THE MEDITERRANEAN SEA. 235 



phenomena, which make up the physical history of this great 

 sea. We have no right to complain that the volume before 

 us is devoted chiefly to professional objects, since these are 

 numerous and of eminent value. But the subject admits of 

 a wider delineation and more ample details, physical, his- 

 torical, and picturesque. A work comprising these, and 

 at the same time preserving entire the unity of the picture, is 

 still wanting to our literature. 



The very familiarity of the Mediterranean in our own 

 days has begotten a certain indifference to its peculiarities 

 and grandeur. Looking to physical features only, it is by far 

 the most wonderful ocean-inlet or midland sea in the world ; 

 penetrating farther into the heart of the continent than any 

 other, and more strangely broken and diversified in its out- 

 line by gulfs, straits, islands, and inner seas. Mere verbal 

 description does little towards illustration in a case of this 

 kind. A map or globe must be before the eye, and the 

 Mediterranean looked at simply and singly in its boundaries 

 and dimensions ; putting aside all local associations which 

 disturb such general view.* It will be seen at once how 

 singular and curious is the configuration of this vast basin ; 

 how deeply its gulfs run into the lands which surround it ; 

 and how closely they approach at its eastern end those other 

 deep inlets of the Ked Sea and Persian Grulf, which have 

 their connection with the Oceans of another hemisphere. 

 The eye, cast over other parts of the globe, will see nothing 



* This direction will not seem superfluous to those who have watched the 

 curious mechanical results of habit, even in the simple matter of relative posi- 

 tion of objects before the eye. Any one may satisfy himself of it in this 

 instance by merely inverting a map, or turning a globe into some unwonted 

 position, when he will seemingly have before him a totally new configuration of 

 land and sea, which it requires some time and effort to bring back to the reality 

 of his former recollections. The experiment is worth making as a special illus- 

 tration of a large class of mental phenomena, which cannot be too carefully 

 studied as a part of psychology. 



