step towards commerce. To obtain the supply, the
savage must produce some article in return as a medium
of barter, some natural production of his country
adapted to the trader’s wants. His wants will increase
as his ideas expand by communication with Europeans:
thus, his productions must increase in due proportion,
and he must become industrious; industry being the
first grand stride towards civilization.
The natural energy of all countries is influenced by
climate ; and civilization being dependent upon industry,
or energy, must accordingly vary in its degrees
according to geographical position. The natives of
tropical countries do not progress : enervated by , intense
heat, they incling rather to repose and amusement
than to labour. Free from the rigour of winters,
and the excitement of changes in the seasons,' the
native character assumes the monotony of their country’s
temperature. They have no natural difficulties
to contend with,—no struggle with adverse storms and
icy winds and frost-bound soil; but an everlasting
summer, and fertile ground producing with little tillage,
excite no enterprise; and the human mind, unexercised
by difficulties, sinks into languor and decay. There are
a lack of industry, a want of intensity of character,
a love of ease and luxury, which leads to a devotion
to sensuality,—to a plurality of wives, which lowers
the character and position of woman. Woman, reduced
to that false position, ceases to exercise her proper influence
upon m an; she becomes the mere slave of passion,
and, instead of holding her sphere as the emblem of
civilization, she becomes it’s barrier. The absence of
real love, engendered by a plurality of wives, is an
absolute bar to progress ; and so long as polygamy
exists, an extension of civilization is impossible. In
all tropical countries polygamy is the prevailing e v il:
this is the greatest obstacle to Christianity. The Mahom-
,medan religion, planned carefully for Eastern habits,
allowed a plurality of wives, and prospered. The
savage can be taught the existence of a Deity, and
.become a Mussulman; but to him the hateful law of
fidelity to one wife is a bar.to Christianity. Thus, in
tropical climates there will always be a slower advance
-of civilization than in more temperate zones.
The highest civilization was originally confined to
ihe small portion of the globe comprised between
-Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. In those countries