HUNAN B 4 1lbb bel “LIBRARY | ; UNIMERSITY OF CALIFORNIA SCIENCES LIBRARY LIBRARY. “UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA REPKELEY. CALIFORNIA "i THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESENTED BY PROF. CHARLES A. KOFOID AND MRS. PRUDENCE W. KOFOID COSMOS: A SKETCH PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE, BY ALEXANDER VON |HUMBOLDT. TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN, BY E. C. OTTER. Naturee vero rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fide caret, si quis modo partee ejus ac non totam complectatur anime.—Plin., Hist. Nat., lib. vii. c. tL. VOL. ft. LONDON: GEORGE BELL & SONS, YORK ST., COVENT GARDEN, AND NEW YORK. 1893. O/SS #E2 E92 gee EARTH SCIENCES LIBRARY _I cannot more appropriately introduce the Cosmos to the ‘notice of the readers of the Scientific Library, than by pre- senting them with a brief sketch of the life of its illustrious _author.* While the name of Alexander yon Humboldt is _ familiar to every one, few, perhaps, are aware of the peculiar circumstances of his scientific career, and of the extent of his labours in almost every department of physical knowledge. He was born on the 14th of September, 1769, and is, there- fore, now in his 80th year. After going through the ordinary course of education at Géttingen, and having made a rapid tour through Holland, England, and France, he became a pupil of Werner at the mining school of Freyburg, and in his 21st year, published an “ Essay on the Basalts of the Rhine.” Though he soon became officially connected with the mining corps, he was enabled to continue his excursions in foreign countries, for during the six or seven years succeeding the publication of his first essay, he seems to have visited Austria, Switzerland, Italy, and France. His attention to mining did not, however, prevent him from devoting his attention to other scientific pursuits, amongst which botany and the then recent discovery of galvanism may be especially noticed. Botany, indeed, we know from his own authority, occupied him almost exclusively for some years, but even at this time he was practising the use of those astronomical and physical instruments, which he afterwards turned to so singularly excellent an account. The political disturbances of the civilized world at the close _of the Jast century prevented our author from carrying out TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. * For the following remarks I am mainly indebted to the articles on the Cosmos in the two leading quarterly Reviews. Vou. L. b Vies'72'7E0 vi - TRANSLATOR’S PREFACE. various plans of foreign travel which he had contemplated, and detained him an unwilling prisoner in Europe. In the year 1799 he went to Spain, with the hope of entering Africa from Cadiz, but the unexpected patronage which he received at the Court of Madrid, led to a great alteration in his plans, and decided him to proceed directly to the Spanish Posses- sions in America, “‘ and there gratify the longings for foreign adventure, and the scenery of the tropics, which had haunted him from boyhood, but had all along been turned in the dia- metrically opposite direction of Asia.” After encountering various risks of capture, he succeeded in reaching America, and from 1799 to 1804 prosecuted there extensive researches in the physical geography of the New World, which have indelibly stamped his name in the undying records of science. Excepting an excursion to Naples with Gay Lussac and Von Buch in 1805 (the year after his return from America), the succeeding twenty years of his life were spent in Paris, and were almost exclusively employed in editing the results of his American journey. In order to bring these results befure the world, in a manner worthy of their importance, he commenced a series of gigantic publications in almost every branch of science, on which he had instituted obser- vations. In 1817, after twelve years of incessant toil, four- fifths were completed, and an ordinary copy of the part then in print, cost considerably more than one hundred pounds sterling. Since that time the publication has gone on more slowly, and even now, after the lapse of nearly half a century, it remains, and probably ever will remain, incomplete. In the year 1828, when the greatest portion of his literary labour had been accomplished, he undertook a_ scientific journey to Siberia, under the special protection of the Russian Government. In this journey—a journey for which he had prepared himself by a course of study unparallelled in the history of travel—he was accompanied by two companions hardly less distinguished than himself, Ehrenberg and Gustay TRANSLATORS PREFACE. vit Rose, and the results obtained during their expedition, are recorded by our author in his Fragments Asiatiques, and in his Aste Centrale, and by Rose in his Reise nach dem Oural. If the Asie Centrale had been his only work, constituting, as it does, an epitome of all the knowledge acquired by himself and by former