201 



EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OF THE 

 UNIVERSE. ITS ADVANCEMENT BY THE ARABIANS. 



V. 



Invasion of the Arabians Aptitude of this part of the Semitic 

 Race for Intellectual Cultivation Influence of a Foreign Element 

 on the Development of European Civilization and Culture Pe- 

 culiarities of the National Character of the Arabians Attach- 

 ment to the Study of Nature and its powers Science of Ma- 

 teria Medica and Chemistry Extension of Physical Geography 

 to the Interior of Continents, and Advances in Astronomy and 

 in the Mathematical Sciences. 



IN my sketch of the history of the physical contemplation of 

 the universe, I have already enumerated four leading epochs 

 in the gradual development of the recognition of the universe 

 as a whole. These included, firstly, the period when the 

 inhabitants of the coasts of the Mediterranean endeavoured 

 to penetrate eastward to the Euxine and the Phasis, south- 

 ward to Ophir and the tropical gold lands, and westward 

 through the Pillars of Hercules into the " all-surrounding 

 ocean ;" secondly, the epoch of the Macedonian expeditions 

 under Alexander the Great; thirdly, the period of the 

 Lagidae ; and fourthly, that of the Roman Empire of the 

 World. We have now to consider the powerful influence 

 exercised by the Arabians, whose civilization was a new ele- 

 ment foreign to that of Europe, and, six or seven centuries 

 later, by the maritime discoveries of the Portuguese and 

 Spaniards, on the general physical and mathematical know- 



