conception of a golden age and a subsequent degeneration of mankind;
and he refuted the view, generally current among medieval
theologians, and based on the prophecies of Daniel, which divided
the course of history into four periods corresponding to the
Babylonian Persian, Macedonian, and Roman monarchies, the last of
which was to endure till the day of Judgement. Bodin suggests a
division into three great periods: the first, of about two thousand
years, in which the South-Eastern peoples were predominant; the
second, of the same duration, in which those whom he calls the
Middle (Mediterranean) peoples came to the front; the third, in
which the Northern nations who overthrew Rome became the leaders in
civilisation. Each period is stamped by the psychological character
of the three racial groups. The note of the first is religion, of
the second practical sagacity, of the third warfare and inventive
skill. This division actually anticipates the synthesis of Hegel.
[Footnote: Hegel's division is (1) the Oriental, (2) a, the Greek,
b, the Roman, and (3) the Germanic worlds.] But the interesting
point is that it is based on anthropological considerations, in
which climate and geography are taken into account; and,
notwithstanding the crudeness of the whole exposition and the
intrusion of astrological arguments, it is a new step in the study
of universal history. [Footnote: Climates and geography. The fullest
discussion will be found in the Republique, Book v. cap. i. Here
Bodin anticipated Montesquieu. There was indeed nothing new in the
principle; it had been recognised by Hippocrates, Plato, Aristotle,
Polybius, and other Greeks, and in a later age by Roger Bacon.

But Bodin first developed and applied it methodically. This part of
his work was ignored, and in the eighteenth century Montesquieu's
speculations on the physical factors in history were applauded as a