274 EPOCHS IN THE HISTORY OF THE CONTEMPLATION OP 



the leading occurrences, by which, in a short space of time, 

 and in close and connected succession, in obedience to the 

 suddenly awakened desire to search out the wide, the unknown 

 and the distant, two-thirds of the earth's surface were laid 

 open. 



Together with this enlarged and increasing geographical 

 knowledge of land and sea, there arose also a more enlarged 

 insight into the existence and the laws of the powers or 

 forces of nature, the distribution of heat over the surface 

 of the earth, the abundance of organic forms, and the 

 limits of their distribution. The progress which different 

 branches of science had made during the course of the 

 middle ages, (which, as regards science, have been too little 

 esteemed,) accelerated the just apprehension and thoughtful 

 comparison of the unbounded wealth of physical phenomena, 

 wliich was now presented at one time to observation. 

 The impressions produced on men's minds were so much 

 the more profound, and the more fitted to incite to the 

 investigation of cosmical laws, as before the middle of the 

 16th century, the western nations of Europe had already 

 explored the new continent, in the neighbourhood of the 

 coasts at least, in the most different degrees of latitude ; and 

 because it was here that they first became acquainted with 

 the true equatorial zone, where, moreover, the remarkable 

 conformation of the earth's surface presented to their view 

 in close approximation, at varying degrees of elevation, 

 the most striking contrasts of vegetation and of climate* 

 If I here find myself again induced to allude to the 

 peculiar privileges of these regions, in the inspiring influence 

 belonging to a land of lofty mountains in the equinoctial 

 zone, I must plead once more as my justification that, to 



