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PROGRAMMING
MATHEMATICS
USING MATLAB®
PROGRAMMING
MATHEMATICS USING
MATLAB®

LISA A. OBERBROECKLING
Department of Mathematics and Statistics
Loyola University Maryland
Baltimore, MD, United States
Academic Press is an imprint of Elsevier
125 London Wall, London EC2Y 5AS, United Kingdom
525 B Street, Suite 1650, San Diego, CA 92101, United States
50 Hampshire Street, 5th Floor, Cambridge, MA 02139, United States
The Boulevard, Langford Lane, Kidlington, Oxford OX5 1GB, United Kingdom
Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

MATLAB® is a trademark of The MathWorks, Inc. and is used with permission.

The MathWorks does not warrant the accuracy of the text or exercises in this book.
This book’s use or discussion of MATLAB® software or related products does not constitute endorsement or
sponsorship by The MathWorks of a particular pedagogical approach or particular use of the MATLAB® software.
No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or
mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage and retrieval system, without
permission in writing from the publisher. Details on how to seek permission, further information about the
Publisher’s permissions policies and our arrangements with organizations such as the Copyright Clearance Center
and the Copyright Licensing Agency, can be found at our website: www.elsevier.com/permissions.
This book and the individual contributions contained in it are protected under copyright by the Publisher (other
than as may be noted herein).
Notices
Knowledge and best practice in this field are constantly changing. As new research and experience broaden our
understanding, changes in research methods, professional practices, or medical treatment may become necessary.
Practitioners and researchers must always rely on their own experience and knowledge in evaluating and using any
information, methods, compounds, or experiments described herein. In using such information or methods they
should be mindful of their own safety and the safety of others, including parties for whom they have a professional
responsibility.
To the fullest extent of the law, neither the Publisher nor the authors, contributors, or editors, assume any liability
for any injury and/or damage to persons or property as a matter of products liability, negligence or otherwise, or
from any use or operation of any methods, products, instructions, or ideas contained in the material herein.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

A catalog record for this book is available from the Library of Congress

British Library Cataloguing-in-Publication Data

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

ISBN: 978-0-12-817799-0

For information on all Academic Press publications

visit our website at https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals

Publisher: Katey Birtcher

Editorial Project Manager: Rafael G. Trombaco
Production Project Manager: Beula Christopher
Designer: Bridget Hoette
Typeset by VTeX
To Rob and James, for the support, patience (especially when teaching MATLAB), and
laughter.

To Christos Xenophontos for your encouragement and for introducing me to MATLAB.

Contents

Preface xiii
Introduction xv

Part 1. MATLAB®

1. Introduction to MATLAB® 3
1.1. Basic MATLAB® information 3
1.1.1. Starting MATLAB 3
1.1.2. Good commands to know 3
1.2. Basic mathematics 4
1.2.1. Built-in mathematical functions 5
1.2.2. Precedence rules 6
1.2.3. Formats 8
1.3. Variables 9
1.4. Diaries and script files 10
1.5. Exercises 12

2. Vectors and Matrices (Arrays) 15

2.1. One-dimensional arrays (vectors) 15
2.1.1. Constant spaced vectors 15
2.1.2. Equally spaced vectors 16
2.2. Two-dimensional arrays (matrices) 17
2.3. Addressing elements of vectors/arrays 18
2.4. Component-wise calculations 22
2.5. Random numbers 25
2.6. Exercises 28

3. Plotting in MATLAB® 33
3.1. Basic 2D plots 33
3.2. Bad domain examples 34
3.3. Axis settings 35
3.4. Multiple plots 40
3.5. Color, line, and marker modifications 43
3.5.1. Clf/close all 46
3.5.2. Subplots 46
3.6. Other 2D plots 49
3.6.1. Parametric curves 49
3.6.2. Polar curves 50
3.7. Exercises 52

4. Three-Dimensional Plots 59
4.1. Vector functions or space curves 59

vii
viii Contents

4.2. Plotting surfaces 62

4.2.1. The meshgrid command 63
4.2.2. Domain issues 64
4.2.3. Level curves 65
4.2.4. Multiple plots and modifying colors 66
4.3. View command 68
4.4. Axis settings, revisited 70
4.5. Other coordinate systems and 3D graphs 72
4.5.1. The sphere and cylinder commands 72
4.5.2. Cylindrical coordinates 75
4.5.3. Spherical coordinates 77
4.6. Exercises 78

5. Functions 83
5.1. The lookfor and help commands 83
5.2. File format 84
5.3. Function examples 86
5.3.1. Basic function examples 86
5.3.2. More function examples – multiple inputs 86
5.3.3. Multiple outputs 87
5.3.4. Bad examples 89
5.4. Exercises 90

6. Control Flow 93
6.1. Relational and logical operators 93
6.2. If statements 97
6.3. Switch/case 99
6.4. Use of characteristic functions 99
6.5. For loops 100
6.6. While loops 102
6.7. Useful commands break, continue, return, and error 103
6.8. Optional inputs and outputs of functions 104
6.9. Exercises 107

7. Miscellaneous Commands and Code Improvement 115

7.1. Miscellaneous commands 115
7.1.1. The fprintf command 115
7.1.2. The sprintf command 117
7.1.3. Formats revisited 118
7.1.4. The save/load commands 118
7.1.5. The tic/toc commands 119
7.1.6. The fill command 119
7.1.7. The command alpha 122
7.1.8. The syms, diff, int, and subs commands 125
7.1.9. Commands for polynomials 127
 Contents ix

7.2. Code improvement 129

7.2.1. Vectorization of code 130
7.2.2. Preallocation 131

Part 2. Mathematics and MATLAB®

8. Transformations and Fern Fractals 135

8.1. Linear transformations 135
8.2. Affine transformations 139
8.3. Fern fractals 140
8.4. Exercises 141

9. Complex Numbers and Fractals 147

9.1. Complex numbers 147
9.1.1. Adding complex numbers 147
9.1.2. Multiplication by a real numbers (scalars) 147
9.1.3. Multiplication and de Moivre’s theorem/formula 147
9.1.4. Plotting complex numbers in MATLAB® 150
9.1.5. Creating line segments with complex numbers 151
9.2. The Chaos Game 153
9.3. Line replacement fractals 154
9.3.1. Snowflake fractals 154
9.3.2. Gosper Island 155
9.4. Geometric series 156
9.5. Exercises 158

10. Series and Taylor Polynomials 167

10.1. Review of series 167
10.2. Power series 169
10.3. Taylor polynomials and Taylor series 173
10.4. Exercises 177

11. Numerical Integration 183

11.1. Approximating integrals/numerical integration 183
11.2. Riemann sums 183
11.3. Error bounds 185
11.4. Simpson’s rule 186
11.5. Exercises 189

12. The Gram–Schmidt Process 193

12.1. General vector spaces and subspaces 193
12.1.1. Vector spaces 193
12.1.2. Subspaces 194
12.2. Linear combinations of vectors 195
12.3. Linear independence and bases 196
x Contents

12.3.1. Linear independence 196

12.3.2. Bases 197
12.4. Rank 200
12.5. Orthonormal vectors and the Gram–Schmidt process 201
12.5.1. Orthogonal and orthonormal vectors 201
12.5.2. The Gram–Schmidt process 204
12.6. Answers to example problems 210
12.7. Exercises 211

A. Publishing and Live Scripts 215

A.1. Live scripts 215
A.2. Basic scripts or M-files 215
A.3. Publishing M-files 216
A.4. Using sections 216
A.4.1. Using sections for publishing 217
A.4.2. Using sections for running/debugging files 222
A.5. Formatting text 223
A.5.1. Basic text formatting 223
A.5.2. Lists 224
A.5.3. HTML links 225
A.5.4. Inserting images 225
A.5.5. Pre-formatted text 226
A.5.6. Inserting HTML code 227
A.5.7. Inserting LATEXequations 227

B. Final Projects 229

B.1. Ciphers 229
B.1.1. Substitution cipher 229
B.1.2. Columnar transposition cipher 230
B.2. Game of Pig 231
B.3. Linearization and Newton’s method 232
B.3.1. Linearization 232
B.3.2. Newton’s method 232
B.4. Disk and Shell method 234
B.5. Power ball data 235

C. Linear Algebra Projects 237

C.1. Matrix calculations and linear systems 237
C.1.1. First handout 237
C.1.2. Exercises 239
C.2. The Hill cipher 243
C.2.1. Useful commands 245
C.2.2. Exercises 251
C.3. Least-squares solutions 252
C.3.1. Brief overview 252
 Contents xi

C.3.2. Curve fitting 253

C.3.3. Exercises 254
C.4. Markov matrices 256
C.4.1. Brief overview 256
C.4.2. Exercises 256

D. Multivariable Calculus Projects 261

D.1. Lines and planes 261
D.2. Vector functions 262
D.2.1. 2D example plots 262
D.2.2. 3D example plot 262
D.2.3. Bad domain example 263
D.2.4. Adjusting the view 263
D.2.5. Sphere command 263
D.2.6. Multiple plots on one figure 265
D.2.7. Exercises 265
D.3. Applications of double integrals 266
D.3.1. Calculating integrals and viewing regions 266
D.3.2. Exercises 268

References 271
Index 273
Preface

This book started in 2004 when I started to use MATLAB® in my courses at Loyola
University Maryland. I started including a few MATLAB projects within the intro-
duction to linear algebra and multivariable calculus courses. I also taught a one-credit
MATLAB course that was required of every mathematics major. Later the course was
changed to a three-credit course. I expanded the previous assignments and added some
others. The class notes and assignments from over the years have expanded into this
book.
My philosophy has always been to use MATLAB to practice basic programming skills
with mathematics topics students had seen previously, such as numerical integration, and
topics they likely had not seen such as fractals. Visualizing mathematics has always been
important.

