have had little chance of subduing and binding to their will the mighty rivers of Asia (except the Chinese,

who regulated their greatest rivers more than 2,000 years ago). The Hindus have come to recognise the

jungle as unconquerable, and its wild beasts as irresistible; and they passively acquiesce in their fate. Vast

Asiatic deserts are accepted as due to the will of God; and through this humble resignation other great

stretches of land, which once were highly cultivated, have come to be marked on the maps as desert,

because the difficulties of cultivation are no longer surmountable by a passive and uninventive population.

In Asia mankind has accepted nature; and the attempts to struggle against it have been almost wholly

confined to a remote past or to European settlers.

How it was that Asiatic races could do more to influence nature at a very early time than they have ever

attempted in later times is a problem that deserves separate consideration. Here we only observe that they

themselves attributed their early activity entirely to religion: the Mother-Goddess herself taught her children

how to conquer Nature by obeying her and using her powers. In its subsequent steady degradation their

religion lost that early power.

But among the experiences which specially impress the traveller who patiently explores Asia Minor step by

step, village by village, and province by province, perhaps the most impressive of all is the extent to which

natural circumstances mould the fate of cities and the character of men. The dominance of nature is,

certainly, more complete now than it was of old; but still even in the early ages of history it was great; and it

is a main factor both in molding the historical mythology, or mythical explanations of historical facts that

were current among the ancient peoples, and in guiding the more reasoned and pretentious scientific

explanations of history set forth by the educated and the philosophers. The writer of the Seven Letter has

stated in them his view of the history of each Church in harmony with the prominent features of nature

around the city.