26 



KNOWLEDGE OF THE ANCIENTS. 



[Ch. II. 





to former conditions of the organic world- They had studied 

 the movements and positions of the heavenly bodies with 

 laborious industry, and made some progress in investigate 

 the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms ; but the an- 

 cient history of the globe was to them a sealed book, and 

 although written in characters of the most striking and im- 

 posing kind, they were unconscious even of its existence. 







