teorology, and
secular Geological Movements.--Their Effect on its
Inhabitants._

_Its Ethnology determined through its Vocabularies._

_Comparative Theology of Greece; the Stage of Sorcery, the
Anthropocentric Stage.--Becomes connected with false Geography
and Astronomy.--Heaven, the Earth, the Under World.--Origin,
continuous Variation and Progress of Greek Theology.--It
introduces Ionic Philosophy._

_Decline of Greek Theology, occasioned by the Advance of
Geography and Philosophical Criticism.--Secession of Poets,
Philosophers, Historians.--Abortive public Attempts to sustain
it.--Duration of its Decline.--Its Fall._

Europe is geographically a peninsula, and historically a dependency of
Asia.

[Sidenote: Description of Europe.]

[Sidenote: The great path-zone.]

It is constructed on the western third of a vast mountain axis, which
reaches in a broken and irregular course from the Sea of Japan to the
Bay of Biscay. On the flanks of this range, peninsular slopes are
directed toward the south, and extensive plateaus to the north. The
culminating point in Europe is Mont Blanc, 16,000 feet above the level
of the sea. The axis of elevation is not the axis of figure; the incline
to the south is much shorter and steeper than that to the north. The
boundless plains of Asia are prolonged through Germany and Holland. An
army may pass from the Pacific to the Atlantic Ocean, a distance of more
than six thousand miles, without encountering any elevation of more than
a few hundred feet. The descent from Asia into Europe is indicated in a
general manner by the mean elevation of the two continents above the
level of the sea; that for Asia being 1132 feet, that for Europe 671.
Through the avenue thus open to them, the Oriental hordes have again and
again precipitated themselves on the West. With an abundance of springs
and head-waters, but without any stream capable of offering a serious
obstacle, this tract has a temperature well suited to military
movements. It coincides generally with the annual isothermal line of
50 deg., skirting the northern boundary beyond which the vine ceases to
grow, and the limiting region beyond which the wild boar does not pass.

[Sidenote: Exterior and interior accessibility.]

Constructed thus, Europe is not only easily accessible from Asia, a fact
of no little moment in its ancient history, but it is also singularly
accessible i