XIV SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS. 



oar era, with the inroads of the Hiungnu, a Turkish race, on the fair- 

 haired, bk;e-eyed, probably ludo-Germanic race of the Yueti and Usun, 

 near the Chinese Wall, Roman embassadors are sent, under Marcus 

 Aurelius, to the Chinese court by way of Tonkin. The Emperor Clau- 

 dius received au embassy of the Rashias of Ceylon. The great Indian 

 mathematicians, Warahamihira, Brahmagupta, and probably also Arya- 

 bhatta, lived at more recent periods than those we are considering ; but 

 the elements of knowledge, which had been earlier discovered in India 

 in w^hoily independent and separate paths, may, before the time of Di- 

 ophantus, have been in part conveyed to the West by means of the ex- 

 tensive universal commerce carried on under the Lagides and the Cae- 

 sars. The influence of these widely-diffused commercial relations is 

 manifested in the colossal geographical works of Strabo and Ptolemy. 

 The geographical nomenclature of the latter writer has recently, by a 

 careful study of the Indian languages and of the history of the west Ira- 

 nian Zend, l)een recognized as a historical memorial of these remote 

 commercial relations. Stupendous attempt made by Phny to give a 

 description of the universe ; the characteristics of his encyclopedia of 

 nature and art. While the long-enduring influence of the Roman do- 

 minion manifested itself in the history of the contemplation of the uni- 

 verse as an element of union and fusion, it was reserved for the diffu- 

 sion of Christianity (when that Ibrm of faith was, from political motives, 

 forcibly raised to be the religion of the state of Byzantium) to aid iu 

 awakening an idea of the unity of the human race, and by degrees to 

 give to that idea its proper value amid the miserable dissensions of re- 

 ligious parties — p. 199. 



V. Irruption of the Arabs. — Effect of a foreign element on the pro- 

 cess of development of European civilization. The Arabs, a Semitic 

 primitive race susceptible of cultivation, in part dispel the barbarism 

 which for two hundred years had covered Europe, which had been 

 shaken by national convulsions ; they not only maintain ancient civil- 

 ization, but extend, it, and. open new paths to natural investigation. 

 Geographical figure of the Arabian peninsula. Products of Hadramaut, 

 Yemen, and Oman. Mountain chains of Dschebel-Akhdar, and Asyr. 

 Gerrha, the ancient emporium for Indian wares, opposite to the Phoe- 

 nician settlements of Aradus and Tylus. The northern portion of the 

 peninsula was brought into animated relations of contact with other 

 cultivated states, by means of the spread of Arabian races in the Syro- 

 Palestinian frontier mountainous districts and the lands of the Euphra- 

 tes. Pre-existing indigenous civilization. Ancient participation in the 

 general commerce of the universe. Hostile advances to the West and 

 to the East. Hyksos and Ariaeus, prince of the Himyarites, the allies 

 of Minus on the Tigris. Peculiar character of the nomadic life of the 

 Arabs, together with their caravan tracks and their populous cities — p. 

 200-208. Influence of the Nestorians, Syrians, and of the pharmaceu- 

 tico-medicinal school at Edessa. Taste for inteixourse with nature and 

 her forces. The Arabs were the actual founders of the physical and 

 chemical sciences. The science of medicine. Scientific institutions in 

 the brilliant epoch of Almansur, Haroun Al-Raschid, Mamun, and Mo- 

 tasem. Scientific intercourse with India. Employment made of the 

 Tscharaka and the Susruta, and of the ancient technical arts of the 

 Egyptians. Botanical gardens at Cordova, under the C;ilif Abdurrah- 

 man the poet — p. 208-217. Efforts made at independent astronomical 

 observations and the improvement in instruments. Ebn Junis employs 

 the pendulum as a measure of time. The vvoik of Alhuzen <n\ the re- 



