarcely beyond the
threshold in improvement; to stand still is to retrograde, human
ingenuity will always keep pace with the unforeseen, the increasing
wants of the age.[197] “Who knows what may yet be in store for our use;
what new discovery may again change the tide of human affairs; what
hidden treasures may yet be brought to light in the air or in the ocean,
of which we know so little; or what virtues there may be in the herbs of
the field, and in the treasures of the earth—how far its hidden fires,
or stores of ice, may yet become available—ages can never exhaust the
treasures of nature or the talent of man.”[198] It would be difficult to
follow the rapid course of discovery through the complicated mazes of
magnetism and electricity; the action of the electric current on the
polarized sun-beam, one of the most beautiful of modern discoveries,
leading to relations hitherto unsuspected between that power and the
complex assemblage of visible and invisible influences on solar light,
by one of which nature has recently been made to paint her own likeness.
It is impossible to convey an idea of the rapid succession of the varied
and curious results of chemistry, and its application to physiology and
agriculture; moreover, distinguished works have lately been published at
home and abroad on the science of mind, which has been so successfully
cultivated in our own country. Geography has assumed a new character, by
that unwearied search for accurate knowledge and truth that marks the
present age, and physical geography is altogether a new science.
The spirit of nautical and geographical discovery, begun in the 15th
century, by those illustrious navigators who had a new world to
discover, is at this day as energetic as ever, though the results are
less brilliant. Neither the long gloomy night of a polar winter, nor the
dangers of the ice and the storm, deter our gallant seamen from seeking
a better acquaintance with “this ball of earth,” even under its most
frowning aspect; and that, for honour, which they are as eager to seek
even in the cannon’s mouth. Nor have other nations of Europe and America
been without their share in these bold adventures. The scorching sun and
deadly swamps of the tropics as little prevent the traveller from
collecting the animals and plants of the present creation, or the
geologist from investigating those of ages long gone by. Man daily
indicates his birthright as lord of the creation, and compels every land
and sea to contribute to his knowledge.
The most distinguished modern travellers, following the noble example of
Baron Humboldt, the patriarch of physical geography, take a more
extended view of the subject than the earth and its animal and vegetable
inhabitants afford, and include in their researches the past and present
condition of man, the origin, manners, and languages of existing
nations, and the monuments of those that have been. Geography has had
its dark ages, during which the situation of many great cities and spots
of celebrity in sacred and profane history had been entirely lost sight
of, which are now discovered by the learning and assiduity of the modern
traveller. Of this, Italy, Egypt, the Holy Land, Asia Minor, Arabia, and
the valleys of the Euphrates and Tigris, with the adjacent mountains of
Persia, are remarkable instances, not to mention the vast region of the
East, and the remote centres of aboriginal civilization in the New
World. The interesting discoveries of Mr. Layard, who possessed every
acquirement that could render a traveller competent to accomplish so
arduous an undertaking, have brought to light the long-hidden treasures
of the ancient Nineveh, where its own peculiar style of art had existed
anterior to that of Egypt.[199] In many parts of the world the ruins of
cities of extraordinary magnitude and architecture show that there are
wide regions of whose original inhabitants we know nothing. The Andes of
Peru and Mexico have remains of civilized nations before the age of the
Incas. Mr. Pentland has found numerous remains of Peruvian monuments in
every part of the great valley of the Peru-Bolivian Andes, and many
parts of the imperial capital Cusco, little changed from what they were
at the downfall of Atahualpa. Mr. Stephens has found in the woods of
Central America the ruins of great cities, adorned with sculpture and
pictorial writings, vestiges of a people far advanced, who had once
cultivated the soil where these entangled forests now grow.
Picture-writings have been discovered by Sir Robert Schomburgk on rocks
in Guiana, spread over an extent of 350,000 square miles, similar to
those found in the United States and in Siberia. Magnificent buildings
still exist in good preservation all over eastern Asia, and many in a
ruinous state belong to a period far beyond written record.
Ancient literature has furnished a subject of still more interesting
research, from which it is evident that the mind of man is essentially
the same under very different circumstances: every nation far advanced
in civilization has had its age of poetry, the drama, romance, and
philosophy, each stamped with the character of the people and times, and
still more with their religious belief. Our profound Oriental scholars
have made known to Europeans the refined Sanscrit literature of
Hindostan, its schools of philosophy and astronomy, its dramatic
writings and poetry, which are original and beautiful, and to these the
learned in Greece and Italy have contributed.
The riches of Chinese literature, and their valuable geography, were
introduced into Europe by the French Jesuits of the last century, and
followed up with success by the French and English philosophers of the
present: to France we also owe much of our knowledge of the poetry and
letters of Persia; and from the time that Dr. Young deciphered the
inscriptions on the Rosetta Stone, Egyptian hieroglyphics and
picture-writing have been studied by the learned of France, England, and
Italy, and we have reason to expect much new information from the more
recent researches of Professor Lepsius of Berlin. The Germans, indeed,
have left few subjects of ancient literature unexplored, even to the
language written at Babylon and Nineveh—the most successful attempt to
decipher which is due to a distinguished countryman of our own, Colonel
Rawlinson.
The press has overflowed with an unprecedented quantity of literature,
some of standard merit, and much more that is ephemeral, suited to all
ranks, on every subject, with the aim, in our own country at least, to
improve the people, and to advocate the cause of morality and virtue.
All this mental energy is but an effect of those laws which regulate
human affairs, and include in their generality the various changes that
tend to improve the condition of man.
The fine arts do not keep pace with science, though they have not been
altogether left behind. Painting, like poetry, must come spontaneously,
because a feeling for it depends upon innate sympathies in the human
breast. Nothing external could affect us, unless there were
corresponding ideas within; poetically constituted minds of the highest
organization are most deeply impressed with whatever is excellent. All
are not gifted with a strong perception of the beautiful, in the same
way as some persons cannot see certain colours, or hear certain sounds.
Those elevated sentiments which constitute genius are given to few; yet
something akin, though inferior in degree, exists in most men.
Consequently, though culture may not inspire genius, it cherishes and
calls forth the natural perception of what is good and beautiful, and by
that means improves the tone of the national mind, and forms a
counterpoise to the all-absorbing useful and commercial.
Historical painting is successfully cultivated both in France and
Germany. The Germans have modelled their school on the true style of the
ancient masters. They have become their rivals in richness and beauty of
colouring, and are not surpassed in vividness of imagination, nor in
variety and sublimity of composition, which is poetry of the highest
order embodied. Sculpture and architecture are also marked by that
elevated and pure taste which distinguish their other works of art.[200]
French artists, following in the same steps, have produced historical
works of great merit. Pictures of _genre_ and scenes of domestic life
have been painted with much expression and beauty by our own artists;
and British landscapes, like some painted by German artists, are not
mere portraits of nature, but pictures of high poetical feeling, and the
excellence of their composition has been acknowledged all over Europe,
by the popularity of the engravings which illustrate many of our modern
books. The encouragement given to this branch of art at home may be
ascribed to the taste for a country life so general in England.
Water-colour painting, which is entirely of British growth, has now
become a favourite style in every country, and is brought to the highest
perfection in our own.
The Italians have had the merit of restoring sculpture to the pure style
which it had lost, and that gifted people have produced some of the
noblest specimens of modern art. The greatest genius of his time left
the snows of the far North to spend his days in Rome, the head-quarters
of art; and our own sculptors of eminent talents have established
themselves in Rome, where they find a more congenial spirit than in
their own country, in which the compositions of Flaxman were not
appreciated till they had become the admiration of Europe. Munich can
boast of some of the finest specimens of modern sculpture and
architecture.
The Opera, one of the most refined of theatrical amusements in every
capital city in Europe, displays the excellence and power of Italian
melody, which has been transmitted from age to age by a succession of
great composers. German music, partaking of the learned character of the
nation, is rich in original harmony, which requires a cultivated taste
to understand and appreciate.