travellers, on the physical geography of North- ern and Central Asia, that work alone would have sufficed to form a reputation of the highest order, I proceed to offer a few remarks on the work of which I now present a new translation to the English public, a work intended by its author “to embrace a summary of physical knowledge, as connected with a delineation of the material universe.” The idea of such a physical description of the universe had, it appears, been present to his mind from a very early epoch. It was a work which he felt he must accomplish, and he devoted almost a lifetime to the accumulation of materials for it. For almost half a century it had occupied his thoughts; and at length in the evening of life, he felt himself rich enough in the accumulation of thought, travel, reading, and experimental research, to reduce into form and reality, the undefined vision that has so long floated before him. The work when completed will form three volumes. The first volume comprises a sketch of all that is at present known of the physical phenomena of the universe: the second comprehends two distinct parts, the first of which treats of the incitements to the study of nature, afforded in descriptive poetry, landscape painting, and the cultivation of exotic plants; while the second and larger part enters intc the consideration of the different epochs in the progress o1 discovery and of the corresponding stages of advance im human civilisation. The third volume, the publication ot which, as M. Humboldt himself informs me in a letter addressed to my learned friend and publisher, Mr. H. G. Bohn, ‘has been somewhat delaved, owing to the present state ot Vili TRANSLATOR S PREFACE public affairs, will comprise the special and scientific develop. ment of the great Picture of Nature.” Each of the three parts of the Cosmos is therefore, to a certain extent, distinct in its object and may be considered complete in itself. We cannot better terminate this brief notice, than in the words of one of the most eminent philosophers of our own country, that ‘‘ should the conclusion correspond (as we doubt not) with these beginnings, a work will have been accom- plished, every way worthy of the author’s fame, and a crown- ng laurel added to that wreath, with which Europe will \ways delight to surround the name of Alexander von Hum- voldt.” In venturing to appear before the English public as the interpreter of “the great work of our age,’* I have been encouraged by the assistance of many kind literary and scien- tific friends, and I gladly avail myself of this opportunity of expressing my deep obligations to Mr. Brooke, Dr. Day, Professor Edward Forbes, Mr. Hind, Mr. Glaisher, Dr. Percy, and Mr. Ronalds, for the valuable aid they have afforded me. It would be scarcely right to conclude these remarks without a reference to the translations that have preceded mine. The translation, executed by Mrs. Sabine, is singularly accurate and elegant. The other translation is remarkable for the opposite qualities, and may therefore be passed over j silence. ‘The present volumes differ from those of Mrs. Sabin in having all the foreign measures converted into correspond.-. ing English terms, in being published .at considerably less than one third of the price, and in being a translation of the entire work, for I have not conceived myself justified im omitting passages, sometimes amounting to’ pages, simply because they might be deemed slightly obnoxious to our national prejudices. * The expression applied to the Cosmos, by the learned Bunsen in his late Report on Ethnology, in the Report of the British Association for 1847, p. 265. AUTHOR’S PREFACE. {in the late evening of an active life I offer to the German public a work, whose undefined image has floated before my mind for almost half acentury. Ihave frequently looked upon its completion as impracticable, but as often as I have been disposed to relinquish the undertaking, I have again—although perhaps imprudently—resumed the task. This work I now present to my cotemporaries, with a diffidence inspired by a just mistrust of my own powers, whilst I would willingly for- get that writings long expected are usually received with less indulgence. Although the outward relations of life, and an irresistible impulse towards knowledge of various kinds, have led me to occupy myself for many years—and apparently exclusively— with separate branches of science, as, for instance, with descriptive botany, geognosy, chemistry, astronomical deter-- minations of position, and terrestrial magnetism, in order that I might the better prepare myself for the extensive travels in which I was desirous of engaging, the actual object of my studies has nevertheless been of a higher character. The principal impulse by which I was directed, was the earnest endeayour to comprehend the phenomena of physical objects in _their general connection, and to represent nature as one great whole, moved and animated by internal forces. My inter- course