The Pulse of Asia : vol.1 / 453 ページ（カラー画像）

0453	The Pulse of Asia : vol.1
アジアの鼓動 : vol.1

0453

The Pulse of Asia : vol.1

アジアの鼓動 : vol.1

the reindeer, as well as the elk, and the wild bull, was a
native of the Hercynian forest, which then over-shadowed
a great part of Germany and Poland. . . .
"It is difficult to ascertain, and easy to exaggerate, the
influence of the climate of ancient Germany over the minds
and bodies of the natives. Many writers have supposed,
and must have allowed, though, as it would seem, without
any adequate proof, that the rigorous cold of the north was
favorable to long life and generative vigour, that the women
were more fruitful, and the human species more prolific,
than in warmer and more temperate climes. We may assert
with greater confidence, that the keen air of Germany
formed the large and masculine limbs of the natives, who
were, in general, of a more lofty stature than the people of
the south, gave them a kind of strength better adapted to
violent exertions than to patient labour, and inspired them
with constitutional bravery, which is the result of nerves and
spirits. The severity of a winter campaign, that chilled the
courage of the Roman troops, was scarcely felt by these
hardy children of the north, who in their turn were unable
to resist the summer heats, and dissolved away in languor
and sickness under the beams of an Italian sun."
Gibbon goes on to enlarge upon the low state of civili-
zation among the ancient Germans, and upon the scarcity
of the population. "In the most inclement weather," he
says, "the hardy German was satisfied with a scanty gar-
ment made of the skin of some animal. The nations who
dwelt toward the north, clothed themselves in furs, and the
women manufactured for their own use a coarse kind of
linen. The game of various sorts, with which the forests of

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