Xll SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS. 



ry of the recognition of the universe is wholly different from the history 

 of the natural sciences, as given in oar elementary works on physk-s 

 and on the morphology of plants and animals. This is the history of 

 our conception of the unity of phenomena, and of the reciprocal con 

 nection existing among the natural forces of the universe. Mode of 

 treating a history of the Cosmos: a. The independent efforts of reason 

 to gain a knowledge of natural laws; b. Cosmical events which have 

 suddenly enlarged ^he horizon of observation ; c. The invention of new 

 means of sensuous perception. Languages. Points of radiation from 

 which civilization has been diffused. Primitive physics and the natural 

 science of barbarous nations obscured by civilization p. 118. 



Principal Momenta of a- History of a Physical Contemplation of the 

 Universe. 



I. The basin of the Mediterranean the starting-point of the attempts 

 to extend the idea of the Cosmos. Subdivisions in the form of the ba- 

 sin. Importance of the form of the Arabian Gulf. Intersection of two 

 geognostic systems of elevation from N.E. to S.W., and from S.S.E. to 

 N.N.W. Importance of the latter direction of the lines of intersection 

 considered with reference to general international intercourse. An- 

 cient civilization of the nations dwelling round the Mediterranean. 

 The Valley of the Nile, the ancient and modern kingdom of the Egyp- 

 tians. The Phoenicians, a race who favored general intercourse, were 

 the means of diffusing alphabetical writing (Phoenician signs), coins as 

 medium of currency, and the original Babylonian weights and meas- ' 

 ures. The science of numbers, arithmetic. The art of navigating by 

 night. West African colonies p. 130. 



Pelasgian Tyrrhenians and Etruscans (Rasenae). Peculiar tendency 

 of the Etrurian races to maintain an intimate communion with natural 

 forces; the fulguratores and aquileges p. 140. 



Other anciently civilized races dwelling around the Mediterranean. 

 Traces of cultivation in the East, under the Phrygians and Lycians; 

 and in the West, under the Turduli and the Turdetani. Dawn of Hel- 

 lenic power. Western Asia the great thoroughfare of nations emigra 

 ting from the East; the JEgeau island world the connecting link be- 

 tween Greece and the far East. Beyond the 48th degree of latitude, 

 Europe and Asia are fused together, as it were, by flat steppes. Pher- 

 ecydes of Syros, and Herodotus, considered the whole of North Scyth- 

 ian Asia as appertaining to Sarmatian Europe. Maritime power, and 

 Doric and Ionic habits of life transmitted to the colonial cities. Ad- 

 vance toward the East, to the Euxine and Colchis ; first acquaintance 

 with the western shore of the Caspian Sea, confounded, according to 

 Hecataeus, with the encircling Eastern Ocean. Inland trade and bar- 

 ter carried on by the chain of Scytho-scolotic races with the Argippae- 

 ans, Issedones, and the Arismaspes. rich in gold. Meteorological myth 

 cf the Hyperboreans. Opening of the port of -Gadeira toward the west, 

 which had long been closed to the Greeks. Navigation of CoL-eus of 

 Samos. A glance into the boundless; an unceasing striving for the far 

 distant; accurate knowledge of the great natural phenomenon of the 

 periodic swelling of the sea p. 153. 



II. Campaigns of the Macedonians under Alexander the Great, and the 

 long-enduring Influence of the Bactrian Empire. With the exception of 

 the one great event of the discovery and opening of tropical America 

 eighteen and a half centuries later, there was no other period in which 

 a richer field of natural views, and a more abundant mass of materials 