with highly gifted men early led me to discover that without an earnest striving to attain to a knowledge of specia: branches of study, all attempts to give a grand and general view of the universe would be nothing more than a vain illusion. These special departments in the great domain of x AUTHOR’S PREFACE. natural science are, moreover, capable of being reciprocally fructified by means of the appropriative forces by which they are endowed. Descriptive botany, no longer confined to the narrow circle of the determination of genera and species, leads the observer who traverses distant lands and lofty mountains to the study of the geographical distribution of plants over the earth’s surface, according to distance from the equator and vertical elevation above the sea. It is further necessary to investigate the laws which regulate the differences of temperature and climate, and the meteorological processes of the atmosphere, before we can hope to explain the involved eauses of vegetable distribution; and it is thus that the observer who earnestly pursues the path of knowledge is led from one class of phenomena to another, by means of the mutual dependence and connection existing between them. I have enjoyed an advantage which few scientific travellers have shared to an equal extent, viz., that of having seen not only littoral districts, such as are alone visited by the majority of those who take part in voyages of circumnavigation, but also those portions of the interior of two vast continents which present the most striking contrasts, manifested in the Alpine tropical landscapes of South America, and the dreary wastes of the steppes in Northern Asia. Travels, undertaken in dis- triets such as these, could not fail to encourage the natural tendency of my mind towards a generalisation of views, and to encourage me to attempt, in a special work, to treat of the knowledge which we at present possess, regarding the sidereal and terrestrial phenomena of the Cosmos in their empirical relations. The hitherto undefined idea of a physical geography has thus, by an extended and perhaps too boldly imagined & plan, been comprehended, under the idea of a_ physical description of the universe, embracing all created things in the regions of space and in the earth. The very abundance of the materials which are presented to the mind for arrangement and definition, necessarily impart AUTHOR'S PREFACE. xi no inconsiderable difficulties in the choice of the form under which such a work must be presented, if it would aspire to the honour of being regarded as a literary composition. Descriptions of nature ought not to be deficient in a tone of life-like truthfulness, whilst the mere enumeration of a series of general results is productive of a no less wearying impres- sion than the elaborate accumulation of the individual data of observation. I scarcely venture to hope that I have succeeded in satisfying these various requirements of compo- sition, or that I have myself avoided the shoals and breakers which I have known how to indicate to others. My faint hope of success rests upon the special indulgence which the German public have bestowed upon a small work bearing the title of Ansichten der Natur, which I published soon after my zeturn from Mexico. This work treats, under general points of view, of separate branches of physical geography, (such as the forms of vegetation, grassy plains, and deserts.) The effect produced by this small volume has doubtlessly been more powerfully manifested in the influence it has exercised on the sensitive minds of the young, whose imaginative facul- ties are so strongly manifested, than by means of anything which it could itself impart. In the work on the Cosmos on which I am now engaged, I have endeavoured to show, as in that intitled Ansichten der Natur, that a certain degree of scientific completeness in the treatment of individual facts, is not wholly incompatible with a picturesque animation of style. Since public lectures seemed to me to present an easy and efficient means of testing the more or less successful manner of connecting together the detached branches of any one science, I undertook, for many months consecutively, first in the French language, at Paris, and afterwards in my own native German, at Berlin, (almost simultaneously at two different places of assembly,) to deliver a course of lectures on the physical description of the universe, according to my conception xil AUTHOR'S PREFACE. of tne scienve. My lectures were given extemporaneously, both in French and German, and without the aid of written notes, nor have I, in any way, made use, in the present work, of those portions of my discourses which have been preserved by the industry of certain attentive auditors. With the exception of the first forty pages, the whole of the present work was written, for the first time, in the years 1843 and 1844. A character of unity, freshness, and animatior, must, I think, be derived from an association with some definite