is meagre, because this can only
be obtained from wild animals. In this region it costs immense labor
to obtain sufficient food for the support of life; likewise, in a cold
climate it takes much time to tame animals for use and to build huts to
protect from the storm and the cold. The result is that the
propagation of the race is slow, and progress in social and individual
life is retarded.

We should expect, therefore, all of the earliest civilization to be in
warm regions. In this we are not disappointed, in noting Egypt,
Babylon, Mexico, and Peru. Soil and climate co-operate in furnishing
man a suitable place for his first permanent development. There is,
however, in this connection, one danger to be pointed out, arising from
the conditions of cheap food--namely, a rapid propagation of the race,
which {147} entails misery through generations. In these early
populous nations, great want and misery frequently prevailed among the
masses of the people. Thousands of laborers, competing for sustenance,
reduce the earning capacity to a very small amount, and this reduces
the standard of life. Yet because food and shelter cost little, they
are able to live at a low standard and to multiply rapidly. Human life
becomes cheap, is valued little by despotic rulers, who enslave their
fellows. Another danger in warm climates which counteracts the
tendency of nations to progress, is the fact that warm climates
enervate man and make him less active; hence it occurs that in colder
climates with unfavorable surroundings great progress is made on
account of the excessive energy and strong will-force of the
inhabitants.

In temperate climates man has reached the highest state of progress.
In this zone the combination of a moderately cheap food supply and the
necessity of excessive energy to supply food, clothing, and protection
has been most conducive to the highest forms of progress. While,
therefore, the civilization of warm climates has led to despotism,
inertia, and the degradation of the masses, the civilization of
temperate climates has led to freedom, elevation of humanity, and
progress in the arts. This illustrates how essential is individual
energy in taking advantage of what nature has provided.

_The General Aspects of Nature Determine the Type of
Civilization_.--While the general characteristics of nature have much
to do with the development of the races of the earth, it is only a
single factor in the great co