easier for him to experiment on them, or to observe them with minuteness; an inquisitive and analytic spirit is encouraged, and he is tempted to generalize the appearances of Nature, and refer them to the laws by which they are governed.

Looking in this way at the human mind as affected by the Aspects of Nature, it is surely a remarkable fact, that all the great early civilizations were situated within and immediately adjoining the tropics, where those aspects are most sublime, most terrible, and where Nature is, in every respect, most dangerous to man. Indeed generally, in Asia, Africa, and America, the external world is more formidable than in Europe. This holds good not only of the fixed and permanent phenomena, such as mountains, and other great natural barriers, but also of occasional phenomena, such as earthquakes, tempests, hurricanes, pestilences; all of which are in those regions very frequent, and very disastrous. These constant and serious dangers produce effects analogous to those caused by the sublimity of Nature, in so far, that in both cases there is a tendency to increase the activity of the imagination. For the peculiar province of the imagination being to deal with the unknown, every event which is unexplained, as well as important, is a direct stimulus to our imaginative faculties. In the tropics, events of this kind are more numerous than elsewhere; it therefore follows that in the tropics the imagination is most likely to triumph. A few illustrations of the working of this principle will place it in a clearer light, and will prepare the reader for the arguments based upon it.

Of those physical events which increase the insecurity of Man, earthquakes are certainly among the most striking, in regard to the loss of life which they cause, as also in regard to their sudden and unexpected occurrence. There is reason to believe that they are always preceded by atmospheric changes which strike immediately at the nervous system, and thus have a direct physical tendency to impair the intellectual powers. 189 However this may be, there can be no doubt as to the effect they produce in encouraging particular associations and habits of thought. The terror which they inspire, excites the imagination even to a painful extent, and, overbalancing the judgment, predisposes men to superstitious fancies. And what is highly curious,

189 "Une augmentation d'électricité s'y manifeste aussi presque toujours, et ils sont généralement annoncés par le mugissement des bestiaux, par l'inquiétude des animaux domestiques, et dans les hommes par cette sorte de malaise qui, en Europe, précède les orages dans les personnes nerveuses." Cuvier, Prog. des Sciences, vol. i. p. 265. See also on this "Vorgefühl," the observation of Von Hoff, in Mr. Mallet's valuable essay on earthquakes (Brit. Assoc. for 1850, p. 68); and the "foreDoding" in Tschudi's Peru, p. 165; and a letter in Nichols's Illustrations of the Eighteenth Century, vol. iv. p. 504. The probable connexion between earthquakes and electricity is noticed in Bakewell's Geology, p. 434.

191

is, that repetition, so far from blunting such feelings, strengthens them. In Peru, where earthquakes appear to be more common than in any other country, 19° every succeeding visitation increases the general dismay; so that, in some cases, the fear becomes almost insupportable. The mind is thus constantly thrown into a timid and anxious state; and men witnessing the most serious dangers, which they can neither avoid nor understand, become impressed with a conviction of their own inability, and of the poverty of their own resources.192 In exactly the same proportion, the imagination is aroused, and a belief in supernatural interference actively encouraged. Human power failing, superhuman power is called in; the mysterious and the invisible are believed to be present; and there grow up among the people those feelings of awe, and of helplessness, on which all superstition is based, and without which no superstition can exist.193

Further illustrations of this may be found even in Europe, where such phenomena are comparatively speaking extremely rare. Earthquakes and volcanic eruptions are more frequent and more destructive in Italy, and in the Spanish and Portuguese peninsula, than in any other of the great countries; and it is precisely there that superstition is most rife, and the superstitious classes most powerful. Those were the countries where