Supplements
Student companion site: Please visit https://www.elsevier.com/books-and-journals/
book-companion/9780128177990
Instructor-only site: Qualified instructors can register and access teaching materials
at https://textbooks.elsevier.com/web/Manuals.aspx?isbn=9780128177990

xiii
Introduction

The goal of the course and thus book is to introduce MATLAB® and to practice basic
programming techniques. There is a lot more to MATLAB than what is covered in this
book. Most students have already had some programming experience in another lan-
guage before taking the course this book has stemmed from, although it is not necessary.
On completion of the course/book, one should be familiar enough with MATLAB to
explore more complicated features and commands. Deepening your understanding of
mathematics and learning new topics are bonuses!

xv
CHAPTER 1

Introduction to MATLAB®
1.1. Basic MATLAB® information
1.1.1 Starting MATLAB
MATLAB has many different windows or panels, the first three of which are on the
main screen by default (see Table 1.1).
You can always modify the layout of the panels including “docking” or “undock-
ing” them, in the “Home” view, select “Layout” from the menu and the top item is
“Default.” In order to use MATLAB successfully, you should pay attention to the Cur-
rent Folder. Otherwise, MATLAB may not be able to save and run your programs/files
successfully.

1.1.2 Good commands to know

The first four commands are useful to “start fresh” without closing and reloading MAT-
LAB.
• clc Clears the command window of all previous commands and output. These
commands are still stored in the command history and can be accessed with the
up-arrow.
• clear Clears all defined variables in memory. BE CAREFUL WITH THIS COM-
MAND! You can also clear certain variable names by typing clear varname1
varname2.
• clf and close Clears the current figure (plot). If no figure window was open, it
will open a blank figure window. Another command is close. This will close the
current figure window. The command close all will close all figure windows.
Note that there is no clf all. Both of these commands have other variations to

Table 1.1 Main MATLAB Windows.

Command Window Enter commands and variables, run programs
Workspace Window Information about the current variables
Current Folder Window Shows the files in the current folder/directory
Command History Window History of commands entered in Command Window
Figure Window Output from graphic commands
Editor Window Creates and debugs script and function files
Help Window Help information
Launch Pad Window Access to tools, demos, and documentation

Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB® Copyright © 2021 Elsevier Inc.

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4 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

clear/close named figures, etc. such as clf(2) and close(2) that will clear or close
Figure 2, respectively.
• format Sends the output display back to the default format. The command format
compact will not have as much white space (blank lines) between subsequent
commands and output.
• exit or quit Quit MATLAB. You can also quit/exit MATLAB by using the
MENU option under “File” or the usual close application icon within a Mac or
Windows environment.

Other good commands

• who Lists current variables
• help command Displays the help for command. For example, help atan2.
• disp('text') Displays text as output in the command window.
• exist text or exist('text') Checks if variables or functions are defined (see
help exist for more details).
• lookfor text Searches for “text” as a keyword in help entries of functions.

>> exist average

ans =

>> lookfor average

mean - Average or mean value.
HueSaturationValueExample - Compute Maximum Average HSV of Images with MapReduce
ewmaplot - Exponentially weighted moving average chart.

1.2. Basic mathematics

Mathematical operations
MATLAB uses the typical symbols for addition, subtraction, multiplication, division,
and exponentiation (+, -, ∗, /, and ^). These are considered matrix arithmetic op-
erations and follow the rules from linear or matrix algebra.

>> 10/3

ans =

3.3333

MATLAB has another division operator, the “divided into” operator.

 Introduction to MATLAB® 5

>> 10\3

ans =

0.3000

Thus the forward slash is our usual division, “3 divided by 2” while the backslash is “3
divided into 2.” The need for both of these become more apparent when working with
matrices.
“Dot” operations or component-wise operations are useful and/or necessary for
use with vectors and matrices (discussed in Section 2.4). These are considered “array
arithmetic operations” and are carried out element or component-wise.
MATLAB does NUMERICAL, rather than algebraic computations, as seen below.
Think about what is expected versus what is given as the answer to the subraction
calculation.

>> asin(1/2)

ans =

0.5236

>> pi/6 - asin(1/2)

ans =

-1.1102e-16

1.2.1 Built-in mathematical functions

Table 1.2 has common mathematical functions in MATLAB. This is not a complete list.
The modulo function mod calculates the modulus after division. In other words,
mod(x,y) returns the remainder when you divide x by y. In some languages like Python
or Perl this is equivalent to % is the modulus operator. Thus mod(x,y) in MATLAB is
the same as x % y in other languages. There is also a remainder function rem that has
the same functionality as mod EXCEPT when the divisor and quotient are opposite
signs or the quotient is 0 (see Exercise 9).

>> mod(10,3)

ans =

1
6 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

>> rem(10,3)

ans =

>> mod(10,-3)

ans =

-2

>> rem(10,-3)

ans =

>> mod(10,0)

ans =

10

>> rem(10,0)

ans =

NaN

NOTE: NaN stands for “not a number.”

1.2.2 Precedence rules

While some languages go strictly from left to right when there are multiple operations
within one line, most now follow the mathematical rules for order of operations. Many
of you may know the pneumonic PEMDAS (Please excuse my dear Aunt Sally); paren-
theses, exponentiation, multiplication, division, addition, subtraction. There are some
issues with that pneumonic, however. There are also some discrepancies, to be explored
in the exercises. Table 1.3 shows the precedence rules for the arithmetic operations
discussed so far, going from highest precedence to lowest.
One thing to consider is: where do functions go on this list? For example, how does
MATLAB interpret the command cos(x)^2? Is this equivalent to cos(x2 ), cos2 (x), or
something else entirely? This will be explored in the exercises.
 Introduction to MATLAB® 7

Table 1.2 Mathematical functions.

sqrt(x) Square root
exp(x) Exponential (ex )
abs(x) Absolute value
mod(x,y) Modulus
rem(x,y) Remainder
log(x) Natural logarithm (ln(x))
log10(x) Common logarithm
sin(x) Sine of x (radians)
sind(x) Sine of x (degrees)
cos(x) Cosine of x
tan(x) Tangent of x
cot(x) Cotangent of x
asin(x) Inverse sine of x (radians)
asind(x) Inverse sine of x (degrees)
pi π

Table 1.3 Basic math precedence.

( ) parentheses
^ exponentiation
∗ / \ multiplication and division
+ - addition and subtraction

If you have a long calculation/expression, you can continue on the next line in
the command window or within a MATLAB file with the ellipses or continuation
operator. Note when the ellipses work with/without spaces:

>> 1+2*3-12^2/3 ...

*2

ans =

-89

>> 1+2*3-12^2/3 *...

2

ans =

-89

>> 1+2*3-12^2/3*...
2
8 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

ans =

-89

>> 1+2*3-12^2/3...
1+2*3-12^2/3...
|
Error: Unexpected MATLAB operator.

1.2.3 Formats
As mentioned above, the format command returns the format back to the default
format, which is the same as format short. Generally speaking, this will display a
number up to four decimal places, while format long will display 15. In scientific
notation, this amounts to five and 16 significant digits, respectively. See Table 1.4.

>> pi

ans =

3.1416

>> format long

>> pi

ans =

3.141592653589793

There are other built-in formats, including how numbers in scientific notation are dis-
played. See help format for more examples.
Another useful command is format compact and format loose (default). This
will change how the output is displayed.

>> pi

ans =

3.1416

>> format compact

>> pi
ans =
3.1416
>> format loose
 Introduction to MATLAB® 9

>> pi

ans =

3.1416

>>

The subsequent commands shown in this text will use format compact (see Table 1.4).

Table 1.4 Basic formats displaying 10∗pi.

format short (default) 31.4159
format long 31.415926535897931
format rat 3550/113
format bank 31.42
format short e 3.1416e+01
format long e 3.141592653589793e+01
format short g 31.416
format long g 31.4159265358979
format hex 403f6a7a2955385e
format compact (no blank lines)
format loose (default) (some blank lines)

1.3. Variables
The format for a variable assignment is as follows:
Variable name = Numerical value or computable expression
Some conventions:
• The = is the assignment operator which assigns a value to a variable.
• Left-hand side can include only one variable name.
• Right-hand side can be a number or an expression made up of numbers, functions,
and/or variables previously assigned numerical values.
• Variables must begin with a letter.
• Press the Enter/Return key to make the assignment.
• The variable ans is the value of the last expression that is not assigned.
• Be careful with variable names. For example, do not name a variable help or sin.
• Variable names are case sensitive; thus A is not the same as a.
Remember:
• Use semicolon (;) to suppress screen output.
• Multiple commands can be typed on one line by typing a comma (,) between them
if they are not already ended with a semicolon (;).
10 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

√
Example 1.3.1. Assign the number 3 to variable a and 4 to variable b. Print a2 + b2
and assign the solution to the variable c.

>> a=3; b=4; c = sqrt(a^2+b^2), a+b+c

c =
5
ans =
12

Notice in the above example, you do not need spaces around the “=” for variable
assignments but you may use them for aesthetic reasons.

