But the conquests of Alexander did more to extend the limits of
geographical science, and opened an acquaintance with the remote
countries of the East. Yet the march of the conqueror is slow in
comparison with the movements of the unencumbered traveller. The
Romans were still less enterprising than the Greeks, were less
commercial in their character. The contributions to geographical
knowledge grew with the slow acquisitions of empire. But their
system was centralizing in its tendency; and instead of taking an
outward direction and looking abroad for discovery, every part of
the vast imperial domain turned towards the capital as its head
and central point of attraction. The Roman conqueror pursued his
path by land, not by sea. But the water is the great highway
between nations, the true element for the discoverer. The Romans
were not a maritime people. At the close of their empire,
geographical science could hardly be said to extend farther than
to an acquaintance with Europe, - and this not its more northern
division, - together with a portion of Asia and Africa; while
they had no other conception of a world beyond the western waters
than was to be gathered from the fortunate prediction of the
poet. *1
[Footnote 1: Seneca's well-known prediction, in his Medea, is,
perhaps, the most remarkable random prophecy on record. For it
is not a simple extension of the boundaries of the known parts of
the globe that is so confidently announced, but the existence of
a New World across the waters, to be revealed in coming ages
"Quibus Oceanus
Vincula rerum laxet, et ingens
Pateat tellus, Typhisque Novos
Detegat Orbes.
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