THE GEOGRAPHIC BASIS OF HISTORY 361
important aspect of the subject is found in the influence which physiographic environment exerts upon human character. We have seen that the plateaus and deserts of Central Asia entail upon the Khirghiz the nomadic life, and this accentuates certain characteristics, such as hardihood, hospitality, laziness, morality, and family affection. The oases of the basin floors, on the other hand, cause the Chantos to practice intensive agriculture; and the sheltered easy life, thus made possible, seems to induce weakness of will, cowardice, immorality, and the weakening of those ties between parents and children which lead to careful training of the growing generation. Doubtless religion and other causes play an important part, but still there remains much of the character of the Chantos and Khirghiz which owes its origin more or less directly to physical conditions. This is probably true of all races. Not that a single individual's character in a civilized community is directly influenced to so great an extent by the inorganic world around him. He inherits, or receives through the training of others, most of what he is. Nevertheless, inheritance is merely the summation of past training : the training of the average man is strictly in accordance with the social order in which he is born ; and the social order owes much of its character to the sea, the plains, the forest, the mountains, or the factory river, by which the occupation of the majority of the people is determined. Those who belong to the so-called upper classes of society are apt to forget that the average man is limited by physiographic conditions much more closely than they; and the limitations become closer the farther back we go toward the savage state. When all this is considered, it becomes
IIIFカラー高解像度
