[XVlj COSMOS. 



tosthenes of Cyrene. The first attempt of the Greeks, >>ased on imper- 

 fect data of the Bematists, to measure a degree between Syene and 

 Alexandria. Simultaneous advance of science in pure mathematics, 

 mechanics and astronomy. Aristyllus and Timochares- Views enter- 

 tained regarding the structure of the universe by Aristarchus of Samoa, 

 and Seleucus of Babylon or of Erythraea. Hipparchus, the founder of 

 scientific astronomy, and the greatest independent astronomical observer 

 of antiquity. Euclid. Apollonius of Perga, and Archimedes p. 546. 



IV. Influence of the universal dominion of the Romans and of their 

 empire on the extension of cosmical views. Considering the diversity 

 in the configuration of the soil, the variety of the organic products, 

 the distant expeditions to the Amber lands, and under yElius Gallus to 

 Arabia, and the peace which the Romans long enj oyed, under the monarchy 

 of the Caesars they might, indeed, during four centuries, have afforded more 

 animated support to the pursuit of natural science ; but with the Roman 

 national spirit perished social mobility, publicity, and the maintenance 

 of individuality the main supports of free institutions for the further- 

 ance of intellectual development. In this long period, the only observers 

 of nature that present themselves to our notice are Dioscorides, the 

 Cilician, and Galen of Pergamus. Claudius Ptolemy made the first 

 advance in an important branch of mathematical physics, and in the 

 study of optics, based on experiments. Material advantages of the 

 extension of inland trade to the interior of Asia, and the navigation of 

 Myos Hormos to India. Under Vespasian and Domitian, in the time 

 of the dynasty of Han, a Chinese army penetrates as far as the eastern 

 shores of the Caspian Sea. The direction of the stream of migration in 

 Asia is from east to west, whilst in the new continent it inclines from 

 north to south. Asiatic migrations begin, a century and a-half before 

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

 haired, blue-eyed, probably Indo-germanic race of the Yueti and Usun, 

 near the Chinese wall. Roman ambassadors are sent under Marcus 

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

 dius received an 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 wholly independent and separate paths, may, before the time of 

 Diophantus, have been in part conveyed to the west by means of the 

 extensive universal commerce carried on under the Lagides and the 

 Caesars. 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 

 Iranian Zend, been recognised as a historical memorial of these remote 

 commercial relations. Stupendous attempt made by Pliny to give a 

 description of the universe ; the characteristics of his encyclopaedia of 

 nature and art. Whilst the long-enduring influence of the Roman 

 dominion manifested itself in the history of the contemplation of th 

 universe as an element of union and fusion, it was reserved for the dif- 



