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Title: The Theory of Environment - An outline of the history of the idea of Milieu, and its present status
Author: Koller, Armin Hajman
Language: English
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THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT
Part I
The University of Chicago
THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT
_An Outline of the History of the Idea of Milieu, and its Present
Status_
PART I
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND LITERATURE
IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY
DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES
BY
ARMIN HAJMAN KOLLER
The Collegiate Press
GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY
MENASHA, WISCONSIN
1918
THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT
PART I
_An Outline of the History of the Idea of Milieu, and its Present
Status_
BY
ARMIN HAJMAN KOLLER, PH.D.
Instructor in German
The University of Illinois
“.............................
_He fixed thee ’mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance_.”
Robert Browning, “_Rabbi Ben Ezra_.”
The Collegiate Press
GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY
MENASHA, WISCONSIN
1918
_Copyright, 1918
By Armin H. Koller_
TO
MY PARENTS
CONTENTS
PAGE
Introductory Remark. Meanings of the Word _Milieu_ 1
I. A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Down to the
Nineteenth Century 7
II. A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Since the
Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 27
Anthropo-geography, Geography and History 27
Geography and History 42
More Recent Anthropo-geographical Treatises 65
Primitive Peoples and Environment 69
Society and Physical Milieu 74
Government, War, Progress, and Climate 76
Climate and Man’s Characteristics 80
Man’s Intellect and Physical Environment 81
Religion and Physical Milieu 83
Climate and Conduct 84
Climatic Control of Food and Drink 91
Summary 93
Appendix 97
PREFACE
In 1912 (see _Publications of the Modern Language Association of
America_, Vol. 28, N. S., Vol. 21, 1913, Proceedings for 1912, p.
xxxix), I called attention to the Herder-Taine problem on milieu. The
paper discussing that problem awaits the completion of another paper
entitled “Herder’s Conception of Milieu.” The latter was my starting
point. Setting about to inform myself on the history of the theory, I
determined to obtain for myself, if possible, a tolerably complete idea,
at least in its essentials, of the theory of milieu, to see where the
theory led to, where it started from, what changes it has undergone, and
what were its ramifications. My plan was to state briefly my findings in
a chapter preparatory to stating Herder’s idea of milieu. As guide-posts
were lacking, at least I knew of none, I was bound to seek by accident
and for a number of years. In stumbling along, I first chanced upon the
Herder-Taine problem. When my material swelled to proportions that could
not be controlled in part of a chapter or in a chapter, I had to
separate it, by its main divisions, into parts. The question arose,
should it be a _concrete_ treatise on environment. I soon found that to
be, at least for the time being, beyond my province and also beyond my
present purpose; besides, it would have swerved me too far afield;
moreover, it would have had to be limited to a small portion of the
subject. My present concern in this theory being genetic and historical,
it seemed best to assemble all the sources one could find bearing on the
history of the theory and to indicate the trend of its development in a
rough preliminary sketch. Such a sketch is a requisite first step and
perhaps a modest contribution to a history of the theory under
consideration. The first part of this sketch is herein given. The
original plan, mentioned above, of a prefatory chapter to Herder
accounts for the retention of untranslated passages in the text of this
part, a practice to be eschewed in the subsequent parts of this study
which are to appear shortly.
Nearly all the material was collected by October, 1915, and this
manuscript was finished early in January, 1917.
I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Martin Schütze of
the University of Chicago for the suggestion, made in 1907, to find out
what Herder’s idea of milieu is; to my friend and former colleague at
the University of Illinois, Dr. Charles C. Adams (now Assistant
Professor of Ecology at Syracuse University) for references given me at
my request (but he is in no wise to be held responsible for the bringing
in of these references); and to my good friend and colleague, Professor
John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald of the University of Illinois for a number of
helpful suggestions given when reading the manuscript and for assisting
with the reading of the galley proof.
ARMIN H. KOLLER.
_Champaign, Illinois,
April, 1918._
INTRODUCTORY REMARK
MEANINGS OF THE WORD “MILIEU”
Before entering upon the discussion of the principal theme of this
study,[1] it is necessary to cast a brief glance over the origin and
development of the meaning and use of the word milieu.
“Milieu” (_mi-lieu=medius locus_), originally signifying middle point or
part, central place or portion, mid-point, center, had been employed in
France as a term in physics at least as early as the seventeenth century
(Pascal). The fourth edition of the dictionary of the French Academy[2]
defines it as follows: “En termes de Physique, on appelle _Milieu_, Tout
corps, soit solide, soit fluide, traversé par la lumière ou par un autre
corps.” [In the fifth edition—1813—the following illustration in italics
is added to the foregoing: “La lumière se rompt différemment en
traversant différens milieux.”]
“On appelle aussi _milieu_, Le fluide qui environne les corps. _L’air
est le milieu dans lequel nous vivons. L’eau est le milieu qu’habitent
les poissons._”
Diderot’s Encyclopedia[3] testifies to this same sense of “medium”:
“_Milieu_, dans la Philosophie mêchanique, signifie un espace matériel à
travers lequel passe un corps dans son mouvement, ou en général, un
espace matériel dans lequel un corps est placé, soit qu’il se meuve ou
non.
“Ainsi on imagine l’éther comme un _milieu_ dans lequel les corps
célestes se meuvent.—L’air est un _milieu_ dans lequel les corps se
meuvent près de la surface de la terre.—L’eau est le _milieu_ dans
lequel les poissons vivent & se meuvent.—Le verre enfin est un _milieu_,
en égard à la lumière, parce qu’il lui permet un passage à travers ses
pores.”
Auguste Comte[4] extended its signification as a term in biology to
include “the totality of external conditions of any kind whatsoever”:
“_Milieu_ ..., non-seulement le fluide où l’organisme est plongé, mais,
en général, _l’ensemble total des circonstances extérieurs d’un genre
quelconque_ [the italics are ours], nécessaires à l’existence de chaque
organisme déterminé. Ceux qui auront suffisamment médité sur le rôle
capital que doit remplir, dans toute biologie positive, l’idée
correspondante, ne me reprocheront pas, sans doute, l’introduction de
cette expression nouvelle.”
Hippolyte Taine who generalized it still further, broadened its
connotation to comprehend the whole social surroundings.[5] Milieu as a
_terminus technicus_ is ordinarily considered as having been coined by
Taine, but whether that be so or not, one may safely say that its wide
acceptance is due, primarily, to him and to his renowned disciple
Zola.[6]
In the course of the last century, the designation milieu became not
only more generalized and more frequent in use, but also more extensive,
and more specific and distinctive in meaning: “Depuis BALZAC [who in
1841 in his _Comédie humaine, La maison du chat-qui-pelote_, préface, p.
2, used the term loosely, in the “vulgar” sense], le sens vulgaire du
milieu social n’a fait que s’affirmer davantage par un emploi toujours
plus généralisé: c’est devenu un cliché de la conversation de parler
aujourd’hui d’un ‘bon milieu,’ d’un ‘milieu intéressant,’ etc.”[7]
Littré[8] registers eighteen different definitions for the word milieu.
Friedrich Düsel[9] renders milieu by eighteen (18) German words.
In _Unsere Umgangssprache_,[10] milieu is translated into German by
forty-six (46) words and phrases.
Claude Bernard, the celebrated French physiologist, differentiates
between inner and outer milieu:[11] “Je crois ..., avoir le premier
insisté sur cette idée qu’il y a pour l’animal réellement deux milieux:
un milieu extérieur dans lequel est placé l’organisme et un milieu
intérieur dans lequel vivent les éléments des tissus....” Probably as a
result, we have today “micro-milieu” in micro-biology.
According to Jean Finot,[12] milieu “includes the sum total of the
conditions which accompany the conception and earthly existence of a
being, and which end only with its death.”
The term milieu was introduced by Herbert Spencer into English
literature as “environment,” says Martin Schütze.[13] Although Carlyle
employed the term “environment” as early as 1827,[14] nevertheless, the
fact that the term is generally current, is undoubtedly attributable in
the first place to Spencer.
The word “Umwelt” is quoted by J. H. Campe,[15] who believed himself to
have been the coiner of the term; five years later (1816) Goethe used it
at the beginning of his “Italienische Reise.”[16]
The painstaking and scholarly German lexicographer, Daniel Sanders, who
seldom fails to give his reader some reliable suggestion, refers in his
_Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache_[17] (which despite the contributions
of recent scholarship still remains a great work) to a passage in the
poetical works of the Danish writer Baggesen (2, 102) in which the word
“Umwelt” is employed. This passage occurs in the elegy entitled
“Napoleon” addressed to Voß and written in 1800.[18] Baggesen, then,
made use of “Umwelt” a decade before Campe.
Its Italian equivalent is “ambiente,” which is noted here only because
of the French “l’ambiance” and the English “ambient” and
“circumambiency.”
-----
Footnote 1:
For brief but valuable sketches of one phase or another of the
history of the theory of milieu, cf. Friedrich Ratzel,
_Anthropogeographie_. 1. _Teil: Grundzüge der Anwendung der Erdkunde
auf die Geschichte_ (2. Aufl., Stuttgart, 1899, 604 pp.), pp. 13–23,
25–30, 31–40; Gustav Schmoller, _Grundriß der Allgemeinen
Volkswirtschaftslehre_. Erster Teil (Vierte bis sechste Aufl.,
Leipzig, 1901), p. 127, pp. 137 f., 144 ff., Zweiter Teil (Erste bis
sechste Aufl., Leipzig, 1904), pp. 656 ff.; _Ferdinand v.
Richthofen’s Vorlesungen über Allgemeine Siedlungs- und
Verkehrsgeographie_, bearb. und herausgegeben von O. Schlüter
(Berlin, 1908, 351 pp.—A course of lectures delivered in the summer
semester of 1891 in Berlin, repeated in the winter semester in
1897/8), pp. 6–13; Jean Brunhes, _La Géographie Humaine_ (Deuxième
édition, Paris: Alcan, 1912, 801 pp.), pp. 36 ff.; A. C. Haddon and
A. H. Quiggin, _History of Anthropology_ (London, 1910, 158 pp.),
pp. 131 f., 150–52; William Z. Ripley, “Geography and Sociology,”
_Political Science Quarterly_, X (1895), pp. 636–54; also the same
author’s _The Races of Europe_ (New York: D. Appleton & Co., 1899),
pp. 2–5. Cf. also O. Schlüter, “Die leitenden Gesichtspunkte der
Anthropogeographie, insbesondere der Lehre Friedrich Ratzels,”
_Arch. f. Sozialwissenschaft_, Bd. IV (1906), S. 581–630, and Rudolf
Goldscheid, _Höherentwicklung und Menschenökonomie_, I
[Philosophisch-soziologische Bücherei, Band VIII], (Leipzig: W.
Klinkhardt, 1911, 664 pp.), p. 52. For bibliographies, in addition
to those yet to be mentioned, see also Ratzel, _l.c._, pp. 579–85;
Brunhes, _l.c._, nn.; Ellen C. Semple, _Influences of Geographic
Environment, On the Basis of Ratzel’s System of Anthropo-geography_
(New York: H. Holt & Co., 1911, 637 pp.), to each chapter of which
an extensive bibliography is added; William J. Thomas, _Source Book
for Social Origins_ (Chicago and London, 1909) pp. 134–39:
Bibliography to Part I: The Relation of Society to Geographic and
Economic Environment (pp. 29–129, Comment on Part I, pp. 130–33);
Ripley, “Geography and Sociology,” _Pol. Sc. Quar._, X (1895), pp.
654–5.
Footnote 2:
_Dictionnaire de l’Académie Françoise._ Quatrième Édition. Tome Second
(Paris, 1762), p. 143.
Footnote 3:
_Encyclopédie, ou Dictionnaire Raisonné des Sciences_, etc. Nouvelle
Éd. 1778, ed. by Diderot and D’Alembert, 21st vol., p. 853.
Footnote 4:
_Cours de Philosophie Positive_ (6 vols., 1830–42, 5^e édition, Paris,
1892–94), see vol. 3, p. 235 n.
Footnote 5:
Cp. esp. the Introduction to his _Histoire de la Littérature
Anglaise_, 5 Tomes (8^e Édition, Paris: Hachette, 1892); the first
edition appeared in 1863, after Taine had been at work on it for
well-nigh a decade.
Footnote 6:
For Zola as the disciple of Taine, cf. H. Wiegler, _Geschichte und
Kritik der Theorie des Milieus bei Émile Zola_ (Diss., Rostock, 1905),
esp. pp. 19–36.
Footnote 7:
_Vide_ Émile Waxweiler, _Esquisse d’une Sociologie_ (Bruxelles, 1906),
p. 65.
Footnote 8:
_Dictionnaire de la Langue Française_, vol. 3 (1885), pp. 559 f.
Footnote 9:
_Verdeutschungen, Wörterbuch fürs tägliche Leben_ (Braunschweig,
Verlag von George Westermann, 1915, 176 pp.), p. 93.
Footnote 10:
_Verdeutschungsbücher des Allgemeinen Deutschen Sprachvereins, III_
(Zweite Aufl., neu bearb. v. Edward Lohmeyer, Berlin, Verlag des
Allgemeinen Deutschen Sprachvereins, 1915, 182 pp.), pp. 91 f.
Footnote 11:
_Phénomènes de la vie_ (2^e éd., Paris, 1885), t. I, p. 112. See
Waxweiler, _l.c._, p. 36.
Footnote 12:
_Race Prejudice_, transl. by Florence Wade-Evans (London, 1906), p.
130.
Footnote 13:
“The Services of Naturalism to Life and Literature. Reprinted, with
Additions, from _The Sewanee Review_, October, 1903,” p. 2.
Footnote 14:
See Murray’s NED., vol. III, Part II, (1897), p. 231.
Footnote 15:
_Wörterbuch d. d. Sprache_ (1811), Bd. 5, S. 113.
Footnote 16:
See the article by I. Stosch on “Umwelt-_milieu_,” _Zeitschrift für
Deutsche Wortforschung_, g. v. Fr. Kluge, 7. Bd. (1905), pp. 58–9.
Footnote 17:
2. Bd., 2. Hälfte (Leipzig: Otto Wigand, 1865), p. 1556^b.
Footnote 18:
A. Gombert cites the passage in question in his article “Umwelt,” _Z.
f. D. Wf._, 7. Bd. (1905), pp. 150–52.
I
A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF MILIEU DOWN TO THE NINETEENTH
CENTURY
Recorded mesologic[19] thinking begins with the ancient Jewish Prophets
whose striking _aperçus_ concerning the providential correspondence
between the configuration of the surface of the earth and the destiny of
nations, concerning the connection between “Landesnatur” and
“Volkscharakter,” etc., anticipated[20] a number of great thoughts of
later anthropo-geographers.
Hippocrates (if he really is the author of the essay commonly ascribed
to him and entitled περὶ αέρων ὑδάτων τόπων) investigates the effect of
climate on man’s nature, character, temperament, and life, with the
emphasis on the regularity of the effect.[21] Owing to the imperfection
of knowledge in his day, his observations are necessarily vague.[22] He
limited himself to the problem of the relation between land and
people.[23] He is said to be the founder of anthropo-geography.[24] His
treatise is admirable and unequalled in the eyes of Auguste Comte.[25]
Hippocrates, “in his work, _About Air, Water, and Places_, first
discusses the influence of environment on man, physical, moral, and
pathological. He divided mankind into groups, impressed with homogeneous
characters by homogeneous surroundings, demonstrating that mountains,
plains, damp, aridity, and so on, produced definite and varying
types.”[26]
Aristotle, in his _Politics_, enquires into the influence especially of
geographical position on laws and the form of government,[27] while in
his _Problems_ he shows the far-reaching dependence of national
character on the physical environment: “Zeigt ja doch Aristoteles selbst
in einem andern Werke das entschiedenste Bestreben, eine sehr
weitgehende Abhängigkeit des Volkscharakters von geographischen
Verhältnissen zu erweisen. Während die Politik [especially parts of the
seventh book] nicht über Andeutungen [on the effect of the milieu]
hinausgeht [discussed by Poehlmann, _l.c._, on pp. 64–8], läßt der
vierzehnte Abschnitt der ‘Probleme,’ welcher sich mit den Einwirkungen
der Landesnatur auf Physik und Ethik des Menschen beschäftigt, deutlich
einen Standpunkt erkennen, welcher auf das Lebhafteste an die
physiologische Betrachtungsweise der neueren französisch-englischen
Geschichtsphilosophie erinnert ...”[28]
Eratosthenes, in a work cited by Varro, sought to prove, in the opinion
of the Italian scholar Matteuzzi prematurely, that man’s character and
the form of his government are subordinated to proximity or remoteness
from the sun.[29] The greatest geographer of antiquity, Strabo, in his
Geography, connected man with nature in a causal relation.[30]
John M. Robertson, noting that “theories of the influence of climate on
character were common in antiquity,” refers[31] to Vitruvius (VI, 1),
Vegetius (“De re militari,” 1, 2), and Servius (on Vergil, _Aeneid_, VI,
724). Ritter does not mention the effort of the ancients in this line of
ideas.[32]
Giovanni Villani, the noted Florentine historian of the fourteenth
century, observes with a deal of finesse that Arezzo by reason of its
air and position produces men of great subtilty of mind.[33]
The Arabic statesman and philosopher of history, Ibn Khaldūn, little
mentioned, yet known by his great work, the _Universal History_,
attempted in the _Muqaddama_[34] (the preface, comprising the first
volume of his _History_), which he composed between 1374 and 1378,[35]
to explain the history and civilization of man, more especially of
some of the Arabic peoples, by the encompassing physical and social
conditions. The “First Section of the ‘Prolegomena’ treats of society
in general, and of the varieties of the human race, and of the regions
of the earth which they inhabit, as related thereto. It starts from
the position that man is by nature a social being. His body and mind,
wants and affections, for their exercise, satisfaction, and
development, all imply and demand co-operation and communion with his
fellows,—participation in a collective and common life....
“There follows a lengthened description of the physical basis and
conditions of history and civilisation. The chief features of the
inhabited portions of the earth, its regions, principal seas, great
rivers, climates, &c., are made the subjects of exposition. The seven
climatic zones, and the ten sections of each, are delineated, and their
inhabitants specified. The three climatic zones of moderate temperature
are described in detail, and the distinctive features of the social
condition and civilisation of their inhabitants dwelt upon. The
influence of the atmosphere, heat, &c., on the physical and even mental
and moral peculiarities of peoples is maintained to be great. Not only
the darkness of skin of the negroes, but their characteristics of
disposition and of mode of life, are traced to the influence of climate.
A careful attempt is also made to show how differences of fertility of
soil—how dearth and abundance—modify the bodily constitution and affect
the minds of men, and so operate on society....
“The Second Section of the ‘Prolegomena’ treats of the civilisation of
nomadic and half-savage peoples.
“In it Ibn Khaldūn appears at his best, ... He begins by indicating how
the different usages and institutions of peoples depend to a large
extent on the ways in which they provide for their subsistence. He
describes how peoples have at first contented themselves with simple
necessities, and then gradually risen to refinement and luxury through a
series of states or stages all of which are alike conformed to nature,
in the sense of being adapted to its circumstances or environment.”[36]
Ibn Khaldūn seems also to have had a clear idea of some aspects of the
principle of relativity,[37] an integral part and inevitable concomitant
of the theory of milieu, since “As causes of historians erring as they
have done, there are mentioned [by Khaldūn in the introduction] the
overlooking of the differences of times and epochs, ...”[38]
About the middle of the sixteenth century we find Michelangelo avowing
to Vasari (who hailed from Arezzo): “Any mental excellence I may
possess, I have because I was born in the fine air of your Aretine
district.”[39]
In “Measure for Measure” (Act III, Sc. I, v. 8–11), a play first
produced in 1604, Shakespeare affirms of man:
“... a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences
That do this habitation where thou keep’st,
Hourly afflict.”
During the Renaissance, Greek thought on milieu is resurrected in
France. Thence it spreads later, particularly in the eighteenth century,
to England and Germany. Jean Bodin bridges the gap existent since the
close of classical antiquity. He is the first among modern writers not
only to revive the idea in Western Europe,[40] but also to make it a
subject for detailed investigation. Bodin thus first in French letters
introduces and firmly establishes a line of study destined to be
followed by a long list of authors among whom are to be found many
illustrious French names.
