A Birdseye View of Europe

The charts of the world which have been drawn up by modern science have thrown into a narrow space the expression of a vast amount of knowledge. However, I have never seen a picture that lets the viewer imagine the vast geographical contrast between the northern and southern countries. We know the differences in detail, but we can't imagine them easily. Even though we know that gentians grow on the Alps and olives on the Apennines Mountain ranges, we cannot imagine the variegated mosaic of the world's surface which a…

Let us, for a moment, try to raise ourselves even higher than their level of flight, and imagine the Mediterranean lying beneath us like an irregular lake, and all its ancient promontories sleeping in the sun. Here and there is an angry spot of thunder and gray stain of storm moving upon a burning field. Here and there a fixed wreath of white volcano smoke, surrounded by its circle of ashes. For the most part, though, there is a great peacefulness of light, with Syria and Greece, Italy and Spain,…