Outlines of a philosophy of the history of man / translated from the German of John Godfrey Herder, T. Churchill.
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Date:
- 1800
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Outlines of a philosophy of the history of man / translated from the German of John Godfrey Herder, T. Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
38/672 page 16
![land is broader, and the mountains run northward and eaftward] Thus Ame- rica, even according to it’s figure, is a dripe of earth appended to it’s moun- tains, and formed more level, or more fteep, according to their declivity. The other three quarters of the Globe prefent a more complicated aipeCt, as their great outline forms in fa<d but one whole; yet it requires no great exer- tion to perceive, that the protuberant fpine of Afia is the dem of the mountains, that fpread over that quarter of the Globe, over Europe, and probably over Africa, or at lead it’s fuperiour part. Atlas is but a continuation of the afiatic mountains, acquiring a greater height in the middle of the country, and in all likelihood connecting itfelf with the Mountains of the Moon, by means of the chains of mountains near the Nile. Whether thcfe Mountains of the Moon be diffidently high and broad, to be deemed actually one of the fpinesof the Earth, futurity mud determine. The extent of the country, and fome impeded ac- counts, give room for fuch a conjecture; but the proportionate paucity and fmallnefs of thofe rivers of this quarter of the Globe, with which we are ac- quainted, prevent us from determining them to be a true girdle of the Earth, as the Ural of Afia, or the Cordilleras of America. But it is enough for our purpofe, that in thefe regions alfo the land is evidently fafhioned by the moun- tains. It is every w'here extended parallel to thefe; and wherever the moun- tains fpread and branch out, there alfo fpreads the land. This remark is equally valid in the promontory, the ifiand, and the peninfula: the land dretches out it’s arms and limbs, wherever the ikeleton of mountains is dretched out; it is, therefore, only a diverfified mafs, formed on this fkeleton in various ranges and layers, that ultimately became habitable. Thus the production of the fird mountains determined how the Earth fliould exid as dry land. They feem-as it were the ancient nuclei, or buttredes, of the Earth, on which the air and water only depofited their burdens, till at length a place for vegetable organization was laid down, and fpread out. Thefe mod ancient chains of mountains are not capable of being explained by the rotation of the Globe : they are not in the region of the equator, w'here the orbicular motion is mod powerful; they are not even parallel to it; indeed the american chain pafles direCtly acrofs the equator. From thefe mathematical circles, therefore, v/e can feek no light; particularly as the loftied mountains and chains of mountains, compared with the moving mafs of the Globe, are reduced to an infignificant nothing. I deem it, therefore, not fit, to fubditute an analogy with the equator and meridians in the names of chains of mountains, as there is no true connexion between them, and it may tend to introduce erroneous ideas. It is from their original form, generation, and extenfion, from their 4 height](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22010282_0038.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
