etc., have turned
white in winter, and then assumed a different color in the spring. If
you start at the north and move south, you will find, at first, that
the flowers are very white and delicate; but, as you move toward the
tropics, they begin to take on deeper and richer hues until they run
into almost endless varieties. Guyot argues on the other side of the
question to account for the intellectual diversity of the races of
mankind.

"While all the types of animals and of plants go on
decreasing in perfection, from the equatorial to the polar
regions, in proportion to the temperatures, man presents to
our view his purest, his most perfect type, at the very
centre of the temperate continents,--at the centre of Asia,
Europe, in the regions of Iran, of Armenia, and of the
Caucasus; and, departing from this geographical centre in
the three grand directions of the lands, the types gradually
lose the beauty of their forms, in proportion to their
distance, even to the extreme points of the southern
continents, where we find the most deformed and degenerate
races, and the lowest in the scale of humanity."[54]

The learned professor seeks to carry out his famous geographical
argument, and, with great skill and labor, weaves his theory of the
influence of climate upon the brain and character of man. But while no
scholar would presume to combat the theory that plants take on the
most gorgeous hues as one nears the equator, and that the races of
mankind take on a darker color in their march toward the equator,
certainly no student of Oriental history will assent to the
unsupported doctrine, that the intensity of the climate of tropical
countries affects the intellectual status of races. If any one be so
prejudiced as to doubt this, let him turn to "Asiatic Researches," and
learn that the dark races have made some of the most invaluable
contributions to science, literature, civil-engineering, art, and
architecture that the world has yet known. Here we find the cradle of
civilization, ancient and remote.

Even changes and differences in color are to be noted in almost every
community.

"As we go westward we observe the light color predominating
over the dark; and then, again, when we come within the
influence of damp from the sea-air, we find the shade
deepened into the general blackness of the coast
population."

The artisan and farm-la