.

Man's social and political life depends much on the physical conditions
by which he is surrounded. We have only to instance a mountain and
valley population. The former is isolated and out of the way, and the
people simple, uncouth, and uncultivated--contented, it is true, but,
nevertheless, enjoying but little of the abundance and variety in which
people of culture luxuriate. The valley population have a city,
villages, rich lands, trade, and commerce; they are wealthy, cultivated,
and realize far more the legitimate fruition of our entire nature.

Even missionaries, whose prejudices may be presumed to have been in
favor of purely moral means, tell us that that heathen can only be
permanently Christianized through changes in their physical conditions
which commerce alone can bring about.

Physical conditions affect the destiny of nations, and go far to
determine the extent and character of political organizations. It makes
a great difference whether a country has or has not the means of ready
communication and transportation from one section to another. While the
great body of Europe was comparatively uncultivated, with only the
natural channels of commerce, and these unimproved, there could be
little communication between the different sections of country; and
Europe had no political or social unity. The people of the entire
continent were in a fragmentary and disorganized mass, comparatively
isolated, and independent of each other. The jurisdictions of the great
barons and of the cities became at length united into kingdoms. The
increase of commerce brought these kingdoms into relations with each
other, and diplomacy grew out of national necessities. As the countries
improved and the facilities and occasions for intercommunication and
commerce increased, the principle of political unity must needs
comprehend a wider range. At first, it took in only the component parts
of kingdoms, and then the kingdoms in the form of great national leagues
of more or less permanence. This form of political unity may be very
imperfect, but it is nevertheless unity consummated in the best possible
manner which the system of separate thrones would permit. Changes in the
conditions and relations of peoples render changes in their political
forms an absolute necessity. The facilities for education,
intercommunication, travel, and commerce, are the great unitizers of
peoples and nations.

A great, overgrown empire, which has been bu