tion of that nature which was intended, not to govern, but to serve him.

We may rest, then, in this conclusion, that, as compared with the Old World, the New World is the humid side of our planet, the oceanic, vegetative world, the passive element awaiting the excitement of a livelier impulse from without. Such is the America of Nature, such was it before the arrival of the man of the Old World. We know already, and we shall see better yet hereafter, al that his superior intelligence has been eat led to effect in the way of improving upon nature.

LECTURE IX.

Geographical characteristics of the Old World - The continent of Asia-Europe- Comparison of its structure with that of AmericaThe continental climate prevailing in the Old World - Consequences -Vegetation less abundant - Preponderance of the animal world-The Old World the country of the higher and historical races - Reciprocal action of the two worlds by means of manEstablishment of the man of the Old World in the New — Historical America compared with Europe - Alliance of the two worlds; solution of the contrast.

LADIES AND GENTLEMEN:

The comparison we have made between the Old World and the New, and the detailed study of the first, have enabled us, I think, to determine its true character, the character assigned to it by its physical nature. The character it owes to its more oceanic position, to the abundance of the waters, to a more tropical situation, to a more fertile soil, is the marked preponderance of vegetable life over animal life. A vigorous vegetation, abundant rather than delicate, immense forests, a soil everywhere irrigated, everywhere productive-these are the wealth of America. Nature has given her all the raw materials with liberality; has lavished upon her all useful gifts.

But our globe would be incomplete, gentlemen, if this element were alone represented, if this were the only world that existed. The comparative study we have commenced has shown us already that this is not the

case; the group of continents combined in the eastern hemisphere has already appeared as possessing an assemblage of characters, securing to it an entirely different nature. One of the two worlds is by no means a repetition of the other; for the Author of all things is too rich in his conceptions ever to repeat himself in his works.

We know already a good number of the physical characteristics of the Old World, an unknown world to us no more. Nevertheless, it is well to recall them here, in order to group them in a single picture, and to deduce from them the essential and characteristic feature which distinguishes it from America.

The number of the continents, double that of the New World, their grouping in a more compact and solid. mass, make it already and preeminently the continental world. It is a mighty oak, with stout and sturdy trunk, while America is the slender and flexible palm tree, so dear to this continent. The Old World-if it is allowable to employ here comparisons of this nature-calls to mind the square and solid figure of man; America, the lithe shape and delicate form of woman.

The direction of the principal reliefs, the prolongation of the Old World from east to west, and its more northern position, cause it to belong rather to the temperate zones than to the zone of the tropics, and give, throughout its whole length, a more similar climate.

If America is distinguished by the simplicity of its inter or structure, and by the consequent unity of character, the Old World, on the contrary, presents the variety of structure carried to its utmost limits. While America,

as we have seen, is constructed upon one and the same plan in the two continents, the Old World has at least three, as many as its separate masses; one for Asia and Europe, one for Africa, a third for Australia; for, in spite of their resemblance in certain general features, common to them, as the law of the reliefs has taught us, each of these three continents has none the less its special structure, which is not the same in Australia as in Africa, nor in Africa as in Asia-Europe.

The great mass of Asia-Europe, which may be well called a single continent, of a triangular form, whose western point is Europe-Asia-Europe, by itself, forms already the pendant of the two Americas. Like the New World, it is divided into two parts by a long ridge of heights, of mountain chains, and of table lands, forming a line of the highest elevations, and the axis of this continent; the Himalaya, the Hindo-Khu, the Caucasus, the Alps, the Pyrenees, are analogous to the long American Cordilleras.

This ridge also divides the Old World into two unequal parts, but is not placed on one of the edges of the continents, as in America. It is only a little out of the centre, so that it divides the whole surface into two opposite slopes, unequal certainly, but the narrower is nevertheless considerable. The northern slope is more vast: it contains all the great plains of the North, but it is less favored by the climate, and by the forms of the soil. The southern slope is less extended, but it enjoys a more beautiful climate; nature is richer there; it is more indented, more variously moulded; it possesses all those fine peninsulas, the two Indies, Arabia, Asia Minor,

Greece, Italy, Spain, which form the wealth of Asia and Europe. Figure to yourselves the coasts of the Pacific, furnished with a series of peninsulas of this description, and you will have an idea of the augmentation of wealth that would result to America from such an addition.

We will point out still another difference.

While in America the plains are always situated on the same side of the chain of the Andes, in Asia-Europe the table lands and the plains are situated on the two sides of the continental axis alternately. Thus, in Eastern Asia, the great plateau of Tubet and Mongolia is on the north, and the plains of the Ganges are on the south. In Western Asia, on the contrary, the plateaus of Afghanistan and Persia are on the south, the plains of Tartary on the north. In Europe, a different situation still; on the south of the Alps and the Pyrenees are the peninsulas and their gulfs, the mountain chains and their plateaus; in general, countries more elevated, but broken and dispersed; on the north, are chains more varied, lower; countries more continuous, less cut up, and the great plains of the North of Germany. All the combinations seem, if I may say so, to have been exhausted.

'This is not all yet. The axis of Asia-Europe, instead of forming a continuous wall, without gap and without breaks, like the Andes, is composed of several isolated systems, independent of each other, often leaving wide openings between them. Sometimes it is a sea that separates them; sometimes vast plains serve as high roads to the invading nations, who pass from one side to the other of this great barrier, from the northern to the