Italy is the only country that has had two poetical eras of the highest
order; and, great as the Latin period was, that of Dante was more
original and sublime. The Germans, so eminent in every branch of
literature, have also been great as poets; the power of Goethe’s genius
will render his poems as permanent as the language in which they are
written. France is, as it long has been, the abode of the Comic Muse;
and although that nation can claim great poets of a more serious cast,
yet the language and the habits of the people are more suited to the gay
than the grave style. Though the British may have been inferior to other
nations in some branches of the fine arts, yet poetry, immeasurably the
greatest and most noble, redeems, and more than redeems us. The nation
that produced the poetry of Chaucer, Spenser, Shakespeare and Milton,
with all the brilliant train, down nearly to the present time, must ever
hold a distinguished place, as an imaginative people. Shakespeare alone
would stamp a language with immortality. The British novels stand high
among works of imagination, and they have generally had the merit of
advancing the cause of morality. Had French novelists attended more to
this, their knowledge of the human heart and the brilliancy of their
composition would have been more appreciated.
Poetry of the highest stamp has fled before the utilitarian spirit of
the age; yet there is as much talent in the world, and imagination too,
at the present time, as at any former period, though directed to
different and more important objects, because the whole aspect of the
moral world is altered. The period is come for one of those important
changes in the minds of men which occur from time to time, and form
great epochs in the history of the human race. The whole of civilized
Europe could not have been roused to the enthusiasm which led them to
embark in the Crusades by the preaching of Peter the Hermit, unless the
people had been prepared for it: men were ready for the Reformation
before the impulse was given by Luther; and Pius IX. merely applied the
match to a train already laid. These are the barometric storms of the
human mind.
The present state of transition has been imperceptibly in progress,
aided by many concurring circumstances, among which the increasing
intelligence of the lower orders, and steam-travelling, have been the
most efficient. The latter has assisted eminently in the diffusion of
knowledge, and has probably accelerated the crisis of public affairs on
the Continent, by giving the inhabitants of different countries
opportunities of intercourse, and comparing their conditions. No
invention that has been made for ages has so levelling a tendency, which
accords but too well with the present disposition of the people. The
spirit of emancipation, so peculiarly characteristic of this century,
appears in all the relations of life, political and social. On the
continent of Europe it has shaken the whole fabric of society, subverted
law and order, and ruined thousands, in order to throw down the
crumbling remains of the feudal system. The same emancipating spirit
which has thrown young and old into a state of insubordination and
rebellion abroad, has been quietly but gradually altering the relations
of social and domestic life at home. Parent and child no longer stand in
the same relation to one another; even at an early age boys assume the
character and independence of men, which may perhaps fit them sooner for
taking their share in the affairs of the world; for it must be
acknowledged that, whether from early independence or some other cause,
no country has produced more youthful and able statesmen than our own;
but, at the same time, it places them on a less amicable and more
dangerous position, by depriving them of the advice and experience of
the aged, to which the same deference is no longer paid. The working man
considers his interest to be at variance with that of the manufacturer,
and the attachment of servants to their masters is nearly as extinct in
Britain as vassalage. Ambition, to a great extent, pervades the inferior
and middle grades of society, and so few are satisfied with the
condition in which they were born, that the pressure upwards is
enormous. The numerous instances of men rising from an inferior rank to
the highest offices in the State encourages the endeavour to rise in
society, which is right and natural, if pursued by legitimate means, but
the levelling disposition so prevalent abroad is pernicious as it is
impracticable. So long as men are endowed with different dispositions
and different talents, so long will they differ in condition and
fortune, and this is as strongly marked in republics as in any other
form of government; for man, with all his attempts to liberate himself
from nature’s ordinances, by the establishment of equal laws and civil
rights, never can escape from them—inequality of condition is permanent
as the human race. Hence, from necessity we must fulfil the duties of
the station in which we are placed, bearing in mind that, while
Christianity requires the poor to endure their lot with patience, it
imposes a heavy responsibility on the rich.
In Britain, respect for the labouring classes, together with active
benevolence, form the counterpoise to the evil propensities of this
state of transition; a benevolence which is not confined to alms-giving,
but which consists in the earnest desire to contribute with energy to
the sum of human happiness. In proportion as that disposition is
diffused among the higher classes, and the more they can convince the
lower orders that they have an ardent desire to afford them every source
of happiness and comfort that is in their power, so much sooner will the
transient evils pass away, and an improved state of things will
commence; kindly and confiding feelings will then take the place of
coldness and mistrust.
The continual increase of that disinterested benevolence and liberal
sentiment, which in our own country is the most hopeful and consoling
feature of the age, manifests itself in the frequency with which plans
for ameliorating the condition of the lower classes are brought before
Parliament; in the societies formed for their relief; and in the many
institutions established for their benefit and comfort.
Three of the most beneficial systems of modern times are due to the
benevolence of English ladies—the improvement of prison discipline,
savings-banks, and banks for lending small sums to the poor. The success
of all has exceeded every expectation, and these admirable institutions
are now adopted by several foreign countries. The importance of popular
and agricultural education is becoming an object of attention to the
more enlightened governments; and one of the greatest improvements in
education is, that teachers are now fitted for their duties, by being
taught the art of teaching. The gentleness with which instruction is
conveyed no longer blights the joyous days of youth, but, on the
contrary, encourages self-education, which is the most efficient.
The system of infant-schools, established in many parts of Europe and
throughout the United States of America, is rapidly improving the
condition of the people. The instruction given in them is suited to the
station of the scholars, and the moral lessons taught are often
reflected back on the uneducated parents by their children. Moreover,
the personal intercourse with the higher orders, and the kindness which
the children receive from them, strengthen the bond of reciprocal good
feeling. Since the abolition of the feudal system, the separation
between the higher and the lower classes of society has been increasing;
but the generous exertions of individuals, whose only object is to do
good, is now beginning to correct a tendency that, unchecked, might have
led to the worst consequences to all ranks. We learn from statistical
reports that the pains taken by individuals and associations are not
without their effect upon the character of the nation. For example,
during the eleven years that preceded 1846, in which the criminal
returns indicated the intellectual condition of persons accused, there
were 31 counties in England and Wales in which not one educated woman
was called before a court of law, in a population of 2,617,653
females.[201]
Crime has generally decreased in proportion to the religious and moral
education of the people: the improvement in the morality of the
factory-children is immense since Government appointed inspectors to
superintend their health and education;[202] and indeed the improvement
in the condition of the whole population appears from the bills of
mortality, which unquestionably prove that the duration of human life is
continually increasing throughout Great Britain.[203]
The voluntary sacrifices that have been made to relieve the necessities
of a famishing nation evince the humane disposition of the age. But it
is not one particular and extraordinary case, however admirable, that
marks the general progress—it is not in the earthquake or the storm, but
in the still small voice of consolation heard in the cabin of the
wretched, that is the prominent feature of the charities of the present
time, when the benevolent of all ranks seek for distress in the abodes
of poverty and vice, to aid and to reform. No language can do justice to
the merit of those who devote themselves to the reformation of the
children who have hitherto wandered neglected in the streets of great
cities; in the unpromising task they have laboured with patience,
undismayed by difficulties that might have discouraged the most
determined—but they have had their reward, they have succeeded.[204] The
language of kindness and sympathy, never before heard by these children
of crime and wretchedness, is saving multitudes from perdition. But it
would require a volume to enumerate the exertions that are making for
the accommodation, health, and improvement of the people, and the
devotion of high and low to the introduction of new establishments and
the amelioration of the old. Noble and liberal sentiments mark the
proceedings of public assemblies, whether in the cause of nations or of
individuals, and the severity of our penal laws is mitigated by a milder
system. Happily this liberal and benevolent spirit is not confined to
Britain, it is universal in the States of the American Union, and it is
spreading widely through the more civilized countries of Europe.
