536 COSMOS 



EXTENSION OF THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE 



UNDER THE PTOLEMIES. MUSEUM AT SERAPEUM. 



PECULIAR CHARACTER OF THE DIRECTION OF SCIENCE 

 AT THIS PERIOD. ENCYCLOPEDIC LEARNING. GENE- 

 RALISATION OF THE YIEWS OF NATURE RESPECTING 

 THE EARTH AND THE REGIONS OF SPACE. 



AFTER the dissolution of the Macedonian empire, which in- 

 cluded territories in three continents, those germs were vari- 

 ously developed, which the uniting and combining system of 

 government of the great conqueror had cast abroad in a 

 fruitful soil. The more the national exclusiveness of the Hel- 

 lenic mode of thought vanished, and the more its creative 

 force of inspiration lost in depth and intensity, the greater 

 was the increase in the knowledge acquired of the connection of 

 phenomena by a more animated and extensive intercourse with 

 other nations, as well as by a rational mode of generalising 

 views of nature. In the Syrian kingdom, under the Attalidse of 

 Pergamus, and under the Seleucidae and the Ptolemies, learn- 

 ing was universally favoured by distinguished rulers. Grecian- 

 Egypt enjoyed the advantage of political unity, as well as that 

 of a geographical position, by which the traffic of the Indian 

 ocean was brought within a few miles of the Mediterranean 

 by the influx of the Arabian Gulf from the Straits of Bab-el- 

 Mandeb to Suez and Akaba (running in the line of intersection 

 that inclines from south-south-east to north-north-west).* 



The kingdom of the Seleucida3 did not enjoy the same 

 advantage of maritime trade as that afforded by the form and 

 configuration of the territories of the Lagides (the Ptolemies), 

 and its stability was endangered by the dissensions fomented by 

 the various nations occupying the different satrapies. The 

 traffic carried on in the Seleucidean kingdom was besides 

 more an inland one, limited to the course of rivers or to the 

 caravan routes, which defied all the natural obstacles presented 

 by snow-capped mountain chains, elevated plateaux, and 

 extensive deserts. The great inland caravan trade, whose 

 most valuable articles of barter were silk, passed from the 

 interior of Asia, from the elevated plains of the Seres, north 



* See p. 485. 