Bodin “treats of physical causes with considerable fulness in the fifth
chapter of the ‘Method,’[41] and in a still more detailed and developed
form in the first chapter of the fifth book of the ‘Republic.’”[42] He
traces the relation between climate and the ever changing fate of
States, and elaborates the manifold effects of climate on States, laws,
religion, language, and temperament.[43] In Bodin’s view, man’s physical
constitution is closely and directly connected with climate and
surrounding nature; it is in harmony with the behavior of the earth in
the respective zones of his abode.[44] From this assumption of
dependence of the human body on climate, there follow a number of
inferences concerning the physical properties of man’s constitution.[45]
Temperament varies according to climate. Language, the generative power,
diseases likewise depend indirectly on climate.[46] Man’s talents and
capacities do so no less.[47] The climate in each region always favors
the development of some special aptitude; on this basis he groups the
peoples of the earth.[48] Although the nexus between human abilities and
the physical milieu is thus intimate, yet reason, common to all men and
invariable, is _per se_ independent of physical environment.[49] He
postulates, then, reason as the absolute part of the mind, not subject
to surrounding influences, whereas the unfolding of the human faculties
is relative to the environment. By taking this middle course concerning
the effect of nature on man, Bodin escapes the extreme views of nature’s
compelling influence over man, on the one hand, and of man’s total
independence of nature, on the other.[50]
Bodin also investigates the influence upon national character of
geographical situation, of elevation, of the quality of the native soil,
and of an east-west position.[51] Nations and their civilizations differ
according to the particular conditions of a given national
existence.[52]
He holds fast to the doctrine of the freedom of the will. Man is morally
free from environmental control. The circumambient medium determines
only the _development_ of man’s capabilities.[53] Man can counteract,
and may, even though with difficulty, overcome the injurious action of
climate and nature.[54]
“... It is altogether unfair,” concludes Flint,[55] “to put their
general enunciations [_i.e._, those made by Hippocrates, Plato,
Aristotle, Polybius, and Galen] of the principle that physical
circumstances originate and modify national characteristics, on a level
with Bodin’s serious, sustained, and elaborate attempt to apply it over
a wide area and to a vast number of cases. Dividing nations into
northern, middle, and southern,[56] he investigates with wonderful
fulness of knowledge how climatic and geographical conditions have
affected the bodily strength, the courage, the intelligence, the
humanity, the chastity, and, in short, the mind, morals, and manners of
their inhabitants; what influence mountains, winds, diversities of soil,
&c., have exerted on individuals and societies; and he elicits a vast
number of general views....”
Bodin, “der größte theoretische Politiker Frankreichs im 16.
Jahrhundert,” declares Renz,[57] “besitzt ... das unbestreitbare
Verdienst, wenn nicht die Grundgedanken und nicht ausschließlich
originale Gedanken, so doch die erste weitgehende wissenschaftliche
Untersuchung über den Zusammenhang zwischen umgebender Natur und
Menschenwelt in neuerer Zeit auf dem Boden der Erfahrung und
Wissenschaft des 16. Jahrhunderts angestellt zu haben.”
Bodin, “writing in 1577 OF THE LAWES AND CUSTOMES OF A COMMON
WEALTH (English edition [translated by Richard Knowlles] 1605),
contains, as Professor J. L. Myres has pointed out (Rept. Brit.
Assoc., 1909 [1910], p. 593), ‘the whole pith and kernel of modern
anthropo-geography....’”[58] And Renz believes that “In der
Bodinschen Behandlung der Theorie des Klimas finden sich die
Anfänge der Anthropogeographie und der Ethnographie...”[59]
Writing in 1713, Lenglet du Fresnoy, toward the end of the sixth chapter
of the first volume of his _Méthode pour étudier l’histoire_, expresses,
decades before Montesquieu, the latter’s basic idea of the effect of
social and political milieu on laws.[60]
In any discussion of milieu, Montesquieu is the writer most frequently
mentioned, although not the most often read and quoted. He devotes the
well-known five “Books,” from the fourteenth to the eighteenth, of his
magnum opus, _L’Esprit des Lois_ (1748),[61] to a consideration of this
idea which, as has already been seen, was anything but original with
him.[62] In Books fourteen to seventeen he treats of the relation of
laws to climate, and in Book eighteen of their relation to soil. In the
fourteenth[63] he discusses the effect of climate on the body (and mind)
of individual man, in the fifteenth[64] on civil slavery, in the
sixteenth[65] on domestic slavery, in the seventeenth[66] on political
servitude, and lastly in the eighteenth[67] he delineates the influence
of the fertility and barrenness of the soil. By climate he means little
more than heat and cold. In the light of the continued high praise
bestowed on him for much longer than a century, the altogether too
general and dogmatic statements of these short seventy-odd pages would
seem somewhat meager, so that upon their perusal one is very likely to
suffer an outright disenchantment. Therefore, Flint’s judgment appears
overdrawn, when he says that Montesquieu “showed on a grand scale and in
the most effective way ... that, like all things properly historical,
they [laws, customs, institutions] must be estimated not according to an
abstract or absolute standard, but as concrete realities related to
given times and places, to their determining causes and condition, and
to the whole social organism to which they belong, and the whole social
medium in which they subsist. Plato and Aristotle, Machiavelli and
Bodin, had already, indeed, inculcated this historical and political
relativism; but it was Montesquieu who gained educated Europe over to
the acceptance of it.”[68]
Turgot’s sketch of a ‘Political Geography’ shows “that he had attained
to a broader view of the relationship of human development to the
features of the earth and to physical agencies in general than even
Montesquieu. And he saw with perfect clearness not only that many of
Montesquieu’s inductions were premature and inadequate, but that there
was a defect in the method by which he arrived at them.... The excellent
criticism of Comte, in the fifth volume of the ‘Philosophie Positive,’
and in the fourth volume of the ‘Politique Positive,’ on this portion of
Montesquieu’s speculations, is only a more elaborate reproduction of
that of Turgot, and is expressed in terms which show that it was
directly suggested by that of Turgot.”[69]
Cuvier “had not hesitated to trace the close relation borne by
philosophy and art to the underlying geological formations.”[70]
In the teaching of a number of great thinkers of the seventeenth and
eighteenth centuries, man is “the product of environment and education”
and, in their opinion, “all men were born equal and later became unequal
through unequal opportunities.”[71]
Goethe echoed Herder’s thought when he remarked to Eckermann on the
flora of a country and the disposition of its residents: “Sie haben
nicht Unrecht, sagte Goethe (d. 2. April 1829), und daher kommt es denn
auch, daß man der Pflanzenwelt eines Landes einen Einfluß auf die
Gemütsart seiner Bewohner zugestanden hat. Und gewiß! wer sein Leben
lang von hohen ernsten Eichen umgeben wäre, müßte ein anderer Mensch
werden, als wer täglich unter luftigen Birken sich erginge...”[72] And
again, when he said of environment and national character: “... so viel
ist gewiß, daß außer dem Angeborenen der Rasse, sowohl Boden und Klima
als Nahrung und Beschäftigung einwirkt, um den Charakter eines Volkes zu
vollenden ...”[73] And in the following, Goethe but reiterates Herder’s
oft uttered admiration for islanders and coast dwellers: “Auch von den
Kräften des _Meeres_ und der _Seeluft_ war die Rede gewesen (d. 12. März
1828), wo denn Goethe die Meinung äußerte, daß er alle Insulaner und
Meer-Anwohner des gemäßigten Klimas bei weitem für produktiver und
tatkräftiger halte als die Völker im Innern großer Kontinente.”[74] And:
“Es ist ein eigenes Ding, erwiederte Goethe (d. 12. März 1828),—liegt es
in der Abstammung, liegt es im Boden, liegt es in der freien Verfassung,
liegt es in der gesunden Erziehung,—genug! die Engländer überhaupt
scheinen vor vielen anderen etwas voraus zu haben ...”[75]
Wolf and Niebuhr began to examine historical _sources_ “nach neuen
Prinzipien des Eingetauchtseins in eine bestimmte seelische Umwelt, in
ein klargezeichnetes zeitgenössisches Milieu.”[76]
One of the principal offices of an historian, according to August
Wilhelm Schlegel, is “Die zeit- und kulturgeschichtliche Bedingtheit
aller Erscheinungen aufzuzeigen.”[77] But the effect of physical milieu
on history is not rated high in the philosophy of the romanticists.[78]
Ingeniously, albeit not with his wonted acuteness, Hegel penned the
concept “Volksgeist.”[79] The saying, which now seems trivial, that
every nation and every man in the nation is “ein Kind seiner Zeit,” is
said to be Hegel’s.[80] Hegel, however, distinctly rejected the idea of
explaining “die Geschichte und den Geist der verschiedenen Völker aus
dem Klima ihrer Länder.”[81] The implication would be that one single
factor might satisfactorily be held responsible for all progress in
human history. As climate can not explain everything to Hegel, it seems
not to explain anything at all to him. Hegel, then, is excessive in his
denial of the power of environment. This is markedly shown by his
thinking his position substantiated by the fact that the climate of
Greece, although the same since classical antiquity, has not changed the
Turks who now [_i.e._, early in the nineteenth century] dwell in Greece
into ancient Greeks.[82]
-----
Footnote 19:
The Belgian sociologist De Greef, in his _Introduction à la
Sociologie_ (1886–89), raised “Mésologie” (denoting “Erkenntnis der
milieux”) to a special introductory branch of sociology for the
purpose of discussing, according to Ratzel superficially, the external
factors of history; cf. Paul Barth, _Die Philosophie der Geschichte
als Soziologie_, I (Leipzig: Reisland, 1897), p. 70 and Ratzel, _l.c._
p. 29. The term “Mésologie” was in use in France at an earlier date
than that. See for example the title of an article written at the
close of the Franco-German war by Dr. Bertillon, “De l´Influence du
milieu ou Mésologie,” _La Philosophie Positive_, Revue dirigée par É.
Littré & G. Wyrouboff, Tome IX (Paris, 1872), pp. 309–20. Or see M. E.
Jourdy, “De l´Influence du milieu ou Mésologie,” _ibid._, Tome X
(1873), pp. 154–60.
Footnote 20:
Fr. de Rougemont, in his important work _Les deux cités; la
philosophie de l´histoire aux différents âges de l´humanité_ (1874)
treats this question exhaustively. See Robert Poehlmann, _Hellenische
Anschauungen über den Zusammenhang zwischen Natur und Geschichte_
(Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1879, 93 pp.), pp. 8 f.
Footnote 21:
_Vide_ Eugénie Dutoit, _Die Theorie des Milieu_ (Diss., Bern, 1899,
136 pp.), pp. 52–5.
Footnote 22:
“Hippocrate fut le premier à observer quelques-uns des effets du
milieu sur l’individu. Ses observations sont nécessairement nébuleuses
et chaotiques, plutôt descriptives et qualitatives, étant donnée
l’imperfection des connaissances de son temps.”—Auguste Matteuzzi,
_Les Facteurs de l’Évolution des Peuples_ (Paris, 1900), p. 6
(Avant-Propos).
Footnote 23:
“Wir sahen, daß sich das Buch des Hippokrates durchaus darauf
beschränkte, die Wechselbeziehungen zwischen Landesnatur und
Volkscharakter zu erörtern.”—Poehlmann, _l.c._, p. 51.
Footnote 24:
“Hippokrates von Kos, ‘der Vater der Heilkunde’ (ca. 460 bis ca. 370),
ist der _Begründer der Anthropogeographie_. Er schrieb ein Buch über
Klima, Wasser und Bodenbeschaffenheit und ihren Einfluß auf die
Bewohner eines Landes in physischer und geistiger Beziehung. Der
philosophische Gedanke war damit angeregt, fand aber keine weitere
Entwicklung.”—_F. v. Richthofen’s Vorlesungen_, etc. (Berlin, 1908),
p. 7.
Footnote 25:
_System of Positive Polity_ (4 vols., London: Longmans, Green & Co.,
1875–77—the original was published in 1851–54), vol. II, p. 364: “...
a study [of the aggregate of material influences: Astronomical,
Physical, Chemical] which was commenced by the great Hippocrates in
his admirable and unequalled Treatise upon Climate.”
Footnote 26:
Haddon and Quiggin, _Hist. of Anthropology_ (1910), p. 150.—Poehlmann
discusses Hippocrates in _Hellenische Anschauungen_, etc., pp.
12–37.—Ludwig Stein, in his book _Die soziale Frage im Lichte der
Philosophie_ (2. verb. Aufl., Stuttgart, 1903), p. 403, n., says that
“Aless. Chiapelli, _Le promesse filosofiche del Socialismo_ (Napoli,
1897), p. 41, hebt die interessante Tatsache hervor, daß die Lehre vom
‘Milieu’ ihrem Keime nach auf Hippokrates zurückgeht.” But a little
over three decades earlier, Peschel in his _Geschichte der Erdkunde_
(1. Aufl., 1865) surveyed on two pages some important phases of
Hippocrates and Strabo on milieu. And earlier still, a half century
before Peschel, Ukert in his _Geographie der Griechen und Römer_
(1816), I, 1, 79, noted Hippocrates as carefully observing the effect
of climate on the body and mind of man. (_Vide_ Poehlmann, l.c., pp. 7
f.)—And to Herder, Hippocrates was the principal author on climate:
“... _Hippocrat. de aere, locis et aquis_, ... Für mich der
Hauptschriftsteller über das Klima.”—_Herders Sämmtliche Werke_, hg.
v. B. Suphan, 13, 269 n.
Footnote 27:
See Dutoit, _Die Theorie des Milieu_, pp. 55–8.
Footnote 28:
Poehlmann, _l.c._, p. 68.—Aristotle neglects to give credit to
Hippocrates in connection with his ideas on environment, although
indebted to Hippocrates whom he mentions elsewhere. See Dutoit,
_l.c._, p. 57.
Footnote 29:
“Varron, _De re rustica_, 1, cite une oeuvre d’Eratosthènes où
celui-ci cherchait à démontrer que le caractère de l’homme et la forme
du gouvernement sont subordonnés au voisinage ou à l’éloignement du
soleil. Tentative sublime mais prématurée, pour ramener les phénomènes
sociaux à des lois uniques et générales.”—Auguste Matteuzzi, _Les
Facteurs de l’Évolution des Peuples_ (Paris, 1900), p. 6.
Footnote 30:
“Die vollständigste Beschreibung [of the earth] gab erst Strabo in
seinem Werk γεογραφικά. Hier begegnen wir zum zweitenmal der
philosophischen Idee, _Mensch und Natur in Kausalzusammenhang_
miteinander zu bringen. Strabos Geographie ist als ‘Länder- und
Völkerkunde’ das größte Werk des Altertums. Die Anschauung eines
kausalen Zusammenhanges des Menschen mit der Natur ging darauf unter
[according to him, until the middle of the eighteenth century, until
Montesquieu].”—_Richthofen’s Vorlesungen_, etc. (1908), p. 8.
Footnote 31:
_Buckle and his Critics_ (London, 1895, 548 pp.), p. 7 n.
Footnote 32:
See Poehlmann, _l.c._, p. 7.—For a brief statement of the theory of
milieu in Greek writers (Thucydides, Xenophon, Plato, Aristotle,
Theophrastus), cf. Curtius, _Boden und Clima von Athen_ (1877), p. 4
f. For Aristotle, compare also Dondorff, _Das hellenische Land als
Schauplatz der althellenischen Geschichte_ (Hamburg, 1899, 42 pp.),
pp. 11 f. Poehlmann, _l.c._, discusses the views on environment of
Herodotus (pp. 37–47), of Thucydides (pp. 52–4), of Xenophon (pp. 55
f.), of Ephoros [only fragments of his great work, A Universal
History, are extant; cited by Strabo] (pp. 56–9), of Plato (pp.
59–64), of Aristotle (pp. 64–74), of Polybios (pp. 75–7), of
Posidonios [in Strabo and in Galen] (pp. 78–80), of Strabo (pp.
80–90), of Galen (pp. 91 f.).
Footnote 33:
_Vide_ Élisàr v. Kupffer, _Klima und Dichtung, Ein Beitrag zur
Psychophysik_ [in _Grenzfragen der Literatur und Medizin_ in
Einzeldarstellungen hg. v. S. Rahmer, Berlin, 4. Heft] (München,
1907), p. 63.
Footnote 34:
Translated into French by Baron Meg. F. de Slane (3 vols., Paris,
1862–8).
Footnote 35:
See R. Flint, _History of the Philosophy of History, Historical
Philosophy in France and French Belgium and Switzerland_ (New York:
Scribner, 1894, 706 pp.), pp. 159 f.—“His [Mohammed Ibn Khaldūn’s]
fame rests securely ... on his _magnum opus_, the ‘Universal History,’
and especially on the first part of it, the ‘Prolegomena’ (p. 162)....
They [the Prolegomena] may fairly be regarded as forming a distinct
and complete work.... It consists of a preface, an introduction, and
six sections or divisions (p. 163).”
Footnote 36:
Flint, _l.c._, pp. 164 f.
Footnote 37:
_Vide infra_, p. 27.
Footnote 38:
Flint, _l.c._, p. 164.—Cf. also pp. 158–72, for Ibn Khaldūn in
general.
Footnote 39:
Cf. Kupffer, _Klima and Dichtung_, p. 63.
Footnote 40:
“Da Bodin hauptsächlich an die Anschauungen des Aristoteles anknüpft,
...—Auch an Strabo, der dem Einfluß des Klimas und der Landesnatur
schon die schöpferischen Kräfte des Volksgeistes gegenübergestellt
hat, lehnt sich Bodin an.”—Fritz Renz, _Jean Bodin, Ein Beitrag z.
Geschichte d. hist. Methode im 16. Jahrhundert_ [Geschichtliche
Untersuchungen hg. v. Karl Lamprecht, III. Bd., I. Heft], (Gotha,
1905, 84 pp.), p. 48 n.
Footnote 41:
_Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem_, published in 1566.
Footnote 42:
Flint, _l.c._, 198.—The ‘Republic’ was first published in 1576 in
French under the title _De la République_. Eight years later (1584)
Bodin himself translated it into Latin as _De Republica Libri Sex_.
See Ludwig Stein, _Die soziale Frage im Lichte der Philosophie_ (2.
verb. Aufl., Stuttgart, 1902), p. 217 n.
Footnote 43:
Compare Dutoit, _Die Theorie des Milieu_, pp. 58–62.
Footnote 44:
“Die physische Konstitution des Menschen hängt nach Bodin eng mit den
klimatischen Verhältnissen seiner Heimat zusammen und entspricht dem
Verhalten der Erde, die er bewohnt ...”—Renz, _Jean Bodin_ (1905), p.
50.—“... Da der animalische Körper wie alle Körper aus einer Mischung
der Elemente besteht, so ergibt sich eine direkte Abhängigkeit der
physischen Konstitution von der umgebenden Natur, ja sogar eine
Übereinstimmung mit dem Verhalten der Erde in dem betreffenden
Himmelsstrich. Der menschliche Körper reagiert auf die klimatischen
Einflüsse genau so wie die Erde, die er bewohnt, ...”—_Ibidem_, p. 44.
Footnote 45:
Discussed by Renz, _l.c._, pp. 47–61, in the chapter “Die Theorie des
Klimas.”—“Behandelt wird die Theorie des Klimas nach dem 5. Kapitel
des ‘Methodus,’ in dem sich Bodin zum ersten Male mit dieser Doktrin
befaßte; zur Erläuterung wird auch das 1. Kapitel des V. Buches der
‘République’ herangezogen, in dem die Theorie des Klimas, aber in
gedrängterer Form, wiederholt wird.”—_Ibid._, p. 47 n. Cf. also p. 45.
Footnote 46:
“Sogar das Temperament variiert nach dem Klima ...
“Wie das Temperament wird die Sprache von dem inneren physischen Bau
abhängig gedacht ...
“Ebenso wird die Fortpflanzungsfähigkeit in direkte Abhängigkeit von
der physischen Konstitution gebracht ...”—_Ibid._, pp. 52 f.
Footnote 47:
“Wie das Äußere und die physische Konstitution hängen auch die Anlagen
und Fähigkeiten der Völker mit den klimatischen Verschiedenheiten
zusammen ...”—_Ibid._, p. 54.
Footnote 48:
“... Nach der Dreiteilung der seelischen Fähigkeiten bei dem
Einzelmenschen und den Bewohnern jedes Staates werden die Völker auf
der ganzen Erde gruppiert, indem durch das Klima immer eine Anlage
besonders zur Ausbildung kommt ...”—_Ibid._, p. 46.
Footnote 49:
“... Bodin nimmt zwei Teile des menschlichen Seelenlebens an, erstens
eine allen Menschen gemeinsame, unveränderliche geistige Befähigung,
die Vernunft, und zweitens Anlagen, die von dem Klima und der
physischen Natur des Menschen abhängen. In der ‘République’ wird
ausgeführt, daß diese abhängigen Anlagen nur verschiedene von dem
geographischen Milieu abhängige Entwicklungsstufen des Verstandes
sind, während dieser an sich von den einzelnen Gegenden unabhängig ist
...”—_Ibid._, p. 45.
Footnote 50:
“... Indem er [Bodin] als erster in der Neuzeit auf streng
wissenschaftlicher Grundlage versucht, die Wechselwirkung, die
zwischen dem historischen Verlauf und der Natur stattfindet,
festzustellen, gelangt er zu der Annahme von zwei Teilen des
geistig-seelischen Innenlebens, eines von den umgebenden Verhältnissen
abhängigen und eines absoluten, gegen äußere Einflüsse sich passiv
verhaltenden Teils. Willensfreiheit neben der durch das Milieu
bedingten Ausbildung bestimmter Anlagen und Fähigkeiten ist der
mittlere Weg, den er zwischen der Annahme des zwingenden Einflusses
der äußeren Natur und der gänzlichen Unabhängigkeit von ihr einschlägt
...”—_Ibid._, p. 77.
Footnote 51:
“Neben dem Horizontal- wendet Bodin den Vertikalmaßstab zur
Beurteilung der Völker an, indem er untersucht, wie die verschiedene
Erhebung des Bodens auf die Gestaltung des Volkscharakters einwirkt
...
