to account for the
superior degree of civilization, affluence, and power, which have
in general characterized those countries whose rivers take a
northern or southern course. Some few nations, indeed, which do
not possess such great natural advantages, have supplied the want
of them by their own skill and industry, and have in the end
triumphed over the efforts of nature to check their progress. Of
a people who have thus overstepped these natural barriers opposed
to their advancement, and in spite of them attained the summit of
wealth and civilization, China perhaps furnishes the most
remarkable example. The two principal rivers of that country, the
Hoang Ho, or Yellow River, and the Kiang Keou, or Great River,
runs from west to east; yet by means of what is termed by way of
eminence, "The Great Canal," the Chinese have not only joined
these two mighty streams together, but have also extended the
communication to the northward, as far as the main branch of the
Pei Ho, and to the southward as far as the mouth of the Ningapo:
thus establishing by the intervention of this stupendous monument
of human industry and perseverance, and the various branches of
the four rivers which it connects, an inland navigation between
the great cities of Peking and Nanking, and affording every
facility for the transport of the infinite products raised within
the compass of a country containing from twelve to fifteen
degrees difference of latitude, and about the same difference of
longitude; or, in other words, a surface of about five hundred
and eighteen thousand four hundred square miles.

This instance, however, of equal or superior civilization thus
attained by a nation, notwithstanding the principal rivers of
their country run from west to east, does not at all militate
against the natural superiority which has been conceded to those
countries whose rivers run in a contrary direction: it only shews
what may be effected by a wise and politic government averse to
the miseries of war, and steadily bent on the arts of peace. The
very attempts, indeed, of this enlightened people to supply the
natural deficiencies of their country by canals, are the
strongest commendations that can be urged in favour of a country
where no such artificial substitutes are necessary; where nature,
of her own lavish bounty has created facilities for the progress
of industry and civilization, which it would require the labour
and maturity of ages imperfectly t