Our own brain tells us news, and presents an unexpected thought. Nothing seems more certain than that the capacity of a human being depends, other things being equal. We also know that health, disposition, temperament occupation, food, surroundings, ancestors, quality, form, and texture of the brain, determine what we call character. Man is collectively and individually, what his surroundings have made him. Nations differ from each other as greatly as individuals in the Same nation.
Nations depend upon soil, climate, geographical position, and countless other facts.
Shakespeare would have been impossible without the climate of England. There is a direct relation between Hamlet and the Gulf Stream. Dr. Draper has shown that the great desert of Sahara made negroes possible in Africa. If the Caribbean Sea had been a desert, negroes might have been produced in America. No one will blame Mr. Brown or Mr. Jones for not writing like Shakespeare.