Geographical march of history-Asia the cradle of civilization Common character of the primitive nations - Powerful influence of - The human race in its infancy lives under authority, which becomes slavery — Civilization passes to Europe — Greece; period of youth; emancipation, and intellectual and moral development; action on the East and West; the Greek the teacher of the world—Rome; her work political and social-Inability of the Ancient World to attain the end of humanity - Coming of Christ; his doctrines new in a historical point of view - The Germanic Christian world begins their application — Civilization passes to the North, and embraces all Europe; its different phases-Europe owes it to the rest of the world - Discovery of America - Universal inroad of the civilized nations - Social work begun at the same time — America must finish it - The people of the future; by what signs recognized — Conclu- sions - Foreseen solution of the contrast of the three Northern conti- nents and the three Southern-Duties of the privileged races towards the inferior. A few words upon the method pursued — Science and THE EARTH AND MAN. LECTURE I. Subject of the course- What should be understood by GeographyDefinition of Physical Geography - The life of the globe-Importance of the geographical forms of contour and relief, and of their relative situation - The Earth as the theatre of human societies. Different parts performed by the continents in history— Asia, Europe, America- Inquiry into the analogies of the general forms of the continents. LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: In asking your attention to a few scientific discourses, in a language not your own, I have not disguised from myself that this circumstance is perhaps a source of embarrassment for some of you, as it certainly is for me. In the communion of mind with mind, in the mutual interchange of ideas, the first condition necessary for establishing between him who speaks and those that hear, the sympathetic harmony which makes its charm, is, that the word shall reach the understanding without obstacle and without effort. In my favor you have made the sacrifice of your language. I need not tell you, that, on my part, I will do all in my power to render that sacrifice less irksome; and I shall always be desirous of giving to those who will do me the favor to ask it, all the explanations which they can require. The subject to which I propose to call your attention, is Comparative Physical Geography, considered in its relations to the history and the destinies of mankind. But the term geography has been applied to such different things, the use, the misuse rather to which it has been subjected, has rendered it so elastic and ill-defined, that, in order to prevent misconception, I must first of all explain to you what I understand by Geography. 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. The geographer, who thus understands his study, seems to make as little of geography as the chronicler of history. It would be easy to show that even the power of describing well ought to be denied him; for if he renounces the study of the laws which have presided over the creation, over the disposition of the terrestrial individuals in their different orders: if he will take no account of those which have given birth to the phenomena that he wishes to describe, soon, overwhelmed beneath the mass of details, of whose relative value he is igno rant, without, a guide and without a rule to make a judicrous choice in the midst of this infinite variety of partial observations, he remains incapable of mastering them, of grouping them in such a manner as to bring prominently forward those which must give character to the whole, and thus dooms himself to a barren confusion at least; happy, if, in place of a faithful picture of nature, he does not finally profess to give us, as such, the strangest caricature. No! Geography- and I regret here that usage forbids me to employ the most suitable word, Geology, to designate the general science of which I speak - Geography ought to be something different from a mere description. It should not only describe, it should compare, it should interpret, it should rise to the how and the wherefore of the phenomena which it describes. It is not enough for it coldly to anatomize the globe, by merely taking cognizance of the arrangement of the various parts which constitute it. It must endeavor to seize those incessant mutual actions of the different portions of physical nature upon each other, of inorganic nature upon organized beings, upon man in particular, and upon the successive development of human societies, in a word, studying the reciprocal action of all these forces, the perpetua. play of which constitutes what might be called the life of the globe, it should, if I may venture to say so, inquire into its physiology. To understand it in any other way, is to deprive geography of its vital principle; is to make it a collection of partial, unmeaning facts; is to fasten upon it forever that character of dryness, for which it has so often and so justly been LECTURE III. Distribution of the table lands, the mountains, and the plains, in the different continents; the Old World that of plateaus, the New World that of plains The basin of the oceans; this inquiry completes the study of the plastic forms of the earth's crust - Division and characteristics of the oceans; their contours and their depth — Comparison of the latter with the mean elevation of the continents - Conclusions - Necessity of considering the physiology of the continental formsPoint of view which should be taken - Law of the development of life. 73 LECTURE IV. Recapitulation - Is the law of development applicable to the whole globe, considered as an individual? - Origin of the Earth, according to the hypotheses of Laplace and Herschell- - Gradual formation of the continents-Europe at the Silurian epoch-North America at the Carboniferous epoch- Character of inferiority of the organized beings which correspond to these ancient formations-Europe at the Tertiary epoch-Greater diversity and perfection of the organized beings — Distinction of the three epochs; the insular, the maritime, and the continental - The formula of development the same for the entire globe and for the organized beings - Consequences - The law of differences and the law of contrasts - The three grand terrestrial contrasts. 100 LECTURE V. The North-east or Continental hemisphere, and the South-west or Oceanic hemisphere Land and water- Differences in the forms of their surfaces Continental climate and sea climate Their different influences upon the vegetation and organized beings - The oceanic the inferior element; the terrestrial element the superior-Blending of the two natures Transportation of the waters of the ocean into the continents - The atmosphere the mediator between them. 118 |