no less obvious truth that men's pursuits exert a moulding
influence on their habits, their forms of speech, their sentiments, and
their ideas. Let any one take pains to observe the peculiarities which
characterize the huntsman, the shepherd, the agriculturist, or the
fisherman, and he will be convinced that their occupations stamp the
whole of their thoughts and feelings; color all their conceptions of
things outside their own peculiar field; direct their simple philosophy
of life; and give a tone, even, to their religious emotions.

The general aspects of nature, the climate and the scenery, exert an
appreciable and an acknowledged influence on the _mental_
characteristics of a people. The sprightliness and vivacity of the
Frank, the impetuosity of the Arab, the immobility of the Russ, the
rugged sternness of the Scot, the repose and dreaminess of the Hindoo
are largely due to the country in which they dwell, the air they
breathe, the food they eat, and the landscapes and skies they daily look
upon. The nomadic Arab is not only indebted to the country in which he
dwells for his habit of hunting for daily food, but for that love of a
free, untrammelled life, and for those soaring dreams of fancy in which
he so ardently delights. Not only is the Swiss determined by the
peculiarities of his geographical position to lead a pastoral life, but
the climate, and mountain scenery, and bracing atmosphere inspire him
with the love of liberty. The reserved and meditative Hindoo, accustomed
to the profuse luxuriance of nature, borrows the fantastic ideas of his
mythology from plants, and flowers, and trees. The vastness and infinite
diversity of nature, the colossal magnitude of all the forms of animal
and vegetable life, the broad and massive features of the landscape, the
aspects of beauty and of terror which surround him, and daily pour their
silent influences upon his soul, give vividness, grotesqueness, even, to
his imagination, and repress his active powers. His mental character
bears a peculiar and obvious relation to his geographical
surroundings.[9]

[Footnote 9: Ritter, "Geograph. Studies," p. 287.]

The influence of external nature on the imagination--the _creative_
faculty in man--is obvious and remarkable. It reveals itself in all the
productions of man--his architecture, his sculpture, his painting, and
his poetry. Oriental architecture is characterized by the boldness and
massiveness of all its parts, and the mono