abundance of snow-fields and naked rock; while in Middle Germany culture
has almost over-spread the face of the land, and there are no large
tracts of waste. There is the same proportion in the distribution of
forests. Again, in the north we see a monotonous continuity of
wheat-fields, potato-grounds, meadow-lands, and vast heaths, and there is
the same uniformity of culture over large surfaces in the southern
table-lands and the Alpine pastures. In Middle Germany, on the contrary,
there is a perpetual variety of crops within a short space; the diversity
of land surface and the corresponding variety in the species of plants
are an invitation to the splitting up of estates, and this again
encourages to the utmost the motley character of the cultivation.

According to this threefold division, it appears that there are certain
features common to North and South Germany in which they differ from
Central Germany, and the nature of this difference Riehl indicates by
distinguishing the former as _Centralized Land_ and the latter as
_Individualized Land_; a distinction which is well symbolized by the fact
that North and South Germany possess the great lines of railway which are
the medium for the traffic of the world, while Middle Germany is far
richer in lines for local communication, and possesses the greatest
length of railway within the smallest space. Disregarding
superficialities, the East Frieslanders, the Schleswig-Holsteiners, the
Mecklenburghers, and the Pomeranians are much more nearly allied to the
old Bavarians, the Tyrolese, and the Styrians than any of these are
allied to the Saxons, the Thuringians, or the Rhinelanders. Both in
North and South Germany original races are still found in large masses,
and popular dialects are spoken; you still find there thoroughly peasant
districts, thorough villages, and also, at great intervals, thorough
cities; you still find there a sense of rank. In Middle Germany, on the
contrary, the original races are fused together or sprinkled hither and
thither; the peculiarities of the popular dialects are worn down or
confused; there is no very strict line of demarkation between the country
and the town population, hundreds of small towns and large villages being
hardly distinguishable in their characteristics; and the sense of rank,
as part of the organic structure of society, is almost extinguished.
Again, both in the north and south there is still a strong ecclesiastical
spiri