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RIESBECK’S TRAVELS THROUGH GERMANY. 229
people who dwelt near the Elbe and Wefer, fhould have overcome Varus, when we fee
that the North Americans, by nature the moft cowardly, and at the breaking out of the
war the moft undifciplined people upon earth, are able, by the advantages of their woods,
rivers, pools, and the extent of their uncultivated country, to oppofe all the force Great
Britain can bring againft them? And yet the climate of North America is not
fo adverfe to the Englith, as that of the fouth of Germany muft have been to the Ro-
mans; nor was Germany at that time nearly fo well cultivated as North America now
is? Let a man conceive Varus’s army on the river St. Lawrence, lake Superior, the lake
of the Illinois, and the upper regions of the Miflifippi, and ftill he will have no true
idea of their fituation in Germany. They were far from poffefling the facilities of pro-
viding for the-exigencies of war, which they would have hadin North America. Ger-
many was at that time an uninterrupted wood; its rivers were not confined within a
ftanding bed, but in feveral places formed immenfe morafies, too many and too vifible
marks of which ftill remain.
The inhabitants of Germany, who afterwards fubdued the fouth, were no doubt in-
debted for this advantage to the wars which the Romans had before waged again{t them,
juft as the Turks and North Americans have become good foldiers by their wars with the
Ruflians and Britons. What think you if any body had told the Scipios that fome time
or other the conqnerors of Rome fhould come out of the Hercinian forefts ? would they
have attributed any thing to the climate? No, they would have anfwered that the man-
ners, conftitution, and armies of Rome mutt firlt be changed; and that was the cafe.
But what became of thefe northern conquerors when the luxury of the inhabitants of
the fouth had fubdued their natures, and made them vaffals to them? ‘Were they not
like the over-flowings of their own rivers, which thaw after a long froft, and lay wafte
the fields far and near with ice and fand? All the conquerors of the fouth, evlightened
and erected; whereasall the conquerors of the north, darkened and pulled down? This
was the cafe both before and after the Roman era. The Babylonians and Egyptians,
fuppofing the accounts of the expeditions of the latter to be true, were benevolent con-
querors like the Greeks and Macedonians. But what were the Scythians ? ‘The Arabs
{pread arts, fciences, and humanity, wherever they extended their power. But what dark-
nefs enfued when the northern Turks had extended the bounds of their empire? It is
a ftriking inftance of the bodily weaknefs of the northern nations, that they always be-
come enervated as foon as they have been fome time in the fouth, which they never could
cope with long; whereas no hiftory informs vs of the climate of the north ever having
been fatal to the ftrength and activity of the Romans. How did Czefar’s troops hold
out in Gaul, Britany, and Holland? How did the Romans behave under the Emperors
on the Rhine, the Danube, and the neighbourhood of the Elbe and Wefer ? You tell us
it is the climate which prevents the northern people from being hardy in the fouth. but
were the Romans effeminate when their forefathers eat oatmeal pap? Were the Spar-
tans or Macedonians effeminate ? ‘The generality of the Spaniards and Italians of this
day, are by no means a weak people. It is not therefore the climate alone which makes
the difference. It is rather the weak nervous fy{tem ot the northern nations which ren-
ders them unable to bear the contraft of the hot days and cold nights, which braces up
the ftrong-built natives ; nor can they fupport the change made in their way of life. The
great bodies of the Dutch, Danes, and Poles, are bare lumps of flefh and bones, the
former of which is difguftingly flabby. On the other hand, the lighter Italians, as well
as the darker Spaniards, are more finewy, and more mufcular, which is the true cha-
racter of bodily {trength. -Nor are the minds of the northern nations lefs weak than
their bodies, A proof of it is, their never having been able to eftablith lafting empires
~ in
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