No retrograde movement can now take place in civilization; the diffusion
of Christian virtues and of knowledge ensures the progressive
advancement of man in those high moral and intellectual qualities that
constitute his true dignity. But much yet remains to be done at home,
especially in religious instruction and the prevention of crime; and
millions of our fellow-creatures in both hemispheres are still in the
lowest grade of barbarism. Ages and ages must pass away before they can
be civilized; but if there be any analogy between the period of man’s
duration on earth and that of the frailest plant or shell-fish of the
geological periods, he must still be in his infancy; and let those who
doubt of his indefinite improvement compare the first revolution in
France with the last, or the state of Europe in the middle ages with
what it is at present. For, notwithstanding the disturbed condition of
the Continent, and the mistaken means the people employ to improve their
position, crime is less frequent and less atrocious than it was in
former times, and the universal indignation it now raises is a strong
indication of improvement. In our own country, men who seem to have
lived before their time were formerly prosecuted and punished for
opinions which are now sanctioned by the legislature, and acknowledged
by all. The moral disposition of the age appears in the refinement of
conversation. Selfishness and evil passions may possibly ever be found
in the human breast, but the progress of the race will consist in the
increasing power of public opinion, the collective voice of mankind
regulated by the Christian principles of morality and justice. The
individuality of man modifies his opinions and belief; it is a part of
that variety which is a universal law of nature; so that there will
probably always be a difference of views as to religious doctrine,
which, however, will become more spiritual, and freer from the taint of
human infirmity; but the power of the Christian religion will appear in
purer conduct, and in the more general practice of mutual forbearance,
charity, and love.
APPENDIX.
Table of the Heights above the Sea of some of the Principal Mountain
Chains.
EUROPE.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
MONT BLANC | 15,739 |Alps, P.[205]| P. S.[206]
Monte Rosa | 15,210 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Mont Cervin | 14,836 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Finsterärhorn | 14,026 | Alps, B. | Eichman.
Jungfrau | 13,672 | Alps, B. | Eichman.
Le Géant du M. Blanc | 13,786 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Mont Combin | 14,124 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Mont Iséran | 13,272 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Monte Viso | 13,599 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Ortler Spitz | 12,851 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Le Grand Rioburent | 11,063 | Alps, M. | P. S.
Drey Herrn Spitz | 10,122 | Alps, Car. | A. S.
Mont Terglou | 9,386 | Alps, J. | A. S.
| | |
_Passes of the Alps_:-- | | |
| | |
Col du Géant | 11,238[207]| Alps, P. | Saussure.
Col de St. Theodule | 11,185 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of Great St. Bernard | 8,173 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of La Furka | 8,714 | Alps, L. | S. S.
Pass of Mont Moro | 8,937 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Pass of Le Tavernette | 9,827 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Pass of Mont Iséran | 9,196 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Pass of Col des Fenêtres | 9,581 | Alps, P. | P. S.
Pass of the Stelvio | 9,177 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of Bernardino | 7,015 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of the Splugen | 6,946 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of St. Gothard | 6,808 | Alps, R. | S. S.
Pass of Mont Cenis | 6,772 | Alps, G. | P. S.
Pass of Simplon | 6,578 | Alps, L. | P. S.
Pass of Tende | 6,159 | Alps, M. | P. S.
Pass of Mont Genèvre | 6,119 | Alps, C. | P. S.
Pass of Brenner | 4,659 | Alps, R. | A. S.
Pass of Pontebba | 3,625 | Alps, J. | A. S.
| | |
Malahite Peak | 11,168 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.[208]
Mont Perdu Peak | 10,994 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Maboré, Cylinder of | 10,899 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Maladetta, Cylinder of | 10,886 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Vignemale, Cylinder of | 10,820 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Pic du Midi | 9,540 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Canigou | 9,137 | Pyrenees | A. B. L.
| | |
_Passes of the Pyrenees_:-- | | |
| | |
Pass or Port d’Oo | 9,843 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port d’Estaube | 8,402 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port de Gavarnie | 7,654 | France | A. B. L.
Pass or Port de Tourmalet | 7,143 | France | A. B. L.
| | |
Pic de Sancy | 6,188 | France | A. B. L.
Plomb du Cantal | 6,093 | France | A. B. L.
Mont Mezen | 5,795 | France | A. B. L.
Puy de Dôme | 4,806 | France | A. B. L.
Ballon des Vosges | 4,688 | France | A. B. L.
Mont Ventoux | 6,263 | France | A. B. L.
Mulachaçen | 11,483 | Spain | A. B. L.
Sierra de Gredos | 10,552 | Spain | Bory.
Estrella | 7,526 | Spain | Franzini.
Siete Picos | 7,244 | Spain | Bauza.
Peña Laza | 8,222 | Spain | Bauza.
El Gador | 6,575 | Spain | Rojas.
| | |
Monte Corno, or Gran Sasso | 9,521 | Italy, |
d’Italia | | Apennines |
Monte Vellino | 7,851 | Italy, | M. de Prony.
| | Apennines |
Termenillo Grande | 7,212 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Monte Amaro di Majella | 9,113 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Monte Cimone | 6,975 | Italy, | Schow.
| | Apennines |
Mont Amiata | 5,794 | Tuscany | Schow.
St. Oreste or Soracte | 2,140 | Campagna | Schow.
| | of Rome. |
| | |
_Passes of the Appennines_:-- | | |
| | |
Pass of Noviordi Giovi | 1,550 | | Schow.
Pass of La Bochetta | 2,550 | | Schow.
Pass of Pietramala | 3,294 | | Schow.
| | |
_Islands of the Mediterranean_:--| | |
| | |
Monte Rotondo | 8,767 | Corsica | A. B. L.
Monte d’Oro | 8,701 | Corsica | A. B. L.
Monte Generargenta | 6,004 | Sardinia | La Marmora.
Mount Etna | 10,874 | Sicily | W. H. Smyth.
Pizzo di Cane | 6,509 | Sicily | A. B. L.
Mount Eryx | 3,894 | Sicily | A. B. L.
Stromboli | 2,687 | Lipari Isles| De Borch.
| | |
_Greece and Morea_:-- | | |
| | |
Mount Guiona | 8,538 | | Peytier.[209]
Parnassus | 8,068 | | Peytier.
Taygetus, Mont St. Elias | 7,904 | | Peytier.
Mont Olonas | 7,293 | | Peytier.
Mont Kelmos | 7,726 | | Peytier.
Mont Athos | 6,778 | | De Borch.
Mont Helicon | 5,738 | | Peytier.
Delphi | 5,725 | | Peytier.
Mont Hymettus | 3,378 | | Peytier.
| | |
_Central Europe_:-- | | |
| | |
Ruska Joyana | 9,912 | E. Carpaths.| Malte Brun.
Budosch, Transylvania | 9,593 | E. Carpaths.| A. B. L.
Surrul | 9,593 | |
Mount Tatra; highest point | 8,524 | W. Carpaths.| Wahlenberg.
Mount Tatra; Csabi Peak | 8,314 | W. Carpaths.| Wahlenberg.
Mount Tatra; Lomnitz | 8,861 | W. Carpaths.| A. B. L.
Riesenhoppe, in the | | |
Riesengeberge | 5,394 | Germany | Horen.
Feldberg, in the Schwarzwald | 4,675 | Germany | French
| | | Engineers.
Belchenberg, in the Schwarzwald| 4,642 | Germany | French
| | | Engineers.
Kandelberg, in the Schwarzwald | 4,160 | Germany | Bohnenberger.
Schneeberg, Geisengebirge | 4,784 | Germany |
Kammkoppel, Geisengebirge | 4,265 | Germany | Charpentier.
Sonnenwerbel, in the Erzgebirge| 4,124 | Germany |
Rachelberg, in the Böhmerwald | 4,561 | Germany | Sternberg.
Steinberg, Moravia | 3,511 | Germany | David.
Brocken, Hartz | 3,658 | Germany | Zach.
Schneeberg, in the | | |
Fichtelgebirge | 3,461 | Germany | Goldfuss.
Blessberg, in the Thuringerwald| 2,748 | Germany | Zach.
Glockner, in the Thuringerwald | 2,231 | Germany | Zach.
Gross Feldberg, in the Taunus | | |
chain | 2,775 | Germany | Schmidt.
Lowenberg, in the Siebengebirge| 2,024 | Germany | Nose.
| | |
_Norway and Sweden:--_ | | |
| | |
Skagtöltend Lat. 61° 24ʹ | 8,101 | Scandinavian| Keilhau.
| | Mountains |
Koldetind | 7,224 | Scandinavian| Keilhau.
| | Mountains |
Sognefield | 7,182 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Mugnafield Lat. 61° 20ʹ | 7,215 | Scandinavian| Forsell.
| | Mountains |
Schneehattan Lat. 62 20 | 8,120 | Scandinavian| Eismark.
| | Mountains |
Pighœttan Lat. 62 2 | 6,788 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Sulitelma Lat. 67 5 | 6,178 | Scandinavian| Wahlenberg.
| | Mountains |
Langfield Lat. 61 53 | 6,598 | Scandinavian| Hagelstam.
| | Mountains |
Melderskin Lat. 60 0 | 4,859 | Scandinavian| Von Buch.
| | Mountains |
Lyngen Mountains Lat. 69 30 | 4,300 | Scandinavian| Von Buch.
| | Mountains |
| | |
_Great Britain:--_ | | |
| | |
Ben Nevis | 4,380 | Scotland | Jameson.