epoch, where the object of the writer is to delineate the pre- sent condition of knowledge and opinions. Since the addi- tions constantly made to the latter give rise to fundamental changes in pre-existing views, my lectures and the Cosmos have nothing in common beyond the succession in which the various facts are treated. The first portion of my work contains introductory considerations regarding the diversity in the degrees of enjoyment to be derived from nature, and the knowledge of the laws by which the universe is governed; it also considers the limitation and scientific mode of treating a physical description of the universe; and gives a general picture of nature which contains a view of all the phenomena comprised in the Cosmos. This general picture of nature, which embraces within its wide scope the remotest nebulous spots, and the revolving double stars in the regions of space, no less than the tellurie phenomena included under the department of the geography of organic forms (such as plants, animals, and races of men), comprises all that I deem most specially important with regard to the connection existing between generalities and specialities, whilst it moreover exemplifies, by the form and style of the composition, the mode of treatment pursued in the selection of the results obtained from experimental know- ledge. The two succeeding volumes will contain a consi- ‘ deration of the particular means of incitement towards the AUTHOKS PREFACE, xili study of nature (consisting in animated delineations, land- scape painting, and the arrangement and cultivation of exotic vegetable forms), of the history of the contemplation of the universe, or the gradual development of the reciprocal action of natural forces constituting one natural whole; and lastly, of the special branches of the several departments of science, whose mutual connection is indicated in the begin- ning of the work. Wherever it has been possible to do so |] have adduced the authorities from whence I derived my facts, with a view of affording testimony both to the accuracy of my statements and to the value of the observations to which refer- ence was made. In those instances where I have quoted from my own writings (the facts contained in which being, from their very nature, scattered through different portions of my works), I have always referred to the original editions, owing to the importance of accuracy with regard to numerical re- lations, and to my own distrust of the care and correct- ness of translators. In the few cases where I have extracted short passages from the works of my friends, I have indicated them by marks of quotation; and, in imitation of the practice of the ancients, I have invariably preferred the repetition of the same words to any arbitrary substitution of my own paraphrases. The much contested question of priority of claim to a first discovery, which it ‘s so dangerous to treat of in a work of this uncontroversial kind, has rarely been touched upon. Where I have occasionally referred to clas- sical antiquity, and to that happy period of transition which has rendered the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries so cele- brated, owing to the great geographical discoveries by which the age was characterised, I have been simply led to adopt this mode of treatment, from the desire we experience from time to time, when considering the general views of nature, to escape from the circle of more strictly dogmatical modern opinions and enter the free and fanciful domain of earlies preser.timents. xiv AUTHOR'S PREFACE. It has frequently been regarded as a subject of discouraging consideration, that whilst purely literary products of intellec- tual activity are rooted in the depths of feeling, and inter- woven with the creative force of imagination, all works treat- ing of empirical knowledge, and of the connection of natural phenomena and physical laws, are subject to the most marked modifications of form in the lapse of short periods of time, both by the improvement in the instruments used, and by the consequent expansion of the field of view opened to rational observation, and that those scientific works which have, to use a common expression, become antiguated by the acquisition “of new funds of knowledge, are thus continually being consigned to oblivion as unreadable. However discouraging such a prospect must be, no one who is animated by a genuine love of nature, and by a sense of the dignity attached to its study, can view with regret anything which promises future additions and a greater degree of perfection to general knowledge. Many im- portant branches of knowledge have been based upon a solid foundation which will not easily be shaken, both as regards the phenomena in the regions of space and on the earth; whilst there are other portions of science in which general views will undoubtedly take the place of merely special; where new forces will be discovered and new substances will be made known, and where those which are now considered as simple will be decomposed. I would therefore venture to hope that an attempt to delineate nature in all its vivid animation and exalted grandeur, and to trace the stable amid the vacil- lating, ever-recurring alternation of physical metamorphoses, will not be wholly disregarded even at a future age. Potsdam, Now. 1844 CONTENTS OF VOL. 1. Pag INTRO oo sda ob ddcauwas sénvencesiassscessnecincesvses s, ec ra ccicbendedeessavederdess ose anascsuee. scons aed Na ehh Galan shy si ku sdbeisedveobvesen ospsiies aseanghowohe {3] - INTRODUCTION. The results of the study of physical phenomena ....................000. i The different epochs of the contemplation of the external world ... 