547 



UNIVERSAL EOMINIO5T OP THE ROMANS. INFLUENCE OP 



A VAST POLITICAL UNION ON COSMICAL VIEWS. AD- 



VANCE OF GEOGRAPHY BY MEANS OF INLAND TRADE. 



STRABO AND PTOLEMY. THE FIRST ATTEMPTS TO 



APPLY MATHEMATICS TO OPTICS AND CHEMISTRY.-^ 

 PLINY'S ATTEMPTS TO GIVE A PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION 

 OF THE UNIVERSE. THE RISE OF CHRISTIANITY PRO- 

 DUCTIVE OF, AND FAVOURABLE TO, THE FEELING OF 

 THE UNITY OF MANKIND. 



IN tracing the intellectual advance of mankind, and the gra- 

 dual extension of cosmical views, the period of the universal 

 dominion of the Romans presents itself to our consideration as 

 one of the most important epochs in the history of the world. 

 We now, for the first time, find all the fruitful districts which 

 surround the basin of the Mediterranean associated together in 

 one great bond of political union, and even connected with 

 many vast territories in the East. 



The present would seem a fitting place again to remind my 

 readers* that the general picture I have endeavoured to draw 

 of the history of the contemplation of the universe acquires, 

 from this condition of political association, an objective unity 

 of presentation. Our civilisation, understanding the term as 

 being synonymous with the intellectual development of all the 

 nations included in the European Continent, may be regarded 

 as based on that of the inhabitants of the shores of the Medi- 

 terranean, and more directly on that of the Greeks and 

 Romans. That which we, perhaps too exclusively, term clas- 

 sical literature, received the appellation from the fact of its 

 being recognised as the source of a great portion of our early 

 knowledge, and as the means by which the first impulse was 

 awakened in the human mind, to enter upon a sphere of ideas 

 and feelings most intimately connected with the social and 

 intellectual elevation of the different races of men.f In these 

 considerations we do not by any means disregard the import- 

 ance of those elements which have flowed in a variety of dif- 

 ferent directions from the valley of the Nile, Phoenicia, 



* See pp. 470, 474, 478, and 504. 



t Wilhelm V3n Humboldt, Ueber die Kawi-Sprache, bd. i. s. xxxvii 



