SUMMARY. 



Vol. II. 



GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS. 



A. Incitements to the Study of Nature. — The image reflected by the ex- 



ternal world on the imagination Page 19-23 



I. Poetic Delineation of Nature. — The feeling entertained for natur« 



according to difference of times and races p. 21-82 



II. Landscape Painting. — Graphical representation of the physiog- 



nomy of vegetation p. 82-98 



III. Cultivation of Exotic Plants. — Contrasted apposition of vegeta- 

 ble forms p, 99-105 



B. History of the Physical Contemplation of the Universe. — Principal 



momenta of the gradual development and extensipn of the idea of 

 the Cosmos as one natural whole p. 106-118 



I. The Mediterranean the starting-point of the attempts at an ad- 

 vance toward the northeast (by the Argonauts), toward the south (to 

 Ophir), toward the west (by the Phoenicians and Colaeus of Samos). 

 Simultaneous reference to the earliest civilization of the nations who 

 dwelt around the basin of the Mediterranean p. 1 19-153 



II. Campaigns of the Macedonians under Alexander the Great. — Fu- 

 sion of the East and West. Hellenism furthers the blending of nations 

 from the Nile to the Euphrates, the Jaxartes and the Indus. Sudden 

 extension of the contemplation of the Universe by direct observations, 

 as well as by intercourse with anciently-civilized industrial nations 



p. 153-169 



III. Increased Contemplation of the Universe under the Ptolemies. — 

 Museum at Serapeum. Encyclopedic learning. Generalization of nat- 

 ural view^s regarding the earth and the regions of space. Increased 

 maritime trade toward the south p. 170-179 



IV. Universal Dominion of the Romans. — Influence of a political 

 union on Cosmical views. Advance of geography by means of inland 

 trade. The development of Christianity generates and fosters the feel- 

 in^of the unity of the human race p. 180-199 



T. Irruption of the Arabian Races. — Intellectual aptitude of this 

 branch of the Semitic races. Taste for the study of nature and its 

 forces. Medicine and chemistry. Extension of physical geography, 

 astronomy, and the mathematic sciences generally p. 200-228 



VI. Period of Oceanic Discoveries. — Opening of the western hemi- 

 sphere. America and the Pacific. The Scandinavians. Columbus, 

 Cabot, and Gama ; Cabrillo, Mendana, and Quiros. The greatest 

 abundance of materials now presented itself to the western nations of 

 Europe for the establishment of physical geography p. 228-301 



VII. Period of the great Discoveries in the Regions of Space. — The 

 application of the telescope. Principal epochs in the history of astron- 

 omy and mathematics, from Galileo and Kepler to Newton and Leib- 

 nitz p. 301-35? 



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