s
monarchs, the New Empire, the Persian, the Macedonian, the Roman, the
Mohammedan. They have stood while the heavens themselves have changed.
They were already "five hundred years old when the Southern Cross
disappeared from the horizon of the countries of the Baltic." The
pole-star itself is a newcomer to them. Humboldt, referring to these
incidents, remarks that "the past seems to be visibly nearer to us when
we thus connect its measurement with great and memorable events." No
country has had such a varied history as this birthplace of European
civilization. Through the darkness of fifty centuries we may not be able
to discern the motives of men, but through periods very much longer we
can demonstrate the conditions of Nature. If nations, in one sense,
depend on the former, in a higher sense they depend on the latter. It
was not without reason that the Egyptians took the lead in Mediterranean
civilization. The geographical structure of their country surpasses even
its hoary monuments in teaching us the conditions under which that
people were placed. Nature is a surer guide than the traces of man,
whose works are necessarily transitory. The aspect of Egypt has changed
again and again; its structure, since man has inhabited it, never. The
fields have disappeared, but the land remains.

Why was it that civilization thus rose on the banks of the Nile, and not
upon those of the Danube or Mississippi? Civilization depends on climate
and agriculture. In Egypt the harvests may ordinarily be foretold and
controlled. Of few other parts of the world can the same be said. In
most countries the cultivation of the soil is uncertain. From seed-time
to harvest, the meteorological variations are so numerous and great,
that no skill can predict the amount of yearly produce. Without any
premonition, the crops may be cut off by long-continued droughts, or
destroyed by too much rain. Nor is it sufficient that a requisite amount
of water should fall; to produce the proper effect, it must fall at
particular periods. The labour of the farmer is at the mercy of the
winds and clouds.

With difficulty, therefore, could a civilized state originate under such
circumstances. So long as life is a scene of uncertainty, the hope of
yesterday blighted by the realities of to day, man is the maker of
expedients, but not of laws. In his solicitude as to his approaching
lot, he has neither time nor desire to raise his eyes to the heavens to
watch and r