57, 58, and 140.
[15] See Polo, vol. i. p. 204, and vol. ii. p. 191.
[16] See Polo, vol. i. p. 246.
[17] See Polo, vol. ii. p. 339.
[18] See Polo, vol. i. p. 140. Hashishi has got altered into
Haus Assis.
[19] See vol. i. p. 358, note.
[20] See vol. i. p. 189, note 2.
[21] Vol. i. pp. 183-186.
[22] Vol. i. pp. 68 seqq. The virtuous cobler is not left out, but is made
to play second fiddle to the hero Bauduin
[23] Vol. i. p. 144.
XIII. NATURE OF POLO'S INFLUENCE ON GEOGRAPHICAL KNOWLEDGE.
[Sidenote: Tardy operation, and causes thereof.]
79. Marco Polo contributed such a vast amount of new facts to the
knowledge of the Earth's surface, that one might have expected his book to
have had a sudden effect upon the Science of Geography: but no such result
occurred speedily, nor was its beneficial effect of any long duration.
No doubt several causes contributed to the slowness of its action upon the
notions of Cosmographers, of which the unreal character attributed to the
Book, as a collection of romantic marvels rather than of geographical and
historical facts, may have been one, as Santarem urges. But the essential
causes were no doubt the imperfect nature of publication before the
invention of the press; the traditional character which clogged geography
as well as all other branches of knowledge in the Middle Ages; and the
entire absence of scientific principle in what passed for geography, so
that there was no organ competent to the assimilation of a large mass of
new knowledge.