190"Peru is more subject, perhaps, than any other country to the tremendous visitation of earthquakes.' M'Culloch's Geog. Dict. 1849, vol. ii. p. 499. Dr. Tschudi (Travels in Peru, p. 162) says of Lima, “at an average forty-five shocks may be counted on in the year.' See also on the Peruvian earthquakes, pp. 43, 75, 87, 90. 191 A curious instance of association of ideas conquering the deadening effect of habit. Dr. Tschudi (Peru, p. 170) describing the panic says, 66 no familiarity with the phenomenon can blunt this feeling." Beale (South-Sea Whaling Voyage, Lond. 1839, p. 205) writes, "it is said at Peru, that the oftener the natives of the place feel those vibrations of the earth, instead of becoming habituated to them, as persons do who are constantly exposed to other dangers, they become more filled with dismay every time the shock is repeated, so that aged people often find the terror a slight shock will produce almost insupportable." Compare Darwin's Journal, pp. 422, 423. So, too, in regard to Mexican earthquakes, Mr. Ward observes, that "the natives are both more sensible than strangers of the smaller shocks, and more alarmed by them." Ward's Mexico, vol. ii. p. 55. On the physiological effects of the fear caused by earthquakes, see the remarkable statement by Osiander in Burdach's Physi ologie comme Science d'Observation, vol. ii. pp. 223, 224. That the fear should be not deadened by familiarity, but increased by it, would hardly be expected by specu lative reasoners unacquainted with the evidence; and we find, in fact, that the Pyr rhonists asserted that of οἱ γοῦν σεισμοὶ παρ' οἷς συνεχῶς ἀποτελοῦνται, οὐ θαυμάζονται ovd & iOS, TI каl' ημéрav dрâral. Diog. Laert. de Vitis Philos. lib. xi. segm. 87, vol. 1. p. 591.

192 Mr. Stephens, who gives a striking description of an earthquake in Central America, emphatically says, "I never felt myself so feeble a thing before." Stephens's Central America, vol i. p. 383. See also the account of the effects produced on the mind by an earthquake, in Transac. of Soc. of Bombay, vol. iii. p. 98, and the note at p. 105.

193 The effect of earthquakes in encouraging superstition, is noticed in Lyell's admirable work, Principles of Geology, p. 492. Compare a myth on the origin of earthquakes in Beausobre, Histoire Critique de Manichée, vol. i. p. 243.

the clergy first established their authority, where the worst corruptions of Christianity took place, and where superstition has during the longest period retained the firmest hold. To this may be added another circumstance, indicative of the connexion between these physical phenomena and the predominance of the imagination. Speaking generally, the fine arts are addressed more to the imagination; the sciences to the intellect.194 Now it is remarkable, that all the greatest painters, and nearly all the greatest sculptors, modern Europe has possessed, have been produced by the Italian and Spanish peninsulas. In regard to science, Italy has no doubt had several men of conspicuous ability; but their numbers are out of all proportion small when compared with her artists and poets. As to Spain and Portugal, the literature of those two countries is eminently poetic, and from their schools have proceeded some of the greatest painters the world has ever seen. On the other hand, the purely reasoning faculties have been neglected, and the whole Peninsula, from the earliest period to the present time, does not supply to the history of the natural sciences a single name of the highest merit ; not one man whose works form an epoch in the progress of European knowledge, 195

The manner in which the Aspects of Nature, when they are very threatening, stimulate the imagination,196 and by encouraging superstition, discourage knowledge, may be made still more apparent by one or two additional facts. Among an ignorant people, there is a direct tendency to ascribe all serious dangers to supernatural intervention; and a strong religious sentiment being thus aroused,197 it constantly happens, not only that the

The greatest men in scienee, and in fact all very great men, have no doubt been remarkable for the powers of their imagination. But in art the imagination plays a far more conspicuous part than in science; and this is what I mean to express by the proposition in the text. Sir David Brewster, indeed, thinks that Newton was deficient in imagination—“the weakness of his imaginative powers." Brewster's Life of Newton, 1855, vol. ii. p. 133. It is impossible to discuss so large a question in a note; but to my apprehension, no poet, except Dante and Shakespeare, ever had an imagination more soaring and more audacious than that possessed by Sir Isaac Newton.

