Watertown republican. [volume] (Watertown, Wis.) 1860-1906, 1891-01-21
MANS ENVIRONMENTS.
The Effect They Produce on Human Pro-
gress and Intel1ipence.

The Effect They Produce on Human Pro-
gress and Intelligence.
Our review of the photographic con-
ditions which environ our race on this
continent makes it tolerably plain that
North America is we'll suited for the de-
velopment of Northern Europeans We
may dismiss the fear that our race is to
deteriorate in this country. We may
further put aside the notion that we are
to be massive, UNMARRIED people, desti-
tute of those differences which by their
reaction bring about the advance Of
man. 1t is true that the continent is
not divided into the separate areas
which have cons tito ted the cradle-lands
of the Old Word, but it is evident that
the wide diversities in occupation will
institute and maintain variations in the
character of the people probably in
time to be as great as those which in
the more natural state Of man depended
on purely geographic conditions At
present, while the open struc ture of our
social and economic life permits rapid
change in the occupations of men, the
effect of ind ustries dependent on phys
iographic cond tions is not much felt;
but with the increase and consolidation
of our population we may be sure that
vocations will become more hereditary.
Men will follow the occupations of the
pillow, the mine or the mill from genera
ton to general ton, and SO the commune
ties will receive the individualized
stamp, which comes only through an
cestral habit In the beginning man.
kind was dependent for culture and diff
fusion mainly upon geographic condi-
tions. Each tribe was environed by
rigid customs which Tended off it's nigh
bors. The movements were necessarily
massive, for they were to result in dis
placement of pre-existing peoples.
Therefore the first stages Of mans de-
velopment resemble, as regards the con-
ditions of increase and diffusion, those
of his lower kindred in the ranks of life.
The progress of intellectual capacity
has given certain races larger meas
ure of ntrol over their circum stances.
Still, even in our own centuries, the
implantation of our race in new lands
already possessed by men has proved
task of exceeding difficulty. The would
be colonists of the sixteenth and seven
GeouUn COuUuF1oS, Oh JuS odSU0Fn COdSU
of America, found something of the diff
fculty in gaining their foothold which
stray plants or animals from one fora
Or fauna find when they are cast within
foreign field. Even in the present
state of their development the most adj
vanced races of men are limited by the
climate, and can only dwell where the
larger nature permits. For all that we
can foresee of the future, this depend
ence of man upon the cond lions of his
environment is of an insuperable nat
ure. The good he wins he secures by
obedience to the commands Of his
mother-earth. Looking back over the
history of life upon the earth's surface,
the photographer is forced to the con-
clusion that it's highest estate EN- bodied
in the moral and intellectual qualities
of man has been, in the main, secured
by the geographic variations which have
slowly developed through the geolog-
ical ages. Thus our continents and seas
can not be considered as physical acct
dents in which, and on which, organic
beings have found an ever-perilous rest
ing-place, but as great engines operat-
ing in a determined way to secure the
advance of life.--Prof n. S. Shaler, in
Scribner's Magazine.