the midst of a strenuous activity adapted to call out the best
intellectual and moral powers of man, they may remain unaffected by it,
incapable of effort, unintelligent, slothful, the weak and passive
recipients of what is brought to them by the labor of others.

But the struggle with physical nature, sometimes a spur to progress and
issuing in triumph, may also issue in defeat. Nature may be too strong
for man, or, at least, for man at an early stage of his development. She
may thwart his efforts and dwarf his life. It was through no accident
that the Athenian state rose and flourished upon the shores of the
Aegean; no such efflorescence of civilization could be looked for among
the Esquimaux of the frozen North.

25. THE CONQUESTS OF THE MIND.--Physical environment counts for much, but
the physical environment of man is the same as that of the creatures
below him who seem incapable of progress. It is as an intelligent being
that he succeeds in bringing about ever new and more complicated
adjustments to his environment.

From the point of view of his animal life in many respects inferior to
other creatures--less strong, less swift, less adequately provided with
natural means of defense, less protected by nature against cold, heat and
the inclemencies of the weather, endowed with instincts less unerring,
less prolific, through a long period of infancy helpless and dependent--
man nevertheless survives and prospers.

He has conquered the strong, overtaken the swift, called upon his
ingenuity to furnish him with means of defence. He has defied cold and
heat, and we find him, with appliances of his own devising, successfully
combating the rigors of Arctic frosts and the torrid sun of the tropics.