Cairntoul, Aberdeenshire | 4,223 | Scotland | Playfair.
Ben Avon, Aberdeenshire | 3,931 | Scotland | Playfair.
Ben More, Grampians | 3,819 | Scotland | Playfair.
Schehallien, Grampians | 3,514 | Scotland | Playfair.
Snowdon | 3,557 | Wales | Roy.
Cader Idris | 3,550 | Wales | Roy.
Carn Llewellyn | 3,471 | Wales | Roy.
Cross Fell, Cumberland | 3,383 | England | Jameson.
Helvyllen, Cumberland | 3,313 | England | Jameson.
Skiddaw, Cumberland | 3,038 | England | Dr. Young.
Schunner Fell, Yorkshire | 2,388 | England | Smith.
Coniston Fell, Lancashire | 2,575 | England | Smith.
Cheviot Hills | 2,657 | England | Smith.
Pentland Hills | 1,878 | Scotland | Playfair.
Curran Tual, Kerry | 3,412 | Ireland | Nimmo.
Sleib Donnard | 3,146 | Ireland | Nimmo.
Nephin, Mayo | 2,644 | Ireland | Jameson.
Mourne Mountains, Down | 2,493 | Ireland | Jameson.
Ben More, Isle of Mull | 3,100 | Hebrides | Jameson.
Hecla, Isle of S. Uist | 3,002 | Hebrides | Boué.
Cuchullin, Isle of Skye | 2,995 | Hebrides | M’Culloch.
Mount Rona | 3,593 | Shetland | Laing.
| | |
_Iceland and Feroe:--_ | | |
| | |
Snœfials, Jokull | 5,115 | Iceland | A. B. L.
Hecla | 3,324 | Iceland | A. B. L.
Skalingefield, Isle Stromoe | 2,172 | Feroe | Stein.
ASIA.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
_Himalaya Chain:—_ | | |
| | |
Kunchinginga, W. part | 28,178 | Sikim | Col. Waugh.[210]
Kunchinginga, E. Peak | 27,826 | Sikim | Col. Waugh.
Dwalagari | 26,862 | Nepaul | Webb.
Juwahir | 25,670 | Kumaöon | Herbert.
Jumoo | 25,312 | Sikim | Waugh.
Jumnautri | 25,500 | Nepaul | Webb.
Dhaibun | 24,740 | Nepaul | Webb.
Kabroo | 24,005 | Sikim | Waugh.
Chamalari | 23,929 | Tibet | Waugh.
Powhunry | 23,176 | Sikim | Waugh.[210]
Momonangli, or Gurla | 23,500 | Tibet | Strachey.[211]
Api Peak | 22,799 | Nepaul | Webb.
| | |
Peak No. 12 | 23,263 |} Between the| Webb.
Peak No. 13 | 22,313 |} Kali and E.| Webb.
Peak No. 23 | 22,727 |} branch of | Webb.
Peak No. 25 | 22,277 |} the Ganges.| Webb.
| | |
St. George’s Peak | 22,500 |} Between | Webb.
St. Patrick’s Peak | 22,638 |} the Ganges | Webb.
Gungoutri Pyramid | 21,219 |} and Sutlej.| Webb.
| | |
Jownlee Peak (highest) | 21,940 | Kumaöon | Webb.
Kailas Peak | 21,000 | Tibet | Strachey.
Kohibaba | 17,905 | Hindoo Cush | Burnes.
Peak N. of Cabul | 20,232 | Hindoo Cush | Burnes.
| | |
_Passes of the Himalaya:—_ | | |
| | |
Karokorum Pass | 18,600 | Tibet | Dr. Thomson[212]
Parangla Pass | 18,500 | Tibet | Cunningham.
Kronbrung Pass | 18,313 | Tibet | Gerard.
Langpya Dhura or Doora | | |
Ghaut | 17,750 | Tibet | Strachey.
Lipu Lek Pass | 16,884 | Tibet | Manson.
Niti Ghaut Pass | 16,814 | Tibet | Gerard.
Paralaha Pass | 16,500 | Tibet | Webb.
Shatool Pass | 15,500 | Tibet | Webb.
| | |
Elbrouz | 18,493 | Caucasus | Fuss.
Kasbeck | 16,530 | Caucasus | A. C.[213]
Demavend | 14,695 | Persia | Thomson.
Ararat | 17,112 | Persia | Parrot.
Argæus | 13,197 | Asia Minor | A. C.
Beloukha | 11,062 | Altai | A. C.
Mount Lebanus | 9,517 | Syria | A. B. L.
Mount Horeb | 8,593 | Syria | Rüppell.
Mount Sinai | 7,498 | Syria | Rüppell.
Jebel Serbal | 6,760 | Syria | Rüppell.
Kamen Peak | 5,397 | Ural | A. C.
Tremel Peak | 5,071 | Ural | A. C.
AFRICA, AND ISLANDS IN THE ATLANTIC.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Mount Atlas (Miltsin) | 11,400 | Morocco | Washington.
Mount Abba Jarrat 13° 10ʹ N | 15,008 | Abyssinia | Rüppell.
Mount Buahat 13 12 N | 14,362 | Abyssinia | Rüppell.
Kilimandjaro 4 0 S | 20,000 | Abyssinia in| Ans. of Phil.
(doubtful.) | | the Mtns. |
| | of the |
| | Moon. |
Table Mountain | 3,816 | Cape of Good| A. B. L.
| | Hope. |
Pico Ruivo | 6,056 | Madeira | Vidal.
Peak of Teyde, Teneriffe | 12,172 | Canaries. | Von Buch.
Chahorra, Teneriffe | 9,885 | Canaries. | Von Buch.
Pico de Cruz, Palma | 7,730 | Canaries. | Vidal.[214]
Los Pexos, Great Canary | 6,400 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Alto Garaona, Gomera | 4,400 | Canaries. | Vidal.
San Anton, Ferro | 3,907 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Asses’ Ears, Fuestaventura | 2,770 | Canaries. | Vidal.
Peak of Fogo | 9,154 | Cape Verde | Deville.
| | Islands. |
Pico, Island of San Antonio | 8,815 | Cape Verde | Capt. King.
| | Islands. |
Pico, Island of Pico | 7,613 | Azores | Vidal.
Pico de Vara, Island of St. | | |
Michael’s | 3,570 | Azores | Vidal.
Caldeira de Sta. Barbara, | | |
Terceira | 3,500 | Azores | Vidal.
Pico de San Jorje | 3,498 | Azores | Vidal.
Morro Gordo, Flores | 3,087 | Azores | Vidal.
Caldeira de Corvo | 2,460 | Azores | Vidal.
AMERICA.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
_North America:—_ | | |
| | |
Mount St. Elias | 16,775 |N. America | A. B. L.
Popocatepetl | 17,717 |Mexico | A. B. L.
Orizaba | 17,374 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Iztacihuatl | 15,705 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Nevado of Toluca | 15,542 |Mexico | A. B. L.
Sierra Nevada | 15,170 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Perote Mount | 13,413 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Fair Weather Mountain | 14,925 |N. America |
Jorullo | 4,265 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Volcan de Fuego, west peak | 13,160 |Guatemala | Basil Hall.
Volcan de Fuego, east peak | 13,050 |Guatemala | Basil Hall.
Irasu, or Volcano of Cartago | 11,480 |Guatemala | Phys. Atlas.
| | |
_West Indies:—_ | | |
| | |
Blue Mountains | 7,277 |Jamaica |
La Souffrière | 5,108 |Guadaloupe |
Montagne Pelee | 4,432 |Martinique | Monnier.
Mount Garon | 4,370 |St. Vincent’s| Chisholm.
| | |
_South America:—_ | | |
| | |
La Silla de Caraccas | 8,600 |Venezuela | Humboldt.
