le equally reveals the
impress of surrounding cosmical conditions. "The poems of Ossian are but
the echo of the wild, rough, cloudy highlands of his Scottish home." The
forest songs of the wild Indian, the negro's plaintive melodies in the
rice-fields of Carolina, the refrains in which the hunter of Kamtchatka
relates his adventures with the polar bear, and in which the South Sea
Islander celebrates his feats and dangers on the deep, all betoken the
influence which the scenes of daily life exert upon the thoughts and
feelings of our race. "To what an extent nature can express herself in,
and modify the culture of the individual, as well as of an entire
people, can be seen on Ionian soil in the verse of Homer, which, called
forth under the most favorable sky, and on the most luxuriant shore of
the Grecian archipelago, not only charms us to-day, but bearing this
impress, has determined what shall be the classic form throughout all
coming time."[10]

[Footnote 10: See Ritter, pp. 288, 289. Poetic art has unquestionably
its _geographical_ distributions like the fauna and flora of the globe.
"If you love the images, not merely of a rich, but of a luxuriant fancy;
if you are pleased with the most daring flights; if you would see a
poetic creation full of wonders, then turn your eye to the poetry of the
_orient_, where all forms appear in purple; where each flower glows like
the morning ray resting on the earth. But if, on the contrary, you
prefer depth of thought, and earnestness of reflection; if you delight
in the colossal, yet pale forms, which float about in mist, and whisper
of the mysteries of the spirit-land, and of the vanity of all things,
except honor, then I must point you to the hoary _north_.... Or if you
sympathize with that deep feeling, that longing of the soul, which does
not linger on the earth, but evermore looks up to the azure tent of the
stars, where happiness dwells, where the unquiet of the beating heart is
still, then you must resort to the romantic poetry of the
_west_."--"_Study of Greek Literature_," Bishop Esaias Tegner, p. 38.]

In seeking, therefore, to determine correctly what are the
characteristics of a nation, we must endeavor to trace how far the
physical constitution of that people, their temperament, their habits,
their sentiments, and their ideas have been formed, or modified, under
the surrounding geographical conditions, which, as we have seen, greatly
determine a nation's individuali