125 The remarks made by Mr. Ticknor on the absence of science in Spain, might be extended even further than he has done. See Tichnor's History of Spanish Lite rature, vol. iii. pp. 222, 223. He says, p. 347, that in 1771, the University of Salamanca being urged to teach the physical sciences, replied, "Newton teaches nothing that would make a good logician or metaphysician, and Gassendi and Descartes do not agree so well with revealed truth as Aristotle does."

19 In Asiatic Researches, vol. vi. pp. 35, 36, there is a good instance of an earthquake giving rise to a theological fiction. See also vol. i. pp. 154-157; and compare Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 17.

197 See, for example, Asiatic Researches, vol. iv. pp. 56, 57, vol. vii. p. 94; and the effect produced by a volcano, in Journal of Geograph. Society, vol. v. p. 388. See also vol. xx. p. 8, and a partial recognition of the principle by Sextus Empiricus, in Tennemann's Geschichte der Philosophie, vol. i. p. 292. Compare the use the clergy

danger is submitted to, but that it is actually worshipped. This is the case with some of the Hindus in the forests of Malabar ;198 and many similar instances will occur to whoever has studied the condition of barbarous tribes. 199 Indeed, so far is this carried, that in some countries the inhabitants, from feelings of reverential fear, refuse to destroy wild beasts and noxious reptiles; the mischief these animals inflict being the cause of the impunity they enjoy.

200

It is in this way, that the old tropical civilizations had to struggle with innumerable difficulties unknown to the temperate zone, where European civilization has long flourished. The devastations of animals hostile to man, the ravages of hurricanes, tempests, earthquakes,201 and similar perils, constantly pressed upon them, and affected the tone of their national character. For the mere loss of life was the smallest part of the inconvenience. The real mischief was, that there were engendered in the mind, associations which made the imagination predominate over the understanding; which infused into the people a spirit of reverence instead of a spirit of inquiry; and which encour

made of a volcanic eruption in Iceland (Wheaton's History of the Northmen, p. 42); and see further Raffle's History of Java, vol. i. pp. 29, 274, and Tschudi's Peru, pp. 64, 167, 171.

108 The Hindus in the Iruari forests, says Mr. Edye, "worship and respect every thing from which they apprehend danger." Edye on the Coast of Malabar, in Journal of Asiatic Society, vol. ii. p. 337.

150 Dr. Prichard (Physical History, vol. iv. p. 501) says, "The tiger is worshipped by the Hajin tribe in the vicinity of the Garrows or Garudus." Compare Transac tions of Asiatic Society, vol. iii. p. 66. Among the Garrows themselves this feeling is so strong, that "the tiger's nose strung round a woman's neck is considered as a great preservative in childbirth. Coleman's Mythology of the Hindus, p. 321. The Seiks have a curious superstition respecting wounds inflicted by tigers (Burnes' Bokhara, 1834, vol. iii. p. 140); and the Malasir believe that these animals are sent as a punishment for irreligion. Buchanan's Journey through the Mysore, vol ii. p. 385.

200 The inhabitants of Sumatra are, for superstitious reasons, most unwilling to destroy tigers, though they commit frightful ravages." Marsden's History of Sumatra, pp. 149, 254. The Russian account of the Kamtschatkans says, "Besides the above-mentioned gods, they pay a religious regard to several animals from which they apprehend danger." ." Grieve's History of Kamtschatka, p. 205. Bruce mentions that in Abyssinia, hyænas are considered "enchanters;" and the inhabitants "will not touch the skin of a hyæna till it has been prayed over and exorcised by a priest." Murray's Life of Bruce, p. 472. Allied to this, is the respect paid to bears (Erman's Siberia, vol. i. p. 492, vol. ii. pp. 42, 43); also the extensively-diffused wor. ship of the serpent, whose wily movements are well calculated to inspire fear, and therefore rouse the religious feelings. The danger apprehended from noxious reptiles is connected with the Dews of the Zendavesta. See Matter's Histoire du Gnosticisme, vol. i. p. 380, Paris, 1828.