Cerro de Duida | 8,280 |Venezuela | Humboldt.
Roraima Lat. 5° 30ʹ N. | 7,450 |Guiana | Schomburgk.
Mountains of Santa Martha | 19,000? |New Grenada |
Plains of Bogota | 8,730 |New Grenada | Humboldt.
Volcano of Tolima | 18,020 |Andes of | Humboldt.
| | N. Grenada |
Volcano of Purace | 17,034 | | Humboldt.
| |Andes of |
Cumbal | 15,620 |N. Grenada | Bousingault.
| |Andes of the |
Cayambe | 19,535 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Antisana | 19,137 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Cotopaxi | 18,875 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Pinchincha | 15,924 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Chimborazo | 21,424 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Illinissa | 17,380 | Equator | Bouguer.
| |Andes of the |
Tunguragua | 16,424 | Equator | Humboldt.
| |Andes of the |
Sangai | 16,138 | Equator | La Condamine.
Vilcañota Mount | 17,525 |Peru | Pentland.[215]
Apu-Cunuranu | 17,590 |Peru | Pentland
Guaracoota Peak, Snowline | 16,297 |Peru | Pentland
Cololo Lat. 14° 58ʹ | 17,930 |Bolivia |
Volcano of Arequipa | 20,320 |Peru | Pentland
Quenuta Lat. 17° 41ʹ | 18,765 |Peru | Pentland
Chipicani | 19,745 |Peru | Pentland
Pomarape | 21,700 |Peru | Pentland
Parinacota | 22,030 |Peru | Pentland
Sahama | 22,350 |Peru | Pentland
Gualateiri Lat. 18° 23ʹ | 21,960 |Peru | Pentland
Ancohuma, S. Peak | 21,286 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Ancohuma, N. Peak | 21,043 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Chachacomani, N. Peak | 20,355 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Angel Peak Lat. 16° 10ʹ | 20,115 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Supaïwasi, or Huayna Potosi | 20,260 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cacaca Lat. 16° 25ʹ | 18,210 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
La Mesada, S. Peak | 19,356 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Illimani, S. Peak | 21,140 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Mount de las Litanias | 14,500 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Mount Miriquiri Peak Lat. 17° | 16,100 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cerro, or Mountain of Potosi | 16,152 |Bolivian | Pentland
| |Andes |
Cerro, or Mountain of | |Bolivian |
Chorolque, near Tupisa | 16,550 |Andes | Redhead.
Aconcagua Mountain | 23,910 |Chile[216] | Fitzroy and
| | | Beechey
Tupungato | 15,000 |Chile |
Antuco | 16,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Villarica | 16,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Volcano of Osorno, or | 7,550 |Chile | Fitzroy
Llanquihue | | |
Yanteles | 8,030 |Chile | Fitzroy
Minchinmadava Volcano | 8,000 |Chile | Fitzroy
Mount Stokes | 6,400 |Patagonia | Fitzroy
Mount Burney | 5,800 |Patagonia | Fitzroy
Mount Sarmiento | 6,900 |Tierra del | Fitzroy
| | Fuego |
Mount Darwin | 6,800 |Tierra del | Fitzroy
| | Fuego |
| | |
_Passes of the Andes:_ | | |
| | |
Rumihuasi | 16,160 |Peru | Gaye.
Altos de Toledo | 15,790 |Peru | Pentland.
Pacuani | 15,340 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Chullunquiani | 15,160 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Vilcañota, or la Raya | 14,520 |Peru | Pentland.
Gualillas | 14,750 |Peru | Pentland.
Paramo d’Assüay | 15,528 |Equator | Humboldt.
Guanacas | 14,708 |Equator | Bouguer.
Pass of Quindiu | 11,502 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Pass of el Almorsadero | 12,850 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Pass of La Cumbre | 12,450 |Chile | Pentland.
Pass of Peuquenes | 13,210 |Chile | Dr. Gillies.
Pass of el Portillo | 14,365 |Chile | Humboldt.
| | |
_Mountains of Brazil:_ | | |
| | |
Itambe | 5,960 | | Eschwege.
Villarica chain, Sierra da | | |
Piedade | 5,830 | | Eschwege.
Itacolumi | 5,750 | | Eschwege.
ISLANDS IN THE PACIFIC, POLYNESIA, AUSTRALASIA, &c.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Isle of Bourbon, highest point | 8,340 | | Phys. Atlas.
Mount Ambotismene | 11,506 |Madagascar | A. B. L.
Adam’s Peak | 6,152 |Ceylon |
Mount Slamat or Tajal | 11,930 |Java | Junghuhn.
Mount Sumbung | 11,030 |Java | Junghuhn.
Mount Gounnong Pasama, or Ophir | 13,840 |Sumatra | Raffles.
Volcano of Matua | 4,500 |Kurile Is. | Phys. Atlas.
Peak of Unimak | 8,593 |Aleutian Is. | Phys. Atlas.
Mowna Kea | 13,953 |Sandwich Is. | Wilkes.
Mowna Roa | 13,760 |Sandwich Is. | Wilkes.
Tobreonou | 12,250 |Otaheite | Phys. Atlas.
Mount Wellington, or Kosciusco | 6,500 |New Holland | Strelizki.
Mount Lindsay Lat. 28° 20ʹ S. | 5,700 |New Holland | Mitchell.
Mount Canobolas Lat. 33 25 | 4,551 |New Holland | Mitchell.
Mount Edgecumbe | 9,630 |New Zealand | Bidwell.
Mount Egmont | 8,840 |New Zealand | Dieffenbach.
Tongariro Mountain | 6,200 |New Zealand | Dieffenbach.
Mount Erebus | 12,400 |} Antarctic | Sir J. C. Ross.
Mount Terror | 10,880 |} Lands | Sir J. C. Ross.
LAKES AND INLAND SEAS.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Sirikol, source of the Oxus | 15,630 |Pameo | Wood.
Manasarowar and Raikas Thal | 15,250 |Tibet | Strachey.
Chumurari Lake | 15,000 |Tibet | Cunningham.
Titicaca | 12,847 |Peru-Bolivia | Pentland.
Baikal | 1,535 |Asia | A. C.
Lake of Van | 566 |Turkey in | A. C.
| |Asia |
Aral | 36 |Asia | A. C.
Caspian Sea, _below_ the level | | |
of the Ocean | 82 |Asia | R. Survey.
Dead Sea, _below_ the Ocean | 1,312 |Syria |Symond.
Lake Superior | 596 |N. America |
Lake of Lucerne | 1,407 |Switzerland | Eschman.
Lake of Geneva | 1,230 |Switzerland | Eschman.
HEIGHTS OF SOME REMARKABLE INHABITED PLACES.
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
Names of Places, Mountains, &c. | Heights | Countries | Authorities.
| in English | in which |
| Feet. | situated. |
---------------------------------+------------+-------------+-------------
| | |
Rumihuasi, Post Station | 15,542 |Andes of Peru| Gaye.
Ayavirini, Post Station | 14,960 |Peru | Gaye.
Pati, Post Station 16° 05ʹ | 14,400 |Peru | Pentland.
Apo Post Station 16 13S. | 14,376 |Peru | Pentland.
Ancochallani, farm 17 35 | 14,683 |Peru | Pentland.
Tacora, village 17 47 | 13,690 |Peru | Pentland.
Calamarca 16 54 | 13,650 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Antisana, farm | 13,454 |Equator | Humboldt.
Potosi, city | 13,330 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Puno, city | 12,870 |Peru | Pentland.
Oruro, city | 12,454 |Bolivia | Pentland.
La Paz, city | 12,226 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Miquipampa, village | 11,870 |Peru | Humboldt.
Cusco, city | 11,384 |Peru | Pentland.
Quito, capital of the Equator | 9,543 | | Humboldt.
Chuquisaca, capital of Bolivia | 9,343 |Bolivia | Pentland.
Bogota, capital of New Grenada | 8,730 |N. Grenada | Humboldt.
Mexico | 7,570 |Mexico | Humboldt.
Arequipa, city | 7,852 |Peru | Pentland.
Highest villages on S. side of | | |
the Himalaya | 13,000 |Kumäon | Strachey.
Ladak | 9,995 |Tibet | A. C.
Niti, village | 11,473 |Kumäon | Webb.
