156 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OP THE CONTEMPLATION 



and scientific style any degree of inspiration is else- 

 where entirely absent, become poetical when describing 

 the habits of the elephant, the height of the trees, 

 "to the summit of which an arrow cannot reach, and 

 whose leaves are broader than the shields of infantry," 

 the bamboo, a light, feathery, arborescent grass, "of 

 which single joints (internodia) served as four -oared 

 boats, and the Indian fig-tree, whose pendant branches 

 take root around the parent stem, which attains a diameter 

 of 28 feet, "forming," as Onesicritus expresses himself 

 with great truth to nature, " a leafy canopy similar to a 

 many-pillared tent." The tree-fern, which according to 

 my feelings is the greatest ornament of ^he tropics, is 

 never mentioned by Alexander's companions ( 23 ) ; but 

 they speak of the magnificent fan-like umbrella palm, 

 and of the delicate and ever fresh green of the cultivated 

 banana ( 231 ). 



Now for the first time the knowledge of a large part of 

 the earth's surface was truly opened. The world of objects 

 came forward with preponderating power to meet that of 

 subjective creation; and while the Grecian language and 

 literature, and their fertilising influence on the human mind, 

 were widely diffused through the medium of Alexander's 

 conquests, at the same time scientific observation and the 

 systematic availment of the knowledge obtained, were brought 

 into clear light by the teaching and example of Aristotle [ 252 ) 

 We touch here o 'the happy coincidence by which, ai the 

 very same epoch when there was suddenly offered so im- 

 mense a supply of new materials of human knowledge, 

 their co-ordination and intellectual availmsnt were facili- 

 tated and multiplied, through the new direction given bjr 





