The Albert NYanza, Great Basin of the Nile | Page 8

points that are easily attainable must always enjoy a
superior civilization to those that are remote from association with the
world.
We may thus assume that the advance of civilization is dependent upon
facility of transport. Countries naturally excluded from communication
may, through the ingenuity of man, be rendered accessible; the natural
productions of those lands may be transported to the seacoast in
exchange for foreign commodities; and commerce, thus instituted,
becomes the pioneer of civilization.

England, the great chief of the commercial world, possesses a power
that enforces a grave responsibility. She has the force to civilize. She is
the natural colonizer of the world. In the short space of three centuries,
America, sprung from her loins, has become a giant offspring, a new
era in the history of the human race, a new birth whose future must be
overwhelming. Of later date, and still more rapid in development,
Australia rises, a triumphant proof of England's power to rescue wild
lands from barrenness; to wrest from utter savagedom those mighty
tracts of the earth's surface wasted from the creation of the world,--a
darkness to be enlightened by English colonization. Before the
advancing steps of civilization the savage inhabitants of dreary wastes
retreated: regions hitherto lain hidden, and counting as nothing in the
world's great total, have risen to take the lead in the world's great
future.
Thus England's seed cast upon the earth's surface germinates upon soils
destined to reproduce her race. The energy and industry of the mother
country become the natural instincts of her descendants in localities
adapted for their development; and wherever Nature has endowed a
land with agricultural capabilities, and favourable geographical position,
slowly but surely that land will become a centre of civilization.
True Christianity cannot exist apart from civilization; thus, the spread
of Christianity must depend upon the extension of civilization; and that
extension depends upon commerce.
The philanthropist and the missionary will expend their noble energies
in vain in struggling against the obtuseness of savage hordes, until the
first steps towards their gradual enlightenment shall have been made by
commerce. The savage must learn to WANT; he must learn to be
ambitious; and to covet more than the mere animal necessities of food
and drink. This can alone be taught by a communication with civilized
beings: the sight of men well clothed will induce the naked savage to
covet clothing, and will create a WANT; the supply of this demand will
be the first step towards commerce. To obtain the supply, the savage
must produce some article in return as a medium of barter, some natural
production of his country adapted to the trader's wants. His wants will
increase as his ideas expand by communication with Europeans: thus,
his productions must increase in due proportion, and he must become
industrious; industry being the first grand stride towards civilization.

The natural energy of all countries is influenced by climate; and
civilization being dependent upon industry, or energy, must
accordingly vary in its degrees according to geographical position. The
natives of tropical countries do not progress: enervated by intense heat,
they incline rather to repose and amusement than to labour. Free from
the rigour of winters, and the excitement of changes in the seasons, the
native character assumes the monotony of their country's temperature.
They have no natural difficulties to contend with,--no struggle with
adverse storms and icy winds and frost-bound soil; but an everlasting
summer, and fertile ground producing with little tillage, excite no
enterprise; and the human mind, unexercised by difficulties, sinks into
languor and decay. There are a lack of industry, a want of intensity of
character, a love of ease and luxury, which leads to a devotion to
sensuality,--to a plurality of wives, which lowers the character and
position of woman. Woman, reduced to that false position, ceases to
exercise her proper influence upon man; she becomes the mere slave of
passion, and, instead of holding her sphere as the emblem of
civilization she becomes its barrier. The absence of real love
engendered by a plurality of wives, is an absolute bar to progress; and
so long as polygamy exists, an extension of civilization is impossible.
In all tropical countries polygamy is the prevailing evil: this is the
greatest obstacle to Christianity. The Mahommedan religion, planned
carefully for Eastern habits, allowed a plurality of wives, and prospered.
The savage can be taught the existence of a Deity, and become a
Mussulman; but to him the hateful law of fidelity to one wife is a bar to
Christianity. Thus, in tropical climates there will always be a slower
advance of civilization than in more temperate zones.
The highest civilization was originally confined to the small portion of
the globe comprised between Persia, Egypt, Greece, and Italy. In those
countries was concentrated the world's