Darjeeling, town | 7,165 |Sekim | Waugh.
| | Himalaya |
Cabool | 6,382 |Afghanistan | Burnes.
Kandahar | 5,563 |Afghanistan | Humboldt.
Teheran | 4,137 |Persia | A. C.
Kashmir, city | 5,818 |Kashmir | Hugel.
Hospital of Great St. Bernard | 8,110 | | A. B. L.
Hospital of St. Gothard | 6,808 |Alps, P. | A. B. L.
St. Veran, village | 6,693 |Alps, C. | A. B. L.
Breuil, village | 6,584 |Alps, P. | P. S.
Barèges, village | 4,072 |Pyrenees | A. B. L.
Briançon, town | 4,285 |Alps, M. | A. B. L.
Madrid, city | 1,994 |Spain | A. B. L.
Münich, city | 1,764 |Bavaria | A. B. L.
Geneva, city | 1,450 |Switzerland | A. B. L.
Lima, city | 520 |Peru | Pentland.
Vienna, city | 436 |Austria | A. B. L.
Milan, city | 420 |Lombardy | A. B. L.
Paris, Observatory | 213 |France | A. B. L.
Rome, Capitol | 151 |Italy | A. B. L.
Berlin | 131 |Prussia | A. B. L.
GLOSSARY.
A´BIES. Lat. A fir-tree. Specific name of a tree.
ABYSSI´NICA. Lat. Abyssinian; belonging or relating to Abyssinia.
ACA´CIA. Gr. _ake_, a point, and _akios_, not subject to worms: a thorny
tree. A genus of the family Leguminósæ and order Mimósæ. About 300
species are enumerated; many of them yield gum.
ACA´CIA ARA´BICA. Arabian acacia.
ACA´CIAS. Trees belonging to the genus acacia.
A´CID. A term given by chemists to those compound bodies which unite
with salifiable bases to form salts: for example, a compound of
sulphur and oxygen, called sulphuric acid, unites with magnesia and
forms a salt named sulphate of magnesia, or Epsom salts.
ACI´DULOUS. Sourish; possessing acid properties.
ACROCHO´RDI. Lat.: plural of acrochordus.
ACROCHO´RDUS. From the Greek _akrochordon_, a wart. A genus of
non-venemous ophidians, whose bodies are entirely covered by scales
resembling warts: these scales, or rather squamous tubercles, are
small, numerous, rhomboidal, and surmounted by a small horn or point,
more or less sharp.
ADANSO´NIA. A genus of plants named in honor of Michel Adanson, a famous
French botanist, born in 1727. _Adanso´nia digita´ta._ Sour gourd.
Monkeys’ bread or Baobab tree of Senegal, which is considered the
largest or rather the broadest tree in the world. “Several measured by
Adanson, were from sixty-eight to seventy-eight feet in circumference,
but not extraordinarily high. The trunks were from twelve to fifteen
feet high, before they divided into many horizontal branches, which
touched the ground at their extremities; these were from forty-five to
fifty-five feet long, and were so large that each branch was equal to
a monstrous tree; and where the water of a neighboring river had
washed away the earth, so as to leave the roots of one of these trees
bare and open to the sight, they measured 110 feet long, without
including those parts of the roots which remained covered. It yields a
fruit which resembles a gourd, and which serves for vessels of various
uses; the bark furnishes a coarse thread, which they form into ropes,
and into cloth with which the natives cover their middle from the
girdle to the knees; the small leaves supply them with food in time of
scarcity, while the large ones are used for covering their houses, or,
by burning, for the manufacture of good soap. At Sierra Leone this
tree does not grow larger than an orchard apple tree.” _Loudon._
A´DIT. Lat. _adeo_, I approach. A horizontal shaft or passage in a mine,
either for access, or for carrying off water.
AFRICA´NUS. Lat. African; belonging or relating to Africa.
AGALLO´CHUM. From the Gr. _aggalomai_, to become splendid. A resinous,
aromatic wood, burned by the Chinese and Japanese for the sake of its
agreeable odour, from the _Excæca´ria aggallo´cha_. Aloes wood.
A´GAMOUS. From the Gr. _a_, privative, and _gamos_, marriage. Having no
sex.
A´GATE. A name given to all varieties of quartz which have not a
vitreous aspect; are compact, semi-transparent, and whose fracture
resembles that of wax. Agates are of various colors and admit of a
fine polish. According to Theophrastes and Pliny, the name comes from
the river Achates in Sicily, now the Drillo, on the banks of which the
first agates were found.
AGLA´IA. From the Gr. _Aglaia_, beauty, elegance. A genus of plants,
trees or shrubs, of which there are five or six species in the Island
of Java. The _odora´ta_ is one.
A´GUA. Spanish. Water.
AIRA. From the Gr. _aira_, a tare, cockle weed. A genus of the family of
Gramíneæ, or grasses, of the tribe of Avenáceæ. Hair-grass. _A.
antarctica._ Antarctic hair-grass.
AIR-PLANTS. A name given to certain parasitic plants which were supposed
to be nourished by the air alone, without contact with the soil. There
are some species which will live many months suspended by a string in
a warm apartment.
ALBA, }
ALBUS,} Lat. White.
ALBUM,}
ALBI´NO. Spanish. From the Lat. _albus_, white. Applied to individuals
of the human race, (and extended also to some other animals), who have
white hair; the iris, pinkish or very pale; and the eyes unable to
bear much light. Albinos are most frequent in the negro race; but it
does not seem to be true that there are tribes of Albinos in any part
of the world.
AL´BUMEN. From the Lat. _albus_, white. A chemical term, applied to an
immediate organic principle, which constitutes the chief part of the
white of egg. Animal and vegetable albumen are nearly the same in
composition.
AL´CALINE. Having properties of an alkali.
ALCHEMI´LLAS or ALCHEMI´LLA. Arabic. A genus of plants of the family
Rosáceæ. The _A. vulgaris_, common ladies’ mantle.
A´LGA. Lat. Sea-weed.
A´LGÆ. Plural of alga. Name of a sub-class of crytógamous plants, which
is subdivided into three families: the _Phy´ceæ_, or submerged
sea-weeds; the _Lichens_, or emerged sea-weed, and the _Byssa´ceæ_, or
amphibious sea-weeds. The algæ or sea-weeds are ágamous plants which
live in the air, on the surface or at the bottom of fresh or salt
water; they are remarkable for their cellular or filamentous structure
into which no vessels enter.
ALHA´GI. Arabic. Genus of plants of the family of Leguminósæ. The
_alhagi maurorum_ grows in the deserts of Egypt; a sweet, gummy
substance exudes from the bark in form of small yellowish grains,
which, it appears, was the manna the Hebrews ate while in the deserts
of Arabia Petria.
AL´KALI or AL´CALI. A chemical term formerly applied to potash and soda:
it now embraces the oxides of potassium, sodium, lithium, barium,
strontium and calcium, metals which decompose water at ordinary
temperatures and absorb, that is, combine with its oxygen, giving out
heat and flame.
A´LOE. Name of a genus of plants which includes very many species. The
inspissated juice of several of these species constitutes the
varieties of the medicine called Soccotrine, Barbadoes aloes, &c.
ALLU´VIAL. Of the nature of alluvium.
ALLU´VION,} From the Lat. _alluo_, I wash upon. Gravel,
ALLUVIUM, } sand, mud and other transported matter, washed down
by rivers and floods upon lands not permanently submerged beneath
water. A deposit formed of transported matter.
ALPI´NUM,} Lat. Alpine; belonging or relating to the Alps.
ALPI´NUS,}
ALU´MINUM or ALUMI´NIUM. From _alu´men_, alum. The mettaloid which forms
the basis of alum; of alumina or pure argil.
AMARY´LLIS. From the Gr. _amarusso_, to be resplendent. A nymph in
ancient mythology. Name of a genus of plants, forming the type of the
family of Amaryllídeæ, composed of about sixty species. Generally they
are bulbous plants, remarkable for the size and beauty of their
flowers.
AMBLYRHI´NCHUS. From the Gr. _amblus_, obtuse, and _rugchos_, snout.
Name of a genus of iguanian reptiles.
A´METHYST. From the Gr. _amithustos_, not drunk. The ancients gave this
name to a stone in which the wine red colour was tempered with violet.
