The Moral Influence of Climate.

New Zealand Mail, Issue 858, 10 August 1888, Page 9

The Moral Influence of Climate.

Dk. Felix L. Oswald, in ‘Popular Science.’

Since the revival of naturalism the tendencies of educational reform make it probable that the progress of moral philosophy will become identified with the development of a new science, thus far only outlined in a few incidental treatises on the interaction of body and mind. The possibilities of that science are suggestively indicated by the results of the statistical studies devoted to one of its branches- the moral influence of climate. Modern French scientists are nothing if not methodical, and have repeatedly called attention to the curious regularity in tho geographical distribution of certain vices and virtues : intemperanee, for instance, north of tho forty-eighth parallel; sexual aberrations south of "the forty-fifth ; financial extravagance in large seaport towns ; thrift in pastoral highland regions. It is, indeed, a remarkable circumstance that in the home of the best wine-grapes, in Greece and southern Spain, drunkenness i 3 far less prevalent than in Scotland, or in Russian Poland, where Bacchus can tempt his votaries only'with nauseous vodka. The idea that a low temperature begets an instinctive craving for alcoholic tonics seemu disproved by the teetotalism of the Patagonian savages, who horsewhip every Span-'sh stimulant-monger without benefit of clergy. The Lesghian mountaineers, too, observe the interdict of the Koran in the icy summit-regions of the Caucasus ; but there is no doubt that the bracing influence of a cold climate affords a oertain degree of immunity from the debilitating effect of the alcohol vice, and that a Scandinavian peasant can for years survive the effects of a daily dose of alcohol that would kill an Egyptian fellah m a single month. But it is equally oertain that the temperance of south-land nations is considerably facilitated by the abundance of nonalcoholic pastimes. The Spaniards have their fandangos and bull-fights ; the Greeks their border-raids, cockmg-mains, and horseraces • while the Scotchman, after six days of hard work, is confronted with the choice between the delirium of an alcohol fever and the appalling tedium of Sabbatarian asceticism, and naturally chooses the less dismal alternative. The supposed concomitance of low latitudes and low morals—in Origen’s sense of the word—is a theory considerably modified by the reports of our latter-day North Pole explorers. Cbamisso, Pallas, Adams, Gabriel Sarytchew, and Kane agree that certain tribes of the polar regions are sensual to a degree that would have scandalised the natives of ancient Lesbia, and certainly suffices to amaze the modern Cossacks, who, in their turn, astonish the not over-scrupulous moralists of the Bauubian principalities. Among theYakoots of northern Siberia mesalliances of an unmentionable kind are condoned as readily as a still more unprecedented degree of sexual precocity which Chamisso ascribes to the ‘ almost exclusively animal diet of the wretched pygmies.’ Our equally carnivorous Indians are, however, characterised by a sexual' apathy which an able American ethnologist seems inclined to consider a principal oause of their gradual extinction ; and Chamisso’s hypothesis must probably be supplemented by other explanations—for instance, the enforced idleness of his pygmies during the snowbound season of short days and overlong nights. Cffiteris paribus, however, precocity increases with the distance from the isotherm of Stockholm, about the sixtieth degree of northern latitude in Europe and the fortyfifth degree in the Western hemisphere. North of that parellel the stunted and shortlived hyperboreans marry as early as the premature children of the tropics, tropical highland regions generally excepted. The copper colored natives of the Peruvian alturus marry late, while under the same parallel the creoles of the Brazilian lowlands do not hesitate to encourage the matrimonial propensities of children in their earliest teens, boys of fourteen and girls of thirteen and twelve, or, if we shall believe Dr Burmeister, even of ten and nine. The courtships of Sicily, too, are expeditious, even from an Italian point of view, while on the island of Corsica a peculiar state of agrarian difficulties has counteracted the influence of climate. Many of the campanitas or small terrace plains have been so utterly exhausted that the available means of irrigation fail to redeem the impoverished soil, while a largo

percentage of the productive area i 3 in the hands of the convi-ntn, which, reserve the right of tenure for their old retainers. Combined with the straits of that land famine, the over-increase of population became such an unqualified ev 1 tl.a.-' the common sense of the peasants originate*: a system of ostracism, attaching infamy and social ex* communication to the preliminaries as well as to the results .of marriage before a specified ago. The late mari iago of mountaineers, too, may he partly by their instinctive 1-ve of independence. The sterile soil of a highland legion necessitates far and frequent excursions in quest of the means of subsistence, and the unencumbered privilege of personal freedom thus became often a condition of survival. With a marmot and a hand-organ, if not with a marmot alone, the young “Savoyard perambulates Europe from end to end, till he has aocutnulated the equivalent of an Alpine competency. The inonicros of the upper Apennines roam Italy like gipsies, ready to do any man’s harvest-work. Young Scotchmen cross the Tweed or even the Atlantic before they venture to run the risks of matrimony on the precarious resources of a Highland moor. Highlanders, though the stoutest defenders of their native soil, have therefore rarely engaged in wars of conquest ; and the most expansive nations, to a Bistnarckian euphuism, were gene, ally lowlanders — Prussians, Bussians, Arabs, Mongols, Goths, and Tartars. We might add llomans, for the tide of conquest which i>: undated all the coast lands of the Mediterranean originally emanate! from the plains of Latium. Russia will not rest till her fleet rides the eastern Mediterranean as well »3 the Enxine. Tamerlane avowedly intended to extend his empire to the Atlantic ; and, from the campaigns of King Cyrus to the expansive enterprises of Victor Emanuel, nine out of ten international wars have ended with the victory of northern nations over their southern neighbors, 'ihe goddess of fortune would decline to be crowned wiih a fur cap, and the sun of the south that turns a lynx into a lion does not necessarily reverse the process in the case of the human animal; but it is true that a rigorous climate evolves superior 4 staying power,’ and in war the last shout is worth a dozen challenges. The history of Europe might, indeed, encourage the idea that certain northern nations love war for its own sake, though Professor Vogt informs us that gratuitous combativeness is a sign of specific inferiority. 4 Ants and waspe that tackle every wayfarer,’ says he, ‘ cannot compete with the species that their energy for ssrious emergencies, and without the protection of the dog-fancier the breed of bull-dogs would speedily succumb to their preposterous propensities.’ Waspish aggressiveness would rather seem to be a product of sterile plains, that appear to bristle with stilettos as spontaneously as with cactusthorns —the brigandage of Turkistan and stony Araby having its exact analogue in the kidnapping and train-robbing rowdyism of our arid South-west. Nor is it quite certain that the 4 instinct of industry ’ can be considered an exclusive product of the higher latitudes. When all northern Europe was still slouching in bear-skins, Egypt and Phcenicia were buzzing hives of industrial activity. Civilisation, in the modern sense of the word, is, however, to a large extent founded on the activity of the instincta. of co-operation and altruism, both of which are undoubtedly stimulated by the emergencies of a rigorous climate. A hard-headed northlauder who has himself been snowbound and frost-bitten will not ignore the distress of a help-needing neighbor; while the religious charity of the Siamese peasant is apt to bo modified by the reflection that, after the total loss of their fruit crop, his storm-stricken brethren in Buddha can still eke out a tolerable living in the woods.