201 To give one instance of the extent to which these operate, it may be men. tioned that in 1815 an earthquake and volcanic eruption broke forth in Sumbawa, which shook the ground "through an area of 1000 miles in circumference," and the detonations of which were heard at a distance of 970 geographical miles. Somer ville's Connexion of the Physical Sciences, p. 283; Hitchcock's Religion of Geology, D. 190; Low's Sarawak, p. 10; Bakewell's Geology, p. 438.

aged a disposition to neglect the investigation of natural causes, and ascribe events to the operation of supernatural ones.

Every thing we know of those countries proves how active this tendency must have been. With extremely few exceptions, health is more precarious, and disease more common, in tropical climates than in temperate ones. Now, it has been often observed, and indeed is very obvious, that the fear of death makes men more prone to seek supernatural aid than they would otherwise be. So complete is our ignorance respecting another life, that it is no wonder if even the stoutest heart should quail at the sudden approach of that dark and untried future. On this subject the reason is perfectly silent; the imagination, therefore, is uncontrolled. The operation of natural causes being brought to an end, supernatural causes are supposed to begin. Hence it is, that whatever increases in any country the amount of dangerous disease, has an immediate tendency to strengthen superstition, and aggrandize the imagination at the expense of the understanding. This principle is so universal that, in every part of the world, the vulgar ascribe to the intervention of the Deity those diseases which are peculiarly fatal, and especially those which have a sudden and mysterious appearance. In Europe it used to be believed that every pestilence was a manifestation of the divine anger;202 and this opinion, though it has long been dying away, is by no means extinct even in the most civilized countries.203 Superstition of this kind will of course be strongest,

***In the sixteenth century, “Les différentes sectes s'accordèrent néanmoins à regarder les maladies graves et dangereuses comme un effet immédiat de la puisBance divine; idée que Fernel contribua encore à répandre davantage. On trouve dans Paré plusieurs passages de la Bible, cités pour prouver que la colère de Dieu est la seule cause de la peste, qu'elle suffit pour provoquer ce fleau, et que sans elle les causes éloignées ne sauraient agir." Sprengel, Histoire de la Médecine, vol. iii. p. 112. The same learned writer says of the Middle Ages (vol. ii. p. 372), “D'après l'esprit généralement répandu dans ces siècles de barbarie, on croyait la lèpre envoyée d'une manière immédiate par Dieu." See also pp. 145, 346, 431. Bishop Heber says that the Hindus deprive lepers of caste and of the right of possessing property, because they are objects of "Heaven's wrath." Heber's Journey through India, vol. ii. p. 330. On the Jewish opinion, see Le Clere, Bibliothèque Universelle, vol. iv. p. 402, Amsterdam, 1702. And as to the early Christians, see Maury Légendes Pieuses, p. 68, Paris, 1843: though M. Maury ascribes to "les idées orientales reçues par le christianisme," what is due to the operation of a much wider principle.

203 Under the influence of the inductive philosophy, the theological theory of disease was seriously weakened before the middle of the seventeenth century; and by the middle, or at all events the latter half of the eighteenth century, it had lost all its partizans among scientific men. At present it still lingers on among the vulgar; and traces of it may be found in the writings of the clergy, and in the works of other persons little acquainted with physical knowledge. When the cholera broke out in England, attempts were made to revive the old notion; but the spirit of the age was too strong for such efforts to succeed; and it may be safely predicted that men will never return to their former opinions, unless they first return to their former ignorance. As a specimen of the ideas which the cholera tended to excite, and of their antagonism to all scientific investigation, I may refer to a letter written in 1832