EUROPE, ONE of the great divisions of the globe. On a first view, Europe appears to be less favoured by nature than the other quarters of the globe over which it has obtained so great an ascendancy. It is much smaller in extent ; its rocky and mountainous surface does not admit of those noble rivers, like inland seas, which lay open the remotest regions of Asia and America to the commerce of the world. Its vegetable productions are neither so various nor so exuberant; and it is poorly supplied with the pre.. dons metals, and with many of those commodities on which mankind set the greatest value. On the other hand, the climate of Europe, if it nourishes a less luxuriant vegetation, is of an equal and temperate kind, well adapted to preserve the human frame in that state of health and vigour which fits it for la bour, and promotes the developement of the intel lectual and moral powers. The mountains that in tersect its surface were barriers which enabled infant communities to protect themselves from violence, and to lay the foundation of arts, knowledge, and civilization. If it has few large navigable rivers,' its inland seas and bays ate the finest in the world, and were the means of creating and nourishing that com mercial spirit which has been one great source of its improvement. Though comparatively deficient in gold and silver, it is abundantly supplied with those useful metals and minerals which minister still more essentially to the wants of civilized life. Its appar ent defects have become the source of real benefits, and the foundation of its grandeur. The disadvan tages of its soil and climate have excited the indus try of its inhabitants, given them clearer ideas of property, kindled a resolute spirit to defend their rights, and called into existence that skill and enter prise, and those innumerable arts and inventions, which have enabled the inhabitants of this apparent ly barren and rocky promontory to command the riches and luxuries of all the most favoured regions of the globe. It is only in Europe that knowledge and the arts seem to be indigenous. Though they have appeared at times among some of the nations of Asia, they have either stopt short after advancing a few or they have speedily retrograded and perish like something foreign to the genius of the peotin.. In Europe, on the contrary, they have sprung up at distant periods, and in a variety of situations; they have risen spontaneously and ra pidly, and declined slowly ; and when they disap peared, it, was evident, they were but crushed for the time by external violence, to rise again when the pressure had subsided. It is only in Europe, and among colonies of Europeans, that the powers of the human mind, breaking through the slavish attachment to ancient usages and institu tions, have developed that principle of progressive improvement of which it is impossible to calculate the final results. The rudest tribe in Europe, in
which this principle has taken root, has a certain source of superiority over the most improved na tions of Asia and Africa, where society remains per fectly stationary. If these nations are ever destined to advance in civilization, they must borrow from Europe those arts which she has invented, and which belong to civilized life in every climate. But the te nacious adherence of rude nations to the customs and superstitions of their ancestors will not allow us to hope that the benefits of civilization will be ra pidly diffused in this way. It is more probable, that colonies from the older states of Europe will multi ply, as the population becomes more and more re dundant; and that these colonies will carry the arts and knowledge, the language and manners of Eu rope with them, to the other quarters of the world. From prejudices on both sides, it is found that two races in very different stages of civilization do not readily amalgamate; and it is therefore probable, that the feebler inhabitants of these countries, like the American Indians, will be gradually displaced by the continued encroachments of the more ener getic race of Europe. Such a change, however, must take place slowly, and there is nothing in it to alarm humanity. The vast number of tribes that people Asia and Africa seem born only to be the victims of savage superstition and ferocious tyranny. No treatment they are likely to experience from Euro pean colonies can render their condition worse; and were the whole swarm of these nations to die out in the course of nature without being renewed, no great deduction would be made from the sum of human enjoyment. Should the state of things we have been contemplating, and which seems to arise naturally out of the circumstances of Europe, and the other quar-: ters of the globe, be realized, it will be curious to reflect on the circle of changes which will then be completed. The ancient inhabitants of Europe, as well as the modern, were originally colonies sent off from the surplus population of Asia. Here they hive thrown off their barbarism, invented and im proved arts and sciences, and carried their social in stitutions to a high degree of perfection ; and now, in the maturity of their strength, they are throwing back their surplus numbers upon Asia, to conquer and supplant the remains of those tribes from whom they originally sprung.