“Ebenso wird die Natur der Völker von der Qualität des heimatlichen
Bodens beeinflußt, ...”—_Ibid._, p. 58.—“Der Einfluß, der sich aus der
östlicheren oder westlicheren Wohnlage auf den Volkscharakter geltend
macht, ist, wo nicht in der Richtung Süd-Nord sich erstreckende
Gebirge eine deutlichere Scheidelinie bilden, nach Bodin schwer zu
bestimmen ...”—_Ibid._ p. 57.
Footnote 52:
“Neben der Vorstellung von der geistig-sittlichen Einheit der Menschen
geht die Erkenntnis der Verschiedenartigkeit der Nationen und ihres
Bildungsgrades her, die aus den partikularen Bedingungen des
nationalen Einzeldaseins resultiert. Zur Erklärung des Volkscharakters
wird, wie schon dargelegt, die Theorie des Klimas herangezogen
...”—_Ibid._, p. 62.
Footnote 53:
“Bodin hat sich deswegen mit der Theorie des Klimas beschäftigt, weil
er in der Geschichte und im Völkerleben bestimmte regelmäßige
Erscheinungen wahrnahm, die er sich nur aus dem Einfluß des
geographischen Milieus erklären konnte. Bei dem strengen Festhalten an
der menschlichen Willensfreiheit konnte er sich diesen Einfluß nur
durch die Annahme einer von äußeren Verhältnissen abhängigen
Entwicklungsfähigkeit der geistigen Anlagen in bestimmter Richtung
erklären...”—_Ibid._, p. 60 f.—“Das unbedingte Festhalten an der
menschlichen Willensfreiheit mußte Bodin vor der Annahme bewahren, daß
der Einfluß des geographischen Milieus auf die Menschen ein zwingender
sei. Nur die Entwicklung der Anlagen wird von der Umwelt bestimmt,
nicht aber das sittliche Wollen ...”—_Ibid._, p. 59.
Footnote 54:
“Wo die äußere Natur zur Entwicklung schlechter Anlagen führt, besitzt
nach Bodin die Menschheit in der Erziehung ein Mittel, diesem
Übelstand zu begegnen.”—_Ibid._, p. 77.—“... den Menschen [wird] die
Fähigkeit zugesprochen ..., die schädlichen Einwirkungen des Klimas
wenn auch schwer, zu überwinden ...”—_Ibid._, p. 60.
Footnote 55:
_L.c._, p. 198.
Footnote 56:
“... Den Vergleich der drei Völkergruppen [südliche, mittlere,
nördliche] mit den menschlichen Lebensaltern hat Bodin von Aristoteles
entlehnt, was er Meth. V 140, 141 selbst zugibt.”—Renz, _l.c._, p. 57.
Footnote 57:
_L.c._, p. 48.
Footnote 58:
Haddon and Quiggin, _Hist. of Anthropology_ (London, 1910), p. 150.
Footnote 59:
_L.c._, p. 77.—For Bodin in general, cf. Renz, _Jean Bodin_; Flint,
_l.c._, pp. 190–200; Ludwig Stein, _Die soziale Frage im Lichte der
Philosophie_, pp. 217–19. H. Morf, _Französische Literatur im
Zeitalter der Renaissance_ (2. verb. Aufl., Straßburg: Trübner, 1914),
is brief on Bodin, _vide_ esp. pp. 131 f.; cf. also p. 125.
Footnote 60:
_Vide_ E. Bernheim, _Lehrbuch der historischen Methode_ (5. u. 6.
Aufl, Leipzig, 1908), p. 230.
Footnote 61:
Montesquieu, _The Spirit of Laws_ (translated from the French by Th.
Nugent, new ed., revised by J. V. Prichard, 2 vols., London: Geo. Bell
and Sons, 1906), I, 238–314.
Footnote 62:
“Seine [Montesquieu’s] Hervorkehrung des Einflusses, den Klima und
Bodenbeschaffenheit auf die Soziabilität der Menschennatur ausüben,
geht ebenfalls auf Locke, weiterhin auf Bodin zurück.”—L. Stein, _Die
soziale Frage_, etc., p. 364.—According to Dutoit (_Die Theorie des
Milieu_, p. 62), Montesquieu concealed his obligation to Bodin.
Footnote 63:
_L.c._, pp. 238–53.
Footnote 64:
_L.c._, pp. 253–69.
Footnote 65:
_L.c._, pp. 270–83.
Footnote 66:
_L.c._, pp. 284–91.
Footnote 67:
_L.c._, pp. 291–314.
Footnote 68:
Flint, _l.c._, pp. 279 f.
Footnote 69:
Flint, _l.c._, p. 286.—(Turgot died in 1781.)
Footnote 70:
Ripley, _The Races of Europe_ (1899), p. 4.—Cuvier was twenty years
younger than Goethe; both died in the same year.
Footnote 71:
E. G. Conklin, _Heredity and Environment in the Development of Men_
(Princeton Univ. Press, 1915, 533 pp.), p. 303.
Footnote 72:
_Eckermanns Gespräche mit Goethe_, neu herausgegeben v. H. H. Houben
(Leipzig: Brockhaus, 1909), p. 264.
Footnote 73:
_Ibid._, p. 265.—These two passages are also cited by Kupffer, _Klima
and Dichtung_, p. 64.
Footnote 74:
_Eckermanns Gespräche mit Goethe_, p. 542.
Footnote 75:
_Ibid._, p. 546.
Footnote 76:
Karl Lamprecht, “Neue Kulturgeschichte” (pp. 449–64 in Das Jahr 1913,
_Ein Gesamtbild der Kulturentwicklung_, hg. v. D. Sarason,
Leipzig-Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1913), p. 453.
Footnote 77:
Albert Poetzsch, _Studien zur frühromantischen Politik und
Geschichtsauffassung_ (Leipzig: Voigtländer, 1907, 111 pp.), p. 89.
Footnote 78:
“Die Einwirkung der äußeren Natur auf die Geschichte tritt zurück [in
der romantischen Geschichtsphilosophie]”; and in a note is added:
“Wenn auch der Zusammenhang von Boden und Geschichte, namentlich von
natürl. Grenzen u. Staat, der Betrachtung nicht verloren geht. Vgl. A.
W. Schlegel, Enz. 216. 697.”—_Ibid._, p. 94.
Footnote 79:
Bernheim, _Lehrb. d. hist. Methode_, p. 650.
Footnote 80:
_Ibid._, p. 515.
Footnote 81:
See Ludwig Gumplowicz, _Der Rassenkampf_ (2.... Aufl., Innsbruck,
1909), p. 9 n.
Footnote 82:
_Vide_ the quotation from Hegel by Gumplowicz, _l.c._, p. 13 n.
II
A SKETCH OF THE HISTORY OF THE IDEA OF MILIEU SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY
_Anthropo-geography, Geography and History_
The theory of social environment, as we have seen, gradually rises,
especially since the renaissance, parallel with the theory of physical
milieu. The stream of thought commences to broaden on both sides as we
approach the eighteenth century, and broadens still further, and
deepens, in the nineteenth, when specialization occurs or continues in
anthropo-geography, biology, jurisprudence and economics, anthropology,
sociology, and literature, and latterly in physics. These furnish us the
divisions for subsequent discussions.[83]
All antecedent thought on the subject converges in Herder and from this
focal point, as a collecting and fructifying center, it emerges,
branches out and radiates in a definite number of directions. This can
only be indicated here.[84] One main ramification leads us to
anthropo-geography. Consequently, we must now turn to a detailed
consideration of the idea of milieu in anthropo-geography.[85]
Karl Ritter first in anthropo-geography elucidated Herder’s ideas on
environment. “... KARL RITTER steht auf HERDERS Schultern, wenn er in
seiner ‘Allgemeinen Erdkunde’ den Gedanken der tiefgehenden
Beeinflussung der Völkergeschichte durch die äußeren Umgebungen
entwickelt ...”[86] Ritter is said to be given too much credit for
connecting scientifically geography and history: “C. Ritter führte, ...
die Herder’schen Anschauungen deutlicher aus. Die wissenschaftliche,
nicht bloß äußerliche Verbindung von Geographie und Geschichte kettet
sich an seinen Namen. Nicht ganz mit Recht; ...”[87] Richthofen thinks
that Ritter’s basic idea was almost without influence on geography; only
the historians profited by it.[88] Alexander von Humboldt, on the other
hand, declares in the first volume of his _Cosmos_ that “The views of
comparative geography have been specially enlarged by that admirable
work, Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur Natur und zur Geschichte, in which Carl
Ritter so ably delineates the physiognomy of our globe and shows the
influence of its external configuration on the physical phenomena on its
surface, on the migrations, laws, and manners of nations, and on all the
principal historical events enacted upon the face of the earth.”[89]
In the _Erdkunde_,[90] Ritter propounds a program for
anthropo-geographical investigation, i.e., for the investigation of the
mutual relation between man and his environment. As every moral man
should, so should also “jeder menschliche Verein, jedes Volk seiner
eigenen inneren und äußeren Kräfte, wie derjenigen der Nachbarn und
seiner Stellung zu allen von außen herein wirkenden Verhältnissen inne
werden.”[91] Nature exercises greater influence over peoples than over
individual men: “Die Eigentümlichkeit des Volkes kann nur aus seinem
Wesen erkannt werden, aus seinem Verhältnis zu sich selbst, zu seinen
Gliedern, zu seinen Umgebungen, und weil kein Volk ohne Staat und
Vaterland gedacht werden kann, aus seinem Verhältnis zu beiden und aus
dem Verhältnis von beiden zu Nachbarländern und Nachbarstaaten. Hier
zeigt sich der Einfluß, den die Natur auf die Völker, und zwar in einem
noch weit höheren Grade, als auf den einzelnen Menschen ausüben muß ...
“Denn durch eine höhere Ordnung bestimmt, treten die Völker wie die
Menschen zugleich unter dem Einfluß einer Tätigkeit der Natur und der
Vernunft hervor aus dem geistigen wie aus dem physischen Elemente in den
Alles verschlingenden Kreis des Weltlebens. Gestaltet sich doch jeder
Organismus dem inneren Zusammenhange und dem äußeren Umfange nach ...
Sie (Völker und Staaten) stehen alle unter demselben Einflusse der Natur
...”[92] To the problem of the reciprocal relation between external and
internal factors, Ritter devoted a special essay, entitled “Über das
historische Element in der geographischen Wissenschaft,” which he read
before the Academy of Sciences at Berlin in 1833.[93]
In Alexander von Humboldt’s _Ansichten der Natur_,[94] “Everywhere the
reader’s attention is directed to the perpetual influence which physical
nature exercises on the moral condition and on the destiny of man.”[95]
In passing, Humboldt also touches on environment in the first volume of
his chef-d’oeuvre, _Kosmos_, assigning it, however, but a modest rôle:
“Es würde das allgemeine Naturbild, das ich zu entwerfen strebe,
unvollständig bleiben, wenn ich hier nicht auch den Mut hätte, das
Menschengeschlecht in seinen physischen Abstufungen, in der
geographischen Verbreitung seiner gleichzeitig vorhandenen Typen, in dem
Einfluß, welchen es von den Kräften der Erde empfangen und
wechselseitig, wenn auch schwächer, auf sie ausgeübt hat, mit wenigen
Zügen zu schildern. Abhängig, wenn gleich in minderem Grade als Pflanzen
und Tiere, von dem Boden und den meteorologischen Prozessen des
Luftkreises, den Naturgewalten durch Geistestätigkeit und stufenweise
erhöhte Intelligenz, wie durch eine wunderbare sich allen Klimaten
aneignende Biegsamkeit des Organismus leichter entgehend, nimmt das
Geschlecht wesentlich Teil an dem ganzen Erdenleben.”[96]
J. G. Kohl’s book, _Der Verkehr und die Ansiedlungen der Menschheit in
ihrer Abhängigkeit von der Gestaltung der Erdoberfläche_,[97] occupies
itself with the question of the dependence of human progress in general,
and of density and concentration of population in particular, upon
natural conditions. The causes of these phenomena are, to Kohl, partly
moral or political, and partly physical. The physical causes of
concentration are twofold: “Teils sind es solche, die von dem mehr oder
minder großen Produktenreichtum des Bodens, teils solche, die von der
Gestaltung der Erdoberfläche abhängen ... so zeigt sich dann, daß von
allen verschiedenen Ursachen der Kondensierung der Bevölkerung die
Bodengestaltung die allerwichtigste ist.”[98] Opposed to these natural
conditions is a series of what Kohl styles political influences, such as
national character, institutions created by the State, laws, etc.—“Die
moralischen oder politischen Ursachen der verschiedenen Dichtigkeit der
Bevölkerung sind in dem Kulturzustande und besonders in der politischen
Verfassung der Bewohner der verschiedenen Erdstriche begründet ... Auch
sind viele verschiedene Sitten der Völker als einflußreiche Ursachen der
mehr oder minder großen Dichtigkeit der Bevölkerung zu betrachten.”[99]
Not only national character, but also education is to be counted among
the political influences: “Unter politischen und moralischen Einflüssen,
die nicht von der Natur bedingt werden, verstehen wir solche Kräfte,
solche Volkstalente und Eigentümlichkeiten des Charakters, die nicht der
Boden, die Luft und das Klima dem Volke geben. So groß nämlich auch die
Gewalt des Bodens, des Klimas und der Natur ist, so sehr die Zonen, die
Gebirge, die Sümpfe, die Wälder, die Wüsten u.s.w. alle Bevölkerung, die
in ihre Gebiete fällt, auf einerlei Weise zu bilden und zu modeln
streben, so sehr behauptet doch immer noch nebenher der ursprüngliche
Charakter des Stammes und die Erziehung, welche das Volk sich gibt, ihre
eigenen Rechte. Es existieren beide Einflüsse neben einander,
beschränken sich gegenseitig, aber sie heben sich nicht auf ... Das, was
nun nicht vom Boden abhängt und was ein Volk auf jeden Boden, den es
bezieht, mit hin bringt, ist wiederum Zweierlei, entweder etwas
Angeborenes oder etwas Angenommenes.”[100] It is difficult to
differentiate between what is due to original endowment and what to the
milieu, yet natural influences can not be ignored: “Welcher Geist ...
möchte den Versuch wagen, zu entscheiden, was im Charakter des Volkes
... Angenommenes und was Selbstgegebenes sei, was endlich in ihren
Handlungen und Bewegungen von Klima und Landesbeschaffenheit bedingt
werde. Die Charaktergepräge der Nationen, wie wir sie jetzt in diesen
neuesten Momenten der weltgeschichtlichen Entwicklung sehen, sind
Gebilde, welche unter der Einwirkung unerforschbar vielfacher Einflüsse
entstanden sind.... Und doch stehen sie (die Natureinflüsse, die von den
Historikern gewöhnlich unberücksichtigt geblieben sind) vielleicht auch
bei allen jenen Dingen, die wir im Vordergrunde agieren sehen, im
Hintergrunde und wirken als die Quellen der Erscheinungen mittelbar
selbst da, wo wir dieselben anderen Ursachen zuschreiben. So mag jede
Art der Staatsverfassung, der Gewerbzweige geschöpft und hervorgeblüht
sein aus der Tiefe des Nationalgeistes, des Boden- und des Luftgeistes,
während wir sie als Willkürliches und Selbstgegebenes auffassen.”[101]
The naturalist Karl Ernst von Baer discusses the influence of external
nature upon the social relations of individual nations and upon the
history of mankind in general,[102] while the geologist Bernhard Cotta
attempts to show the effect of soil and geological structure on German
life.[103] Accepting, in the main, Cotta as a basis, J. Kutzen, in _Das
deutsche Land, Seine Natur in ihren charakteristischen Zügen und sein
Einfluß auf Geschichte und Leben der Menschen, Skizzen und Bilder_,[104]
the bulk of which book is physical geography, intersperses therewith
anthropo-geographical statements that are in some cases interwoven in,
and in others added to, the descriptive parts, pointing out the relation
of environment to the life and history of the Germans.[105] Kutzen
claims his work to be the first that treats the _whole_ of Germany in
the way just indicated.
In The Natural History of the German People,[106] W. H. Riehl studies
the action of natural conditions on man. He is concerned with the
connections between land and people: “Will man die naturgeschichtliche
Methode der Wissenschaft vom Volke in ihrer ganzen Breite und Tiefe
nachweisen, dann muß man auch in das Wesen dieser örtlichen
Besonderungen des Volkstumes eindringen. In der Lehre von der
bürgerlichen Gesellschaft ist das Verhältnis der großen natürlichen
Volksgruppen zueinander nachgewiesen: hier sollen diese Gruppen nach den
örtlichen Bedingungen des Landes, in welchem das Volksleben wurzelt,
dargestellt werden. Erst aus den individuellen Bezügen von LAND UND
LEUTEN entwickelt sich die kulturgeschichtliche Abstraktion der
bürgerlichen Gesellschaft.”[107] And “Das vorliegende Buch hat sich das
bescheidenere Ziel gesteckt, zusammenhängende Skizzen zu liefern zur
Naturgeschichte des Volkes _in seinem Zusammenhang mit dem Lande_.”[108]
His chief aim is to prove that the connection between land and people is
the basis of all social development and of all social research: “Ich
hatte mir von Anbeginn das Ziel gesteckt, den Zusammenhang von Land und
Volk als Fundament aller sozialen und politischen Entwicklung, als
Ausgangspunkt aller sozialen Forschung nachzuweisen, und dieses
Hauptziel, die eigentliche Tendenz des Buches, hat heute noch denselben
Wert, dieselbe fördernde Kraft wie vor einem Menschenalter.”[109] He
wants to show how “Volksart” and “Landesart” hang together, how
nationality grows organically out of the soil: “Ich nenne dieses
Wanderbuch einen zweiten Band zu ‘Land und Leuten.’ In jener Schrift
verarbeite ich zahlreiche Wanderskizzen, um den Zusammenhang von
Volksart und Landesart, das organische Erwachsen des Volkstumes aus dem
Boden nachzuweisen.”[110] Everywhere Riehl finds “an organic relation
between nature and man,” according to Gooch.[111] Riehl recognizes “that
man could only develop within the limits imposed by nature.”[112] The
problem of how locality affects social groups has, of course, not
originated with Riehl, but it received a reformulation at his hands. It
must be added, however, that his bombastic assertions far outrun his
data. His claims are disproportionate to his facts.[113]
Alfred Kirchhoff brilliantly sketches the reciprocal relations between
land and people in Germany, in an essay entitled _Die deutschen
Landschaften und Stämme_.[114]
Achelis[115] refers to Bastian’s doctrine of geographical provinces, “wo
eine Reihe rein physikalischer Agentien: Temperatur, Boden, Flora,
Fauna, etc. sich mit entsprechenden psychischen kombinieren, so daß man
in konzentrischer Reihenfolge von botanischen, zoologischen und
anthropologischen Kreisen reden könnte. Der leitende Grundsatz, sagt
Bastian, für geographisch-typische Provinzen fällt in die Abhängigkeit
des Organismus von seiner geographischen Umgebung (_le Milieu_ oder
_Monde ambiant_), in eine gegenseitig festgeschlossene Wechselwirkung
und also in Naturgesetze, mit denen sich rechnen läßt (_Zur Lehre von
den geographischen Provinzen_ [Berlin, 1886], S. 6).”
The reciprocal influences of man and his environment are illustrated by
Alfred Kirchhoff in _Mensch und Erde, Skizzen von den Wechselbeziehungen
zwischen beiden_.[116]
Ferdinand von Richthofen[117] traces the gradual evolution of “Siedlung
und Verkehr,” under which two concepts he subsumes all relations of man
to the soil.[118]
It was Friedrich Ratzel, however, who “performed the great service of
placing anthropo-geography on a secure scientific basis. He had his
forerunners in Montesquieu,[119] Alexander von Humboldt, Buckle,
Ritter, Kohl, Peschel and others; but he first investigated the
subject from the modern scientific point of view, ... and based his
conclusions on world-wide inductions, for which his predecessors did
not command the data.”[120] He “has written the standard work on
_Anthropogeographie_.”[121] Employing the analytical method, Ratzel
was the first to divide the subject-matter into categories: “Ratzel
hat das Verdienst, daß er zuerst den Stoff in Kategorien teilte. Er
wendet die analytische Methode der allgemeinen Geographie an und
betrachtet den Einfluß einzelner Naturgegebenheiten auf den Menschen,
z.B. der Inseln, Halbinseln, Gebirge, Ebenen, Steppen, Wüsten, Küsten,
Flußmündungen[122] usw. Die analytische Methode allein kann zum Ziele
führen.”[123] The great and permanent merit of Ratzel’s _Politische
Geographie_[124] is its setting forth how closely the State is bound
to the physical milieu.[125] It treats partly of the effect of nature
and soil on the formation of the State and on political
boundaries.[126] Ratzel expounds environmental action also in his
books _Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika_,[127] _The History of
Mankind_,[128] and in his article on “The Principles of
Anthropo-geography.”[129] Among his followers is to be counted Andrew
R. Cowan, whose _Master-Clues in World-History_[130] is “deeply
impregnated with Ratzel’s teachings.”[131] Camille Vallaux devotes the
fifth chapter (pp. 145–73) of his _Géographie Sociale, Le Sol et
L’État_,[132] to a criticism of the theories of _Raum_ (space) and of
Lage (situation) as developed by Ratzel in his _Politische
Geographie_. And, in general, Ratzel’s “published work had been open
to the just criticism of inadequate citation of authorities.”[133] O.
