I don't believe what follows, but I will quote it without further comment now just for the heck of it. This is from Grant Allen, in GENTLEMEN'S MAGAZINE, 1878. The differences between one nation and another, whether in intellect, commerce, art, morals, or general temperament, ultimately depend, not upon any mysterious properties of race, nationality, or any other unknown or unintelligible abstractions, but simply and solely upon the physical circumstances to which they are exposed. If it be a fact, as we know it to be, that the French nation differs recognizably from the Chinese, and the people of Hamburg differ recognizably from the people of Timbuctoo, then the notorious and conspicuous differences between the are wholly due to the geographical position of the various races...the great permanent geographical features of land and sea.... We cannot regard any nation as an active agent in differentiating itself. Only the surrounding circumstances can have any effect in...