2 The different degrees of enjoyment presented by the contemplation NEY 5h diay dca amdpn plangu ovenathye ducted pov ebs avd svdocansuakeoes 3 Instances of this species of enjoyment .................0000. Wisau cde toned 4 MN Ie MARIA NE AB SIMATIOOG oy each iosus wos vécvduseanivcieaiensodeeses 6 The elevations and climatic relations of many of the most celebrated mountains in the world, considered with reference to the effect _ produced on the mind of the observer ...............000.00s00e0- 6-—12 The impressions awakened by the aspect of tropical regions ......... 13 The more accurate knowledge of the physical forces of the universe. aequired by the inhabitants of a small section of the tempe- EE Te Lined adatned iad dan vowurdnd vid dwew oveverssdecovwendctas¥e eee) es 15 The earliest dawn of the science of the Cosmos ....................2005 16 The difficulties that opposed the progress of inquiry .................. 17 Consideration of the effect produced on the mind by the observa- tion of nature, and the fear entertained by some of its injurious NON Ra hire tid pi 0e 2 Jcbsu ada psdcbdadaswohedydavéesncsssvensccaiyaceruh 20 Illustrations of the manner in which many recent discoveries have tended to remove the groundless fears entertained regarding the agency of certain natural phenomena............... ...e0.s200 23 The amount of scientific knowledge required to enter on the corsi- deration of physical phenomena.................0.0eeeeceeceeceeess erat The object held in view by the present work ................ceecee0e008 29 The nature of the study of the Cosmos................2.. sceseeseneee es 81 The special requirements of the present age ......... --......00. 2 8 AVL CONTENTS. | P Limits and method 2f exposition of t!,e physical description of the al MPPUUWOTME ys os cance vsnasipcebnascs sahebecaandee bs segeid secesc 37 Considerations on the terms physiology and physies ........ ......... 39 PRysical weography .. 65 65.05... co. vos ve daeedceben eee tate ccwnnecs co calc Celestial phehombna’. Serene cares 45 The natural philosophy of the ancients ‘Giubted a more on ‘colootial than to terrestrial phenomena .....5........ccec.ce cos cosceceeccecee 40 The able treatises of Varenius and Carl Ritter: oo ep s\wia'p yp ans heen Signification of the word Cosmos .....................cscceeceeseecececeeee 51 The domain embraced by cosmography ..................c0c008 Nie knees 53 Empiricism aad experiments... cscs cab so ons cnc ccsseeheeeee neuen 57 The process of reason and induction.................. ccc cceseecessececeree 2 GENERAL REVIEW OF NATURAL PHENOMENA. Connection between the material and the ideal world ............... 63 Delineation of nature... 02. 1.2. .0 359 Sa COREE a SaaS Secon: > Rie CAN BARE SephePSS tnd St a ities 361 Wp hale eye DP ahs . . ~ bet i ’ , 3 isle Wa Se ee SUMMARY. Translator’s Preface. Author’s Preface, Vou. I. GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS, introduction —Reflections on the different degrees of enjoyment pre sented to us by the aspect of nature, and the scientific exposition a the laws of the universe . Pp ‘ ‘ ; pp. 1-61. Insight into the connection of iis as the aim of all natural investigation. Nature presents itself to meditative contemplation as a unity in diversity. Differences in the grades of enjoyment yielded by nature. Effect of contact with free nature; enjoyment derived from nature independently of a knowledge of the action of natural forces, o1 of the effect produced by the individual character of a locality. Effect of the physiognomy and configuration of the surface, or of the character of vegetation. Reminiscences of the woody valleys of the Cordilleras, and of the Peak of Teneriffe. Advantages of the mountainous region near the equator, where the multiplicity of natural impressions attains its maximum within the most circumscribed limits, and where it is per- mitted to man simultaneously to behold all the stars of che firmament, and all the forms of vegetation—pp. 1-12. Tendency towards the investigation of the causes of physical pheno- mena. Erroneous views of the character of natura: forces arising from an imperfect mode of observation or of induction. The crude accumu- lation of physical dogmas transmitted from one century to another. Their diffusion amongst the