Schlüter in “Die leitenden Gesichtspunkte der Anthropogeographie,
insbesondere der Lehre Friedrich Ratzels”[134] gives us the best
single estimate of Ratzel, the best orientation—within the compass of
an article well written, well poised, and illuminating—on Ratzel’s
work, thought, method, and application.[135]
_Geography and History_
We shall now see, first, the stand taken by some French writers, and
then that taken by German and English writers, on the question of how
physical environment affects history.
One of the “three most philosophical writers on climate,”[136] Charles
Comte, not related by birth to the founder of Positivism, is, likewise,
one of the earliest disciples of Herder in France. Herder “seems to have
helped to inspire”[137] Charles Comte’s _Traité de Législation_.[138]
Charles Comte’s “discussion of the questions which relate to the
influence of physical nature on human development must have been the
fruit of long and careful study. It was as great an advance on
Montesquieu’s treatment of the subject as Montesquieu’s had been on that
of Bodin. It disproved, corrected, or confirmed a host of Montesquieu’s
observations and conclusions. It showed that he had ascribed too much to
climate, and too little to the configuration of the earth’s surface, the
distribution of mountains and rivers, &c.; and that he had conceived
vaguely, and even to a large extent erroneously, of the modes in which
climate and the fertility or sterility of soil affect human development.
But while Comte thus justly criticised Montesquieu, he himself
exaggerated the efficiency of physical agencies. Indeed, he virtually
traced to their operation the whole development of history ... he has
assumed that physical agencies ultimately account for historical change
and movement, for public institutions and laws....
“Charles Comte fully recognises that the same physical medium has a very
different influence on different generations; and that institutions and
laws, education and manners, and, in a word, all the constituents of the
social medium, have as real an influence on the development of history
as those of the physical medium. Yet he assumes the latter to be the
first, although to a large extent only indirect, causes of the whole
amount of change effected.”[139]
Victor Cousin, another Frenchman, reconnects with Herder. Cousin had
direct acquaintance with at least the principal work of Herder, for the
rendering of whose “Ideen” into French by Quinet he seems
responsible.[140] In the eighth lecture of his “admired”[141] _Cours de
1828 sur la Philosophie de l’Histoire_, he discourses on the rôle that
geography plays in history.
F. Guizot, in the fifth lecture of _The History of Civilization_,[142]
comments briefly on the influence of external circumstances upon
liberty.
The romantic French historiographer, Jules Michelet, in his _Histoire de
France_ (second volume, 1833), and in his _Histoire Romaine_ (1839),
interlinks geography with history, and brilliantly describes the
countries whose histories he is writing. Like some before him (such as
Montesquieu), and many after him (such as Riehl, Curtius, and
Gothein),[143] who traveled in the respective countries before
describing them or composing their history, Michelet, as one preliminary
measure toward equipping himself for such a task, visited Italy[144] and
various parts of France, the latter repeatedly, in order to gain a first
hand impression of the physical milieu and the people of those lands. He
is said to be the first [_sic!_] in France who, under the influence of
Herder, had the idea that geography was the foundation of history: “Sous
l’influence de Herder, il [Michelet] eut, le premier en France, l’idée
que la géographie était le fondement de l’histoire: ‘Le matériel, la
race, le peuple qui la continue me paraissaient avoir besoin qu’on mît
dessous une bonne et forte base, la terre, qui les portât et qui les
nourrît. Et notez que ce sol n’est pas seulement le théâtre de l’action.
Par la nourriture, le climat, etc., il y influe de cent manières. Tel le
nid, tel l’oiseau. Telle la patrie, tel l’homme.’”[145] Without this
basis, the actor in history, the people, would be treading on air like
figures in some Chinese paintings. Says Jules Simon of the celebrated
tableau in the second volume of the _Histoire de France_: “Son héros
[Michelet’s] ... c’est la France. Il en fait une description qui remplit
tout le troisième livre et qui est un chef-d’oeuvre. Chose nouvelle,
cette géographie a autant de mouvement que l’histoire. Elle est animée,
vivante, agissante. Il en montre à merveille l’utilité, la nécessité.
Sans cette base géographique, le peuple, l’acteur historique, semblerait
marcher en l’air, comme dans les peintures chinoises, où le sol
manque.”[146] In the _Introduction to Universal History_ (1831),
Michelet says, “In Germany and Italy, fatality is still strong; moral
freedom is still borne down by powerful influences of race, locality,
and climate.”[147]
Ernst Kapp, in the _Philosophische Erdkunde_,[148] criticizes writers on
the philosophy of history for their failure to give due attention to the
geographical existence of the nations. Nor are geographical intermezzos
alone sufficient: “Man [these writers] hat zwar eine Ahnung von dem
geographischen Element in der Geschichte, nicht aber das deutliche
Bewußtsein, daß die Menschheit an dem Planeten ihre physische
Individualität besitzt, daß sie zu ihm sich verhält, wie die Seele zum
Leib. Anstatt die geographische Betrachtung durch und durch mit der
historischen verwachsen zu lassen [which he proposes to do], hat man
teils geographische Intermezzos nach subjektivem Gutdünken ...
eingestreut, teils auch sich mit einer dem Ganzen voraufgeschickten
geographischen Grundlage ein für allemal begnügt. Man hat hierbei nicht
bedacht, daß man die Geschichte, wenn man ihr den planetarischen Grund
und Boden, auf den man sie von vornherein stellt, wegrückt, zwischen
Himmel und Erde schweben läßt und ihre Behandlung dem veränderlichen
Luftzuge des subjektiven Beliebens mehr oder minder preisgibt ... Darin
ruht die Selbständigkeit der geographischen Wissenschaft, ..., daß ihr
Objekt die Erde ist, ... die Erde, wie sie bestimmend auf die
Entwicklung des Geistes einwirkt und hinwiederum vom Geist bestimmt und
verändert wird. Dies Verhältnis des Planeten zum Geist ist ein
wesentliches.”[149]
Arnold H. Guyot, “ce Suisse transplanté en Amérique,”[150] treats the
same topic in the _Géographie physique comparée, considérée dans ses
rapports avec l’histoire de l’humanité_.[151]
The frequently misquoted Henry Thomas Buckle, in the celebrated second
chapter of the _History of Civilization in England_,[152] shows the
largely indirect effects of climate, food, and soil, chiefly upon the
civilizations—of India, Egypt, Mexico, Peru, etc.—anterior to those of
Europe, and of a fourth class of physical agents, namely, of what he
terms the general aspect of nature upon the imagination—religion,
literature, art—of those peoples. Buckle does not maintain that these
four classes of the Environment were the _sole_ factors in producing
civilization; in fact he makes it quite clear that they were _not_ the
only factors, that they affected the civilizations mentioned in an
indirect way and he indicates how this has taken place. Buckle’s
statements of his ideas had been misrepresented, twisted, and distorted
to such a degree that John M. Robertson felt impelled to write a whole
book[153] in rebuttal, in order to set Buckle’s detractors and
controversial critics right and to refute their unfair imputations to
Buckle’s intended meaning.
The romanticist Ernst Curtius is sometimes referred to as one of those
historians who give adequate expression to the action of the physical
milieu upon the course of history. But Vallaux declares that Curtius,
like Michelet, has made of human geography and of political geography
_merely_ a preliminary and introductory science to history: “une science
auxiliaire ou plutôt liminaire, sorte de _portique d’entrée_ [the
italics are ours] pour leurs brillantes constructions,”[154] lending
thus support to Kapp’s contention.[155] Nor would Ratzel be content with
a portrayal of the land as an introduction to the history of a country,
even though it be as richly colored as that drawn by Curtius.[156] A
description, in itself, fails to penetrate to the core of the relation.
If we now turn to Curtius’ _The History of Greece_,[157] we find that
the first chapter in the first book[158] considers Land and People, a
part of which (pp. 9–18) gives a geographical description of Hellas, and
another part of which (pp. 19–25, seven pages scant) points out the
connection between the land and the people. Elsewhere,[159] Curtius
shows the interaction between the physical environment of Athens and the
Athenians.[160]
George Grote, whose account of the relation between the Greek land and
the Greek people is held by some[161] to be excellent, in _A History of
Greece_,[162] devotes four pages (227–30) of the chapter on General
Geography and Limits of Greece to show the effects of the configuration
of Greece upon the political relation of the inhabitants[163] and the
effects upon their intellectual development,[164] the rest of the
chapter being given over to a description of the geography of Greece.
Alfred E. Zimmern, in _The Greek Commonwealth, Politics and Economics in
Fifth-Century Athens_,[165] deals very cleverly with the main features
of the material environment of Greek civilization: The Mediterranean
Area; The Sea; The Climate; The Soil; Fellowship, or the Rule of Public
Opinion, under which headings he discusses the influence of environment
upon Greek institutions.[166]
As early as 1864, G. P. Marsh investigates the subject of man’s reaction
on his milieu in _Man and Nature, or Physical Geography as Modified by
Human Action_ (London).
John William Draper, in his _History of the Intellectual Development of
Europe_,[167] in the composition of which Herderian ideas were the
guides,[168] first attempts to show (vol. I, pp. 6–17) that individual
man, as well as communities, nations, and universal humanity, are under
the control of physical conditions; then (pp. 23–35) he points out how
the topography, meteorology, and secular geological movements of Europe
affected its inhabitants. On the whole, he overstates the force of
environment and neglects the human factor; nevertheless his
uncompromising affirmations bring out strikingly some of the
environmental effects on man.
The uncritical Max Duncker, in the nine volume _Geschichte des
Altertums_,[169] not only has chapters on _Land und Volk_, or _Land und
Stämme_ at the beginning of the history of a given nation, but he also
dwells elsewhere in his text on the sway of geography in history.
Élisée Réclus, in the magistral _Nouvelle Géographie Universelle_ (1879
ff.), speaking of the difficulties encountered by research, queries:
“... Was verdanken die Nationen dem Einfluß der Natur, die sie umgibt?
Was verdanken sie dem Milieu, das ihre Vorfahren bewohnten, ihren
Rasseinstinkten, ihren verschiedenartigen Mischungen, den von Außen
eingeführten Überlieferungen? Man weiß es nicht, kaum daß einige
Lichtstrahlen in jene Finsternis dringen.”[170] The preponderance of
European nations is by no means attributable, as some arrogantly and
self-conceitedly fancied, to any racial endowment; on the contrary, it
is due to the favoring conditions of the physical environment prevailing
in Europe: “Man weiß, wie mächtig der Einfluß des geographischen Milieu
auf die Fortschritte der europäischen Nationen gewesen ist. Ihre
Überlegenheit ist keineswegs, wie einige sich dünkelhafter Weise
eingebildet haben, der eigentümlichen Anlage der Rassen zuzuschreiben,
denn in anderen Gegenden der alten Welt haben sich eben dieselben Rassen
weniger schöpferisch erwiesen. Es sind die glücklichen Bedingungen der
Wärme, des Klimas, der Gestalt und Lage des Festlandes, welche den
Europäern die Ehre verschafft haben, die ersten gewesen zu sein in der
Kenntnis der Erde in ihrem ganzen Umfange und lange Zeit an der Spitze
der Zivilisation geblieben zu sein.”[171] These conditions help to
explain, in part, the character of the nations: “Mit vollem Recht lieben
es also die historischen Geographen bei der Gestalt der verschiedenen
Erdteile und bei den Folgen zu verweilen, welche sich daraus für die
Bestimmung der Völker ergeben. Die Gestalt der Hochebenen, die Höhe der
Berge, der Lauf und der Reichtum der Flüsse, die Nachbarschaft des
Ozeans, die Gliederung der Küsten, die Temperatur der Atmosphäre, die
Häufigkeit oder Seltenheit des Regens, die unzähligen wechselseitigen
Einflüsse der Sonne, der Luft und der Gewässer, alle Erscheinungen des
Pflanzenlebens habe eine Bedeutung in ihren Augen und dienen ihnen
(wenigstens zum Teil), den Charakter und das erste Leben der Nationen zu
erklären ...”[172] Continental and oceanic forms and other features of
the globe vary in their value for man in accordance with the stage of
civilization to which he attained.[173] Notwithstanding this separation,
in principle, of natural and national influences upon social evolution,
its application to concrete cases Réclus finds arduous: “Durch das
Studium der Sonne und durch die unablässige Beobachtung der klimatischen
Erscheinungen können wir ganz allgemein verstehen, welches der Einfluß
der Natur auf die Entwicklung der Völker gewesen ist; aber es ist
schwieriger, das auf jede Rasse, auf jede Nation zu verteilen....”[174]
P. Mougeoulle’s theory in _Les problèmes de l’histoire_,[175] is an
altogether one-sided geographical theory of history.[176] The sole cause
of the external as well as the internal history of peoples, is, in his
opinion, the geographical Milieu.[177] To Mougeoulle, the Milieu is the
author, whereas man is the actor of the Drama of history.[178]
Léon Metchnikoff, in _La Civilisation et Les Grands Fleuves
Historiques_,[179] pays some attention to the influences (astronomic,
physical—the geosphere, the hydrosphere, and the atmosphere—, vegetal,
animal, anthropological) of the milieu on man and society; yet his main
care is with the action of parts of the hydrosphere on human progress.
Following C. Böttiger (_Das Mittelmeer_, Leipzig, 1859), Metchnikoff
distinguishes the three milieus: fluvial or potamic, mediterranean or
thalassic, and oceanic or universal.[180] On this basis he divides
universal history into three periods: 1) the period of the fluvial
civilizations (temps anciens), furnishing the principal theme of his
argument (discussed in the last four chapters of his book); 2) that of
the mediterranean civilizations (temps moyens); 3) and that of the
oceanic civilizations. The fluvial or ancient period, from the
beginnings to _circa_ 800 B.C., comprises the history of the four great
civilizations of antiquity, in Egypt, Mesopotamia, India, China, “qui
ont eu pour milieu géographique des régions arrosées par certains
fleuves ou couples de fleuves célèbres.” The mediterranean or middle
period extends from the seventh century B.C.—the foundation of
Carthage—to Charles the Fifth. The modern or oceanic period has two
epochs: a) the _atlantic_ epoch, from the discovery of America to about
the middle of the nineteenth century; and b) the _universal_ epoch, just
beginning.[181] In the main, Metchnikoff limits the scope of his work to
the compass of fluvial civilizations. He studies in detail the four
great historical rivers or pairs of rivers (the Nile, the Tigris and the
Euphrates, the Indus and the Ganges, and the Hoangho and the
Yangtze-Kiang, those great educators of mankind) in their bearing upon
the four grand civilizations—Chinese, Hindu, Assyro-Babylonian, and
Egyptian—of remote antiquity, all of which expanded in fluvial
regions.[182] The River, in all countries, presents itself to
Metchnikoff as the living synthesis of all the complex conditions of the
climate, of the soil, of the configuration of the earth, and of the
geologic formation. In Egypt and in China, in India and in Mesopotamia,
the River has been “comme une synthèse vivante des conditions
géographiques les plus multiples.”[183] He finds that each of the four
great monarchies of antiquity had been a natural consequence or result
of the hydrological system of the country that served as its cradle, and
that history, in the entire ancient world, had been a toil, a forced
labor (“une corvée”), imposed on a part of mankind by certain orographic
peculiarities of the Milieu. Metchnikoff concludes that in these empires
“le Milieu s’est trouvé être invariablement le vrai créateur de
l’histoire.” The eloquent example of these four grand ancient
civilizations sufficiently proves to him that no important historical
expansion could ever occur in any country of the world, unless the
milieu condemned its inhabitants to that excessive solidarity which he
shows to have been brutally imposed everywhere at the shores of these
great historical rivers; a milieu is conceivable, however, where this
condition, rigorously required by history, may be fulfilled by an
environmental factor other than a river or a system of rivers.[184]
Metchnikoff protests that he is far from advocating potamic[185] or
geographical[186] fatalism.[187]
Babington’s study of the power of environment over history points out
the fallacy of the race theory in the history of the Roman empire, of
Germany, and of China.[188]
N. S. Shaler, in _Nature and Man in America_,[189] traces, on the one
hand, the action of environment on organic life, and, on the other, the
effect of geographic conditions on the development of peoples, more
especially on that of man in North America.[190]
Since about the middle of the eighties, under the leadership of the late
historian E. A. Freeman and of the illustrious statesman and scholar,
Lord James Bryce, “a marked revival of interest” has been exhibited in
England in studying the physical milieu as it relates to man and human
society, institutions and history.[191]
The leading point of view in H. F. Helmolt’s _The History of the World,
a Survey of Man’s Record_,[192] is the treatment of man’s relation to
his physical environment, the relation of geography to history, the
dependence of man on his geographical surroundings. “It [Helmolt’s
_History_] deals with history in the light of physical environment....
Its ground plan, so to speak, is primarily geographical....”[193] It was
conceived in the spirit of Ratzel;[194] it is said to have brought for
the first time “die Länder- und Völkerkunde in den Dienst der
Weltgeschichtsdarstellung.”[195] Helmolt’s “great co-operative _History
of Mankind_ ... emphasizes the sovereign influences of nature and
geography,” says Gooch.[196]
Rev. H. B. George, in _The Relations of Geography and History_,[197]
attempts to “point out systematically how these [geographical] causes
work [all history through], first in general, and then in reference to
the various countries of Europe,”[198] although “This work does not
pretend to attempt the impossible task of describing all the influence
exerted by geographical conditions on human history. All that it
professes to do is to indicate the modes in which that influence works,
with sufficient illustrations from actual history.”[199]
Professor Geddes, of Edinburgh, is the most energetic expounder of this
idea—the anthropo-geographical conception of history—in the
English-speaking world, says Small.[200]
Throughout the entire treatment of Guglielmo Ferrero’s[201] _History of
Rome_ (one of the most original and important historical works of recent
years), geography thoroughly permeates history.[202]
Robert Sieger[203] attempts to explain the history and policies of the
Austro-Hungarian monarchy “aus ihren geographischen Grundlagen.”[204]
Ellsworth Huntington, in _The Pulse of Asia_,[205] illustrates the
geographic basis of history.[206]
The Columbia School of sociological historians, and others, interpret
history partly in terms of the milieu: physical (economic and
geographic) and social.[207]
Human geography, and political geography, have long been divided into
fragmentary parts, contended for by economics, history, and
sociology.[208] Yet the discipline of anthropo-geography has now become
“eine mächtige Hilfswissenschaft der geschichtlichen Auffassung.”[209]
So that, today, it has become a custom to include in textbooks of
history one or more chapters on the relation of geography to history, to
show the dependence of history on environment.[210] The study of the
latter is a part of Kulturgeschichte or History of Civilization which is
defined as embracing the non-political aspects of civilization such as
the influence of nature, the pressure of economic factors, the origin
and transformation of ideas, the contribution of science and art,
religion and philosophy, literature and law, the material conditions of
life, the fortunes of the masses.[211] Likewise, only on a broader
scale, the milieu is being examined in a new branch of study, which is
one resultant of anthropo-geographical research. This new branch of
study is economic geography, which, according to John McFarlane,[212]
“may be defined as the study of the influence exerted upon the economic
activities of man by his physical environment, and more especially by
the form and structure of the surface of the land, the climatic
conditions which prevail upon it, and the place relations in which its
different regions stand to one another.” Seligman says that the modern
study of economic geography is but an expansion of the study of the
influence of milieu.[213]
Indeed, geography itself, _i.e._, the new geography, is conceived of as
the science or study of the responses of organisms to inorganic, and to
a certain extent organic, environmental control.[214] Professor William
Morris Davis, of Harvard University, is one of the chief exponents of
this theory in the United States. Very recently, Rollin D. Salisbury
said:[215] “By common consent, Geography (as distinct from physical
geography) is the science which deals with the relations of physical
environment to life and its activities. In this sense, geography is a
connecting link between geology, physiography, and climatology, on the
one hand, and zoölogy, botany, sociology, economics, and history on the
other. Its subject-matter is in process of formulation....”[216]
_More Recent Anthropo-geographical Treatises_
James Bryce offers the most excellent general survey of man’s relation
to his physical environment.[217]
Herbertson’s very useful and readable introductory book gives “concrete
pictures of human life under these very different conditions [typical
environments]. They show, in the first place, how the occupation of
different groups of mankind depends on their geographical surroundings,
and how these occupations in turn affect not only the material life, the
houses, food, clothing, etc., but also family life, notions of property,
progress in trade and manufactures, power of expansion, and ideals of
government. All these are classified, not according to race, which is
often an accident, but according to those permanent influences by which
all races are affected.”[218]
Robert DeCourcy Ward, in his standard work on _Climate Considered
Especially in Relation to Man_,[219] presents “typical illustrations” of
environmental action on the life of man in the tropics (Ch. 8, pp.
220–71), in the temperate zones (Ch. 9 pp. 272–321), and in the polar
zones (Ch. 10, pp. 322–37).[220] In a chapter on the hygiene of the
zones (Ch. 7, pp. 178–219), Ward also surveys “some of the relations
between weather and climate and a few of the more important
diseases.”[221]
R. R. Marett’s chapter on “Environment” in his _Anthropology_[222]
presents, beside a number of valuable general and critical remarks,
chiefly a regional survey of the world showing the general effect of
geographical environment on man.
