The St. Johns herald., 1891-08-20
Energy and Climate.

r conclusions that are fiattering
 themselves while utterly in contr' , diction of the best established hi t torical facts. One of the most wide 5 ly accepted of these pieces of nor , sense is the dictum that human el
 ergy is affected by climate. No' , the fact IS that human energy ha reached its fullest development il
 every kind of climate and in ever
 latitude except the frigid zone. Tn
 equatorial regions furnish us witt
 the history of Carthage and Egypt
 the heated latitudes give us Tyr
 and Sidon, Troy and Babylon. Ther
 in those attitudes which are nov
 sneered at as effeminate and ener
 vating we have the unequalled
 science of Greece and the matchless
 mastery of Rome. But, nonsense
 say our theorists, do you not sec
 with your own eyes that people will
 not work at the South, while they
 will at the North? Is not that the effect of climate? Is not that bet.
 ter than history? On the contrary, we find that in our Southern States an extraordinary amount of energy has developed since the war. We find that population which under former conditions was charged with indolence and negligence is under the new conditions credited with an energy and an enterprise that have redeemed its country from the desolation of ruin and brought it to the front of progress and pros perity. Then look abroad. In the very same line ot climate, every where, you will find the two ex- tremes of industry and indolence. The Southern Chinaman, Siamese, East Indian, Egyptian, is laborious and industrious the West Indian and Central American refuses to work. The contemplating Yankee himself lives in the same climate and regionsrwhere primitive savages scorned to labor. The hardy, in- dustrious, persevering, contemplating highlander of Scotlend, the Swede, the Norwegian, enjoy about the same icy surroundings as the lazy Esquimau who hibernates like bear. What, then. is the explana- tion of this vastly varying expe. rience of human energy that in- fuses one generation with enter prise and industry, while leaving another in the disgraceful letters of sloth and indifference? Why, it is simply-motive. The motive makes the man, and the population is the repetition of the man. The great est of all human motive powers is hunger, the next is ambition. Hun ger does not move the West Indian or the Central American because the fruits of nature are for him both plentiful and free. The climate ex- empts him from the necessity of roof or clothing, while the wild ba- mana forest generally feeds him and his family. He knows no other needs and does not comprehend the philosophy of making himselftir But if some American natives were transported to Siam or China, where every inch of land is under fence at a high rent, where nature is in slavery and where food implies in- cessant labor, he would soon find himself working as hard as his Contrast the ancient Roman and the modern. The for mer was consumed with the fires of Conquest and mastery were his dream day and night. There could be no rest, no repose while something remained to becon- quered; no danger, no bodily labor, no intellectual training was avoided that might help to the coveted end. But such fires burn out; modern Rome is but the scorie of the an- cient volcano. Is all this climate? Would Vesuvius be more active at
 N