GENERAL RETROSPECT. 739 



intellectual events which impart a peculiar character and 

 colouring to those epochs. Such, for instance, were the 

 undertakings which led Europeans into the Euxine, and 

 permitted them to conjecture the existence of another sea- 

 shore beyond the Phasis ; the expeditions to tropical lands 

 rich in gold and incense ; the passage through the Western 

 Straits, or the opening of that great maritime route on which 

 were discovered, at long intervals of time, Cerne and the 

 Hesperides, the northern tin and amber lands, the volcanic 

 islands of the Azores, and the New Continent of Columbus, 

 south of the ancient settlement of the Scandinavians. To 

 the consideration of the movements which emanated from the 

 basin of the Mediterranean, and the most northern part of 

 the neighbouring Arabian Gulf, and of the expeditions on the 

 Euxine and to Ophir, succeed, in my historical delineation, 

 the campaigns of the Macedonian conqueror, and his attempts 

 to fuse together the west and the east; the influence exer- 

 cised by Indian maritime trade and by the Alexandrian 

 Institute under the Ptolemies ; the universal dominion of the 

 Romans under the Cassars; and, lastly, the taste evinced by 

 the Arabs for the study of nature and of natural forces, 

 especially with reference to astronomy, mathematics, and 

 practical chemistry, a taste that exercised so important and 

 beneficial an influence. According to my view, the series of 

 events which suddenly enlarged the sphere of ideas, excited 

 a taste for the investigation of physical laws, and animated the 

 efforts of men to arrive at the ultimate comprehension of the 

 universe as a whole, terminated with the acquisition of an 

 entire hemisphere which had till then lain concealed, and 

 which constituted the greatest geographical discovery ever 

 made. Since this period, as we have already remarked, the 

 human mind has brought forth great and noble fruits without 

 the incitement of external occurrences, and as the effect of 

 its own inherent power developed simultaneously in all 

 directions. 



Amongst the instruments which man formed for himself, 

 like new organs as it were, to heighten his powers of 

 sensuous perception, there was one which exercised an 

 influence similar to that of some great and sudden event. 

 By the power of penetrating space, possessed by the tele- 

 scope, considerable portions of the heavens were almost at 

 3u2 



