OP THE UNIVERSE. THE AUA.BIANS. 203 



of intellectual development, which since that period has 

 advanced uninterruptedly forward. 



Nearer to our own time it becomes so much the more 

 difficult to distinguish particular epochs, as the intellectual ac- 

 tivity of mankind has moved forward simultaneously in many 

 directions, and as with a new order of social and political 

 relations a closer bond of union now subsists between the 

 different sciences. In the separate studies the development 

 of which belongs to the "history of the physical sciences," 

 in chemistry and descriptive botany, it is still quite possible, 

 even up to the most recent time, to distinguish insulated 

 periods in which the greatest advances were made, or in 

 which new views suddenly prevailed ; but in the " history of 

 the contemplation of the universe," which, according to its 

 essential character, ought to borrow from the history of 

 separate studies only that which relates most immediately to 

 the extension of the idea of the Cosmos, connection with 

 particular epochs becomes unsafe and impracticable, since 

 that which we have just termed an intellectual process of 

 development supposes an uninterrupted simultaneous ad- 

 vance in all departments of cosmical knowledge. Having 

 now arrived at the important point of separation, at which, 

 after the fall of the Eoman Empire of the World, there 

 appears a new and foreign element of cultivation received by 

 our continent for the first time direct from a tropical coun- 

 try, it may be useful to cast a general glance at the path 

 which yet remains to be travelled over. 



The Arabians, a primitive Semitic race, partially dispelled 

 the barbarism which for two centuries had overspread the 

 face of Europe, after it had been shaken to its foundations 

 by the tempestuous assaults of the nations by whom it was 



VOL. IT. P 



