rbitrary or casual distribution
of countries. The limits are marked out by Nature, and in these early
ages were yet further distinguished by a considerable difference in the
manners and usages of the nations they divided.

If we turn our eyes to the northward of these boundaries, a vast mass of
solid continent lies before us, stretched out from the remotest shore of
Tartary quite to the Atlantic Ocean. A line drawn through this extent,
from east to west, would pass over the greatest body of unbroken land
that is anywhere known upon the globe. This tract, in a course of some
degrees to the northward, is not interrupted by any sea; neither are the
mountains so disposed as to form any considerable obstacle to hostile
incursions. Originally it was all inhabited but by one sort of people,
known by one common denomination of Scythians. As the several tribes of
this comprehensive name lay in many parts greatly exposed, and as by
their situation and customs they were much inclined to attack, and by
both ill qualified for defence, throughout the whole of that immense
region there was for many ages a perpetual flux and reflux of barbarous
nations. None of their commonwealths continued long enough established
on any particular spot to settle and to subside into a regular order,
one tribe continually overpowering or thrusting out another. But as
these were only the mixtures of Scythians with Scythians, the triumphs
of barbarians over barbarians, there were revolutions in empire, but
none in manners. The Northern Europe, until some parts of it were
subdued by the progress of the Roman arms, remained almost equally
covered with all the ruggedness of primitive barbarism.

The southern part was differently circumstanced. Divided, as we have
said, from the northern by great mountains, it is further divided within
itself by considerable seas. Spain, Greece, and Italy are peninsulas. By
these advantages of situation the inhabitants were preserved from those
great and sudden revolutions to which the Northern world had been always
liable; and being confined within a space comparatively narrow, they
were restrained from wandering into a pastoral and unsettled life. It
was upon one side only that they could be invaded by land. Whoever made
an attempt on any other part must necessarily have arrived in ships of
some magnitude, and must therefore have in a degree been cultivated, if
not by the liberal, at least by the mechanic arts. In fact, the