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EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP THE 

 UNIVERSE. OCEANIC DISCOVERIES. 



Epoch of the Oceanic Discoveries Opening of the Western Hemi- 

 sphere Events, and Extension of different Branches of Scientific 

 Knowledge, which prepared the way for the Oceanic Discoveries. 

 Columbus, Sebastian Cabot, and Vasco de Gama America and 

 the Pacific Ocean Cabrillo, Sebastian Vizcaino, Mendafia, and 

 Quiros. The rich abundance of materials for the foundation of 

 Physical Geography offered to the nations of Europe. 



THE fifteenth century belongs to those rare epochs in the 

 history of the world, in which all the efforts of the human 

 mind are invested with a determinate and common charac- 

 ter, and manifest an unswerving direction towards a single 

 object. The unity of these endeavours, the success with 

 which they were crowned, and the vigour and activity dis- 

 played by entire nations, give grandeur and enduring splen- 

 dour to the age of Columbus, of Sebastian Cabot, and of 

 Vasco de Gama. Intervening between two different stages 

 of cultivation, the fifteenth century forms a transition epoch 

 belonging at once to the middle ages and to the commence- 

 ment of modern times. It is the epoch of the greatest dis- 

 coveries in geographical space, comprising almost all degrees 

 of latitude, and almost every gradation of elevation of the 

 earth's surface. To the inhabitants of Europe it doubled 