Camille Vallaux, in _Géographie Sociale, Le Sol et L’État_,[223]
beginning with the sixth chapter, also discusses some phases of what
would in E. C. Hayes’ classification[224] be called the technical
milieu.
The most recent German essay, Willy Hellpach’s[225] _Die
Geopsychischen Erscheinungen: Wetter, Klima und Landschaft in ihrem
Einfluß auf das Seelenleben_,[226] deals with the _direct_ effects of
the surrounding _atmosphere_ and soil on the human psyche.[227]
Hellpach seems primarily interested in “Psycho-Pathologie”;[228] he
lays most stress on _das Pathologische_, particularly in the
main—first two—parts of his essay: “Wetter und Seelenleben,” and
“Klima und Seelenleben,” where the pathological effect is strongly
emphasized. Hellpach’s valuable summary of what we know today of this
phase of the milieu,[229] revealing as it does by the meager number of
the facts assembled the crying need for many more such facts, may be,
in its results, somewhat disappointing[230] for the present day, but
it augurs well for future investigation.
The latest extensive presentation of general anthropo-geography,[231]
Jean Brunhes’ _La géographie humaine_,[232] pays more attention to
present than to historical conditions,[233] and thus fittingly
complements Ellen C. Semple’s _Influences of Geographic
Environment_,[234] which “may be regarded as superseding Ratzel’s great
work on Anthropo-geography.”[235]
_Primitive Peoples and Environment_
Karl Ritter, in the essay “Über das historische Element in der
geographischen Wissenschaft” (1833), declares that the forces of nature
which at the commencement of human history exerted a very decisive
influence were bound to recede more and more, and their action had to
diminish, in proportion to man’s progress. Civilized mankind extricates
itself gradually, like single man, from the immediately conditioning
fetters of nature and of its place of abode.[236] This opinion of
Ritter’s was adopted by many.[237]
Theodor Waitz regards primitive man both as purely a product of, and as
being completely at the mercy of, circumambient nature: “Denken wir uns
vom Menschen Alles hinweg, was an ihm Wirkung der Kultur ist, so steht
er da als bloßes Produkt der Macht, die ihn in’s Leben rief, ... Das
Erste, was an ihm charakteristisch für uns hervorträte, würde die sehr
vollständige Abhängigkeit sein, in der er sich von seiner Naturumgebung
befände: der gesammte Inhalt, den sein inneres Leben zunächst gewönne,
würde ein ziemlich reines Produkt dieser letzteren sein. Der Naturmensch
wird zunächst nur das, wozu die Naturverhältnisse ihn machen, unter die
er sich gestellt findet; wovon er sich nährt, das werden diese ihm
darbieten, auf welche Weise und durch welche Mittel er seine Nahrung
gewinnt, dazu werden diese ihm Anleitung geben müssen; ob er Kleidung
und sonstigen Schutz gegen äußere Schädlichkeiten bedarf, und wie er
diesem Bedürfnis abzuhelfen strebt, werden sie ihn lehren und die
Erfindungen, die hierzu nötig sind, ihm an die Hand geben müssen; sie
werden mit einem Wort seine ganze Lebenseinrichtung bestimmen ...”[238]
G. Gerland holds that man developed from and upon nature, on which he is
very closely dependent and of which he is a small part, and that the
higher he rises the more he frees himself from the compelling influence
of the earth, which, however, he can never wholly escape.[239]
In the opinion of Herbert Spencer, the earlier stages of social
evolution are far more dependent on local conditions than the later
stages. They are more at the mercy of their surroundings.[240] Both
Spencer and Benjamin Kidd believe that primitive man is at the mercy of
the milieu.[241] The “remotely ancient representatives of the human
species ... were in their then wild state much more plastic than now to
external nature,” according to Wallace.[242] Historical and statistical
geography show us “die Menschen, wie sie in ihre aktive Rolle
eingetreten sind und durch Arbeit die Überlegenheit über das Milieu
gewinnen, das sie umgibt ... Nachdem der Mensch ganz den Einfluß des
Milieu über sich ergehen ließ, hat er denselben zu seinem Nutzen
umgestaltet ...”[243] The intimate connection of first civilizations
with physical environment slackens with subsequent advance.[244] This
apparently deep-rooted view is controverted by Ratzel who flatly
contradicts it. Distinguishing between the direct and the indirect
effects of milieu, he argues in straight opposition that with
progressing civilization we are increasingly dependent on environment,
that the degree of such dependence has not lessened with advancement in
civilization, and that only the manner of the relation has changed.[245]
Environment affects even the highest civilization, says Ripley.[246] G.
Elliot Smith maintains that “Environment, however it may act, whether
directly or indirectly, is still helping to shape the human form, and is
affecting the development of Man’s customs and achievements at least as
powerfully as, if not more so than, ever before.”[247]
_Society and Physical Milieu_
The social evolution proceeds amidst the entire system of exterior
conditions (chemical, physical, astronomical), by which its rate of
progress is determined. Social phenomena can no more be understood apart
from their environment than those of individual life.[248] The study of
social evolution presupposes a relation to the physical milieu: “Das
Studium der sozialen Entwicklung setzt eine Beziehung zwischen der
Menschheit, welche den Vorgang vollführt, und der Gesamtheit der äußeren
Einflüsse voraus, welche letztere man auch die sogenannte Umgebung
heißen könnte.”[249]
John Stuart Mill asserts that “All phenomena of society are phenomena of
human nature, generated by the action of outward circumstances upon
masses of human beings.”[250]
To Schäffle, in the analysis of the structure and functions of human
society there exist as influential factors the external surroundings, on
the one hand, and the active elements of the social body (the individual
and the population), on the other; for, as Schäffle emphasizes, not only
economics, but all social science must take into consideration not only
Society, but also Nature, _i.e._, the natural fund or stock, designated
by soil and climate, of the immediate world-surroundings of the social
body as the external sphere embracing societary life, and that, not only
as a sum total of free possessions, but also as a multiplicity of free,
_i.e._, unsubjugated resistances.[251]
As “the result of a survey of social organizations, considered as
machinery in motion, [Hermann] Post[252] points out very justly that it
is useless to attempt to explain social phenomena on the basis of the
psychological activities of individuals, as is too commonly assumed,
because all individuals whose conduct we can possibly observe have
themselves been educated in some society or other, and presume in all
their social acts the assumptions on which that society itself
proceeds.... It [Post’s method] is the same method, of course, which had
already yielded such remarkable results to Montesquieu, and even to
Locke. The point of view is no longer that of a Maine or a McLennan....
It is that of a spectator of human society as a whole.... And its
immediate outcome has been to throw into the strongest possible relief
the dependence of the form and, still more, of the actual content of all
human societies on something which is not in the human mind at all, but
is the infinite variety of that external Nature which Society exists to
fend off from Man, and also to let Man dominate if he can.”[253]
_Government, War, Progress, and Climate_
James Bryce “has recently clearly set forth the climatic control of
government in an essay on ‘British Experience in the Government of
Colonies’ (_Century_, March, 1899, 718–729).”[254] Vallaux, however, is
sceptical as to the influence of physical environment upon the
State.[255] William Ridgeway avers that political and legal institutions
are the result of environment.[256]
Far-reaching and weighty historical consequences “have followed from
special conditions of climate or weather. Maguire’s ‘Outlines of
Military Geography’ (Cambridge, 1899) contains a chapter on the
influence of climate on military operations, but this subject has
hitherto received little attention. More recently, Bentley, in a
presidential address before the Royal Meteorological Society, London,
considered the matter.”[257] Still more recently, the relation of
climate or weather to war has been scrutinized, among others, by F.
Lampe in “Der erdkundliche Unterricht,”[258] by Otto Baschin in “Der
Krieg und das Wetter,”[259] and by E. Alt in “Krieg und Witterung.”[260]
Hellwald, “the well-known traveller and geographer,” compiled his
“History of Civilization in its Natural Development” in 1874, according
to the findings of which, cultural development is “a natural process,
conditioned by race, geography, and climate. Civilisation means the
mastering of nature and the taming of man.... Hellwald’s standpoint is
shared, though less aggressively displayed by Henne-am-Rhyn.”[261]
To the late meteorologist Cleveland Abbe, “Everything seems to combine
to prove that the existing order of events both material and
intellectual has been brought about by a slow process of change, due to
the interaction of the atoms and masses that constitute the material
world around us.”[262]
The great diversity of existent civilizations, declares Auguste
Matteuzzi, is due to the diversity of the milieus where they developed.
In order to discover why any civilization becomes more heterogeneous and
more perfect, one must study the geographic milieu where it evolved. The
organic and inorganic milieu of evolving ethnic groups constrains human
societies to an incessant process of adaptation, and these societies in
their turn react upon the milieu and modify it.[263]
In short, says Auguste Comte, “all human progress, political, moral, or
intellectual, is inseparable from material progression, in virtue of the
close interconnection which, as we have seen, characterizes the natural
course of social phenomena.”[264]
That civilization is a result of adaptation to environment, physical as
well as political, is the view entertained by Bryce, Strachey, and
Geikie.[265]
_Climate and Man’s Characteristics_
There are “certain broad, distinguishing characteristics of man in the
temperate and tropical zones, in determining which it is reasonable to
believe that climate has played a part. Similarly, there has been a
natural tendency to attribute certain differences between northerners
and southerners in the temperate zones to a difference in climate....
These national differences are proverbial between northern and southern
Germans, French, Spanish, Russians, Italians, Arabs, and other peoples.
The influence of climate has likewise been traced in the sad, even
pessimistic tone of much of the northern literature, and in the gravity
and melancholy of modern northern music, as well as of the older
northern folk-songs ... even racial distinctions are more or less
directly traceable, in many instances, to climate.... Sir Archibald
Geikie, in his _Scottish Reminiscences_, has emphasized the climatic
influence in producing the grim character of the Scot....”[266]
Tacitus, in the 29th chapter of the _Germania_, assures us that the soil
and climate of the land of the Mattiaci caused them to be more bellicose
than their neighbors.[267]
Daudet, “who has written an entire novel (‘Numa Roumestan’) to depict
the great influence of the climate of southern Europe upon conduct,
says: ‘The Southerner does not love strong drinks; he is intoxicated by
nature. Sun and wind distil in him a terrible natural alcohol to whose
influence every one born under this sky is subject. Some have only the
mild fever which sets their speech and gesture free, redoubles their
audacity, makes everything seem rosy-hued, and drives them on to
boasting; others live in a blind delirium. And what Southerner has not
felt the sudden giving way, the exhaustion of his whole being, that
follows an outburst of rage or enthusiasm?’”[268]
Draper “emphasized the important historical consequences of the
difference in the characteristics of northerners and southerners in the
United States, which he attributed largely to climate, and which found
expression in the Civil War.... The Boers in Africa have developed along
lines different from those of the Dutch in the United States.”[269]
_Man’s Intellect and Physical Environment_
Auguste Comte, who “was very slightly affected by German thought,” and
who, in early youth, came under the influence of the philosophy that had
become prevalent in France before the Revolution, “read the works of
most of its leading representatives. He accepted its cardinal principle
that ‘thought depends on sense, or, more broadly, on the
environment.’”[270]
Adolf Bastian worked unceasingly “among the conceptions of the
Naturvölker—the ‘cryptograms of mankind,’ as he called them—...,
demonstrating first the surprising uniformity of outlook on the part of
the more primitive peoples, and secondly the correlation of differences
of conceptions with differences in material surroundings, varying with
geographical conditions. This second doctrine he elaborated in his _Zur
Lehre von den geographischen Provinzen_, in 1886.”[271]
Physiology and statistics “show that most human functions are subject to
the influence of heat (Lombroso, ‘Pensiero e Meteore,’ Milan, 1878). It
is to be expected, then, that excessive heat will have its effect upon
the human mind.”[272]
The physiographer, “... looking back over the history of life upon the
earth’s surface, ... is forced to the conclusion that its highest estate
embodied in the moral and intellectual qualities of man has been, in the
main, secured by the geographic variations which have slowly developed
through the geological ages.”[273]
Benno Erdmann, in his “Gedächtnisrede auf Wilhelm Dilthey,” observes
that in ripe old age Dilthey in the last of his larger works declared
that man finds himself determined by the physical world in which mental
occurrences appear only as interpolations.[274]
_Religion and Physical Milieu_
As physical characteristics “are in the main the result of environment,
social institutions and religious ideas are no less the product of that
environment.... We might just as well ask the Ethiopian to change his
skin as to change radically his social and religious ideas. It has been
shown by experience that Christianity can make but little headway
amongst many peoples in Africa or Asia, where on the other hand
Muhammadanism has made and is steadily making progress, ... This is
probably due to the fact that Muhammadanism is a religion evolved ... in
latitudes bordering on the aboriginal races of Africa and Asia, and that
it is far more akin in its social ideas to those of the Negro or Malay
than are those of Christianity, ...”[275]
Ernest Renan “points out that the desert is monotheistic, its uniformity
suggesting a belief in the unity of God.... In his _Seas and Skies in
Many Latitudes_ (London, 1888, pp. 42–43), Abercromby gives two maps,
showing respectively the areas of Mohammedanism and the districts in
Asia and Africa with a mean annual rainfall of less than ten inches. The
maps are strikingly similar. The author adds: ‘Whether this distribution
of a great creed is the result of chance, or of some deep connection
between the tenets of that religion and climatic influences, I can not
say;—but still the relation is so remarkable that I have thought it well
to bring the matter forward.’”[276]
_Climate and Conduct_
The “frequent and sudden weather changes of the temperate zones affect
man in many ways, as do the larger seasonal changes. The relations
between weather and conduct have frequently been investigated. Professor
E. G. Dexter has made an extended empirical study of the effects of the
weather ... Bertillon has collected data on suicides and seasons in
France, ...”[277] Dexter studies empirically by means of
statistics—plotting certain curves—the relation between temperature,
barometric pressure, humidity, wind, character of the day,
precipitation, on the one hand, and the child in school—work,
deportment, attendance—, crime, insanity, health—sickness and death—,
suicide, drunkenness, attention—errors in calculation made by clerks in
banks—, on the other.[278] Of his general conclusions[279] the first is:
“Varying meteorological conditions affect directly, though in different
ways, the metabolism of life”; the second: “The ‘reserve energy’ capable
of being utilized for intellectual processes and activities other than
those of the vital organs is affected [_effected_, in the original] most
by meteorological changes”; the third: “The quality of the emotional
state is plainly influenced by the weather states”; the fourth:
“Although meteorological conditions affect the emotional states, which
without doubt have weight in the determination of conduct in its
broadest sense, it would seem that their effects upon that portion of
the reserve energy which is available for action are of the greatest
import.”[280]
The nervous effects of the weather including cyclonic winds have also
been noted. Among the Eskimos, “Marriages take place at an early age,
especially among the women, and the return of the sun after the long
winter has a stimulating effect on the animal passions which leads to
sexual excesses of all kinds.”[281]
Albert Leffingwell investigates _The Influence of Seasons Upon
Conduct_[282] in Great Britain and elsewhere. He formulates the
underlying assumption of his inquiry in the following manner: “It is not
a new theory, though I propose to carry it somewhat further than it has
been pushed hitherto. Over half a century ago, Quetelet in his great
work “On Man,” suggested the hypothesis.... The hypothesis toward which
all the facts point is simply this: that upon the nervous organization
of human bodies (perhaps specially upon dwellers in the temperate zones)
there is exerted during the procession of the seasons, from winter’s
close till midsummer, some undefined, specific influence, which in some
manner tends to increase the excitability of emotion and passion, and
thus also to increase all actions arising therefrom.”[283] To mention
only one of Leffingwell’s illustrations, he brings together in a
statistical table the total number of all crimes against persons in
England for ten years (1878–87), the same facts for Ireland during the
same decade, and for France during forty years (1830–69), and in
conjunction therewith says: “Here, again, we find that all crimes, even
those arising from personal antipathy or hatred, seem specially
prevalent in the warmer half of the year. In England, 55 per cent of all
such acts of violence during the ten years 1878–1887 happened in spring
and summer, and in France during a period of forty years the average was
the same. Ireland, indeed, shows a more even distribution of such
crimes; but the tendency is seen even there.”[284]
Cesare Lombroso, who is claimed to be the first to have essayed to
portray the effect of physical environment on the human psyche,[285]
states in his _Criminal Man_,[286] referring to Ferri and Holzendorf,
that with high temperature there is an increase in crimes of violence,
while low temperature has the effect of increasing the number of crimes
against property. In “comparing statistics of criminality in France with
those of the variations in temperature, Ferri noted an increase in
crimes of violence during the warmer years.”[287]
Lombroso, in his _Crime, Its Causes and Remedies_,[288] citing the
conclusions of the relevant statistical evidence, establishes that in
England and France and Italy the crimes of rape and of murder occur in
greatest number in the hottest months; that the maximum number of all
rebellions in the whole world between 1791 and 1880 falls everywhere in
the hottest month, while its minimum number comes in the coldest months;
and that crimes against property markedly increase in the winter.[289]
In the southern parts of Italy and France “there occur many more crimes
against persons than in the central and northern portions.... Guerry has
shown that crimes against persons are twice as numerous in southern
France (4.9) as in central and northern France (2.7 and 2.9). _Vice
versa_, crimes against property are more frequent in the north (4.9),
than in the central and southern regions (2.3).”[290] According to
Buckle,[291] climate makes men’s habits regular or irregular.
_Climatic Control of Food and Drink_
William Ridgeway, summarizing his argument in “The Application of
Zoölogical Laws to Man,”[292] says: “We have seen that environment is a
powerful factor in the differentiation of the various races of man,
alike in physique, institutions, and religion. It is probable that the
food supply at hand in each region may be an important element in these
variations, whilst the nature of the food and drink preferred there may
itself be due in no small degree to climatic conditions.... The
aboriginal of the tropics is distinctly a vegetarian, whilst the Eskimo
within the arctic circle is practically wholly carnivorous. In each case
the taste is almost certainly due to the necessities of their
environment.... It is probable that the more northward man advanced the
more carnivorous he became in order to support the rigours of the
northern climate. The same holds equally true in the case of drink....
All across Northern Europe and Asia there is a universal love of strong
drink, which is not the mere outcome of vicious desires, but of climatic
law.... This view derives additional support from the well-authenticated
fact that one of the chief characteristics of the descendants of British
settlers in Australia is their strong teetotalism. This cannot be set
down to their having a higher moral standard than their ancestors, but
rather, as in the case of Spaniards and Italians (temperance reformers
point to the sobriety of the Spaniards, Italians, and other South
Europeans), to the circumstance that they live in a country much warmer
and drier than the British Isles. We must therefore, no matter how
reluctantly, come to the conclusion that no attempt to eradicate this
tendency to alcohol in these latitudes can be successful....”[293]
-----
Footnote 83:
This paper will carry the discussion through anthropo-geography.
Footnote 84:
The whole question, including Herder’s own idea thereof and his
indebtedness to preceding authors, both German and foreign, as well as
his influence upon succeeding writers at home and abroad, his relation
to his contemporaries, etc., will be essayed more fully in a series of
papers, to be published soon, dealing with “Herder’s Conception of
Milieu,” “Herder’s Relations to France,” “Herder’s Relations to
England,” and “Herder in His Own Milieu.”
Footnote 85:
The term “anthropo-geography” derives from the title of Fr. Ratzel’s
main work.—“... le domaine si intéressant, mais à peine défriché, de
l’_anthropogéographie_, semble avoir acquis à ce mot le droit de cité
dans le langage scientifique.”—L. Metchnikoff, _La Civilisation et Les
Grands Fleuves Historiques_ (Paris, 1889), p. 70 and n.—In England,
and in America, it is commonly called human geography, after the
French “la géographie humaine.” Various names have been proposed for
this subject. See also W. Z. Ripley, “Geography and Sociology.” The
Viennese Erwin Hanslick, I believe, denominates it “Kulturgeographie.”
Footnote 86:
Walther May, “Herders Anschauung der organischen Natur,” _Archiv f. d.
Geschichte der Naturwissenschaften u. d. Technik_, etc., Leipzig, Bd.
4 (1913, S. 8–39, 89–113), p. 91.
Footnote 87:
_Ferd. v. Richthofen’s Vorlesungen üb. Allgem. Siedlungs- u.
Verkehrsgeographie_, bearb. u. hg. v. O. Schlüter (Berlin, 1908), p.
11.
Footnote 88:
“... Ritter selbst hat keine methodische Darstellung, kein Lehrgebäude
gegeben; sondern nur Andeutungen, die anregend sind. Daher blieb
Ritters Grundidee fast ohne Einfluß auf die Geographie; nur die
Historiker haben sie sich angeeignet und haben seitdem größeres
Gewicht auf die Landesnatur gelegt.”—_Ibid._, p. 11.
Footnote 89:
_Cosmos, a Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe_,
translated by E. C. Otté (5 vols., New York: Harper, 1875–77), p. 48.
Footnote 90:
_Die Erdkunde im Verhältnis zur Natur und zur Geschichte des Menschen
oder eine allgemeine, vergleichende Geographie_ was published in two
volumes at Berlin in 1817–18; the second edition, completely revised,
appeared in nineteen volumes from 1822 to 1859, the year of his death.
Neither edition is finished; the second deals only with Africa (vol.
