Excerpt from The Growth of Cities: A Discourse Delivered Before the New York Geographical Society, on the Evening of March 15th, 1855 The causes of the superiority of the commercial over the manufacturing cities, may be found in the more extensive acquaintance which they form with other nations, in respect to their peculiar productions, their advantages, physical and intellectual, their modes of life, their languages, literature, ' and arts. Commercial cities are to manufacturing cities, in these respects, what cities in general are to the rural districts. Hence we find commercial cities naturally taking the lead in the introduction of various improvements from abroad, and even coming to wear a foreign aspect. A stranger, un acquainted with the history of Venice, would say, at once, that this people had held communication with the East; their habits and the style of their architecture are so oriental. The influence of this wide-spread intercourse is various it enlarges the boundaries of knowledge; it moulds and humanizes through spontaneous and insensible imitation; it weakens narrow prejudices by revealing objects Worthy of admiration in other nations; and it stimulates to activity through natural pride and national competition. 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.