Excerpt from The Natural Boundaries of Empires: An Essay to Shew the Effect of the Geological Structure of the Earth on the Political Boundaries of Nations The limits of empires are controlled by two causes - the physical geography of the soil, and the power of man; the first is eternal, the last variable; thus, in examining history, we find that the first produces the most per manent effect. Nations often war against those eternal limits which are pointed out by nature. The Turks and Persians have, in modern times, renewed the ancient contest between the Romans and Parthians, and have fought for several centuries without gaining one square mile of territory. The ancient Grecians fought for a thousand years, and their small republics, at the termination of the contest, retained their original boundaries. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.