A violet variety of hyaline quartz.
AMMO´NIA. A colourlous gas of a peculiar, pungent odour. It causes death
when respired; and its strong alcaline reaction distinguishes it from
all other elastic fluids. It is liberated from all its chemical
combinations by the alkalis. Spirits of hartshorn is a solution of
this gas.
AMMONI´ACAL. Of the nature of ammonia.
AM´MONITE. From the Lat. _Ammon_, a name of Jupiter. A fossil so called
from a supposed resemblance to the horns engraven on the heads of
Jupiter Ammon. In certain parts of England called _snake-stones_.
Ammonites are fossil shells, rolled upon the same plane, consisting of
a series of separate chambers, like the nautilus.
AMOR´PHOUS. From the Gr. _a_, privative, and _morphe_, form. Without
definite or regular shape.
AMPE´LIDÆ. Lat. (_ampelis_), name of a family of birds in the tribe of
dentiróstres.
AMPELI´DEÆ. From the Gr. _ampelos_, a vine. Name of the family of
Phanerógamous plants, which includes the vine.
AMPHI´BIOUS. From the Gr. _amphibios_, two-lived. Having the faculty of
living in two elements.
AMPHIU´MA. From the Gr. _amphi_, both, on all sides, and _uma_, that
which has been moistened. A genus of Batrachians in which lungs but no
bronchiæ exist through life. _Amphiu´ma menop´oma._ A kind of
Batrachian which resembles the Salamander. It is found in Louisiana.
A´MPLITUDE. In astronomy denotes the angular distance of a celestial
body, at the time it rises or sets, from the east or west points of
the horizon. It is sometimes used to designate the horizontal distance
a projectile reaches when thrown from a gun.
AMY´RIS. From the Gr. _amuros_, not perfumed. A genus of phanerógamous
plants, which is the type of the family of Amyri´deæ which is allied
to the family of turpentines. _Amy´ris gileade´nsis._ The Balm of
Gilead. _Amy´ris kataf._ The myrrh tree. _Amy´ris opoba´lsamum._ The
opobalsam, or balsam of Mecca.
ANA´NAS. Portuguese. Pine-apple. Genus of the family Bromeliáceæ, and
type of the tribe Ananáceæ.
ANDRO´MEDA. Mythological name of a constellation. Genus of the family
Ericáceæ, and type of the tribe Andromédeæ or Andromedas.
ANGE´LICA ARCHENGE´LICA. Garden Angelica. Root and seeds used in
medicine as an aromatic stimulant.
ANGUI´NUS. Lat. Of the nature of a snake; belonging or relating to a
snake.
ANE´ROID BARO´METER. Consists of a cylinder of copper with a very thin
and corrugated end, partially exhausted of air and hermetically
sealed. The effect of the varying pressure of the atmosphere on the
thin end is magnified by a system of levers, so as to affect the index
of a dial like that of a watch or clock. This is a French invention,
but was patented in England, in the year 1844. See Barómeter.
ANIMA´LCULA. Lat. Animalcule.
ANIMA´LCULÆ. Lat. plural of Animálcula.
ANIMA´LCULE. A diminutive animal. A term used to designate animals so
small that they cannot be seen by the unassisted eye.
ANISA´TUM. LAT. Belonging or relating to aniseed. Specific name of the
tree which produces star-aniseed.
ANO´LIS. A kind of Saurian, called _anoli_ in the Antilles. Also called,
_long-toed lizard_, or _dactyloa_.
AN´NUAL. From the Lat. _annus_, a year. Yearly. A plant which rises from
the seed, reaches perfection, and perishes within a year, is termed an
annual.
ANTA´RCTICA. Lat. Antarctic.
ANTELOPE MONTA´NA. Mountain Antelope. _A. rupicapra._ Chamois. _A.
cervicapra._ Common antelope. _A. dorcas._ Gazelle. _A. gazella._
Algazel. _A. mhorr._ Mhorr.
A´NTHER. From the Gr. _anthera_, a flowery herb. In botany: the
essential part of the stamen. The small yellowish body, compared to a
diminutive leaf folded on itself, which crowns the stamen, and in
which the pollen is formed.
ANTIQUO´RUM. Lat. Of the ancients.
A´PHIS. Gr. A plant-louse; a vine-fretter.
A´PHIDES. Plural of aphis.
APOCY´NEÆ. From the Gr. _apo_, far from, and _knon_, dog. Having the
virtue of driving away dogs, the plant which kills dogs. Botanical
name of a family of plants of which the genus _apo´cynum_ is the type.
A´PTENODY´TES. From the Gr. _apten_, without wings, and _dutes_, diver.
A genus of birds. _A´ptenody´tes patagonica._ A species of Penguin.
A´PTERYX. From the Gr. _apteros_, without wings. Name of a genus of
birds.
AQUEOUS ROCKS. Are those formed by deposits from water.
AQUILA. Lat. An eagle. _Aquila albicilla._ The fishing eagle.
ARAUCA´RIA. From _Arauco_. Name of a department or district of Chile
where the first species was seen. Name of a genus of the family of
conifers. _Arauca´ria excelsa._ The Norfolk Island pine.
ARBU´TUS. Lat. A shrub. A genus of plants.
ARCTOCE´PHALUS. From the Gr. _arktos_, a bear, _kephale_, head. Name of
a genus of mammals.
ARDE´A. Lat. A Heron. Name of a genus of birds. _Arde´a helias._ The Sun
Bird.
A´REA OF SUBSIDENCE. A geological expression used to designate a space
which has settled.
ARE´CA. Cabbage-tree. A genus of plants of the family of Palmæ. _Are´ca
catechu._ The medicinal or betel-nut palm.
ARENA´CEOUS. From the Lat. _arena_, sand. Sandy; of the nature of sand.
ARGEN´TEUM. Lat. Silvery; relating to silver.
ARGENTI´FEROUS. From the Lat. _argentum_, silver, and _fero_, I bear.
Containing silver.
ARGILLA´CEOUS. From the Lat. _argilla_, clay or argil. Of the nature of
clay.
ARGONAU´TA. Lat. From the Gr. _argo_, name of a vessel, and _nautes_, a
navigator. Name of a genus of cephalopódous mollusks.
ARMADI´LLO. Spanish. Diminutive of _armado_, armed. Name of a mammal of
the family of edentáta or edentates.
AROMA´TICUS. Lat. Aromatic; spicy.
AR´SENIC. A metal of a shining, steel gray colour. Heated in contact
with atmospheric air, it rapidly absorbs oxygen, and forms _arsenious
acid_, which is the poison commonly called arsenic, or _rat’s bane_.
Arsenic is found in its metallic state, in the form oxide or arsenious
acid, or white arsenic; and combined with sulphur, forming orpiment,
and realgar.
ARTEME´SIÆ. } A tribe of plants, of which the genus Artemésia
ARTEMESIAS. } is the type. Many of them are used in medicine.
ARTE´SIAN. From _Artois_, name of a province of France where especial
attention has been given to a means of obtaining water, which consists
in boring vertical perforations of small diameter in the exterior
crust of the earth, frequently of great depth. These are termed
Artesian wells.
ARTICULA´TA. Lat. From _articulus_, a joint or articulation. Having
joints or articulations.
ASCLE´PIAS. A name of Esculapius. A genus of phanerógamous plants.
_Ascle´pias giga´ntea._ Mudar of the Hindoos. The milky juice is very
caustic; the bark of the root as well as the juice are used in
medicine by the Asiatics.
ASPHALT. } From the Gr. _a_, privative, and _sphalto_,
ASPHALTUM. } I slip, or _asphaltos_, bitumen. Used anciently
as a cement. A black brittle bitumen, found on the surface and banks
of the Dead Sea, hence called the Asphaltic lake.
ASPHODE´LEÆ. Name of a family of phanerógamous plants.
ASSI´MILATE. From the Lat. _ad_, and _similare_, to render similar.
Assimilation is the act by which living bodies appropriate and
transform into their own substance, matters with which they may be
placed in contact. In man, assimilation is a function of nutrition.
ASPLE´NIIFO´LIA. Compound of _asplenium_, a genus of ferns, and _folia_,
leaves. Having leaves resembling those of the asplénium.
