178 



1POCHS IN THE HISTOUY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OF IHB 

 UNIVERSE. ROMAN EMPIRE. 



IV. 



Roman Universal Empire Influence on Cosim'cal Views of a great 

 Political Union of Countries Progress of Geography through 

 Commerce by Land Strabo and Ptolemy Commencement of 

 Mathematical Optics and Chemistry Pliny's Attempt at a Physi- 

 cal Description of the Universe The Rise of Christianity pro- 

 duces and favours the Eeeling of the Unity of Mankind. 



IN tracing the intellectual progress of mankind and the 

 gradual extension of cosmical views, the period of the Roman 

 universal Empire presents itself as one of the most im- 

 portant epochs. "We now for the first time find all those 

 fertile regions of the globe which surround the basin of the 

 Mediterranean connected in a bond of close political union, 

 which also comprehended extensive countries to the east- 

 ward. I may here appropriately notice, ( 2 ? 7 ) that this 

 political union gives to the picture which I endeavour to trace, 

 (that of the history of the contemplation of the universe), an 

 objective unity of presentation. Our civilization, i. e. the 

 intellectual development of all the nations of the European 

 Continent, may be regarded as based on that of the 

 dwellers around the Mediterranean, and more immediately 



on that of the Greeks and the Romans. That which 

 \ 



We term, perhaps too exclusively, classical literature, 

 has received this denomination through men's recog- 

 nition of the source from whence our earliest know- 



