COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

PHYSICAL CONTEMPLATION OF THE UNIVERSE. 485
of geodetic lines directed from N.E. to S.W., and from S.E.,
to N.W. (the latter of which I consider to be the more
recent of the two), and whose cause must undoubtedly be
traced to disturbances in the interior of our planet, has
exercised the most important influence on the destiny of man-
kind, and in
facilitating intercourse amongst different nations.
This relative position and the unequal degrees of heat experienced
by Eastern Africa, Arabia, and the peninsula of
Western India at different periods of the year, occasion a
regular alternation of currents of air (Monsoons), favouring
navigation to the Myrrhifera Regio of the Adramites
in Southern Arabia, tc the Persian Gulf, India, and Ceylon;
for at the season of the year (from April and May to October)
when north winds are prevailing in the Red Sea, the southwest
monsoon is blowing from Eastern Africa to the coast of
Malabar, whilst the north-east monsoon (from October to April)
which favours the return passage, corresponds with the period
of the south winds between the straits of Bab-el-Mandeb and
the isthmus of Suez.
After having sketched that portion of the earth to which
foreign elements of civilisation and geographical knowledge
might have been conveyed to the Greeks from so many different
directions, we will first turn to the consideration of those
nations inhabiting the coasts of the Mediterranean, who en-
ipyed an early and distinguished degree of civilisation, viz.,
fiie Egyptians, the Phoenicians with their north and west
African colonies, and the Etrurians. Immigration and commercial
intercourse have here exercised the most powerful
influence. The more our historical horizon has been extended
in modern times by the discovery of monuments and inscriptions
as well as by philosophical investigation of languages,
the more varied does the influence appear which the Greeks in
the earliest ages experienced from Lycia and the district sur-
rounding the Euphrates, and from the Phrygians allied to
Thracian races.
In the
valley of the Nile, which plays so conspicuous a part
in the history of mankind, " there are well authenticated cartouches
of the Kings as far back as the beginning of the fourth
dynasty of Manetho, in which are included the builders of
the Pyramids of Giseh (Chephren or Schafra, Cheops-Chufu,
and Menkera or Mencheres)." I here avail myself of the