achievements in the history of the World have, as a rule, been wrought by men and women of lowly origin. Chris was born in a manager, Shakespeare was a poor village lad, AEsop was a slave, Arkwright was a mechanic, Burns a ploughman, Bunyan a bricklayer, Stephenson a blacksmith, Livingstone a weaver, Ferguson a cow-hard - the names occur to us by the score, poets, orators, astronomers, generals, statesmen, inventors - many, nay the great majority have sprung from the masses.
But a little reflection will lead us to a conclusion that reconciles the two seemingly opposite views.
The Burning heat of the tropics enervates men, killing their energies and making them flaccid and listless. The intense cold of the polar regions stunts their bodies and benumbs their intellect. The dominating races belong to the temperate regions. So we find that it is not from the ranks of the abject poor, who swarm in the slump-warrens of our big cities, that great men spring. Neither is it, for the most part, from those whose lives have been spert amid the endless distractions and unnatural conditioned of fashionable
298