1) and Asia (vols. 2–19).
Footnote 91:
_Die Naturkunde_, etc.—See Th. Achelis, _Moderne Völkerkunde_
(Stuttgart, 1896), p. 71.
Footnote 92:
_Ibid._, see Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 72 f.
Footnote 93:
In Felix Lampe’s book, _Große Geographen, Bilder aus der Geschichte
der Erdkunde_ (Leipzig u. Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1915, 288 S. [Band 28
der v. B. Schmid in Zwickau herausgegebenen “Naturwissenschaftlichen
Bibliothek”]), neither the chapter on Ritter (pp. 227–33), nor that on
“Die wissenschaftliche Geographie der Gegenwart” (pp. 281–87) is very
full.
Footnote 94:
Stuttgart & Tübingen, 1808.
Footnote 95:
_Views of Nature_ (London, 1850), Author’s Preface, p. X.
Footnote 96:
p. 382. See Achelis, _Moderne Völkerkunde_, pp. 88 f.—The relation of
man to environment is also referred to in _Cosmos_ (English
translation by Otté), I, pp. 351–9.—_Kosmos_ was originally published
as follows: vols. 1 and 2 in 1845–7; vols. 3 and 4 in 1850–8; vol. 5
in 1862.
Footnote 97:
Leipzig, 1841.
Footnote 98:
Kohl, _Der Verkehr_, etc., p. 111. See Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 80 f.
Footnote 99:
Ibid.
Footnote 100:
Kohl, _l.c._, p. 537. See Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 81 f.
Footnote 101:
Kohl, _Ibid._,—See Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 82 f.—The manifold influences
of nature are also exemplified in Kohl’s _Die geographische Lage der
Hauptstädte Europas_, 1874, and _L. Felix, Der Einfluß der Natur auf
die Entwicklung des Eigentums_, 1893.
Footnote 102:
_Über den Einfluß der äußeren Natur auf die sozialen Verhältnisse der
einzelnen Völker und die Geschichte der Menschheit überhaupt, 1848_;
later published in _Studien aus dem Gebiete der Naturwissenschaft_, I,
1876.
Footnote 103:
_Deutschlands Boden, sein geologischer Bau und dessen Einwirkungen auf
das Leben der Menschen_, 2 Bde., Leipzig, 1854.
Footnote 104:
501 pp., Breslau: F. Hirt, 1855.
Footnote 105:
Kutzen himself says in the _Vorwort_ that he “leans on” Cotta; he
cites the latter, for instance, on p. 466.
Footnote 106:
_Die Naturgeschichte des Volkes als Grundlage einer deutschen
Sozialpolitik_, vol. 1 (11th ed., Stuttgart: Cotta, 1908): Land und
Leute.
Footnote 107:
_Vide_ the first Preface, written in 1853, to volume one, pp. VI-VII.
Footnote 108:
_Die Naturgeschichte_, etc., I, p. 42.
Footnote 109:
_Ibid._, Vorwort zur achten Auflage, 1883, p. X.
Footnote 110:
_Die Naturgeschichte, etc., Vierter Band, “Wanderbuch,” als zweiter
Teil zu “Land und Leute.”_ Vierte Aufl., 1903, p. 32.
Footnote 111:
G. P. Gooch, _History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century_
(London & N. Y.; Longmans, Green & Co., 1913), p. 576.
Footnote 112:
Gooch, _ibid._, p. 575.
Footnote 113:
For Riehl’s view of milieu in a scheme of sciences, cf. _Die
Naturgeschichte_, etc., I, pp. 40–2.
Footnote 114:
164 pp., Meyers Volksbücher, Leipzig u. Wien: Bibliographisches
Institut, _s.a._—This essay forms the second chapter in Hans Meyer’s
_Das deutsche Volkstum_ (2. Aufl., 1903), pp. 41–122.
Footnote 115:
_Moderne Völkerkunde_, p. 81, n.
Footnote 116:
2. Aufl., 1905 (_Aus Natur und Geisteswelt_, 31. Bändchen, Leipzig: B.
G. Teubner), 127 pp.—It has been translated into English under the
title _Man and Earth_ (London & N. Y., 1906. Reprinted 1914, 223 pp.)
by A. S. “from the second amended German edition,” in which are
intercalated two chapters: Chapter V, on _The British Isles and
Britons_, by the author; and Chapter VI, on _America and the
Americans_, by the translator.—The first four chapters of a general
nature—features of the globe, sea, steppes and deserts, in their
influence on civilization, the influence of man on landscape—are
followed by four chapters on _The British Isles and Britons, America
and the Americans, Germany and the Germans, China and the Chinese_.
Footnote 117:
_Vorlesungen_, etc., delivered at Berlin in 1891 and 1897/8.
Footnote 118:
“... Es ist mehr unsere Aufgabe gewesen, in dem großen Getriebe der
Siedlung und des Verkehrs der _allmählichen Entwicklung_ nachzugehen,
das steigende Maß der Überwindung von Widerständen durch den Menschen
zu zeigen, die Kräfte zu untersuchen, welche in der Entwicklung
wirksam sind,—als bei der großen Fülle des Tatsächlichen der heutigen
Zeit zu verweilen.” _Vorlesungen_, p. 351.
Footnote 119:
It will be noted that Herder is not mentioned here.
Footnote 120:
Ellen C. Semple, _Influences of Geographic Environment_ (N. Y., 1911),
p. V.
Footnote 121:
“In Germany the exponents of these theories [of environmental
influence] were Cotta and Kohl, and later Peschel, Kirchhof, Bastian,
and Gerland; but the greatest name of all is that of Fr. Ratzel, who
has written the standard work on _Anthropogeographie_.”—Haddon and
Quiggin, _Hist. of Anthropology_ (London, 1910), p. 152.—The first
vol. of Ratzel’s _Anthropogeographie_ was published in 1882, 2nd ed.
in 1899, the second vol. in 1897.
Footnote 122:
As further illustration, it might be instructive to compare here the
chapter headings of Semple’s _Influences of Geographic Environment_,
which book was written “On the Basis of Ratzel’s System of
Anthropo-geography.” They are as follows: I—Operation of Geographic
Factors in History (1–31); II—Classes of Geographic Influences
(22–50); III—Society and State in Relation to the Land (51–73);
IV—Movements of Peoples in Their Geographical Significance (74–128);
V—Geographical Location (129–67); VI—Geographical Area (168–203);
VII—Geographical Boundaries (204–41); VIII—Coast Peoples (242–91);
IX—Oceans and Enclosed Seas (292–317); X—Man’s Relation to the Water
(318–35); XI—The Anthropo-geography of Rivers (336–80); XII—Continents
and Their Peninsulas (380–408); XIII—Island Peoples (409–72);
XIV—Plains, Steppes and Deserts (473–523); XV—Mountain Barriers and
Their Passes (524–56); XVI—Influences of a Mountain Environment
(557–606); XVII—The Influences of Climate upon Man (607–37).
Footnote 123:
_Richthofen’s Vorlesungen_, p. 13.
Footnote 124:
1897; 2. Aufl. 1903.
Footnote 125:
“Diese [die enge Erdgebundenheit] in ihrer ganzen tiefgreifenden
Bedeutung für das staatliche Leben erkannt und dargelegt zu haben,
bleibt freilich für immer ein großes Verdienst der ‘Politischen
Geographie’ ...”—O. Schlüter, “Die leitenden Gesichtspunkte d.
Anthropogeogr.,” _Arch. f. Sozialwiss._, Bd. IV, p. 620.
Footnote 126:
_Vide_ Richthofen, _l.c._, p. 12.
Footnote 127:
2 vols., München, 1893; see vol. 2, 2nd ed.: _Politische Geographie
der Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika, unter besonderer Berücksichtigung
der natürlichen Bedingungen u. wirtschaftlichen Verhältnisse_ (763
pp.), esp. pp. 1–176.
Footnote 128:
London, 1896 (this is a translation of his _Völkerkunde_, 1887/8), cf.
the opening pp. of vol. 1.
Footnote 129:
In Helmolt, _The History of the World_ (N. Y., 1902), vol. 1, pp.
62–103, where Ratzel discusses in turn The Coherence of Countries, The
Relation of Man to the Collective Life of the Earth, Races and States
as Organisms, Historical Movement, Natural Regions, Climate and
Location, Geographical Situation, Area, Population, The Water-Oceans,
Seas, and Rivers, Conformation of the Earth’s Surface.
Footnote 130:
London & N. Y.: Longmans, 1915.
Footnote 131:
See _The Nation_, N. Y., March 18, 1915, p. 310.
Footnote 132:
Paris, 1911, 420 pp.
Footnote 133:
Semple, _l.c._, p. VI; cf. also Ratzel, _Anthropogeogr._, I,^2 p. XII.
Footnote 134:
_Archiv f. Sozialwissenschaft_, Bd. IV (1906), pp. 581–630.
Footnote 135:
For Ratzel, cf. also Paul Barth, _Die Philosophie der Geschichte als
Soziologie_, I (Leipzig: Reisland, 1897), pp. 227–30; Jean Brunhes,
_La Géographie Humaine_, 2^e éd. (Paris: Alcan, 1912), pp. 39–47.
Footnote 136:
Buckle, History of Civilization (1867), p. 32 n.
Footnote 137:
Robertson, _Buckle and his Critics_ (London, 1895), p. 8 n.
Footnote 138:
4. vols., 1822–3.
Footnote 139:
Flint, _l.c._, pp. 577–9. See also p. 576.
Footnote 140:
_Vide supra_ my note no. 84.
Footnote 141:
Flint, _l.c._, p. 467.
Footnote 142:
_The History of Civilization from the Fall of the Roman Empire to the
French Revolution_ (4 vols., translated by Wm. Hazlitt, N. Y.: D.
Appleton & Co., 1867—the lectures were delivered in the years 1828,
1829, and 1830), vol. 2, pp. 109 f.
Footnote 143:
“Gothein had attracted attention by a study of the civilisation of
Southern Italy, which he had traversed on foot as Riehl had traversed
the Palatinate.”—Gooch, _l.c._, p. 587.
Footnote 144:
“Voila pourquoi il [Michelet] va en Italie avant d’écrire son
_Histoire Romaine_; il veut avoir l’impression, le contact du sol, du
climat, du paysage.”—Lanson, _Hist. de la Litt. Franç._ (1912), p.
1021 n.
Footnote 145:
Abry-Audic-Crouzet, _Littérature Française_ (3^e éd., Paris, 1916), p.
580.
Footnote 146:
Jules Simon, _Mignet, Michelet, Henri Martin_ (Paris, 1890), p. 191.
Footnote 147:
Flint, _l.c._, p. 540.
Footnote 148:
_Philos. Erdk. als wissenschaftliche Darstellung der Erdverhältnisse
u. des Menschenlebens nach ihrem inneren Zusammenhange_, 2 vols.,
Braunschweig, 1845; the 2nd ed. appeared in 1868 under the title
_Allgemeine Vergleichende Erdkunde_.—This book holds a high place in
Ratzel’s estimation: “Kapp, dessen Philos. Erdk. eine tiefgedachte,
von überragendem philosophischem Standpunkte aus gewonnene Übersicht
der Naturbedingtheit des Geschichtsverlaufes in den größten Zügen
entrollt, ...”—Ratzel, _Anthropogeographie_, I^2, p. 34.
Footnote 149:
See Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 76 f.
Footnote 150:
Brunhes, _l.c._, p. 38 n.
Footnote 151:
Boston, 1849—It has been translated into English under the title _The
Earth and man, or Physical geography in its relation to the history of
mankind, Slightly abridged, etc._ (London: Parker, 1852), and into
German as _Grundzüge der vergleichenden physikalischen Erdkunde in
ihrer Beziehung zur Geschichte des Menschen_ (1851).
Footnote 152:
(N. Y.: D. Appleton & Co., 1867—first published in 1857–61), vol. I,
pp. 29–106: Influence exercised by physical laws over the organization
of society and over the character of individuals.
Footnote 153:
_Buckle and his Critics_, London, 1895, 548 pp.
Footnote 154:
Camille Vallaux, _Géographie Sociale_ (Paris, 1911), p. 23.
Footnote 155:
_Vide supra_, p. 46 f.
Footnote 156:
_Anthropogeographie_, I^2, p. 87.
Footnote 157:
The German original appeared in 1857–67, and the English translation
by A. W. Ward in 1868–73.
Footnote 158:
New York: Scribner, vol. I (1871), pp. 9–46; cf. esp. pp. 9–25, 34,
37.
Footnote 159:
_Boden und Klima von Athen. Rede in der öffentlichen Sitzung_ [_der
Kgl. Akademie der Wissenschaften_] _am Leibniztage 5. Juli 1877_ (15
pp.).
Footnote 160:
For the same, cf. also H. Koester “Über den Einfluß landschaftlicher
Verhältnisse auf die Entwicklung des attischen Volkscharakters”
(Progr., Saarbrücken, 1898).
Footnote 161:
E.g. by Ratzel, jointly with Curtius’ account thereof. Cf.
_Anthropogeogr._, I^2, p. 37.
Footnote 162:
In 12 vols., vol. II (London: John Murray, 1869), Part II, ch. I, pp.
213–37.
Footnote 163:
Political effects of locality: strengthened defense; difficulty of
attack; politically disunited; indefinite multiplication of
self-governing cities.
Footnote 164:
Intellectual effects of locality: the geographical position made them
mountaineers and mariners; variety of experience; each petty community
possessed an individual life, yet sympathized with the remainder;
commerce with a great diversity of half-country-men; Grecian
festivals; Homer dependent upon the conditions of his age.
Footnote 165:
Oxford, Clarendon Press (1911, 454 pp.), pp. 13–64. “It is now
generally admitted that neither an individual nor a nation can be
properly understood without a knowledge of their surroundings and
means of support—in other words, of their geographical and economic
conditions.”—_Ibid._, Preface, p. 5.
Footnote 166:
Zimmern refers in this book—_e.g._ p. 18, 41, 43, _et al._—to the
writings of Myres: “Greek Lands and the Greek People,” “Herodotus and
Anthropology” (in “Anthropology and the Classics”), and “The
Geographical Aspect of Greek Colonization” (in _Proceedings of the
Classical Association_, vol. VIII—1911).—Cf. also H. Dondorff, _Das
hellenische Land als Schauplatz der althellenischen Geschichte, in
Sammlung gemeinverständlicher wissenschaftlicher Vorträge, begründet
von Virchow u. Holtzendorf_, 1889, Neue Folge, Serie 3, Heft 72.
Footnote 167:
Revised ed., in 2 vols. (N. Y.: Harper & Brothers, 1876). The Preface
of the first ed. is dated 1861.
Footnote 168:
Heinrich Boehmer, _Geschichte der Entwicklung der
naturwissenschaftlichen Weltanschauung in Deutschland_ (Gotha, 1872,
232 pp.), p. 195: “... Herdersche Ideen waren leitend für den Aufbau
der Geschichte.”
Footnote 169:
Leipzig, 1878–86.
Footnote 170:
Cited by Achelis, _l.c._, p. 84.
Footnote 171:
_Ibid._, pp. 85 f.
Footnote 172:
_Ibid._, p. 86.
Footnote 173:
“... Indessen darf man nicht vergessen, daß die allgemeine Gestalt der
Kontinente und der Meere und aller besonderer Züge der Erde in der
Geschichte der Menschheit einen wesentlich wechselnden Wert besitzen,
je nach dem Stande der Kultur, auf welchem die Nationen angelangt sind
...”—_Ibid._
Footnote 174:
_Ibid._, p. 87.
Footnote 175:
Paris, 1886.
Footnote 176:
_Vide_ P. Barth, _Die Philosophie der Geschichte als Soziologie_
(Leipzig, 1897), p. 230.
Footnote 177:
See Barth, _l.c._, pp. 231 f.
Footnote 178:
_Ibid._, p. 233.—Mougeoulle makes the milieu account for the great men
in history, the great popular epics, social and historical life in
general; the tendencies of the three historical schools—German,
French, and English—are connected with the differences in the milieus
of their respective countries.—Cf. _ibid._, pp. 230–2.
Footnote 179:
_Avec une Préface de M. Élisée Réclus_ (Paris: Hachette, 1889, 369
pp.), pp. 53–71.
Footnote 180:
_Ibid._, p. 156; 130.
Footnote 181:
_Ibid._, p. 154; 157 f.
Footnote 182:
_Ibid._, p. 278; 190 ff.; 188; 135.—But why does he confine himself to
these four countries?
Footnote 183:
_Ibid._, p. 185; 364. For a general statement on the significance of
rivers, cf. _ibid._, pp. 188–90. The particular nature of the rivers
of the “territoire des civilisations fluviales” imposed on the
inhabitants the yoke of despotism.—_Ibid._, p. 161.
Footnote 184:
_Ibid._, pp. 364 f.
Footnote 185:
_Ibid._, p. 364.
Footnote 186:
_Ibid._, _e.g._, p. 128; 224–27.
Footnote 187:
His general theory is stated on pp. 39–42, 53–71, 79 f., 89, 99 f.,
102–60. Chapter 7, pp. 161–90, is a general discussion of the
geographical environment of the “Civilisations Fluviales,” followed
successively by a detailed treatment of “Le Nil” (ch. 8, pp. 191–234),
of “Le Tigre et L’Euphrate” (ch. 9, pp. 235–78), of “L’Indus et Le
Gange” (ch. 10, pp. 279–319), of “Le Hoang-Ho et Le Yangtse-Kiang”
(ch. 11, pp. 320–66).
Footnote 188:
W. D. Babington, _Fallacies of Race Theories as Applied to National
Characteristics_ (Longmans, Green & Co., 1895).
Footnote 189:
N. Y., Scribner, 1893, 290 pp.
Footnote 190:
For the rôle of the physical milieu in American history, cf. also:
Justin Winsor, _The Mississippi Basin, The Struggle in America between
England and France: 1697–1763_ (Boston & N. Y., 1898) [influence of
geography over history during colonization and settlement]; Frederick
Jackson Turner, _Rise of the New West_: 1819–1829 (N. Y. & London:
Harper & Brothers, 1906) [vol. 14 of _The American Nation, A History_,
ed. by A. B. Hart, in 27 vols. In the Author’s Preface, p. XVII,
Turner remarks: “In the present volume I have kept before myself the
importance of regarding American development as the outcome of
economic and social as well as political forces.” And, he should have
added, of geographical environment. _Vide_ especially the first half
of his book for the working out of his milieu idea]; James Bryce, _The
American Commonwealth_, (2 vols., new ed., completely revised, N. Y.:
Macmillan, 1910–11) [see vol. 2, ch. 91 (pp. 449–68), “The home of the
nation,” for a statement of the influence of physical conditions on
American history]; E. C. Semple, _American History and Its Geographic
Conditions_ (Boston & N. Y.: Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1903, 435 pp.)
[regarded, I believe, as one of the best treatises on the subject]; A.
P. Brigham, _Geographic Influences in American History_ (Boston: Ginn,
1903, 355 pp.) [a concrete essay; has much physiography; includes
present conditions]; A. M. Simons, _Social Forces in American History_
(N. Y.: Macmillan, 1914, 325 pp.) [a discussion of the effect of the
industrial and economic environment on social institutions in
America]; perhaps it may be added here that some American universities
offer a course on the relation of geography to American history.
Footnote 191:
See Ripley, “Geography and Sociology” (1895), p. 637; and Ripley, _The
Races of Europe_ (1899), pp. 4 ff.; for titles of their writings on
this subject, cf. _ibid._, pp. 4–6 nn., and “Geogr. and Soc.,” pp. 654
f.
Footnote 192:
8 vols., N. Y., Dodd, Mead & Co., 1902–7.
Footnote 193:
See Bryce’s article in Helmolt’s _Hist. of the World_, vol. 1, p. XL.
Footnote 194:
“Anderseits wieder hat ja Helmolt in seinem geschichtlichen
Sammelwerke im Geiste Ratzels den Versuch gemacht, ein
Gesamtgeschichtsbild auf geographischer Grundlage aufzubauen, so daß
kein Teil der Ökumene aus der Weltgeschichte ausgeschlossen
bleibt.”—L. Gumplowicz, Der _Rassenkampf_ (2 .... Aufl., 1909), p. 403
(Anhang).
Footnote 195:
“... die bisherigen Weltgeschichten waren gar keine Geschichte der
Welt oder auch nur unserer Welt, sondern einzig eine solche der
Kulturnationen. Mit dieser Gepflogenheit hat Helmolts Werk in
ebenso glücklicher wie origineller Weise gebrochen, indem es zum
ersten Male die Länder- und Völkerkunde in den Dienst der
Weltgeschichtsdarstellung hineinzog.”—From a review of the first
ed. of _Helmolts Weltgeschichte_ (1899) in the “Braunschweigische
Landeßeitung” (February 4, 1908), quoted in the prospectus of the
second German edition.
Footnote 196:
_History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century_ (London, 1913).
Footnote 197:
Second ed., Oxford, The Clarendon Press, 1903, 288 pp.
Footnote 198:
George, _l.c._, p. V (Preface).
Footnote 199:
_Ibid._, pp. 111 f.—George cites no authorities or sources; he has no
bibliography; he does not quote a single book in his discussion; he
has no _Auseinandersetzung_ with his predecessors in the field; and
finally, he gives no clue as to the origin of his data.—Chaps. 1–8
(pp. 1–110) are the general part of the book; chaps. 9–20 (pp.
