PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 479 



knowledge transmitted to them, and in their ancient scientific 

 nomenclature, we may trace as the guiding points of the history 

 of the human race, recollections of the various channels, through 

 which important inventions, or at any rate their germs, have 

 been conveyed to the nations of Europe; thus from Eastern 

 Asia has flowed the knowledge of the direction and declination 

 of a freely suspended magnetic rod ; from Phoenicia and Egypt 

 the knowledge of chemical preparations, as glass, animal and 

 vegetable dyes, and metallic oxides; and from India the general 

 use of position in determining the increased values of a few 

 numerical signs. 



Since civilisation has left its most ancient seat within the 

 tropics or the sub-tropical zone, it has remained permanently 

 settled in the portion of the earth, whose northern regions are 

 less cold than those of Asia and America under the same 

 latitude. The continent of Europe may be regarded as a 

 western peninsula of Asia, and I have already observed how 

 much general civilisation is favoured by the mildness of its 

 climate, and how much it owes to the circumstances of its 

 variously articulated form, first noticed by Strabo; to its 

 position in respect to Africa which extends so far into the 

 equatorial zone, and to the prevalence of the west winds, 

 which are warm winds in winter owing to their passing over 

 the surface of the ocean. The physical character of Europe 

 has opposed fewer obstacles to the diffusion of civilisation, 

 than are presented in Asia and Africa, where far-extending 

 parallel ranges of mountain chains, elevated plateaux, and 

 sandy deserts, interpose almost impassable barriers between 

 different nations. 



We will therefore start in our enumeration of the principal 

 momenta that characterise the history of the physical consi- 

 deration of the universe, from a portion of the earth, which is 

 perhaps more highly favoured than any other, owing to its 

 geographical position, and its constant intercourse with other 

 countries, by means of which the cosmical views of nations 

 experience so marked a degree of enlargement. 