Example 1.3.2. Experiment with the equation

x tan x + sin x
cos2 =
2 2 tan x
by calculating each side of the equation for x = π/5.

>> x = pi/5;
>> LHS = (cos(x/2))^2, RHS = (tan(x)+sin(x))/(2*tan(x))
LHS =
0.9045
RHS =
0.9045
>> format long
>> LHS, RHS
LHS =
0.904508497187474
RHS =
0.904508497187474
>> LHS-RHS
ans =
-1.110223024625157e-16

1.4. Diaries and script files

You can record your commands and output to the command window with the diary
command. The commands you enter in the command window and any output are
stored as an ASCII (plain text) file. The command diary toggles the recording on and
off. If you do not specify a filename, it will create a file in the current folder of the
name “diary.” The command diary filename will save the recording to a file of the
name “filename.” The commands diary off and diary on will pause and restart the
recording, respectively, to the active file. NOTE: when you use the diary filename
 Introduction to MATLAB® 11

more than once (within the same current folder), it will continue to APPEND to the
file.

>> diary filename

>> 1+1
ans =
2
>> diary off
>> 2+2
ans =
4
>> diary on
>> 3^2
ans =
9
>> diary

For example, the commands above will generate the following text in the file “file-
name”:
1+1
ans =
2
diary off
3^2
ans =
9
diary

Script files, or m-files, are extremely useful for running and rerunning code. You
may be required to turn in script files for your assignments.
• Script files are ASCII files (plain text files) with extension .m; thus they are also
called m-files. These are basically batch files.
• When you run a SCRIPT file, MATLAB executes each line as if you typed each
line into the command window.
• Script files are very useful; you can edit them, save them, execute them many times
and “tweak” them to experiment with commands.
• The MATLAB editor window is the best way to create and edit script files.
• To avoid extraneous output to the command window, put “;” after variable assign-
ments or intermediate calculations.
• Comments within MATLAB files begin with the percent symbol (%).
Running script files:
There are many ways to run an m-file of name filename.m. First, you must MAKE
SURE CURRENT FOLDER IS CORRECT!
12 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

1. >> filename
2. >> run filename
3. >> run('filename')
4. Within the Editor tab, chose run...

1.5. Exercises
1. Basic calculations Use MATLAB to do the following calculations. Be careful! The
following are displayed using regular mathematical notation; you need to figure out
what MATLAB functions are needed.
7 .753 292 644/3
(a) (2.4)(64 ) + 8 , (b) + + 20 · 9−3 ,
16 2 − 225 5 11
(c) cos(360), (d) cos(360◦ ),

(e) cos(2π), (f) cos(2π ◦ ),

(g) e + 5, (h) |π − 5|,

(i) 3 ln 7, (j) 3 log 7,

6
(k) sin−1 (0.5) + 4, (l) 4 cos(5 arctan(13/4)).
π
2. Order of operations
(a) Calculate, without using any parentheses, −42 using THREE of the following
and write your answers on your own paper, specifying which you did and
what answers they gave:
(i) calculator (specify type/model) (ii) Google.com
(iii) Excel or Google Sheets (iv) Desmos.com or Wolfram Al-
pha
Now calculate −42 using MATLAB. Are there differences in the answers?
Based on your knowledge of Order of Operations, what should be the an-
swers?
(b) Do the same for the calculation of − cos(π/4)2 (you may use parentheses
around the π/4; i.e. you should calculate -cos(pi/4)^2). NOTE: In Excel,
to calculate with π use “PI()”, again noting the differences (if any) in the
answers.
(c) Do the same for the calculation of −212 and −81/3 (without using any paren-
theses). Should parentheses be used to get the proper calculations? Where?
(d) How should Table 1.3 for precedence rules within MATLAB be changed or
expanded to include functions and negation (unary minus)? Answer this by
rewriting the table on paper.
 Introduction to MATLAB® 13

3. Using variables. Define variables with the assignments x = 8, y = 3.5, and X =

√
1/9. Calculate the following within MATLAB. For the n z calculations, use the
nthroot function. √
4(y − x) 3 X
(a) , (b) ,
3X − 20 10
√3
(c) 3 cos x tan y, (d) e(X +y)/x + 3 x .
4. Suppose x = 3 and y = 5 (define the variables at the beginning of the problem).
 
1 −1 3y 4(y − 5)
(a) 3π x , (b) 1 − 5
2
, (c) , (d) , (e) 2 sin(x) cos(y).
x 4x − 8 3x − 6
5. Define the following variables: tablePrice = 1256.95, chairPrice = 89.99, and
gasPrice = 3.499. Using the variables and format bank for parts a–c, write your
answers to the following questions on paper, interpreting the MATLAB output as a
meaningful answer:
(a) Find the cost of one table and eight chairs.
(b) Find the same cost as above but with 6.5% sales tax.
(c) Find the cost of 14.25 gallons of gas that you would have to pay.
(d) Compute the actual cost of 14.25 gallons of gas using the default format.
6. More calculations Define the variables x = 256 and y = 125. Calculate the follow-
ing within MATLAB. When radical notation is used in the problem, use the sqrt
and nthroot functions and use exponential calculations when exponential notation
is used in the problem.
√ 1 √ 1 1
(a) x, (b) x 2 , (c) −x, (d) (−x) 2 , (e) x 4 ,
√ 1 1 1 √
(f) 4
x, (g) y 3 , (h) −y 3 , (i) (−y) 3 , (j) 3 −y.

(k) From the above calculations, do you see anything surprising with the answers?
1 √
(l) Calculate (−x) 4 and 4 −x. What are the differences?
(m) Calculate (−8)2/3 and 82/3 on paper using your exponent rules. Now do the
calculations within MATLAB, Excel, Google.com, WolframAlpha.com, and
a scientific or graphing calculator (specifying what model you have used).
What are the differences, if there are any?
7. Calculator precision √
(a) Within an Excel spreadsheet or Google Sheet, calculate 12 178212 + 184112
using exponential notation for the calculations. Write your answer clearly.
(b) Rewrite the above expression with your answer to part (a) into an equation
and algebraically simplify the equation so there are no radicals or rational
exponents. √
(c) Now calculate 12 178212 + 184112 using MATLAB.
(d) Compare the left-hand side and right-hand side of the equation you get in
part (b) by subtraction within MATLAB, using format long).
14 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

(e) Calculate “3 quadrillion and 18 minus 3 quadrillion and 14” in your head
and write it down. Now translate this into mathematics so you can calculate
it within Google.com, Excel, and MATLAB. (You may need to look up how
many zeros you will need!) Compare your answers in a table.
(f) Do the same with 2.000000000000018 − 2.000000000000014.
8. Ambiguities with notation. Define variables with the assignments x = 10 and
y = π/4. Calculate the following within MATLAB. You may have to adjust from
mathematical notation to correct MATLAB notation. Make sure you are using the
default format!

(a) cos y, (b) cos y2 , (c) cos(y2 ), (d) cos2 y, (e) (cos y)2 ,

(f) x−1 , (g) cos−1 (x/20), (h) cos(x/20)−1 , (i) (cos(x/20))−1 .

(j) Redo part (g) and then use the MATLAB variable ans to calculate

cos−1 (x/20)
.
4y
(k) Are any of the above calculations ambiguous in how they are written (which
ones and why)? What could be done to make the calculations clearer to the
person performing/entering the calculations?
9. Exploring rem and div. It is common to use either of the functions mod or rem
to tell whether positive integers are even or odd, among other uses. We will explore
the differences and similarities of these functions.
(a) Here is another simple use for these functions. You are given a list of 10-digit
numbers. You would like to only use the last seven digits of these numbers (for
example, for display purposes). Use both the mod or rem functions to easily
get the last seven digits of the number 4108675309. Do you see a difference
in their use for this?
(b) Use the same commands on the number -4108675309. Do you see a differ-
ence? Explain in your own words what you think is the difference between
the mod and rem functions. Is there a difference when using these functions
to tell whether any integer is even or odd?
(c) Can you come up with a way, using MATLAB functions such as mod, rem,
round, ceil, fix, etc. to capture the “area code” (first three digits) of
4108675309? Experiment with at least two phone numbers with different
area codes.
(d) What about capturing the “central office” part of the number (867)? Do it
for 4108675309 and 4106172000.
CHAPTER 2

Vectors and Matrices (Arrays)

2.1. One-dimensional arrays (vectors)
Arrays are used to store and manipulate numbers. They are arranged in rows and/or
columns and are defined within MATLAB® using brackets [ ].
One-dimensional arrays, usually called vectors, can represent points or vectors in
space (of any dimension), or can be used to store data. For example: the point (1, 2)
in 2D or the point (1, 2, −5) in 3D, or the data (70, 75, 72, 77). These vectors can be
represented as rows or columns.
To enter a row vector, use spaces or commas between numbers.

>> x = [1 2 3], y = [4, 5, 6]

x =
1 2 3
y =
4 5 6

To enter a column vector, use semi-colons between numbers:

>> y = [4;5;6]
y =
4
5
6

There are ways to define vectors without having to enter every element. The two most
common ways are to define constant spaced and equally spaced (linearly spaced) vectors.

2.1.1 Constant spaced vectors

If the difference between the elements (increment) of the vector is important, use
“colon-notation”. For a vector from m to n, incremented by q, use the format

variablename = [m: q : n]

If no increment q is given (as in the variable x below), it is 1 by default.