higher classes. Scientific physics are asso- ciated with another and a deep-rooted system of untried and misunder- stood experimental positions. Investigation of natural laws. Appre- hension that nature may lose a portion of its secret charm by an inquiry into the internal character of its forces, and that the enjoyment of nature must necessarily be weakened by a study of its domain, Advantages of general views which impart an exalted and solemn character to natural science. The possibility of separating generalities from specialities. Examples drawn from astronomy, recent optical discoveries, physical geognosy, and the geography of plants. Practica. bility of the study of physical cosmography—pp. 12-35. Misunderstood popular knowledge, confounding cosmography with a mere encyclopedic enumeration of natural sciences. Necessity for a simultaneous regard for all branches o1 natural science. Influence of this study on national prosperity and the welfare of nations; its more earnest and characteristic [ii] COSMOS. sim is an inner one, arising from exalled mental activity. Mode of treatment with regard to the object and presentation; reciprocal cor - nection existing between thought and speech-—p, 36. The notes to pp. 6-12. Comparative hypsometrical data of the eleva- tions of the Dhawalagiri, Jawahir, Chimborazo, Etna, (according to the measurement of Sir John Herschel), the Swiss A!ps, &e.—p. 6. Rarity of palms and ferns in the Himalaya mountains—p. 8. European vege- table forms in the Indian mountains—p. 8. Northern and southern limits of perpetual snow on the Himalaya; influence of the elevated plateau of Thibet—pp. 9-12. Fishes of an earlier world—p. 26. Limits and Methoc of feEROnN of the ti klaba Description of the Universe ‘ j pp. 37-61. Subjects embraced by the saint of the Codie or of physical cosmo- graphy. Separation of other kindred studies—pp. 37-44. The urano- logical portion of the Cosmos is more simple than the telluric; the impossibility of ascertaining the diversity of matter simplifies the study of the mechanism of the heavens. Origin of the word Cosmos, its signification of adornment and order of the universe. The existing cannot be absolutely separated in our contemplation of nature from the future. History of the world and description of the world—pp. 44-56. Attempts to embrace the multiplicity of the phenomena of the Cosmos in the unity of thought and under the form of a purely rational combi- nation. Natural philosophy which preceded all exact observation in antiquity is a natural, but not unfreqnently ill-directed, effort of reason. Two forms of abstraction rule the whole mass of knowledge, viz., the quantitative, relative determinations according to number and magni- tude, and qualitative, material characters. Means of submitting pheno mena to calculation. Atoms, mechanical methods of construction. Figurative representations; mythical conception of imponderable mat- ters, and the peculiar vital forces in every organism. ‘That which is attained by observation and experiment (calling forth phenomena) leads by analogy and induction to a knowledge of empirical laws; their gradual simplification and generalisation. Arrangement of the facts discovered in accordance with leading ideas. The treasure of empirical contemplation collected through ages, is in no danger of experiencing any hostile agency from philosophy—pp. 56-61. [In the notes appended to pp. 48-53, are considerations of the general gnd comparative geography of Varenius. Philological investigation into the meaning of the words cocpog and mundus.} Delineation of Nature. General Review of Natural Phenomena pp. 62-369. Introduction—pp. 62-67. A descriptive delineation of the world embraces the whole universe (rd wav) in the celestial ard terrestrial spheres. Form and course of the representation. It begins with the depths of space, of which we know little beyond the existence of laws of gravitation, and with the region of the remotest nebnlous spots SUMMARY. ii | and double stars, and then gradnally descending through -he starry stratum to which our solar system belongs, it contemplates this terres- trial spheroid, surrounded by air and water, and finally, proceeds to the consideration of the form of our planet, its temperature, and magnetic tension, and the fulness of organic vitality which is un- folded on its surface under the action of light. Partial insight into the relative dependence existing amongst all phenomena. Amid all the mobile and unstable elements in space, mean numerical values are the ultimate aim of investigation, being the expression of the physical laws, or forces of the Cosmos. The delineation of the universe does not begin with the earth, from which a merely subjective point of view might have led us to start, but rather with the objects comprised in the regions of space. Distribution of matter, which is partially conglo- merated into rotating and circling heavenly bodies of very different density and magnitude, and partly scattered as self-luminous vapour. Review of the separate portions of the picture of nature for the purpose of explaining the reciprocal connection of all phenomena. I. Celestial portion of the Cosmos 3 - - ; pp. 67-145. Il. Terrestrial portion of the Cosmos . 