A´STER. From the Gr. _aster_, a star. A name given to the plant by the
Greeks in allusion to the radiate form of the flowers. Name of a genus
of plants which forms the type of the _asteroides_ or asters—
literally, _star-flowers_.
ASTRA´GALI. Lat. plural of Astragalus.
ASTRA´GALUS. Lat. Name of a genus of phanerógamous plants of the family
of leguminósæ.
ATOLL. A chaplet or ring of coral, enclosing a lagoon or portion of the
ocean in its centre.
AUCU´BA. } A genus of plants of the family of Rhamnoides. There
AUKU´BA. } is but one species, which grows in Japan. _Aucuba
Japonica._
AUCHE´NIA. From the Gr. _auchenios_, belonging to the head or neck. Lat.
name of a genus of mammals, the Llama. Also, a genus of coleópterous
insects.
AURI´CULA. Lat. Little ear. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the
family of Primuláceæ.
AURI´FEROUS. From the Lat. _aurum_, gold, and _fero_, I bear.
Gold-bearing containing gold.
AUROCHS. An alteration of the German _Auerochs_, wild-bull. Their race
is now almost extinct; a few individuals are found in the forests of
Lithuania, &c.
AUSTRA´LE. } Lat. Belonging or relating to the south.
AUSTRA´LIS. }
AZA´LÆA. From the Gr. _azalea_, burned. A genus of phanerógamous plants
of the family of Ericáceæ.
AZE´DARACH. From the Arab. _Azadaracht_, a name given by Avicenna to a
plant.
AZOTE. } From the Gr. _a_, privative and _zo´on_,
AZOTIC GAS. } life. The name given by chemists to a gas, now also
called nitrogen, which will support neither respiration nor combustion.
It constitutes seventy-nine per cent. of the atmosphere, and enters into
the composition of all animal matter, except fatty substances, and into a
certain number of proximate vegetable principles.
BACCIFE´RUM. Lat. Compound of _bacca_, a berry, and _fero_, I bear.
Berry-bearing. Specific name of a plant.
BALANCE OF TORSION, or TORSION BALANCE. A machine invented by Coulomb
for measuring the intensities of electric or magnetic forces, by
establishing an equilibrium between them and the force of torsion.
BALÆ´NA. Lat. A whale. Name of a genus of mammals, belonging to the
order Cetácea. _Balæ´na mystece´tus._ The common whale. _Balæ´nu
gibbosa._ A kind of whale which has five or six protuberances on its
back.
BAN´KSIA. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of Proteáceæ.
BAO´BAB. See Adansonia.
BA´RIUM. From the Gr. _barus_, heavy. A metal obtained from barytes by
Sir H. Davy.
BAROMETER. From the Gr. _baros_, weight, and _metron_, a measure. An
instrument for measuring the weight of atmospheric air.
BAROMETRIC. } Belonging, or relating to the barometer.
BAROMETRICAL. }
BARRINGTO´NIA. A genus of phanerógamous plants of the family of
Myrtáceæ, and the type of the tribe of Barringtóniæ.
BA´SALT. An Ethiopian word. A black or bluish gray rock, harder than
glass, very tenacious, and consequently difficult to break: it is
homogenous in appearance although essentially composed of pyroxene and
feldspar, with a large proportion of oxide of iron or titanium. Basalt
is considered by all geologists to be a product of igneous formation.
BASA´LTIC. Belonging or relating to basalt.
BATRA´HCIAN. From the Gr. _batrachos_, a frog. The name given by
naturalists to those reptiles which resemble frogs in their
organization. Batrahcians form the fourth order in the class of
Reptiles.
BEAUFO´RTIA. Name of a genus of the family of Myrtáceæ, named in honor
of Mary, the Duchess of Beaufort, who encouraged the study of Botany.
BELEM´NITES. From the Gr. _belemnon_, a dart. A genus of fossil
dibranchiate cephalopods, the shells of which are chambered and
perforated by a siphon, but internal. They are long, straight and
conical; and commonly called “thunder stones.”
BENJAMI´NA. Lat. Benjamin. A genus of plants; also the specific name of
a plant.
BERNI´CLA. Generic name of a kind of goose, having a short beak.
_Berni´cla cyana´ptera._ The goose of Shoa.
BER´YL. A mineral allied to the emerald. It is transparent, of a pale
green colour, and in Brazil it is sometimes sold under the name of
emerald.
BETE´L. The leaf of the betel or Siriboa pepper.
BE´TULA. Lat. Birch. Name of a genus of plants. _Be´tula nana_. Dwarf
birch.
BETULÖIDES. From _betula_, a birch-tree, the Gr. _eidos_, resemblance.
Specific name of a plant.
BIGNO´NIA. A genus of plants named in honor of the Abbey Bignon, the
Librarian of Louis XIV.
BIS´MUTH. From the Germ. _Wismuth._ A brittle, yellowish white metal.
BI´TUMEN. A combustible mineral, composed of carbon, hydrogen and
oxygen.
BIXA ORLEANA. A plant which produces a colouring matter, called
_annotto_.
BOA. Name of a genus of non-venemous reptiles.
BOHEA. Specific name of a tea-plant.
BOMBAX. From _bombux_, one of the Greek names of cotton. A genus of
plants of the family Malváceæ. _Bombax heptaphyllum._ A kind of
cotton-tree. _Bombax ceiba._ The cotton-wood tree, much valued for
making canoes.
BONDUC. A synonym of the _Guilandina_. Specific name of a plant.
BORA´CIC ACID. An acid obtained from borax, consisting of boron and
oxygen.
BORA´SSUS. From the Gr. _borassos_, a date. A genus of the family of
Palms. _Borassus flabelliformus._ The fan-leaved palm.
BO´RATE. The salt resulting from a combination of boracic acid and a
salifiable base, as the borate of soda.
BO´RAX. Tinkal. A natural compound of soda and boracic acid.
BORON. A simple or undecomposable substance, the basis of boracic acid
and borax.
BORI´CHTHYS. From the Fr. _borgne_, one-eyed or blind, and the Gr.
_ichthus_, a fish.
BORRAGI´NIÆ. Name given by Jussieu to a group of plants.
BORRER´IA. From Borrera, name of a man. A genus of phanerógamous plants
of the family of Rubiáceæ.
BOSWE´LLIA. A genus named in honor of Dr. John Boswell. _Boswellia
serrata._ The olibanum tree.
BOTANY. From the Gr. _botane_, plant. The branch of natural history
which embraces the knowledge and study of plants.
BOTANIC. Belonging or relating to botany.
BOS. Lat. An ox. A genus of ruminating mammals, embracing several
species. _Bos aurus._ The Urus. _Bos caffer._ Cape buffalo. _Bos
bubalus._ Common buffalo. _Bos Americanus._ The Bison. _Bos
moschatus._ The Musk ox. _Bos gruniens._ The Yak.
BOULDERS, or BOWLDERS. Rounded masses of stone lying upon the surface or
loosely imbedded in the soil.
BOULDER FORMATION, or Erratic block formation. A geological term applied
to a part of the diluvial drift. See Ruschenberger’s Natural History.
BRAC´TEÆ. Lat. Bracts. Floral leaves, different in colour from other
leaves.
BRAS´SICA. Lat. Cabbage.
BRECCIA. Italian. A rock composed of an agglutination of angular
fragments. When the fragments are rolled pebbles, it constitutes a
conglomerate rock, called _pudding stone_.
BREVISE´TUM. Lat. _Brevis_, short, and _setum_, a bristle. A specific
name.
BREXIA. From the Gr. _brexis_, rain: in allusion to the protection from
rain afforded by its ample foliage. A genus of plants of the family of
Brexiáceæ.
BUBO. Lat. An owl. A specific as well as generic name. _Bubo maximus._ A
kind of owl.
BU´FO. Lat. A toad. _Bufo Agua._ A Brazilian toad.
BUPHA´GA. Lat. From the Gr. _bous_, an ox, and _phago_, I eat. A genus
of birds, which includes the African beef-eater.
BURSA. Lat. A sack, a purse or pouch.
BU´TEA. A genus of the family of Papillionáceæ, named in honor of John,
Count of Bute, a cultivator of botanic science. _Butea frondosa_
yields a gum (_butea_) which has been confounded with Kino.
CAC´TI. Lat. Plural of cactus.