EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION 



the worship of the planet Jupiter among the Lachmites, the 

 tribe of the Asedites worshipped the planet Mercury, which, 

 from its proximity to the solar orb, is rarely visible. Notwith- 

 standing this, however, the distinguished scientific activity of 

 the civilised Arabians in all departments of practical astronomy 

 is rather to be ascribed to Chaldean and Indian influences. 

 Atmospheric conditions can only encourage and favour such 

 pursuits, where a disposition towards them has been produced 

 by the original mental endowments of richly gifted races, or 

 by intercourse with .more highly civilised neighbouring na- 

 tions. How many districts of tropical America, as Cumaiia, 

 Coro, and Payta, where rain never falls, enjoy an atmo- 

 sphere even more transparent than that of Egypt, Arabia, or 

 Bokhara ! The climate of the tropics, and the eternal se- 

 renity of the vault of heaven, resplendent with stars and 

 nebulae, are indeed never without some influence on the 

 dispositions of men; but they are fruitful in intellectual 

 results, and incite the human mind to labour in the deve- 

 lopment of mathematical ideas, only where an impulse is 

 given, independently of climate, by other causes belonging 

 either to the character of the race, or to external circum- 

 stances ; ae, for example, where the exact division of time 

 becomes an -object of social necessity for the satisfaction of 

 religious or of agricultural requirements. Among calculating 

 commercial nations like the Phoenicians, and nations like the 

 Egyptians and Chaldeans fond of architecture and con- 

 structions of all kinds, and much accustomed to ground 

 surveys and measurements, empirical rules of arithmetic 

 and of geometry were early discovered; but these can 

 only prepare the way for the mathematical and astrono- 

 mical -sciences. Nof is it until cultivation has reached a 