111–282) deal with: The Outlines of Europe, The British Islands,
France, The Spanish Peninsula, Italy, The Alpine Passes, Switzerland,
The Rhineland, The Baltic Region, The Danube Basin, Theatres of
European War, The Mediterranean Basin.
Footnote 200:
A. W. Small, _General Sociology_ (Chicago, 1905), p. 53.
Footnote 201:
The distinguished Italian historian is the son-in-law of the late
eminent Italian criminologist Cesare Lombroso.
Footnote 202:
_Vide_ Jean Brunhes, _La Géographie Humaine_ (2^e éd., Paris, 1912),
p. 721.—For references to historical works dealing with history on a
geographical basis, cf. _ibid._ (1^e éd., Paris, 1910), ch. X, 1:
L’esprit géographique dans les sciences économiques, sociales et
historiques (pp. 739 ff., esp. 774 ff. [Michelet, Vidal de la Blache,
Th. Reinach, A. Leroy-Beaulieu, C. Jullian, A. Harnack, H. F. Helmolt,
G. Ferrero, E. C. Semple, Erwin Hanslick, & o.]).
Footnote 203:
_Die geographischen Grundlagen der österreichisch-ungarischen
Monarchie u. ihrer Außenpolitik_ (Leipzig u. Berlin: B. G. Teubner,
1915).
Footnote 204:
See the review of Sieger’s book by Edwin Rollett in the
_Österreichische Rundschau_, Bd. 43, H. 4 (15. Mai 1915), pp. 188 f.
Footnote 205:
Boston & N. Y., Houghton, Mifflin & Co., 1907.
Footnote 206:
Cf. esp. ch. 18 (pp. 359–85) for a summary of conclusions.
Footnote 207:
_Vide_ _e.g._ James Harvey Robinson’s _The New History, Essays
Illustrating the Modern Historical Outlook_ (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1912),
for references to the theory of milieu, cf. esp. p. 64, 73, 76 f., 92
f., 97 f., 124–6, 144, 145 f., 247, 253–7, and ch. 3 (pp. 70 ff.): The
new allies of history. Or take for choice the title of a recent book
by Charles A. Beard: _An Economic Interpretation of American Politics_
(Macmillan, 1916), to be further persuaded of the attention bestowed
by historians on the milieu. Or, see works by Seligman and J. T.
Shotwell.
Footnote 208:
_Vide_ C. Vallaux, _Géographie Sociale, Le Sol et L’État_ (Paris,
1911), p. 23.—Such economists as Blanqui, Bastiat, and J.—B. Say,
brought to light the geographical bases of the material life of
societies. The sociologists themselves, “bien que leur science soit
jeune, n’ont pas toujours oublié le cadre naturel et la position
terrestre des agrégats qu’ils étudient. Par tous ces chercheurs de
tendances diverses, la géographie humaine et la géographie politique
ont progressé tout autant que par les efforts des géographes
proprement dits.”—_Ibid._
Footnote 209:
E. Bernheim, _Lehrbuch der historischen Methode_ (5. u. 6. Aufl.,
Leipzig, 1908), p. 316; 636.—Cf. also E. Fr. Th. Lindner,
_Geschichtsphilosophie, das Wesen der geschichtlichen Entwicklung_ (2.
erweiterte u. umgearb. Aufl., Stuttg. u. Berlin: Cotta, 1904, 241
pp.), 2. Abschnitt (pp. 23–34): Die Veränderung, but more esp. 10.
Abschnitt (pp. 217–41): Die Ursachen u. die Weise der Entwicklung.
Footnote 210:
For orientation and literature on views opposing the naturalistic
interpretation of history, cf. L. Stein, _Philosophische Strömungen
der Gegenwart_ (Stuttgart, Verl. v. F. Enke, 1908), pp. 430 ff.
Footnote 211:
See G. P. Gooch, _History and Historians in the Nineteenth Century_
(London & N. Y.: Longmans, Green & Co., 1913), p. 573; see ch. 28 (pp.
573–94): “The History of Civilisation;” also _The Cambridge Modern
History_ [ed. by A. W. Ward and others, Cambridge: The Univ. Press,
1910], vol. 12: _The Latest Age_, ch. 26 (pp. 816 ff.: “The Growth of
Historical Science” by G. P. Gooch).
Footnote 212:
_Economic Geography_ (N. Y.: Macmillan, _s.a._—1915?—; not earlier
than 1910, for statistics for that year are given in the text; 560
pp.), p. 1.
Footnote 213:
“Since his [Buckle’s] time much more has been done, not only in
studying, as Buckle himself did, the immediate influence of climate
and soil, but also in explaining the allied field of the effect of the
fauna and the flora on social development. The subject of the
domestication of animals, for instance, and its profound effect on
human progress has not only been investigated by a number of recent
students [especially E. Hahn, _Die Haustiere u. ihre Beziehung zur
Wirtschaft des Menschen_, 1896], but has been made the very basis of
the explanation of early American civilization by one of the most
brilliant and most learned of recent historians [Payne, _History of
the New World called America_; esp. vol. 1, bk. II]. A Russian scholar
has shown in detail the connection between the great rivers and the
progress of humanity, and the whole modern study of economic geography
is but an expansion on broader lines of the same idea.”—Edwin R. A.
Seligman, _The Economic Interpretation of History_ (N. Y.: The
Columbia Univ. Press, 1902, 166 pp.), pp. 13 f.
Footnote 214:
See Wm. Morris Davis, _Geographical Essays_, ed. by D. W. Johnson
(Ginn & Co.: Boston, _s.a._, copyright 1909), esp. the first two
essays: “An inductive study of the content of geography” (1906), pp.
3–22, and “The progress of geography in the schools” (1902), pp.
23–69.
Footnote 215:
In an address delivered at the dedication of Julius Rosenwald Hall,
printed in _The University of Chicago Magazine_ (vol. VII, No.
6—April, 1915—, pp. 175–8) under the title “Some Matters of History.”
See p. 177.
Footnote 216:
Felix Lampe, in _Große Geographen_ (Leipzig, 1915), has a rather brief
chapter (pp. 281–7) on “Die wissenschaftliche Geographie der
Gegenwart.”
Footnote 217:
See the Introductory Essay by the Right Hon. [now Viscount] James
Bryce in Helmolt’s _Hist. of the World_, vol. 1, pp. I-LX, esp. pp.
XXV-XLI.
Footnote 218:
A. J. Herbertson and F. D. Herbertson, _Man and his Work, an
Introduction to Human Geography_ (London: Black, 1909, 132 pp.), p. 6.
Footnote 219:
N. Y., G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1908, 363 pp.
Footnote 220:
“In the chapters on the life of man in the different zones, I have
made liberal use of Ratzel’s _Anthropogeographie_ (2d ed., Stuttgart,
1899).”—Ward, _op. cit._, p. VI.
Footnote 221:
Ward, _op. cit._, p. V.
Footnote 222:
N. Y. and London, 1911. See ch. 4, pp. 94–129.
Footnote 223:
Paris, 1911, 420 pp.
Footnote 224:
_Vide supra_, p. 27.
Footnote 225:
“Die soziale Geographie, hauptsächlich von Bastian und Ratzel tiefer
begründet, wird gegenwärtig immer sorgsamer ausgebaut und hat
namentlich in dem Wiener Erwin Hanslick einen eifrigen Förderer, der
auf die Ermittlung von geographischen Kulturgrenzen ausgeht. In andrer
Weise nimmt von ihr Willy Hellpach seinen Ausgang, der Geographie,
Psychologie und Soziologie zu einem neuen Gebiet zu vereinigen
sucht.”—Rudolf Goldscheid, “Soziologie” in _Das Jahr 1913, Ein
Gesamtbild der Kulturentwicklung_, herausgegeben von D. Sarason
(Leipzig und Berlin: B. G. Teubner, 1913), p. 432.
Footnote 226:
Leipzig, W. Engelmann, 1911, 368 pp.—“Hier [in Hellpach’s book] wird
alles zusammengefaßt, was über den Einfluß von ‘Wetter, Klima und
Landschaft’ auf das Seelenleben bekannt ist.”—Otto Schlüter,
“Anthropogeographie” in _Das Jahr 1913_, etc., p. 401.
Footnote 227:
See Hellpach, _op. cit._, p. 4.—Chiefly with those of the atmosphere;
he devotes nine pages (98–107) to the telluric elements of the
weather, and 87 pages (230–317) to the third main part of the book:
“Landschaft und Seelenleben.” For soil as a co-factor, cf. also the
ch. “Klimawechsel” in Part II (pp. 118–38). Hellpach defines
Landschaft (p. 230) as follows: “Unter Landschaft verstehen wir den
_sinnlichen_ Gesamteindruck, der von einem Stück der Oberfläche und
dem dazu gehörigen Abschnitt des Himmelsgewölbes in uns erweckt wird.
... das _sicht_bare Landschaftsbild bildet unter allen Umständen den
Kern dessen, was wir Landschaft nennen ... [And he adds that for an
investigation of the effect of Landscape upon the human soul] sind die
nicht-optischen sinnlichen Eigenschaften der Landschaft von
unentbehrlicher Bedeutung: Töne und Geräusche, Düfte und Gerüche und
eine höchst verwickelte Summe von Affizierungen der Berührungs-,
Temperatur-, ja zuweilen der Schmerzempfindlichkeit erst bilden mit
Farben und Formen zusammen das natürliche Ganze, das wir in seelischen
Wirkungen als _Landschaft_ erleben.”
Footnote 228:
_Vide_, _e.g._, p. 8.
Footnote 229:
Hellpach himself testifies (p. 318) that his book is a “Sammlung der
Tatsachen.” Cf. also Schlüter’s opinion cited above in note no. 226.
Footnote 230:
Manifestly, this is to be understood as a virtue in Hellpach, and not
as a fault, since this conviction is gained only by dint of Hellpach’s
clear delimitation of the scope of his work; it constitutes one of the
results of his own labor.
Footnote 231:
See Schlüter’s art. in _Das Jahr 1913_, p. 402.
Footnote 232:
Paris, 1910; 2nd ed. 1912.
Footnote 233:
For a statement of principles (theoretical exposition), cf. the first
two chaps. (pp. 1–92); for a summary, cf. ch. X, section 2 (pp.
780–9): “Le facteur psychologique dans les phénomènes naturels et
l’activité humaine,” and section 3 (pp. 790–807): “L’adaptation
humaine aux conditions géographiques.” In the preface to the second
ed., there are quoted seven pages from a review of the first ed. of
Brunhes’ work by Paul Mantoux, wherein the scope, content, and import
of the first ed. are succinctly summarized.
Footnote 234:
N. Y., 1911, 637 pp.
Footnote 235:
_Vide_ Wm. J. Thomas, _Source Book for Social Origins_ (Chicago and
London, 1909), p. 138 (Bibliogr. to Part I).—Without fear of
contradiction, it may be said that the best two recent treatises on
human geography are those by Brunhes and Semple.—For a brief concrete
anthropo-geographical sketch, besides the works previously cited, cf.
also W. Ule, _Grundriß der Allgemeinen Erdkunde_ (2. verm. Aufl.,
Leipzig: S. Hirzel, 1915, 487 pp.), pp. 361 ff. See also the brief
résumé in G. Schmoller’s _Grundr. d. Allgem. Volkswirtschaftslehre_
(Leipzig, 1901), pp. 144 ff.
Footnote 236:
“Unverkennbar ist es, daß die Naturgewalten in ihren bedingenden
Einflüssen auf das Persönliche der Völkerentwicklung immer mehr und
mehr zurückweichen mußten, in demselben Maße wie diese vorwärts
schritten. Sie übten im Anfange der Menschengeschichte als
Naturimpulse über die ersten Entwicklungen in der Wiege der Menschheit
einen sehr entscheidenden Einfluß aus, dessen Differenzen wir
vielleicht noch in dem Naturschlage der verschiedenen Menschenrassen
oder ihrer physisch verschiedenen Völkergruppen aus einer gänzlich
unbekannten Zeit wahrzunehmen vermochten. Aber dieser Einfluß mußte
abnehmen, ... Die zivilisierte Menschheit entwindet sich nach und
nach, ebenso wie der einzelne Mensch, den unmittelbar bedingenden
Fesseln der Natur und ihres Wohnortes. Die Einflüsse derselben
Naturverhältnisse und derselben tellurischen Weltstellungen der
erfüllten Räume bleiben sich also nicht durch alle Zeiten gleich.”
Ritter, _l.c._; see Achelis, _op. cit._, p. 74 _et seq._
Footnote 237:
“Man ist in Nachfolge C. Ritters vielfach geneigt, anzunehmen, daß die
Natureinflüsse sich mit zunehmender Kultur immer weniger geltend
machen.”—E. Bernheim, _Lehrb. d. hist. Methode_ (Leipzig, 1908), p.
642.
Footnote 238:
Theo. Waitz, _Anthropologie der Naturvölker_, I (Leipzig, 1859), p.
341; see Achelis, _op. cit._, p. 185.
Footnote 239:
“Die Einteilung der Menschheit war nur geographisch-historisch
möglich. Denn der Mensch steht in fester Abhängigkeit, in engstem
Verbande zu der Natur, aus und an welcher er sich entwickelt hat, zur
Natur der Erde, welcher letzteren kleiner, aber integrierender Teil er
ist. Auch seine Entwicklung ist noch im Steigen, aber nur im Bereiche
seines inneren, geistigen Lebens ... je höher der Mensch steigt, um so
mehr macht er sich von dem zwingenden Einfluß der Erde frei; und wenn
er demselben auch nie ganz entgehen wird, da er Nahrung braucht, von
der Schwere sich nicht loslösen kann, so ist dennoch diese immer
wachsende Freiheit ... eine stärkende ... Aussicht für die Zukunft
...”—_Anthropologische Beiträge_, 1. Bd. (Halle, 1875), p. 423; see
Achelis, _op. cit._, p. 227.
Footnote 240:
_Principles of Sociology_, I, sec. 21.
Footnote 241:
Vide Ripley, “Geography and Sociology,” p. 649.
Footnote 242:
_Contributions to the Theory of Natural Selection_, p. 319; cited by
E. B. Tylor in the article “Anthropology,” _Ency. Brit._ (11th ed.),
vol. 2, p. 114.
Footnote 243:
Réclus, _op. cit._, (1879); quoted by Achelis, _l.c._, pp. 86 f.
Footnote 244:
“... je crois, que la civilisation dans son premier stade dépend bien
plus du milieu physique et tellurique, qu’aux époques suivantes.”—Aug.
Matteuzzi, _Les Facteurs de l’Évolution des Peuples_ (Paris, 1900), p.
29. “... Tout ceci nous amène à affirmer ce fait, que les premières
civilisations, dans des milieux favorables, eurent une relation
étroite avec la culture du sol; et que dans un développement
ultérieur, ce rapport se relâcha ...”—_Ibid._, p. 25. For best
summaries of immense material collected on the relation of primitive
human life to environment, see the five papers in the _Smithsonian
Report_ for 1895: “Relation of Primitive Peoples to Environment” by J.
W. Powell (pp. 625 ff.); “Influence of Environment upon Human
Industries or Arts” by O. T. Mason (pp. 639 ff.); “The Japanese
Nation—A Typical Product of Environment” by G. G. Hubbard (pp. 667
ff.); “The Tusayan Ritual: A Study of the Influence of Environment on
Aboriginal Cults” by J. W. Fewkes (pp. 683 ff.); and, probably the
best of the five, “The Relation of Institutions to Environment” by the
eminent ethnologist W. J. McGee (pp. 701 ff.).
Footnote 245:
_Anthropogeogr._, I^2: “Der Mensch und die Umwelt” (pp. 41–65).
Footnote 246:
“Geogr. and Sociol.,” p. 650.
Footnote 247:
See his presidential address on the Origin of Man before the Section
of Anthropology (_Report of the British Association for the
Advancement of Science, 1912_; London, 1913), p. 576.
Footnote 248:
_The Positive Philosophy of Aug. Comte, Freely Translated and
Condensed by Harriet Martineau_ (In 2 vols., 3rd ed., London, 1893—the
original appeared from 1830–42), vol. 2, p. 96.
Footnote 249:
_Aug. Comte’s Positive Philosophie im Außug von I. Rig, Übersetzt von
Kirchmann_ (2 Bde, Heidelberg, 1883), S. 94 ff.; Achelis, _op. cit._,
p. 130.
Footnote 250:
_A System of Logic_ (New Impression; London: Longmans, Green & Co.,
1911—first published in 1843), p. 572.
Footnote 251:
A. Schäffle, _Bau und Leben des sozialen Körpers_, Tübingen, 1875, 2.
Aufl., 1881; Achelis, _op. cit._, p. 161.
Footnote 252:
“Post’s general attitude is best seen in his ‘Introduction to the
Study of Ethnological Jurisprudence,’ which was published in 1886, and
in his ‘African Jurisprudence’ of 1887.”—John L. Myres, “The Influence
of Anthropology on the Course of Political Science” (Presidential
address to the Anthropological Section of the British Assoc. for the
Advancement of Science), _Report Brit. Assoc., 1909_ (London, 1910),
p. 613.
Footnote 253:
Myres, _ibid._, pp. 613 f.
Footnote 254:
See Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, p. 231.
Footnote 255:
See the 4th ch. of his _Géographie Sociale_ (Paris, 1911): “Agents et
Caractères Physiques Considérés Isolément” (pp. 92–144).
Footnote 256:
“... as political and legal institutions are indissolubly bound up
with social and religious, it follows inevitably that the political
and legal institutions of a race cradled in Northern Europe are
exceedingly ill adapted for the children of the equator. Accordingly
in any wise administration of these regions it must be a primary
object to study the native institutions, to modify ... them ..., but
never to seek to eradicate and supplant them. Any attempt to do so
will be but vain, for these institutions are as much part of the land
as are its climate, its soil, its fauna, and its flora. ‘Naturam
expellas furca, tamen usque recurret.’”—The Application of Zoological
Laws to Man, in _Rep. Brit. Assoc, f. the Adv. of Sci., 1908_ (London,
1909), p. 843.
Footnote 257:
Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, pp. 310 _et seq._
Footnote 258:
_Vide_ pp. 141–75 in _Der Weltkrieg im Unterricht, Vorschläge u.
Anregungen_, etc. (Gotha: F. A. Perthes), esp. pp 163–5; he also
discusses other phases of the relation between physical environment
and the present war.
Footnote 259:
I: _Deutsche Rundschau_, April, 1915, pp. 78–91, and II (Schluß):
_ibid._, May, 1915, pp. 207–17.
Footnote 260:
In _Monatshefte für den Naturwissenschaftlichen Unterricht_, 1.
Kriegsheft von Bastian Schmid (Leipzig: B. G. Teubner, 1915).
Footnote 261:
Cf. Gooch, _op. cit._, pp. 585 _et seq._
Footnote 262:
See his Introduction to Dexter’s _Weather Influences_ (N. Y., 1904),
p. XXIV.
Footnote 263:
_Les Facteurs de L’Évolution des Peuples_ (Paris, 1900), p. 25, 29,
27.—“C’est dans l’intensité de l’effort dirigé par les groupes sociaux
contre les résistances du milieu, que réside la première impulsion
vers la civilisation.”—_Ibid._, p. 27.
Footnote 264:
But he adds, “... no disturbing causes, acting on social development,
could do more than to affect its rate of progress. This is true of the
operation of influences from the inorganic world, as of all others. In
our view of biology we saw that the human being cannot be modified
indefinitely by exterior circumstances; that such modifications can
affect only the degrees of phenomena, without at all changing their
nature; and again, that when the disturbing influences exceed their
general limits, the organism is no longer modified, but
destroyed.”—_The Positive Philosophy of Aug. Comte, tr. by Harriet
Martineau_, vol. 2, p. 98; 97.
Footnote 265:
See Ripley, _Races of Europe_ (1899), p. 11; cf. the references given
there, and in the note on the same page.—Cf. also Ellsworth
Huntington’s _Palestine and its Transformation_ (1910), and his
suggestive articles on “Changes of Climate and History” (in _The
American Historical Review_ for January, 1913, vol. 18, pp. 213–32)
[for references to other writings on the subject by the same
author,—and by A. T. Olmstead—cf. p. 214 n.]; on “Climate and
Civilization” (in _Harper’s Magazine_ for February, 1915, vol. 130,
pp. 367–73); on “Is Civilization Determined by Climate?” (_ibid._ May,
1915, pp. 943–51); a new book of his, entitled _Civilization and
Climate_ (333 pp.), is announced for publication by the Yale Univ.
Press.
Footnote 266:
Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, pp. 280 _et seq._
Footnote 267:
“... cetera [Mattiaci] similes Batavis, nisi quod ipso adhuc terrae
suae solo et caelo acrius animantur.”—F. Ritter, _P. C. Taciti Opera_
(1864), p. 643. In _Römische Prosaiker in neuen Übersetzungen_ (hg. v.
C. N. von Osiander und G. Schwab, 51. Bändchen, Stuttg., 1852, S. 123)
this is rendered as follows: “Im ganzen gleichen sie [die Mattiaker]
den Batavern, nur daß Boden und Klima ihres Landes sie noch
kriegerischer macht.”
