118 COSMOS. 



which they do not ah'eady possess, they may threaten. Ir 

 the ahiiost uninterrupted course of the knowledge transmitted 

 to them, and in their ancient scientific nomenclature, we may 

 trace, as the guiding points of the history of the human race, 

 recollections of the various channels through which important 

 inventions, or, at any rate, their germs, have been conveyed 

 to the nations of Europe ; thus from Eastern Asia has flowed 

 the knowledge of the direction and declination of a freely-sus- 

 pended magnetic rod ; from Phoenicia and Egypt the knowl- 

 edge of chemical preparations, as glass, animal and vegetable 

 dyes, and metallic oxyds ; and from India the general use of 

 position in determining the increased values of a few numer- 

 ical signs. 



Since civilization has left its most ancient seat within the 

 tropics or the sub-tropical zone, it has remained permanently 

 settled in the portion of the earth whose northern regions are 

 less cold than those of Asia and America under the same lati- 

 tude. The continent of Europe may be regarded as a western 

 peninsula of Asia, and I have already observed how much 

 general civilization is favored by the mildness of its climate, 

 and how much it owes to the circumstances of its variously 

 articulated form, first noticed by Strabo ; to its position in re- 

 spect to Africa, which extends so far into the equatorial zone, 

 and to the prevalence of the west winds, which are warm 

 winds in winter, owing to their passing over the surface of the 

 ocean. The physical character of Europe has opposed fewer 

 obstacles to the diffusion of civilization than are presented in 

 Asia and Africa, where far-extending parallel ranges of mount 

 ain chains, elevated plateaux, and sandy deserts interpose al- 

 most impassable barriers between difTerent nations. 



We will therefore start in our enumeration of the principal 

 momenta that characterize the history of the physical consid- 

 eration of the universe from a portion of the earth which is, 

 perhaps, more highly favored than any other, owing to its 

 geographical position, and its constant intercourse with other 

 countries, by means of which the cosmical views of nations 

 experience so marked a degree of enlargement. 