>> x=[1:7], y=[1:2:6], z=[1:3:25], w=[1:3:24]

x =
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
y =

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16 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

1 3 5
z =
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22 25
w =
1 4 7 10 13 16 19 22

Notice in the vectors y and w above that the last number (n) may not actually be a value
in the vector if the increment (q) is such that it will not occur based on the starting
value (m).
One can also increment backwards with a negative increment value.

>> a=[6:-1:1], b=[10:-2:-2]

a =
6 5 4 3 2 1
b =
10 8 6 4 2 0 -2

2.1.2 Equally spaced vectors

If the number of elements in the vector is important but not necessarily the actual
values, use linspace. The command linspace stands for linearly spaced. This is
especially useful for plotting. The command
variablename = linspace(m,n)
will give you a vector of 100 equally-spaced elements between m and n. For a vector of
q elements from m to n, use
variablename = linspace(m,n,q)

>> x = linspace(1,7,3), y = linspace(0,1,5)

x =
1 4 7
y =
0 0.2500 0.5000 0.7500 1.0000

Notice that both the values m and n are elements in the vector.
There is also a command logspace that is also useful for plotting (among other
things). The command logspace(a,b) will generate a row vector of 50 logarithmically
spaced points from 10a and 10b . If b is pi, then the points are between 10a and π .

variablename = logspace(a,b)
variablename = logspace(a,b,q)

Just as in linspace, you can specify the number of elements in the vector by stating
the value q.
 Vectors and Matrices (Arrays) 17

>> logspace(0,5,6)
ans =
1 10 100 1000 10000 100000
>> logspace(5,1,5)
ans =
100000 10000 1000 100 10
>> linspace(1,pi,4)
ans =
1.0000 1.7139 2.4277 3.1416
>> logspace(0,pi,4)
ans =
1.0000 1.4646 2.1450 3.1416
>> logspace(2,pi,3)
ans =
100.0000 17.7245 3.1416

2.2. Two-dimensional arrays (matrices)

Two-dimensional arrays or matrices can be used for many things. You can use matrices
to store data or information as a table or spreadsheet. Matrices can also be used to solve
systems of linear equations such as

2x + 3y + z = 4,
x − 5y + 3z = 3,
4x − 2y + 3z = 2.

The format for defining matrices expands on the format for defining row and column
vectors; spaces or commas between elements within a row with semicolons between
rows.
variable = [1st row ; 2nd row ; ... ; last row]
You can also use vectors of the same size to be rows (or columns) of a matrix, as we do
to define the matrix B below.

>> A = [2 3 1;1 -5 3;4 -2 3; 0 1/2 66], x=0:4;...

y=linspace(0,pi,5); B=[x;y]
A =
2.0000 3.0000 1.0000
1.0000 -5.0000 3.0000
4.0000 -2.0000 3.0000
0 0.5000 66.0000
B =
0 1.0000 2.0000 3.0000 4.0000
18 Programming Mathematics Using MATLAB®

0 0.7854 1.5708 2.3562 3.1416

2.3. Addressing elements of vectors/arrays

For many reasons, we may want to capture one element, or a portion of a vector or
matrix. This section explains several ways to accomplish this.

Elements of vectors
• v(k) picks the kth element of v.
• v(m:n) picks the mth through the nth elements of v.

>> v = linspace(0,1,5)
v =
0 0.2500 0.5000 0.7500 1.0000
>> v(3)
ans =
0.5000
>> v(2:4)
ans =
0.2500 0.5000 0.7500

Notice the difference if v is a matrix.

>> v=[1 2 3;4 5 6]

v =
1 2 3
4 5 6
>> v(2)
ans =
4
>> v(3)
ans =
2
>> v(3:6)
ans =
2 5 3 6

Elements of matrices
• A(m,n) picks the (m, n)th element (element in the mth row, nth column) of the
matrix A.
• A(m:n, p:q) gives the submatrix from the elements (m : n) × (p : q)
• A(m:n, :) gives rows m through n, and every column of A
 Another Random Document on
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The Project Gutenberg eBook of The Theory of
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THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT

Part I

The University of Chicago

 THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT
An Outline of the History of the Idea
of Milieu, and its Present Status
PART I
A DISSERTATION
SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF ARTS AND

LITERATURE IN CANDIDACY FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF

PHILOSOPHY

DEPARTMENT OF GERMANIC LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

BY

ARMIN HAJMAN KOLLER

The Collegiate Press

George Banta Publishing Company

Menasha, Wisconsin
1918
 THE THEORY OF ENVIRONMENT
PART I
An Outline of the History of the Idea of Milieu, and
its Present Status
BY
ARMIN HAJMAN KOLLER, Ph.D.
Instructor in German
The University of Illinois

“.............................
He fixed thee ’mid this dance
Of plastic circumstance.”

Robert Browning, “Rabbi Ben Ezra.”

The Collegiate Press

GEORGE BANTA PUBLISHING COMPANY
MENASHA, WISCONSIN
1918

Copyright, 1918
By Armin H. Koller

TO
MY PARENTS
 CONTENTS

PAGE

Introductory Remark. Meanings of the Word Milieu 1

I. A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Down to

the Nineteenth Century 7

II. A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Since the

Beginning of the Nineteenth Century 27

Anthropo-geography, Geography and History 27

Geography and History 42

More Recent Anthropo-geographical Treatises 65

Primitive Peoples and Environment 69

Society and Physical Milieu 74

Government, War, Progress, and Climate 76

Climate and Man’s Characteristics 80

 Man’s Intellect and Physical Environment 81

Religion and Physical Milieu 83

Climate and Conduct 84

Climatic Control of Food and Drink 91

Summary 93

Appendix 97
 PREFACE

In 1912 (see Publications of the Modern Language Association of

America, Vol. 28, N. S., Vol. 21, 1913, Proceedings for 1912, p.
xxxix), I called attention to the Herder-Taine problem on milieu. The
paper discussing that problem awaits the completion of another
paper entitled “Herder’s Conception of Milieu.” The latter was my
starting point. Setting about to inform myself on the history of the
theory, I determined to obtain for myself, if possible, a tolerably
complete idea, at least in its essentials, of the theory of milieu, to
see where the theory led to, where it started from, what changes it
has undergone, and what were its ramifications. My plan was to
state briefly my findings in a chapter preparatory to stating Herder’s
idea of milieu. As guide-posts were lacking, at least I knew of none,
I was bound to seek by accident and for a number of years. In
stumbling along, I first chanced upon the Herder-Taine problem.
When my material swelled to proportions that could not be
controlled in part of a chapter or in a chapter, I had to separate it,
by its main divisions, into parts. The question arose, should it be a
concrete treatise on environment. I soon found that to be, at least
for the time being, beyond my province and also beyond my present
purpose; besides, it would have swerved me too far afield;
moreover, it would have had to be limited to a small portion of the
subject. My present concern in this theory being genetic and
historical, it seemed best to assemble all the sources one could find
bearing on the history of the theory and to indicate the trend of its
development in a rough preliminary sketch. Such a sketch is a
requisite first step and perhaps a modest contribution to a history of
the theory under consideration. The first part of this sketch is herein
given. The original plan, mentioned above, of a prefatory chapter to
Herder accounts for the retention of untranslated passages in the
text of this part, a practice to be eschewed in the subsequent parts
of this study which are to appear shortly.
Nearly all the material was collected by October, 1915, and this
manuscript was finished early in January, 1917.
I gratefully acknowledge my indebtedness to Professor Martin
Schütze of the University of Chicago for the suggestion, made in
1907, to find out what Herder’s idea of milieu is; to my friend and
former colleague at the University of Illinois, Dr. Charles C. Adams
(now Assistant Professor of Ecology at Syracuse University) for
references given me at my request (but he is in no wise to be held
responsible for the bringing in of these references); and to my good
friend and colleague, Professor John Driscoll Fitz-Gerald of the
University of Illinois for a number of helpful suggestions given when
reading the manuscript and for assisting with the reading of the
galley proof.
Armin H. Koller.
Champaign, Illinois,
April, 1918.
 INTRODUCTORY REMARK
Meanings of the Word “Milieu”

