think that this is not true. The whole, or at
least much the larger and foundation part of the question of
civilization--where it shall grow and where only live, where it shall
drag and where scarcely exist--seems to me to be decided primarily by
environment, the basis of which is climate and soil.

Where the climate and soil are most favorable to the highest
development; where the environment is neither too hard nor too
indulgent; where man is neither enervated by heat and the absence
of necessity to labor, nor stunted by cold and hardship and the
ever-present necessity to search or labor for food and warmth; there
will be the highest types and forms of civilization.*

* See Appendix A*

If the Buddhist religion had chanced to be the one that in the process
of events took root in the climate and soil where the Hebrew Bible and
the Christian belief hold sway; and if, on the other hand, the Hebrew
and Christian religions had been the ones developed in India or China,
the civilization of the various countries would still, in the main, be
what they are to-day.

If our superior civilization were the result of our religion, then
the most civilized countries would be the most intensely Christian
countries. We all know that this is not the case. Compare the intense
Christianity of Spain or Russia, and their backward civilization, with
the easy-going religious or irreligious condition of France or America,
and their recognition of Liberty and Humanity, equalled nowhere else on
earth.

I admit unreservedly that a religion; by its inelasticity, may do much
to retard progress, or by its greater elasticity may permit a more rapid
development than a more nearly petrified or incoherent system would
allow; but what I hold is this, that the primary and controlling causes
of the various stages of civilization are climate and soil.

There are, of course, many other things which modify the social
development or civilization in any country, as its religion, its laws,
and what we may call "accidents of international or civil contest," such
as the religious or other wars--our own war in which the blacks were
freed, arbitration, and immigration. All of these, and many others, are
modifying influences; but no one of them can claim the primary place.

Soil, climate, and location determine the occupation of a nation, as
whether it shall be militant, commercial, or agricultural. In turn
occupation determines what the character of a