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to the highest point of perfection and accuracy BOOK to which it ever arrived in the ancient world, by the industry and genius of Ptolemy the phi- Improvelofopher. He flourished in the second century of the Christian æra, and published a defcrip- by Ptolemy. tion of the terrestrial globe, more ample and exact than that of any of his predeceffors.

BUT, foon after, violent convulfions began to fhake the Roman ftate; the fatal ambition or caprice of Conftantine, by changing the feat of government, divided and weakened its force; the barbarous nations, which Providence prepared as inftruments to overturn the mighty fabric of the Roman power, began to affemble and to muster their armies on its frontier: the empire tottered to its fall. During this decline and old age of the Roman ftate, it was impoffible that the fciences fhould go on improving. The efforts of genius were, at that period, as languid and feeble as thofe of government. From the time of Ptolemy, no confiderable addition feems to have been made to geographical knowledge, nor did any important revolution happen in trade, excepting that Conftantinople, by its advantageous fituation, and the encouragement of the eastern emperors, became a commercial city of the first note.

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BOOK
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Effects of

AT length, the clouds which had been fo long gathering round the Roman empire, burst into a ftorm. Barbarous nations rufhed in from feveral quarters with irresistible impetuofity, and, intercourfe. in the general wreck, occafioned by the inun

their conquelts on commercial

dation which overwhelmed Europe, the arts, fciences, inventions, and discoveries of the Romans, perifhed in a great measure, and difappeared. All the various tribes, which settled in the different provinces of the Roman empire, were uncivilized, ftrangers to letters, deftitute of arts, unacquainted with regular government, fubordination, or laws. The manners and inftitutions of fome of them were fo rude, as to be hardly compatible with a state of social union. Europe, when occupied by fuch inhabitants, may be faid to have returned to a fecond infancy, and had to begin anew its career in improvement, fcience, and civility. The firft effect of the fettlement of those barbarous invaders was to diffolve the union by which the Roman power had cemented mankind together, They parcelled out Europe into many small and independent states, differing from each other in language and cuftoms. No intercourfe fubfifted between the members of thofe divided and hoftile communities. Accustomed to a fimple

• Hift. of Charles V. vol. i. p. 18. 72.

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mode of life, and averse to industry, they had BooK few wants to fupply, and few fuperfluities to difpofe of. The names of stranger and of enemy became once more words of the fame import. Customs every where prevailed, and even laws were established, which rendered it difagreeable and dangerous to vifit any foreign country. Cities, in which alone an extensive commerce can be carried on, were few, inconfiderable, and destitute of those immunities which produce fecurity or excite enterprife. The sciences, on which geography and navigation are founded, were little cultivated. The accounts of ancient. improvements and difcoveries, contained in the Greek and Roman authors, were neglected or mifunderstood. The knowledge of remote regions was loft, their fituation, their commodities, and almost their names, were unknown.

ONE circumstance prevented commercial intercourse with diftant nations from ceafing altogether. Conftantinople, though often threatened by the fierce invaders, who spread defolation over the rest of Europe, was fo fortunate as to escape their destructive rage. In that city, the knowledge of ancient arts and discoveries was preserved; a tafte for fplendour and ele

Hift. of Charles V. vol. i. p. 77. 327.

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BOOK gance fubfifted; the productions and luxuries of foreign countries were in requeft; and commerce continued to flourish there when it was almost extinct in every other part of Europe, The citizens of Conftantinople did not confine their trade to the islands of the Archipelago, or to the adjacent coafts of Afia; they took a wider range, and following the course which the ancients had marked out, imported the commodities of the Eaft Indies from Alexandria. When Egypt was torn from the Roman empire by the Arabians, the induftry of the Greeks difcovered a new channel, by which the productions of India might be conveyed to Conftantinople. They were carried up the Indus, as far as that great river is navigable; thence they were transported by land to the banks of the river Oxus, and proceeded down its stream to the Cafpian fea. There they entered the Volga, and failing up it, were carried by land to the Tanais, which conducted them into the Euxine fea, where veffels from Conftantinople waited their arrival'. This extraordinary and tedious mode of conveyance merits attention, not only as a proof of the violent paffion which the inhabitants of Conftantinople had conceived for the luxuries of the East, and as a specimen

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Ramufio, vol. i. p. 372, F.

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of the ardour and ingenuity with which they BOOK carried on commerce; but because it demonstrates, that during the ignorance which reigned in the rest of Europe, an extenfive knowledge of remote countries was ftill preferved in the capital of the Greek empire.

AT the fame time, a gleam of light and knowledge broke in upon the eaft. The Arabians having contracted fome relish for the fciences of the people whofe empire they had contributed to overturn, translated the books of feveral of the Greek philofophers into their own language. One of the first was that valuable work of Ptolemy, which I have already mentioned. The ftudy of geography became, of confequence, an early object of attention to the Arabians. But that acute and ingenious people cultivated chiefly the speculative and scientific parts of geography. In order to ascertain the figure and dimenfions of the terrestrial globe, they applied the principles of geometry, they had recourse to astronomical obfervations, they employed experiments and operations, which Europe, in more enlightened times, has been proud to adopt and to imitate. At that period, however, the fame of the improvements made by the Arabians did not reach Europe. The knowledge of their discoveries was reserved for

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