Before entering upon the discussion of the principal theme of this

study,[1] it is necessary to cast a brief glance over the origin and
development of the meaning and use of the word milieu.
“Milieu” (mi-lieu=medius locus), originally signifying middle point or
part, central place or portion, mid-point, center, had been employed
in France as a term in physics at least as early as the seventeenth
century (Pascal). The fourth edition of the dictionary of the French
Academy[2] defines it as follows: “En termes de Physique, on appelle
Milieu, Tout corps, soit solide, soit fluide, traversé par la lumière ou
par un autre corps.” [In the fifth edition—1813—the following
illustration in italics is added to the foregoing: “La lumière se rompt
différemment en traversant différens milieux.”]
“On appelle aussi milieu, Le fluide qui environne les corps. L’air est le
milieu dans lequel nous vivons. L’eau est le milieu qu’habitent les
poissons.”
Diderot’s Encyclopedia[3] testifies to this same sense of “medium”:
“Milieu, dans la Philosophie mêchanique, signifie un espace matériel
à travers lequel passe un corps dans son mouvement, ou en général,
un espace matériel dans lequel un corps est placé, soit qu’il se
meuve ou non.
“Ainsi on imagine l’éther comme un milieu dans lequel les corps
célestes se meuvent.—L’air est un milieu dans lequel les corps se
meuvent près de la surface de la terre.—L’eau est le milieu dans
lequel les poissons vivent & se meuvent.—Le verre enfin est un
milieu, en égard à la lumière, parce qu’il lui permet un passage à
travers ses pores.”
Auguste Comte[4] extended its signification as a term in biology to
include “the totality of external conditions of any kind whatsoever”:
“Milieu ..., non-seulement le fluide où l’organisme est plongé, mais,
en général, l’ensemble total des circonstances extérieurs d’un genre
quelconque [the italics are ours], nécessaires à l’existence de chaque
organisme déterminé. Ceux qui auront suffisamment médité sur le
rôle capital que doit remplir, dans toute biologie positive, l’idée
correspondante, ne me reprocheront pas, sans doute, l’introduction
de cette expression nouvelle.”
Hippolyte Taine who generalized it still further, broadened its
connotation to comprehend the whole social surroundings.[5] Milieu
as a terminus technicus is ordinarily considered as having been
coined by Taine, but whether that be so or not, one may safely say
that its wide acceptance is due, primarily, to him and to his
renowned disciple Zola.[6]
In the course of the last century, the designation milieu became not
only more generalized and more frequent in use, but also more
extensive, and more specific and distinctive in meaning: “Depuis
BALZAC [who in 1841 in his Comédie humaine, La maison du chat-
qui-pelote, préface, p. 2, used the term loosely, in the “vulgar”
sense], le sens vulgaire du milieu social n’a fait que s’affirmer
davantage par un emploi toujours plus généralisé: c’est devenu un
cliché de la conversation de parler aujourd’hui d’un ‘bon milieu,’ d’un
‘milieu intéressant,’ etc.”[7]
Littré[8] registers eighteen different definitions for the word milieu.
Friedrich Düsel[9] renders milieu by eighteen (18) German words.
In Unsere Umgangssprache,[10] milieu is translated into German by
forty-six (46) words and phrases.
Claude Bernard, the celebrated French physiologist, differentiates
between inner and outer milieu:[11] “Je crois ..., avoir le premier
insisté sur cette idée qu’il y a pour l’animal réellement deux milieux:
un milieu extérieur dans lequel est placé l’organisme et un milieu
intérieur dans lequel vivent les éléments des tissus....” Probably as a
result, we have today “micro-milieu” in micro-biology.
According to Jean Finot,[12] milieu “includes the sum total of the
conditions which accompany the conception and earthly existence of
a being, and which end only with its death.”
The term milieu was introduced by Herbert Spencer into English
literature as “environment,” says Martin Schütze.[13] Although Carlyle
employed the term “environment” as early as 1827,[14] nevertheless,
the fact that the term is generally current, is undoubtedly
attributable in the first place to Spencer.
The word “Umwelt” is quoted by J. H. Campe,[15] who believed
himself to have been the coiner of the term; five years later (1816)
Goethe used it at the beginning of his “Italienische Reise.”[16]
The painstaking and scholarly German lexicographer, Daniel Sanders,
who seldom fails to give his reader some reliable suggestion, refers
in his Wörterbuch der Deutschen Sprache[17] (which despite the
contributions of recent scholarship still remains a great work) to a
passage in the poetical works of the Danish writer Baggesen (2,
102) in which the word “Umwelt” is employed. This passage occurs
in the elegy entitled “Napoleon” addressed to Voß and written in
1800.[18] Baggesen, then, made use of “Umwelt” a decade before
Campe.
Its Italian equivalent is “ambiente,” which is noted here only because
of the French “l’ambiance” and the English “ambient” and
“circumambiency.”
 I
A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Down
to the Nineteenth Century

Recorded mesologic[19] thinking begins with the ancient Jewish

Prophets whose striking aperçus concerning the providential
correspondence between the configuration of the surface of the
earth and the destiny of nations, concerning the connection between
“Landesnatur” and “Volkscharakter,” etc., anticipated[20] a number of
great thoughts of later anthropo-geographers.
Hippocrates (if he really is the author of the essay commonly
ascribed to him and entitled περὶ αέρων ὑδάτων τόπων) investigates
the effect of climate on man’s nature, character, temperament, and
life, with the emphasis on the regularity of the effect.[21] Owing to
the imperfection of knowledge in his day, his observations are
necessarily vague.[22] He limited himself to the problem of the
relation between land and people.[23] He is said to be the founder of
anthropo-geography.[24] His treatise is admirable and unequalled in
the eyes of Auguste Comte.[25] Hippocrates, “in his work, About Air,
Water, and Places, first discusses the influence of environment on
man, physical, moral, and pathological. He divided mankind into
groups, impressed with homogeneous characters by homogeneous
surroundings, demonstrating that mountains, plains, damp, aridity,
and so on, produced definite and varying types.”[26]
Aristotle, in his Politics, enquires into the influence especially of
geographical position on laws and the form of government,[27] while
in his Problems he shows the far-reaching dependence of national
character on the physical environment: “Zeigt ja doch Aristoteles
selbst in einem andern Werke das entschiedenste Bestreben, eine
sehr weitgehende Abhängigkeit des Volkscharakters von
geographischen Verhältnissen zu erweisen. Während die Politik
[especially parts of the seventh book] nicht über Andeutungen [on
the effect of the milieu] hinausgeht [discussed by Poehlmann, l.c.,
on pp. 64–8], läßt der vierzehnte Abschnitt der ‘Probleme,’ welcher
sich mit den Einwirkungen der Landesnatur auf Physik und Ethik des
Menschen beschäftigt, deutlich einen Standpunkt erkennen, welcher
auf das Lebhafteste an die physiologische Betrachtungsweise der
neueren französisch-englischen Geschichtsphilosophie erinnert ...”[28]
Eratosthenes, in a work cited by Varro, sought to prove, in the
opinion of the Italian scholar Matteuzzi prematurely, that man’s
character and the form of his government are subordinated to
proximity or remoteness from the sun.[29] The greatest geographer
of antiquity, Strabo, in his Geography, connected man with nature in
a causal relation.[30]
John M. Robertson, noting that “theories of the influence of climate
on character were common in antiquity,” refers[31] to Vitruvius (VI,
1), Vegetius (“De re militari,” 1, 2), and Servius (on Vergil, Aeneid,
VI, 724). Ritter does not mention the effort of the ancients in this
line of ideas.[32]
Giovanni Villani, the noted Florentine historian of the fourteenth
century, observes with a deal of finesse that Arezzo by reason of its
air and position produces men of great subtilty of mind.[33]
The Arabic statesman and philosopher of history, Ibn Khaldūn, little
mentioned, yet known by his great work, the Universal History,
attempted in the Muqaddama[34] (the preface, comprising the first
volume of his History), which he composed between 1374 and 1378,
[35]
to explain the history and civilization of man, more especially of
some of the Arabic peoples, by the encompassing physical and social
conditions. The “First Section of the ‘Prolegomena’ treats of society
in general, and of the varieties of the human race, and of the
regions of the earth which they inhabit, as related thereto. It starts
from the position that man is by nature a social being. His body and
mind, wants and affections, for their exercise, satisfaction, and
development, all imply and demand co-operation and communion
with his fellows,—participation in a collective and common life....
“There follows a lengthened description of the physical basis and
conditions of history and civilisation. The chief features of the
inhabited portions of the earth, its regions, principal seas, great
rivers, climates, &c., are made the subjects of exposition. The seven
climatic zones, and the ten sections of each, are delineated, and
their inhabitants specified. The three climatic zones of moderate
temperature are described in detail, and the distinctive features of
the social condition and civilisation of their inhabitants dwelt upon.
The influence of the atmosphere, heat, &c., on the physical and even
mental and moral peculiarities of peoples is maintained to be great.
Not only the darkness of skin of the negroes, but their characteristics
of disposition and of mode of life, are traced to the influence of
climate. A careful attempt is also made to show how differences of
fertility of soil—how dearth and abundance—modify the bodily
constitution and affect the minds of men, and so operate on
society....
“The Second Section of the ‘Prolegomena’ treats of the civilisation of
nomadic and half-savage peoples.
“In it Ibn Khaldūn appears at his best, ... He begins by indicating
how the different usages and institutions of peoples depend to a
large extent on the ways in which they provide for their subsistence.
He describes how peoples have at first contented themselves with
simple necessities, and then gradually risen to refinement and luxury
through a series of states or stages all of which are alike conformed
to nature, in the sense of being adapted to its circumstances or
environment.”[36]
Ibn Khaldūn seems also to have had a clear idea of some aspects of
the principle of relativity,[37] an integral part and inevitable
concomitant of the theory of milieu, since “As causes of historians
erring as they have done, there are mentioned [by Khaldūn in the
introduction] the overlooking of the differences of times and epochs,
...”[38]
About the middle of the sixteenth century we find Michelangelo
avowing to Vasari (who hailed from Arezzo): “Any mental excellence
I may possess, I have because I was born in the fine air of your
Aretine district.”[39]
In “Measure for Measure” (Act III, Sc. I, v. 8–11), a play first
produced in 1604, Shakespeare affirms of man:
“... a breath thou art,
Servile to all the skyey influences
That do this habitation where thou keep’st,
Hourly afflict.”

