THE CONQUEST OF TIME AND SPACE 



different from the world as conceived by the Oriental 

 mind, was definitely grasped and became more or less 

 a matter of common knowledge. It was even conceived 

 that there might be a second habitable zone on the 

 opposite side of the equator from the region in which 

 the Greeks and Romans found themselves, but as to just 

 what this hypothetical region might be like, and as to 

 what manner of beings might people it, even the most 

 daring speculator made no attempt to decide. The 

 more general view, indeed, precluded all thought of 

 habitable regions lying beyond the confines of the 

 Mediterranean civilization; conceiving rather that the 

 world beyond was a mere waste of waters. 



Doubtless the imaginative mind of the period must 

 have chafed under these restrictions of geographical 

 knowledge; and now and again a more daring naviga- 

 tor must have pressed out beyond the limits of safety, 

 into the Unknown, never to return. Once at least, 

 even in the old Egyptian days, a band of navigators 

 surpassing in daring all their predecessors, and their 

 successors of the ensuing centuries, made bold to con- 

 tinue their explorations along the coast of Africa till 

 they had passed to a region where — as Herodotus re- 

 lates with wonder — the sun appeared "on their right 

 hand," ultimately passing about the southern ex- 

 tremity of the African continent and in due course 

 completing the circumnavigation, returning with wonder 

 tales to excite the envy, perhaps, but not the emulation 

 of their fellows. 



Then in due course some Phoenician or Greek navi- 

 gators coasted along the northern shores beyond the 



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