Cincinnati daily press. [volume] (Cincinnati [Ohio]) 1860-1862, 1860-03-28
The ProdignIity of Nature Opposing tho
Progress of Man.

The following passages from Mr.. Buckles
History of Civilization indicate in glowing
colors the obstacles which the prodigality OF
Nature may oppose to the progress of man:
Brazil, which is nearly as large as the
whole of Europe, is covered with vegetation
of incredible profusion. Indeed, so rank and
luxuriant is the growth, that Nature seems to
riot in the very wantoness of power. A
great part of this immense country is filled
with dense and tangled forests, whose noble
trees, blossoming in unrivaled beauty, and
exquisite with a thousand hucs, throw out
their produce in endless prodigality. On
their summit are perched birds of gorgeous
plumage which nestle in their dark and lofty
recesses. Below, their base and trunks are
crowned with brushwood, creeping plants,
innumerable parasites, all swarming with
life. There, too are myriads of insects of
every variety; reptiles of strange and singu-
lar form; serpents and lizards, spotted with
deadly beauty; all of which find means of ex-
istence in this vast workshop and repository
of Nature. And, that nothing may be want
ing to this land of marvels the forests are
skirted by enormous meadows, which, reek-
ing with heat and moisture, supply nOurish-
ment to countless herds Of wild cattle, that
browse and fatten on the herbage while the
adjoining plains rich in another form of life,
are the chosen abode Of the subtlest and
most ferocious animals, which prey on each
other, but which it might almost seem no hu-
man power can hope to extirpate.
But amid this pomp and splcndor of ma
ture no place is left for man. He is reduced
10 insignificance by the majesty with which he
is surrounded The forces that oppose him
are so formidable that he has never been able
TO make head against them, never been able
to rally against their accumulated pressure
The whole of Brazil, Notwithstanding its i'm
mense apparent advantages, has always re-
mained entirely uncivilized; its inhabitants
wandering savages, incompetent to resist
those obstacles which the very bounty of ma
ture had put in their way. In their country
the physical causes are so active, and do
their work on a scale of such unrivaled mag
nitude, that it has hitherto been found impos-
sible to escape from the effects of their united
action. The progress of agriculture is stop
ped by impossible forests, and the harvests
are destroyed by innumerable insects The
mountains are too high to scale, the rivers too
wide to BRIDGE everything is contrved to
repress the human mind and keep back its
rising ambition. 1t is thus that the energies
of nature have hampered the spirit of man.
And the mind, cowed by the unequal struggle,
has not only been unable to advance but With
out foreign aid it would undoubtedly have re-
ceded.
Brazil, the country where, of all Others
physical resources are most powerful, where
both vegetables and animals are most abun-
dant, where the soil is watered by the noblest
rivers, and the coast studded with the finest
harbors-this immense territory, which is
more than twelve times the size of France,
contains a population not exceeding six
millions of people. Professor Anstead adds
to this his testimony to the effect that the
native Indian seems to be irredeemable, and
sunk in the most wretched barbarism; and
that there appears no prospect whatever of
cnn 6nd no spot on which to commence its
operations.