During the Renaissance, Greek thought on milieu is resurrected in

France. Thence it spreads later, particularly in the eighteenth
century, to England and Germany. Jean Bodin bridges the gap
existent since the close of classical antiquity. He is the first among
modern writers not only to revive the idea in Western Europe,[40] but
also to make it a subject for detailed investigation. Bodin thus first in
French letters introduces and firmly establishes a line of study
destined to be followed by a long list of authors among whom are to
be found many illustrious French names.
Bodin “treats of physical causes with considerable fulness in the fifth
chapter of the ‘Method,’[41] and in a still more detailed and developed
form in the first chapter of the fifth book of the ‘Republic.’”[42] He
traces the relation between climate and the ever changing fate of
States, and elaborates the manifold effects of climate on States,
laws, religion, language, and temperament.[43] In Bodin’s view, man’s
physical constitution is closely and directly connected with climate
and surrounding nature; it is in harmony with the behavior of the
earth in the respective zones of his abode.[44] From this assumption
of dependence of the human body on climate, there follow a number
of inferences concerning the physical properties of man’s
constitution.[45] Temperament varies according to climate. Language,
the generative power, diseases likewise depend indirectly on climate.
[46]
Man’s talents and capacities do so no less.[47] The climate in each
region always favors the development of some special aptitude; on
this basis he groups the peoples of the earth.[48] Although the nexus
between human abilities and the physical milieu is thus intimate, yet
reason, common to all men and invariable, is per se independent of
physical environment.[49] He postulates, then, reason as the absolute
part of the mind, not subject to surrounding influences, whereas the
unfolding of the human faculties is relative to the environment. By
taking this middle course concerning the effect of nature on man,
Bodin escapes the extreme views of nature’s compelling influence
over man, on the one hand, and of man’s total independence of
nature, on the other.[50]
Bodin also investigates the influence upon national character of
geographical situation, of elevation, of the quality of the native soil,
and of an east-west position.[51] Nations and their civilizations differ
according to the particular conditions of a given national existence.
[52]