Footnote 268:
Cesare Lombroso, _Crime, Its Causes and Remedies_ (Boston, 1911), pp.
3 f.
Footnote 269:
Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, p. 282.
Footnote 270:
_Vide_ Flint, _l.c._, pp. 582 _et seq._
Footnote 271:
Haddon & Quiggin, _Hist. of Anthropology_ (London, 1910), pp. 84 _et
seq._
Footnote 272:
Cesare Lombroso, _Crime_, etc., p. 2.
Footnote 273:
N. S. Shaler, Nature and Man in America (N. Y., 1893), p. 288.
Footnote 274:
In _Abhandlungen der Königl. Preuss. Akademie der Wissenschaften,
Phil.-hist. Classe_, 1912, p. 13: “In einer Wendung, die an
Distinktionen Schleiermachers erinnert, hat er [Dilthey] in seiner
letzten größeren Arbeit erklärt, daß unser wissenschaftliches Denken
von zwei großen Tendenzen beherrscht sei. Der Mensch finde sich auf
der einen Seite bestimmt von der physischen Welt, in der die
seelischen Vorgänge nur wie Interpolationen erscheinen. [The other is:
das Leben (life), das Erlebnis (experience).]”
Footnote 275:
Ridgeway, _l.c._, p. 843.
Footnote 276:
Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, pp. 258 _et seq._—For the effect of
physical environment on the Jews in Palestine, cf. Friedrich Otto
Hertz, _Rasse und Kultur_ (Leipzig, 1915, 421 pp.), pp. 162 ff.; and
“Soziale Grundlagen des Monotheismus u. Polytheismus” (pp. 170 ff.)
and the literature there cited. Cf. also _ibid._, “Natürliche u.
Soziale Grundlagen der indischen Entwicklung” (pp. 198 ff.).
Footnote 277:
Rob. DeC. Ward, _op. cit._, pp. 309 _et seq._
Footnote 278:
_Vide_ his _Weather Influences, An Empirical Study of the Mental and
Physiological Effects of Definite Meteorological Conditions_, with
Introduction by Cleveland Abbe (N. Y.: Macmillan, 1904, 277 pp.).
Footnote 279:
I saw somewhere that exception had been taken to his results, but I
failed at the time to make a note thereof and have been unable to find
the passage again.
Footnote 280:
_Ibid._, p. 266; 269; 272 f.—The fifth and last is not cited here.
Footnote 281:
Ward, _op. cit._, p. 310; 335, where ref. is also made to F. A. Cook’s
article on “Some Physiological Effects of Arctic Cold, Darkness and
Light” (_MED. REC._, June 12, 1897, pp. 833–36).
Footnote 282:
London and N. Y., 1892.
Footnote 283:
_Ibid._, p. 90.
Footnote 284:
_Ibid._, pp. 113–5.
Footnote 285:
“Diese Priorität (der erste Versuch überhaupt, die Einflüsse des
naturalen Milieus auf die Psyche darzustellen) gebührt, nach
mancherlei Vorläufern minder geschlossenen Charakters (z. B.
_Quételet_, Sur l’homme etc. 1835, Bd. 2, Kap. 3, Abschn. 2–3,
Influence du climat et des saisons sur le penchant au crime) ohne
Zweifel _Lombroso_, aus dessen 1878 erschienenem Buche ‘Pensiero e
meteore’ Extracte auch in seine andern Publikationen, namentlich in
‘Genio e follia,’ übergegangen sind.”—Hellpach, _Die Geopsychischen
Erscheinungen_ (Leipzig, 1911), p. 336.
Footnote 286:
_Criminal Man, According to the Classification of Cesare Lombroso
Briefly Summarized by his Daughter Gina Lombroso Ferrero_ (“The
Science Series”; N. Y. and London: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911, 322
pp.), p. 145.—Lombroso’s _L’Uomo di genio_ appeared in 1888, _L’Uomo
delinquente_ in 1889, and _La Donna delinquente_ in 1893.
Footnote 287:
_Criminal Man_, p. 145.
Footnote 288:
Tr. by H. P. Horton, “The Modern Criminal Science Series,” Boston:
Little, Brown and Co., 1911, 471 pp.
Footnote 289:
“It is brought out in Guerry’s statistics that the crime of rape
occurs in England and France oftenest in the hot months; and Curcio
has observed the same thing in Italy....
“In England, according to Guerry, and in Italy, according to Curcio,
the maximum number of murders falls in the hottest months....
“Poisoning also, according to Guerry, occurs oftenest in May. The same
phenomenon is to be observed in the case of Rebellions. In studying
(as I have in my ‘Political Crime’) the 836 uprisings that took place
in the whole world in the period between 1791 and 1880, one finds that
in Asia and Africa the greatest number falls in July. In Europe and
America the greater prevalence of rebellions in the hot months could
not be more clearly marked. In Europe the maximum proved to be in July
[in this connection one might also point to the beginning of the
present European war which falls in the midsummer of 1914], and in
South America in January, which are respectively the two hottest
months. The minimum falls in Europe in December and January, and in
South America in May and June, which again correspond in temperature.
“If now we pass from the whole of Europe to the particular countries,
we still find the greatest number of uprisings in the hot months....
“Benoiston de Chateauneuf points out that duels in the army are more
frequent in the summer.
“I have proved that the same influence manifests itself in the case of
men of genius (‘Man of Genius,’ Part I.).
“Ferri, in his ‘Crime in its Relation to Temperature,’ has proved from
a study of the French criminal statistics from 1825 to 1878 that one
can deduce an almost complete parallelism between heat and
criminality, not only for the different months, but also for years of
different degrees of heat. The influence of the temperature on crime
from 1825 to 1848 appears to be very pronounced and constant, and is
often even greater than that exercised by agricultural production.
Since 1848, notwithstanding the more serious agricultural and
political disturbances, the coincidence between temperature and
criminality becomes from time to time plainly apparent, especially in
the case of homicide and murder....
“The connection comes out much more plainly, however, in the
statistics of rape and offenses against chastity, which follow to an
even greater degree the annual variations in temperature....
“As regards crimes against property there is a marked increase in the
winter (theft and forgery being the most abundant in January), while
the other seasons differ little from one another....”—Lombroso,
_Crime, Its Causes and Remedies_, pp. 4–8. “Superintendents of prisons
have generally observed that the inmates are more excited when storms
are approaching and during the first quarter of the moon....”—_Ibid._,
p. 12.
Footnote 290:
_Ibid._, p. 13.—“In studying the distribution of simple and aggravated
homicides in Europe, we find the highest figures in Italy and the
other southern countries, and the lowest in the more northerly
regions, England, Denmark, Germany. The same can be said of political
uprisings in all Europe. We see, in fact, that the number of crimes
increases as we go from north to south, and in the same measure as the
heat increases.”—_Ibid._, p. 14.
Footnote 291:
This follows Laing. See Robertson, _Buckle and his Critics_ (London,
1895), p. 553.—Cf. also C. M. Gießler’s article, “Über den Einfluß von
Wärme und Kälte auf das seelische Funktionieren des Menschen,” in
_Vierteljahrsschrift für wissenschaftliche Philosophie u. Soziologie_,
1902, pp. 319–38. Gießler refers (p. 334) to Oppenheimer “Über den
Einfluß des Klimas auf den Menschen” (Berlin, 1867). _Vide_ also E.
Huntington’s article on “Work and Weather,” _Harper’s Magazine_, vol.
130 (January, 1915), pp. 233–44.
Footnote 292:
_Rep. Brit. Assoc., 1908_ (London, 1909), p. 844.
Footnote 293:
On the use of alcohol in its relation to the northern climate, cf.
also Auguste Matteuzzi, _Les Facteurs de L’Évolution des Peuples_
(Paris, 1900), pp. 329 _et seq._
SUMMARY
The Introductory Remark traces the semasiology and use of the word
_milieu_ and discusses its English and German equivalents “environment”
and “Umwelt.”
An historical sketch of the milieu idea is then taken up from the very
beginnings to the nineteenth century. The earlier notions of
environmental influence are general and undifferentiated.
The Hebrew Prophets see the hand of Providence in the harmony of
national fate with the configuration of the globe. Hippocrates dwells
upon the regularity of climatic effect on man. Aristotle notes the
action of physical environment on government and national character.
Eratosthenes, Strabo, and other Greek thinkers, relate man causally to
surrounding nature. Villani says that the fine air of Arezzo produces
great minds. Ibn Khaldūn explains, especially Arabic history, by the
circumambient physical and social medium. Michelangelo credits Arezzo’s
fine air with his mentality. Man is subject to the “skyey influences”
hourly (Shakespeare).
Jean Bodin plants the study of environment in French soil so firmly and
so successfully that it has since become, in a very real sense,
indigenous to France and that Bertillon could justly claim it to be a
study “_très-française_,” a claim which is true to this very day.
Bodin’s second contribution is that he undertook, for the first time in
the modern period (on the basis of sixteenth century knowledge and
experience), a scientific and detailed examination, far-reaching and
extensive in scope, of the manifold influences of climatic and
geographical conditions upon States, laws, national character, religion,
language, temperament, talents and aptitudes,—in brief, upon man’s mind,
manners, and morals.
The study of milieu thus inaugurated in France by Bodin is set up as a
French tradition by Lenglet du Fresnoy, Montesquieu, Turgot, Cuvier, and
others,[294] and has been continued by French writers to our day.
A number of philosophers in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries
take up this idea. The doctrine of environment spreads to England and
Germany.
In Germany, Herder becomes the fulcrum of all previous thought (Hebrew,
Greek, French, English, and German) on this theory. Herder, in turn, in
addition to his other and principal contributions to the theory, affects
it by giving a quickened impetus not only to the contemporary
development thereof, but also to the later course of that development.
Goethe reflects some of Herder’s conceptions. Wolf, Niebuhr, the German
romanticists—August Wilhelm Schlegel in especial—and Hegel apply
Herder’s idea to history and continue it therein. Hegel combats the
notion that climate can be the be-all and end-all of historical
explanation; he implies that climate was held to be a _vera causa_.
The theory of social environment evolves, particularly since Ibn
Khaldūn, parallel with that of the physical milieu.
The nineteenth century brings differentiation carried out in human
geography including history, in biology, in jurisprudence and economics,
in anthropology, in sociology, in literature, and latterly in physics.
These disciplines determine our divisions for discussions shortly to
follow the present one.
The major portion of this study is then given over to following the
milieu idea in some of the more important French, English, and German
writers of the past century on what for want of a better name has been
called anthropo-geography inclusive of certain aspects of history.
On the whole, their method has been the comparative method. Principles
laid down _a priori_ would be illustrated by typical cases selected
mostly from the past. Or, the process would be reversed to an _a
posteriori_ reasoning: history restudied to find out its possible
connections with the environment. Again: some would pick out a phase of
the encompassing medium and follow out its effects in a particular
country, while others would try to arrive at a more general conclusion.
With reference to climate in particular, the statistical method was
employed by Quételet, Bertillon, Leffingwell, Ferri, Holzendorf, Guerry,
Curcio, Lombroso, and others, who established a parallelism, or
coincidence, between certain climatic features and the criminal conduct
of man.
Delimited aspects of environment, relating again more to climate than
any other phase of the milieu, were made the objects of observational or
experimentally observational studies by Dexter, Brunhes, and Hellpach,
the last two giving the most recent comprehensive summaries of our
knowledge in this field. And they are among the best we have.
The next part of this study will continue the survey of the history of
this theory in the above mentioned sciences as well as in literature.
-----
Footnote 294:
Some of these are to be discussed in a subsequent paper.
APPENDIX
Since the foregoing study was completed, E. Huntington’s stimulating
book—_vide supra_, p. 79, n.—on _Civilization and Climate_ has appeared.
He continues what Dexter began. Lack of definiteness in observation,
argumentative conviction, reasoned out opinion, are superseded by
scientific exactness in ascertaining the action of climate. Chapters 4–7
(pp. 49–147) concern us here. In these chapters he investigates “the
exact effect of various climatic factors upon selected groups of people”
(p. 49).
Huntington subjects to statistical analysis the daily records of about
550 factory operatives, pieceworkers, employed in three factories in
three New England cities. The records, most of them for a complete year,
are distributed over the four years from 1910 to 1913 (p. 53).
He computes wage averages. He finds for each working day the average
hourly wage for each group of operatives. When the daily averages had
been found, they were averaged together by weeks. To give each
individual an equal importance, the figures of each group have been
reduced to percentages. Finally, the different groups were combined (p.
57). His final computations are represented in curves. A curve,
graduated in twelve parts (one for each month), for a given year shows
the earnings in percentages at any point and thus reveals the _time_ of
the weakness or efficiency of the worker; it shows the time of his wages
from least to most, thereby indicating the time of his work and energy
from poorest to best.
Huntington worked up similarly the records of 65 operatives in a North
Carolina factory, of 240 operatives in four cotton mills in South
Carolina and Georgia, of 57 carpenters at Jacksonville, Fla., and on a
different basis the work of 2700 cigar makers in two cigar factories in
Florida. On the first basis he also computed a series of data from a
large factory at Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, based on the work of about
950 operatives in 1910, of about 750 in 1911, of 69 in 1912, of about
7000 in 1913. He figured the monthly or bi-weekly averages of hourly
earnings of these pieceworkers in Pittsburgh.
Discussing the curves in Figure 1 (p. 59), he mentions (p. 61) five
features revealed by the curves that show no sign of disappearing. They
are: “an extremely low place in midwinter, and a less pronounced low
place in midsummer; a high point in June, a still higher point at the
end of October, and a hump in mid-December....
“Before we discuss the causes of the variability of the summers let us
consider the meaning of the curves as a whole. In the first place, it is
evident that, although details may vary from year to year, the general
course of events is uniformly from low in the winter to high in the fall
with a drop of more or less magnitude in summer. To what can this be
due?...
“We seem forced to search outside of the factories for the reasons for
our seasonal fluctuations of wages.... There seems to be no recourse
except to ascribe the fluctuations of the curves to climate [pp. 64–5].
“The verity of the conclusion just reached is strongly confirmed by
comparison with other regions and other types of human activity.... The
curves [in Figure 2, pp. 66–7] range from the Adirondacks in northern
New York to Tampa in southern Florida and include one from Denmark. With
them I have repeated some of the curves of Figure 1 for the sake of
comparison. The most remarkable feature of this series is that although
there is great diversity of place and of activity, all the curves
harmonize with what would be expected on the basis of Figure 1 [p. 65].
“The general form of the curves for Pittsburgh and Connecticut is
obviously the same....
“The agreement between the curves for Connecticut and Pennsylvania is
far too close to be accidental [p. 76].
“We have now seen that from New England to Florida physical strength and
health vary in accordance with the seasons. Extremes seem to produce the
same effect everywhere. The next question is whether mental activity
varies the same way” (p. 77).
Huntington uses the marks of “about 1900 students for a single year” in
mathematics (weekly averages at Annapolis and daily averages at West
Point) and in English (at Annapolis). From these data he compiles the
curves in Figure 3 (p. 80). He says (p. 81), “The curves of mental
activity all resemble it [the average curve of physical work] in having
two main maxima, in fall and spring.... At Annapolis, just as at West
Point, the time of best work is when the mean temperature is not far
from forty degrees [Fahrenheit].
“Summing up the matter, we find that the results of investigations in
Denmark, Japan, Connecticut, Pennsylvania, New York, Maryland, the
Carolinas, Georgia, and Florida are in harmony. They all show that
except in Florida neither the winter nor the summer is the most
favorable season. Both physical and mental activity reach pronounced
maxima in the spring and fall, with minima in midwinter and midsummer.
The consistency of our results is of great importance. It leads to the
belief that in all parts of the world the climate is exercising an
influence which can readily be measured, and can be subjected to
statistical analysis” (p. 82).
This is his conclusion in Chapter IV (pp. 49–82), “The Effect of the
Seasons.”
Having seen in the fourth chapter “that both physical and mental energy
vary from season to season according to well-defined laws,” Huntington
investigates in the fifth chapter (“The Effect of Humidity and
Temperature,” pp. 83–110) “the special features of seasonal change which
are most effective” (p. 83). Explaining the curves of Human Activity and
Mean Temperature (p. 99), he says (p. 98), “With the exception of the
last two, which are distinctly the least reliable, the physical group
all reach maxima at a temperature between 59° and 65°. Even the two less
reliable curves reach their maxima within the next four degrees. All the
curves decline at low temperatures, ..., and also at high.
“Another point brought out by the curves [on p. 99] is that as we go to
more southerly climes the optimum temperature of the human race becomes
higher. It is important to note, however, that the variation in the
optimum is slight compared with the variation in the mean temperature of
the places in question. For instance, in Connecticut the optimum seems
to be about 60° for people of north European stock. This is about ten
degrees higher than the mean temperature for the year as a whole. In
Florida, on the other hand, the optimum for Cubans is about 65°, which
is five degrees _lower_ than the mean temperature for the year at Tampa.
In other words, with a difference of twenty degrees in the mean annual
temperature, and with a distinctly northern race compared with a
southern, we find that the optimum differs only about 5° F. This seems
to mean that for the entire human race the optimum temperature probably
does not vary more than ten or fifteen degrees [pp. 100–101].
“The last thing to be considered in Figure 8 [p. 99] is the mental curve
[showing optimum mental work at 38° F.] at the bottom. It is based on so
large a number of people, and is so regular, that its general
reliability seems great, although I think that future studies may show
the optimum to be a few degrees higher than is here indicated. It agrees
with the results of Lehmann and Pedersen. Furthermore, from general
observation we are most of us aware that we are mentally more active in
comparatively cool weather. Perhaps ‘spring fever’ is a mental state far
more than a physical. Apparently people do the best mental work on days
when the thermometer ranges from freezing to about 50°—that is, when the
mean temperature is not far from 40°. Inasmuch as human progress depends
upon a coördination of mental and physical activity, we seem to be
justified in the conclusion that the greatest total efficiency occurs
halfway between the mental and physical optima, that is, with a mean
temperature of about 50°” (pp. 102–103).
The curves (p. 105) on Mean Temperature and Vital Processes in Plants,
Animals and Man show physical energy to be at the optimum at the mean
temperature of 60° F., mental energy at 38°, mental and physical energy
combined at from 40° to 60°. Of this last mentioned curve he says: “It
may be taken as representing man’s actual productive activity in the
things that make for a high civilization. The resemblance of the human
curves to those of the lower organisms is obvious. In general, the lower
types of life, or the lower forms of activity, seem to reach their
optima at higher temperatures than do the more advanced types and the
more lofty functions such as mentality. The whole trend of biological
thought is toward the conclusion that the same laws apply to all forms
of life. They differ in application, but not in principle. The law of
optimum temperature apparently controls the phenomena of life from the
lowest activities of protoplasm to the highest activities of the human
intellect” (pp. 109–110).
In Chapter VI (“Work and Weather,” pp. 111–128), he interprets the
curves he plotted showing especially the influence of changes of
temperature from day to day, and of the character of each day and its
relation to storms. In the very interesting Chapter VII (pp. 129–147) he
discusses “The Ideal Climate.”
In the closing paragraph of his book, he says, “If our hypothesis is
true, man is more closely dependent upon nature than he has realized. A
realization of his limitations, however, is the first step toward
freedom [p. 293].
“The hypothesis, briefly stated, is this: Today a certain peculiar type
of climate prevails wherever civilization is high. In the past the same
type seems to have prevailed wherever a great civilization arose.
Therefore, such a climate seems to be a necessary condition of great
progress. It is not the cause of civilization, for that lies infinitely
deeper. Nor is it the only, or the most important condition. It is
merely one of several, ...” (p. 9.)
Huntington mentions (p. 7) Lehmann and Pedersen’s “Das Wetter und unsere
Arbeit” and Berliner’s “Einfluß von Klima, Wetter und Jahreßeit auf das
Nerven- und Seelenleben,” without the date or place of publication.
NOTE: Since the foregoing pages went to press, the following
publications have appeared; being too late for inclusion or
comment in the text, they are added here for reference:
Douglas W. Johnson, _Topography and Strategy in the War_, N. Y.,
Henry Holt & Co., 1917, 221 pp. (Thorough and very illuminating;
points out how the surface features of the country influenced
military operations in the most important theaters of the war.)
James Fairgrieve, _Geography and World Power_, N. Y., E. P.
Dutton & Co., 1917, 356 pp. (Shows how History has been
controlled by Geography.)
Robert De C. Ward, “Weather Controls Over the Fighting in the
Italian War Zone,” _The Scientific Monthly_, Vol. 6, No. 2
(February, 1918), pp. 97–105. And “Weather Controls Over the
Fighting in Mesopotamia, in Palestine, and near the Suez Canal,”
_ibidem_, Vol. 6, No. 4 (April, 1918), pp. 289–304.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
TRANSCRIBER’S NOTES
1. Replaced “sz” with “ß” in German words. The “ß” character was not
used in the original.
2. Changed “Nachbaren” to “Nachbarn” on p. 30.
3. Silently corrected typographical errors.
4. Retained anachronistic and non-standard spellings as printed.
5. Enclosed italics font in _underscores_.
6. Superscripts are denoted by a carat before a single superscript
character or a series of superscripted characters enclosed in
curly braces, e.g. M^r. or M^{ister}.
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