wander over its tombs. Suppose, if you will, that there was
some relation between them, whether by way of blood or of
slavery, and that thus the natives of to-day did learn from the
ancient lords of the country, the first rudiments of the arts they
practise so imperfectly ; this only makes us wonder the more
that they should have found it impossible to carry any further
what they had been taught. In fact, this would supply one
more reason for my belief that not every people would be capable
of civilization, even if it chose the most favoured spot on earth
as its settlement.
Indeed, civilization is quite independent of climate and soil, and their adaptability to man's wants. India and Egypt are both countries which have had to be artificially fertilized;[1] yet they are famous centres of human culture and development. In China, certain regions are naturally fertile ; but others have needed great labour to fit them for cultivation. Chinese history begins with the conquest of the rivers. The first benefits con- ferred by the ancient Emperors were the opening of canals and the draining of marshes. In the country between the Euphrates and the Tigris, that beheld the splendour of the first Assyrian empire, and is the majestic scene of our most sacred recollections — in this region, where wheat is said to grow of its own accord,[2] the soil is naturally so unproductive that vast works of irrigation, carried out in the teeth of every difficulty, have been needed to make it a fit abode for man. Now that the canals are destroyed or filled up, sterility has resumed its ancient reign. I am there- fore inclined to believe that nature did not favour these regions as much as we are apt to think. But I will not discuss the point. I will grant, if you like, that China, Egypt, India, and Assyria, contained all the conditions of prosperity, and were eminently suited for the founding of powerful empires and the development
- ↑ Ancient India required a vast amount of clearing on the part of the first white settlers. See Lassen, Indische Altertumskunde, vol. i. As to Egypt, compare Bunsen,Ägyptens Stelle in der Weltgesohichte, as to the fertilization of the Fayoum, a vast work executed by the early kings.
- ↑ They say that it spontaneously produces wheat, barley, beans, and sesame, and all the edible plants that grow in the plains" (Syncellus).