He holds fast to the doctrine of the freedom of the will. Man is

morally free from environmental control. The circumambient medium
determines only the development of man’s capabilities.[53] Man can
counteract, and may, even though with difficulty, overcome the
injurious action of climate and nature.[54]
“... It is altogether unfair,” concludes Flint,[55] “to put their general
enunciations [i.e., those made by Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Polybius, and Galen] of the principle that physical circumstances
originate and modify national characteristics, on a level with Bodin’s
serious, sustained, and elaborate attempt to apply it over a wide
area and to a vast number of cases. Dividing nations into northern,
middle, and southern,[56] he investigates with wonderful fulness of
knowledge how climatic and geographical conditions have affected
the bodily strength, the courage, the intelligence, the humanity, the
chastity, and, in short, the mind, morals, and manners of their
inhabitants; what influence mountains, winds, diversities of soil, &c.,
have exerted on individuals and societies; and he elicits a vast
number of general views....”
Bodin, “der größte theoretische Politiker Frankreichs im 16.
Jahrhundert,” declares Renz,[57] “besitzt ... das unbestreitbare
Verdienst, wenn nicht die Grundgedanken und nicht ausschließlich
originale Gedanken, so doch die erste weitgehende wissenschaftliche
Untersuchung über den Zusammenhang zwischen umgebender
Natur und Menschenwelt in neuerer Zeit auf dem Boden der
Erfahrung und Wissenschaft des 16. Jahrhunderts angestellt zu
haben.”
Bodin, “writing in 1577 OF THE LAWES AND CUSTOMES OF A
COMMON WEALTH (English edition [translated by Richard Knowlles]
1605), contains, as Professor J. L. Myres has pointed out (Rept. Brit.
Assoc., 1909 [1910], p. 593), ‘the whole pith and kernel of modern
anthropo-geography....’”[58] And Renz believes that “In der
Bodinschen Behandlung der Theorie des Klimas finden sich die
Anfänge der Anthropogeographie und der Ethnographie...”[59]
Writing in 1713, Lenglet du Fresnoy, toward the end of the sixth
chapter of the first volume of his Méthode pour étudier l’histoire,
expresses, decades before Montesquieu, the latter’s basic idea of the
effect of social and political milieu on laws.[60]
In any discussion of milieu, Montesquieu is the writer most
frequently mentioned, although not the most often read and quoted.
He devotes the well-known five “Books,” from the fourteenth to the
eighteenth, of his magnum opus, L’Esprit des Lois (1748),[61] to a
consideration of this idea which, as has already been seen, was
anything but original with him.[62] In Books fourteen to seventeen he
treats of the relation of laws to climate, and in Book eighteen of
their relation to soil. In the fourteenth[63] he discusses the effect of
climate on the body (and mind) of individual man, in the fifteenth[64]
on civil slavery, in the sixteenth[65] on domestic slavery, in the
seventeenth[66] on political servitude, and lastly in the eighteenth[67]
he delineates the influence of the fertility and barrenness of the soil.
By climate he means little more than heat and cold. In the light of
the continued high praise bestowed on him for much longer than a
century, the altogether too general and dogmatic statements of
these short seventy-odd pages would seem somewhat meager, so
that upon their perusal one is very likely to suffer an outright
disenchantment. Therefore, Flint’s judgment appears overdrawn,
when he says that Montesquieu “showed on a grand scale and in the
most effective way ... that, like all things properly historical, they
[laws, customs, institutions] must be estimated not according to an
abstract or absolute standard, but as concrete realities related to
given times and places, to their determining causes and condition,
and to the whole social organism to which they belong, and the
whole social medium in which they subsist. Plato and Aristotle,
Machiavelli and Bodin, had already, indeed, inculcated this historical
and political relativism; but it was Montesquieu who gained educated
Europe over to the acceptance of it.”[68]
Turgot’s sketch of a ‘Political Geography’ shows “that he had attained
to a broader view of the relationship of human development to the
features of the earth and to physical agencies in general than even
Montesquieu. And he saw with perfect clearness not only that many
of Montesquieu’s inductions were premature and inadequate, but
that there was a defect in the method by which he arrived at
them.... The excellent criticism of Comte, in the fifth volume of the
‘Philosophie Positive,’ and in the fourth volume of the ‘Politique
Positive,’ on this portion of Montesquieu’s speculations, is only a
more elaborate reproduction of that of Turgot, and is expressed in
terms which show that it was directly suggested by that of
Turgot.”[69]
Cuvier “had not hesitated to trace the close relation borne by
philosophy and art to the underlying geological formations.”[70]
In the teaching of a number of great thinkers of the seventeenth
and eighteenth centuries, man is “the product of environment and
education” and, in their opinion, “all men were born equal and later
became unequal through unequal opportunities.”[71]
Goethe echoed Herder’s thought when he remarked to Eckermann
on the flora of a country and the disposition of its residents: “Sie
haben nicht Unrecht, sagte Goethe (d. 2. April 1829), und daher
kommt es denn auch, daß man der Pflanzenwelt eines Landes einen
Einfluß auf die Gemütsart seiner Bewohner zugestanden hat. Und
gewiß! wer sein Leben lang von hohen ernsten Eichen umgeben
wäre, müßte ein anderer Mensch werden, als wer täglich unter
luftigen Birken sich erginge...”[72] And again, when he said of
environment and national character: “... so viel ist gewiß, daß außer
dem Angeborenen der Rasse, sowohl Boden und Klima als Nahrung
und Beschäftigung einwirkt, um den Charakter eines Volkes zu
vollenden ...”[73] And in the following, Goethe but reiterates Herder’s
oft uttered admiration for islanders and coast dwellers: “Auch von
den Kräften des Meeres und der Seeluft war die Rede gewesen (d.
12. März 1828), wo denn Goethe die Meinung äußerte, daß er alle
Insulaner und Meer-Anwohner des gemäßigten Klimas bei weitem
für produktiver und tatkräftiger halte als die Völker im Innern großer
Kontinente.”[74] And: “Es ist ein eigenes Ding, erwiederte Goethe (d.
12. März 1828),—liegt es in der Abstammung, liegt es im Boden,
liegt es in der freien Verfassung, liegt es in der gesunden Erziehung,
—genug! die Engländer überhaupt scheinen vor vielen anderen
etwas voraus zu haben ...”[75]
Wolf and Niebuhr began to examine historical sources “nach neuen
Prinzipien des Eingetauchtseins in eine bestimmte seelische Umwelt,
in ein klargezeichnetes zeitgenössisches Milieu.”[76]
One of the principal offices of an historian, according to August
Wilhelm Schlegel, is “Die zeit- und kulturgeschichtliche Bedingtheit
aller Erscheinungen aufzuzeigen.”[77] But the effect of physical milieu
on history is not rated high in the philosophy of the romanticists.[78]
Ingeniously, albeit not with his wonted acuteness, Hegel penned the
concept “Volksgeist.”[79] The saying, which now seems trivial, that
every nation and every man in the nation is “ein Kind seiner Zeit,” is
said to be Hegel’s.[80] Hegel, however, distinctly rejected the idea of
explaining “die Geschichte und den Geist der verschiedenen Völker
aus dem Klima ihrer Länder.”[81] The implication would be that one
single factor might satisfactorily be held responsible for all progress
in human history. As climate can not explain everything to Hegel, it
seems not to explain anything at all to him. Hegel, then, is excessive
in his denial of the power of environment. This is markedly shown by
his thinking his position substantiated by the fact that the climate of
Greece, although the same since classical antiquity, has not changed
the Turks who now [i.e., early in the nineteenth century] dwell in
Greece into ancient Greeks.[82]
 II
A Sketch of the History of the Idea of Milieu Since
the Beginning of the Nineteenth Century
 Anthropo-geography, Geography and History
The theory of social environment, as we have seen, gradually rises,
especially since the renaissance, parallel with the theory of physical
milieu. The stream of thought commences to broaden on both sides
as we approach the eighteenth century, and broadens still further,
and deepens, in the nineteenth, when specialization occurs or
continues in anthropo-geography, biology, jurisprudence and
economics, anthropology, sociology, and literature, and latterly in
physics. These furnish us the divisions for subsequent discussions.[83]
All antecedent thought on the subject converges in Herder and from
this focal point, as a collecting and fructifying center, it emerges,
branches out and radiates in a definite number of directions. This
can only be indicated here.[84] One main ramification leads us to
anthropo-geography. Consequently, we must now turn to a detailed
consideration of the idea of milieu in anthropo-geography.[85]
Karl Ritter first in anthropo-geography elucidated Herder’s ideas on
environment. “... KARL RITTER steht auf HERDERS Schultern, wenn
er in seiner ‘Allgemeinen Erdkunde’ den Gedanken der tiefgehenden
Beeinflussung der Völkergeschichte durch die äußeren Umgebungen
entwickelt ...”[86] Ritter is said to be given too much credit for
connecting scientifically geography and history: “C. Ritter führte, ...
die Herder’schen Anschauungen deutlicher aus. Die
wissenschaftliche, nicht bloß äußerliche Verbindung von Geographie
und Geschichte kettet sich an seinen Namen. Nicht ganz mit Recht;
...”[87] Richthofen thinks that Ritter’s basic idea was almost without
influence on geography; only the historians profited by it.[88]
Alexander von Humboldt, on the other hand, declares in the first
volume of his Cosmos that “The views of comparative geography
have been specially enlarged by that admirable work, Erdkunde im
Verhältnis zur Natur und zur Geschichte, in which Carl Ritter so ably
delineates the physiognomy of our globe and shows the influence of
its external configuration on the physical phenomena on its surface,
on the migrations, laws, and manners of nations, and on all the
principal historical events enacted upon the face of the earth.”[89]
In the Erdkunde,[90] Ritter propounds a program for anthropo-
geographical investigation, i.e., for the investigation of the mutual
relation between man and his environment. As every moral man
should, so should also “jeder menschliche Verein, jedes Volk seiner
eigenen inneren und äußeren Kräfte, wie derjenigen der Nachbarn
und seiner Stellung zu allen von außen herein wirkenden
Verhältnissen inne werden.”[91] Nature exercises greater influence
over peoples than over individual men: “Die Eigentümlichkeit des
Volkes kann nur aus seinem Wesen erkannt werden, aus seinem
Verhältnis zu sich selbst, zu seinen Gliedern, zu seinen Umgebungen,
und weil kein Volk ohne Staat und Vaterland gedacht werden kann,
aus seinem Verhältnis zu beiden und aus dem Verhältnis von beiden
zu Nachbarländern und Nachbarstaaten. Hier zeigt sich der Einfluß,
den die Natur auf die Völker, und zwar in einem noch weit höheren
Grade, als auf den einzelnen Menschen ausüben muß ...
“Denn durch eine höhere Ordnung bestimmt, treten die Völker wie
die Menschen zugleich unter dem Einfluß einer Tätigkeit der Natur
und der Vernunft hervor aus dem geistigen wie aus dem physischen
Elemente in den Alles verschlingenden Kreis des Weltlebens.
Gestaltet sich doch jeder Organismus dem inneren Zusammenhange
und dem äußeren Umfange nach ... Sie (Völker und Staaten) stehen
alle unter demselben Einflusse der Natur ...”[92] To the problem of
the reciprocal relation between external and internal factors, Ritter
devoted a special essay, entitled “Über das historische Element in
der geographischen Wissenschaft,” which he read before the
Academy of Sciences at Berlin in 1833.[93]
In Alexander von Humboldt’s Ansichten der Natur,[94] “Everywhere
the reader’s attention is directed to the perpetual influence which
physical nature exercises on the moral condition and on the destiny
of man.”[95] In passing, Humboldt also touches on environment in the
first volume of his chef-d’oeuvre, Kosmos, assigning it, however, but
a modest rôle: “Es würde das allgemeine Naturbild, das ich zu
entwerfen strebe, unvollständig bleiben, wenn ich hier nicht auch
den Mut hätte, das Menschengeschlecht in seinen physischen
Abstufungen, in der geographischen Verbreitung seiner gleichzeitig
vorhandenen Typen, in dem Einfluß, welchen es von den Kräften der
Erde empfangen und wechselseitig, wenn auch schwächer, auf sie
ausgeübt hat, mit wenigen Zügen zu schildern. Abhängig, wenn
gleich in minderem Grade als Pflanzen und Tiere, von dem Boden
und den meteorologischen Prozessen des Luftkreises, den
Naturgewalten durch Geistestätigkeit und stufenweise erhöhte
Intelligenz, wie durch eine wunderbare sich allen Klimaten
aneignende Biegsamkeit des Organismus leichter entgehend, nimmt
das Geschlecht wesentlich Teil an dem ganzen Erdenleben.”[96]
J. G. Kohl’s book, Der Verkehr und die Ansiedlungen der Menschheit
in ihrer Abhängigkeit von der Gestaltung der Erdoberfläche,[97]
occupies itself with the question of the dependence of human
progress in general, and of density and concentration of population
in particular, upon natural conditions. The causes of these
phenomena are, to Kohl, partly moral or political, and partly physical.
The physical causes of concentration are twofold: “Teils sind es
solche, die von dem mehr oder minder großen Produktenreichtum
