548 COSMOS. 



the Euphrates, and the Indus, into the great stream of Greek 

 and Roman civilisation ; but even for these elements we are 

 originally indebted to the Greeks and to theRomans, who were 

 surrounded by Etruscans and other nations of Hellenic 

 descent. How recent is the date of any direct investigation, 

 interpretation, and secular classification of the great monu- 

 ments of more anciently civilised nations ! How short is 

 the time that has elapsed since hieroglyphics and arrow- 

 headed characters were first deciphered, and how numerous 

 are the armies and the caravans w r hich, for thousands of 

 years, have passed and repassed without ever divining their 

 import ! 



The basin of the Mediterranean, more especially in its 

 varied northern peninsulas, certainly constituted the starting 

 point of the intellectual and political culture of those nations 

 who now possess what we may hope is destined to prove an 

 imperishable and daily increasing treasure of scientific know- 

 ledge and of creative artistic powers, and who have spread 

 civilisation, and, with it servitude at first, but subsequently 

 freedom, over another hemisphere. Happily, in our hemi- 

 sphere, under the favour of a propitious destiny, unity and 

 diversity are gracefully blended together. The elements 

 taken up have been no less heterogeneous in their nature than 

 in the affinities and transformations effected under the influ- 

 ence of the sharply contrasting peculiarities and individual 

 characteristics of the several races of men by whom Europe 

 has been peopled. Even beyond the ocean, the reflection of 

 these contrasts may still be traced in the colonies and settle- 

 ments which have already become powerful free states, or 

 \vhich, it is hoped, may still develope for themselves an equal 

 amount of political freedom. 



The Roman dominion in its monarchical form under the 

 Ca3sars, considered according to its area,* was certainly ex- 



* The superficial area of the Eoman Empire under Augustus, is cal- 

 culated by Professor Berghaus, the author of the excellent Physical 

 Atlas, at rather more than 400,000 geographical square miles (accord- 

 ing to the boundaries assumed by Heeren, in his Gesckichte der 

 Staaten des Alterthums., s. 403--470), or about one-fourth greater than 

 the extent of 1,600,000 square miles assigned by Gibbon, in his History 

 of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. i. chap. i. p. 39, but 

 which he indeed gives as a very uncertain estimate. 



