have fallen to-day. The nations of cool, moist regions were barbarous and weak in the past, but have risen to power today. And those such as Greece and Spain, and perhaps Italy, occupying regions between the two extremes, hold intermediate positions in civilization; they are behind the cool, moist countries of Switzerland, England, and Germany, they are ahead of the arid lands of Persia, Arabia, and Algeria.
It has often been said that civilization has advanced from east to west: it would be truer to say that it has advanced from south to north. In the Old World, the earliest countries to enjoy a high state of development were Egypt and Babylonia, situated about thirty degrees north of the equator. Next Persia rose to prominence, not much farther north, to be sure, but located at a higher elevation, where the climate was cooler. About the same time, Syria, Greece, and Carthage, lying between thirty-five and forty degrees of latitude, became dominant powers. The next step was roughly five degrees farther north, to Rome. After the fall of the Roman Empire, there was for a few centuries no nation worthy to be called a world power. Then, when the Dark Ages passed away, France, Austria, and the states of southern Germany, all of which lie between forty-five and fifty degrees from the equator, took up the traditions of Rome. Finally, during modern times, the northern nations of England, Prussia, and Russia have risen to places of power. In America, there has been a somewhat similar progress from south to north. First, at the beginning of the Christian era, Yucatan, in latitude twenty, became highly civilized; then in the Middle Ages, Mexico and the Aztecs, five degrees farther north; and to-day the United States and
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