des Bodens, teils solche, die von der Gestaltung der Erdoberfläche
abhängen ... so zeigt sich dann, daß von allen verschiedenen
Ursachen der Kondensierung der Bevölkerung die Bodengestaltung
die allerwichtigste ist.”[98] Opposed to these natural conditions is a
series of what Kohl styles political influences, such as national
character, institutions created by the State, laws, etc.—“Die
moralischen oder politischen Ursachen der verschiedenen Dichtigkeit
der Bevölkerung sind in dem Kulturzustande und besonders in der
politischen Verfassung der Bewohner der verschiedenen Erdstriche
begründet ... Auch sind viele verschiedene Sitten der Völker als
einflußreiche Ursachen der mehr oder minder großen Dichtigkeit der
Bevölkerung zu betrachten.”[99] Not only national character, but also
education is to be counted among the political influences: “Unter
politischen und moralischen Einflüssen, die nicht von der Natur
bedingt werden, verstehen wir solche Kräfte, solche Volkstalente und
Eigentümlichkeiten des Charakters, die nicht der Boden, die Luft und
das Klima dem Volke geben. So groß nämlich auch die Gewalt des
Bodens, des Klimas und der Natur ist, so sehr die Zonen, die
Gebirge, die Sümpfe, die Wälder, die Wüsten u.s.w. alle
Bevölkerung, die in ihre Gebiete fällt, auf einerlei Weise zu bilden
und zu modeln streben, so sehr behauptet doch immer noch
nebenher der ursprüngliche Charakter des Stammes und die
Erziehung, welche das Volk sich gibt, ihre eigenen Rechte. Es
existieren beide Einflüsse neben einander, beschränken sich
gegenseitig, aber sie heben sich nicht auf ... Das, was nun nicht vom
Boden abhängt und was ein Volk auf jeden Boden, den es bezieht,
mit hin bringt, ist wiederum Zweierlei, entweder etwas Angeborenes
oder etwas Angenommenes.”[100] It is difficult to differentiate
between what is due to original endowment and what to the milieu,
yet natural influences can not be ignored: “Welcher Geist ... möchte
den Versuch wagen, zu entscheiden, was im Charakter des Volkes ...
Angenommenes und was Selbstgegebenes sei, was endlich in ihren
Handlungen und Bewegungen von Klima und Landesbeschaffenheit
bedingt werde. Die Charaktergepräge der Nationen, wie wir sie jetzt
in diesen neuesten Momenten der weltgeschichtlichen Entwicklung
sehen, sind Gebilde, welche unter der Einwirkung unerforschbar
vielfacher Einflüsse entstanden sind.... Und doch stehen sie (die
Natureinflüsse, die von den Historikern gewöhnlich unberücksichtigt
geblieben sind) vielleicht auch bei allen jenen Dingen, die wir im
Vordergrunde agieren sehen, im Hintergrunde und wirken als die
Quellen der Erscheinungen mittelbar selbst da, wo wir dieselben
anderen Ursachen zuschreiben. So mag jede Art der
Staatsverfassung, der Gewerbzweige geschöpft und hervorgeblüht
sein aus der Tiefe des Nationalgeistes, des Boden- und des
Luftgeistes, während wir sie als Willkürliches und Selbstgegebenes
auffassen.”[101]
The naturalist Karl Ernst von Baer discusses the influence of external
nature upon the social relations of individual nations and upon the
history of mankind in general,[102] while the geologist Bernhard Cotta
attempts to show the effect of soil and geological structure on
German life.[103] Accepting, in the main, Cotta as a basis, J. Kutzen,
in Das deutsche Land, Seine Natur in ihren charakteristischen Zügen
und sein Einfluß auf Geschichte und Leben der Menschen, Skizzen
und Bilder,[104] the bulk of which book is physical geography,
intersperses therewith anthropo-geographical statements that are in
some cases interwoven in, and in others added to, the descriptive
parts, pointing out the relation of environment to the life and history
of the Germans.[105] Kutzen claims his work to be the first that treats
the whole of Germany in the way just indicated.
In The Natural History of the German People,[106] W. H. Riehl studies
the action of natural conditions on man. He is concerned with the
connections between land and people: “Will man die
naturgeschichtliche Methode der Wissenschaft vom Volke in ihrer
ganzen Breite und Tiefe nachweisen, dann muß man auch in das
Wesen dieser örtlichen Besonderungen des Volkstumes eindringen.
In der Lehre von der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft ist das Verhältnis der
großen natürlichen Volksgruppen zueinander nachgewiesen: hier
sollen diese Gruppen nach den örtlichen Bedingungen des Landes, in
welchem das Volksleben wurzelt, dargestellt werden. Erst aus den
individuellen Bezügen von LAND UND LEUTEN entwickelt sich die
kulturgeschichtliche Abstraktion der bürgerlichen Gesellschaft.”[107]
And “Das vorliegende Buch hat sich das bescheidenere Ziel gesteckt,
zusammenhängende Skizzen zu liefern zur Naturgeschichte des
Volkes in seinem Zusammenhang mit dem Lande.”[108] His chief aim
is to prove that the connection between land and people is the basis
of all social development and of all social research: “Ich hatte mir
von Anbeginn das Ziel gesteckt, den Zusammenhang von Land und
Volk als Fundament aller sozialen und politischen Entwicklung, als
Ausgangspunkt aller sozialen Forschung nachzuweisen, und dieses
Hauptziel, die eigentliche Tendenz des Buches, hat heute noch
denselben Wert, dieselbe fördernde Kraft wie vor einem
Menschenalter.”[109] He wants to show how “Volksart” and
“Landesart” hang together, how nationality grows organically out of
the soil: “Ich nenne dieses Wanderbuch einen zweiten Band zu ‘Land
und Leuten.’ In jener Schrift verarbeite ich zahlreiche Wanderskizzen,
um den Zusammenhang von Volksart und Landesart, das organische
Erwachsen des Volkstumes aus dem Boden nachzuweisen.”[110]
Everywhere Riehl finds “an organic relation between nature and
man,” according to Gooch.[111] Riehl recognizes “that man could only
develop within the limits imposed by nature.”[112] The problem of
how locality affects social groups has, of course, not originated with
Riehl, but it received a reformulation at his hands. It must be added,
however, that his bombastic assertions far outrun his data. His
claims are disproportionate to his facts.[113]
Alfred Kirchhoff brilliantly sketches the reciprocal relations between
land and people in Germany, in an essay entitled Die deutschen
Landschaften und Stämme.[114]
Achelis[115] refers to Bastian’s doctrine of geographical provinces, “wo
eine Reihe rein physikalischer Agentien: Temperatur, Boden, Flora,
Fauna, etc. sich mit entsprechenden psychischen kombinieren, so
daß man in konzentrischer Reihenfolge von botanischen,
zoologischen und anthropologischen Kreisen reden könnte. Der
leitende Grundsatz, sagt Bastian, für geographisch-typische
Provinzen fällt in die Abhängigkeit des Organismus von seiner
geographischen Umgebung (le Milieu oder Monde ambiant), in eine
gegenseitig festgeschlossene Wechselwirkung und also in
Naturgesetze, mit denen sich rechnen läßt (Zur Lehre von den
geographischen Provinzen [Berlin, 1886], S. 6).”
The reciprocal influences of man and his environment are illustrated
by Alfred Kirchhoff in Mensch und Erde, Skizzen von den
Wechselbeziehungen zwischen beiden.[116]
Ferdinand von Richthofen[117] traces the gradual evolution of
“Siedlung und Verkehr,” under which two concepts he subsumes all
relations of man to the soil.[118]
It was Friedrich Ratzel, however, who “performed the great service
of placing anthropo-geography on a secure scientific basis. He had
his forerunners in Montesquieu,[119] Alexander von Humboldt, Buckle,
Ritter, Kohl, Peschel and others; but he first investigated the subject
from the modern scientific point of view, ... and based his
conclusions on world-wide inductions, for which his predecessors did
not command the data.”[120] He “has written the standard work on
Anthropogeographie.”[121] Employing the analytical method, Ratzel
was the first to divide the subject-matter into categories: “Ratzel hat
das Verdienst, daß er zuerst den Stoff in Kategorien teilte. Er wendet
die analytische Methode der allgemeinen Geographie an und
betrachtet den Einfluß einzelner Naturgegebenheiten auf den
Menschen, z.B. der Inseln, Halbinseln, Gebirge, Ebenen, Steppen,
Wüsten, Küsten, Flußmündungen[122] usw. Die analytische Methode
allein kann zum Ziele führen.”[123] The great and permanent merit of
Ratzel’s Politische Geographie[124] is its setting forth how closely the
State is bound to the physical milieu.[125] It treats partly of the effect
of nature and soil on the formation of the State and on political
boundaries.[126] Ratzel expounds environmental action also in his
books Die Vereinigten Staaten von Amerika,[127] The History of
Mankind,[128] and in his article on “The Principles of Anthropo-
geography.”[129] Among his followers is to be counted Andrew R.
Cowan, whose Master-Clues in World-History[130] is “deeply
impregnated with Ratzel’s teachings.”[131] Camille Vallaux devotes the
fifth chapter (pp. 145–73) of his Géographie Sociale, Le Sol et L’État,
[132]
to a criticism of the theories of Raum (space) and of Lage
(situation) as developed by Ratzel in his Politische Geographie. And,
in general, Ratzel’s “published work had been open to the just
criticism of inadequate citation of authorities.”[133] O. Schlüter in “Die
leitenden Gesichtspunkte der Anthropogeographie, insbesondere der
Lehre Friedrich Ratzels”[134] gives us the best single estimate of
Ratzel, the best orientation—within the compass of an article well
written, well poised, and illuminating—on Ratzel’s work, thought,
method, and application.[135]
 Geography and History
We shall now see, first, the stand taken by some French writers, and
then that taken by German and English writers, on the question of
how physical environment affects history.
One of the “three most philosophical writers on climate,”[136] Charles
Comte, not related by birth to the founder of Positivism, is, likewise,
one of the earliest disciples of Herder in France. Herder “seems to
have helped to inspire”[137] Charles Comte’s Traité de Législation.[138]
Charles Comte’s “discussion of the questions which relate to the
influence of physical nature on human development must have been
the fruit of long and careful study. It was as great an advance on
Montesquieu’s treatment of the subject as Montesquieu’s had been
on that of Bodin. It disproved, corrected, or confirmed a host of
Montesquieu’s observations and conclusions. It showed that he had
ascribed too much to climate, and too little to the configuration of
the earth’s surface, the distribution of mountains and rivers, &c.; and
that he had conceived vaguely, and even to a large extent
erroneously, of the modes in which climate and the fertility or
sterility of soil affect human development. But while Comte thus
justly criticised Montesquieu, he himself exaggerated the efficiency
of physical agencies. Indeed, he virtually traced to their operation
the whole development of history ... he has assumed that physical
agencies ultimately account for historical change and movement, for
public institutions and laws....
“Charles Comte fully recognises that the same physical medium has
a very different influence on different generations; and that
institutions and laws, education and manners, and, in a word, all the
constituents of the social medium, have as real an influence on the
development of history as those of the physical medium. Yet he
assumes the latter to be the first, although to a large extent only
indirect, causes of the whole amount of change effected.”[139]
Victor Cousin, another Frenchman, reconnects with Herder. Cousin
had direct acquaintance with at least the principal work of Herder,
for the rendering of whose “Ideen” into French by Quinet he seems
responsible.[140] In the eighth lecture of his “admired”[141] Cours de
1828 sur la Philosophie de l’Histoire, he discourses on the rôle that
geography plays in history.
F. Guizot, in the fifth lecture of The History of Civilization,[142]
comments briefly on the influence of external circumstances upon
liberty.
The romantic French historiographer, Jules Michelet, in his Histoire
de France (second volume, 1833), and in his Histoire Romaine
(1839), interlinks geography with history, and brilliantly describes
the countries whose histories he is writing. Like some before him
(such as Montesquieu), and many after him (such as Riehl, Curtius,
and Gothein),[143] who traveled in the respective countries before
describing them or composing their history, Michelet, as one
preliminary measure toward equipping himself for such a task,
visited Italy[144] and various parts of France, the latter repeatedly, in
order to gain a first hand impression of the physical milieu and the
people of those lands. He is said to be the first [sic!] in France who,
under the influence of Herder, had the idea that geography was the
foundation of history: “Sous l’influence de Herder, il [Michelet] eut, le
premier en France, l’idée que la géographie était le fondement de
l’histoire: ‘Le matériel, la race, le peuple qui la continue me
paraissaient avoir besoin qu’on mît dessous une bonne et forte base,
la terre, qui les portât et qui les nourrît. Et notez que ce sol n’est pas
seulement le théâtre de l’action. Par la nourriture, le climat, etc., il y
influe de cent manières. Tel le nid, tel l’oiseau. Telle la patrie, tel
l’homme.’”[145] Without this basis, the actor in history, the people,
would be treading on air like figures in some Chinese paintings. Says
Jules Simon of the celebrated tableau in the second volume of the
Histoire de France: “Son héros [Michelet’s] ... c’est la France. Il en
fait une description qui remplit tout le troisième livre et qui est un
chef-d’oeuvre. Chose nouvelle, cette géographie a autant de
mouvement que l’histoire. Elle est animée, vivante, agissante. Il en
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