150 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OP THE CONTEMPLATION 



of the conqueror towards a blending of all the different 

 races, and the formation of a general unity, under the ani- 

 mating influences of the Grecian spirit ( 215 ). The founda- 

 tion of so many new cities at points the selection of which 

 indicates higher and more general aims, the formation and 

 arrangement of an independent community for the govern- 

 ment of those cities, the tenderness of treatment towards 

 national usages and native worship, all testify that the plan 

 for a great organic whole was laid. At a later period, as is 

 always the case, much which may not have been originally 

 comprehended in the plan, developed itself from the 

 nature of the relations established. If we remember 

 that only 52 Olympiads elapsed from the battle of the 

 Granicus to the destructive irruption of the Sacse and 

 Tochari into Bactria, we shall look with admiration on 

 the permanent influence, and the wonderfully uniting and 

 combining power of the Greek cultivation thus introduced 

 from the West; which mingled with Arabian, and with 

 later Persian and Indian knowledge, exerted its action 

 until far into the middle ages, so as to render it often 

 doubtful what to ascribe to Grecian influence, and what to 

 the original spirit of invention or discovery of those Asiatic 

 nations. 



All the civil institutions and measures of this daring 

 conqueror shew that the principle of union and unity, or 

 rather a sense of the useful political influence of this 

 principle, was deeply seated in his mind. Even as applied 

 to Greece, it had been early impressed upon him by his 

 great teacher. In the Politics of Aristotle ( 216 ) we read : 

 *' The Asiatic nations are not wanting in activity of mind 

 and skill in art j yet they live listlessly in subjection and 



