The Earth and Man: Lectures on Comparative Physical Geography: In Its Relation to the History of Mankind

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Gould and Lincoln, 1855 - 334 sider

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Side 232 - As the plant is made for the animal, as the vegetable world is made for the animal world, America is made for the man of the Old World The man of the Old World sets out upon his way Leaving the highlands of Asia, he descends from station to station towards Europe. Each of his steps is marked by a new civilization superior to the preceding, by a greater power of development. Arrived at the Atlantic, he pauses on the shore of...
Side 254 - While all the types of animals and of plants go on decreasing in perfection, from the equatorial to the polar regions, in proportion to the temperatures, man presents to our view his purest, his most perfect type, at the very centre of the temperate continents, at the centre of AsiaEurope, in the regions of Iran, of Armenia, and of the Caucasus; and, departing from this geographical centre in the three grand directions of the lands, the types gradually lose the beauty of their forms, in proportion...
Side 268 - Since man is made to acquire the full possession and mastery of his facult.es by toil, and by the exercise of all his energies, no climate could so well minister to his progress in this work as the climate of the temperate continents. It is easy to understand this. An excessive heat enfeebles man ; it invites to repose and inaction. In the tropical regions the power of life...
Side 20 - If, preserving the etymological sense of the word geography, we should, with many authors, undertake to limit this study to a simple description of the surface of the globe and of the beings which are found there, we must at once renounce the idea of calling it by the name of science, in the lofty sense of this word. To describe, without rising to the causes, or descending to the consequences, is no more science, than merely and simply to relate a fact of which one has been a witness.

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