3 ‘ - pp. 145-369, a. Form of the earth, its mean density, quantity of heat, electro- magnetic activity, process of light—pp. 145-197. b. Vital activity of the earth towards its external surface. Re-action of the interior of a planet on its crust and surface. Subterranean noise without waves of concussion. Earthquakes dynamic phenomena— pp. 197-213. ¢c. Material products which frequently accompany earthquakes. Gaseous and aqueous springs. Salses and mud-volcanoes. Upheavals of the soil by elastic forces—pp. 213-226. d. Fire-emitting mountains. Craters of elevation. Distribution of volcanoes on the earth—pp. 226-245. e. Volcanic forces form new kinds of rock, and metamorphose those already existing. Geognostical classification of rocks into four groups. Phenomena of contact. Fossiliferous strata; their vertical arrangement. The faunas and floras of an earlier world. Distribution of masses of rock—pp. 245-288. J. Geognostical epochs which are indicated by the mineralogical dif- ference of rocks have determined the distribution of solids and fluids into continents and seas. Individual configuration of solids into hori- zontal expansion and vertical elevation. Relations of area. Articu- lation. Probability of the continued elevation of the earth’s crust in ridges—pp. 288-306. g. Liquid and aeriform envelopes of the solid surface of our planet. Distribution of heat in both. The sea. The tides. Currents and their effects—pp. 306-316. h. The atmosphere. Its chemical composition. Fluctuations in its density. Law of the direction of the winds. Mean temperziure. Env- meration of the causes which tend to raise and lower the temperature. Vou. I ¢ fiv | COSMOS. Continental and insular climates. Fast and west coasts. Cause of the curvature of the isothermal lines. Limits of perpetual snow. Quantity of vapour. Electricity in the atmosphere. Forms of the clouds— pp. 316-347. zt. Separation of inorganic terrestrial life from the geography of vital organisms; the geography of vegetables and animals. Physica] grada- tions of the human race—(pp. 347-369), Special Analysis of the Delineation of Nature, including references te the subjects treated of in the Notes. I. Celestial portion of the Cosmos . ; : : . pp. 67-145 The universe and all that it comprises—multiform nebulous spots, planetary vapour, and nebulous stars. The picturesque charm of a southern sk y—(note pp. 68-9). Conjectures on the position in space of the world. Our stellar masses. A cosmicalisland. Gauging stars. Double stars revolving round a common centre. Distance of the star 61 Cygni— (p. 72 and note). Our solar system more complicated than was conjec- fured at the close of the last century. Primary planets with Neptune, Astrea, Hebe, Iris, and Flora, now constitute 16; secondary planets 18; myriads of comets, of which many of the inner ones are enclosed in the orbits of the planets; a rotating ring (the zodiacal light) and meteoric stones, probably to be regarded as small cosmical bodies. The teles- copic planets, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Astrea, Hebe, Iris, and Flora, with their frequently intersecting, strongly inclined, and more eccentrie orbits, constitute a central group of separation between the inner plane- tary group (Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars), and the outer group (Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Centrasts of these planetary groups. Relations of distance from one central body. Dif- ferences of absolute magnitude, density, period of revolution, eecentri- city and inclination of the orbits. The so-called law of the distances of the planets from their central sun. The planets which have the largest number of moons—(p. 80 and note). Relations in space both absolute and relative of the secondary planets. Largest and smallest of the moons. Greatest approximation to a primary planet. Retrogressive movement of the moons of Uranus. Libration of the Earth’s satellite—(p. 83 and note). Comets; the nucleus and tail; various forms and directions of the emanations in conoidal envelopes with more or less dense walls. Several tails inclined towards the sun; change of form of the tail; its conjectured rotation. Nature of light. Oceul- tations of the fixed stars by the nuclei of comets. Eccentricity of their orbits and periods of revolution. Greatest distance and greatest ap- proximation of comets. Passage through the system of Jupiter's satel- lites. Comets of short periods of revolution, more correctly termed inner comets (Enke, Biela, Faye)—(p. 94 and note.) Revolving aero- lites (meteoric stones, fire balls, falling stars). Their planetary velocity, magnitude, form, observed height. Periodic return in streams; the November stream and the stream of St. Lawrence. Chemical compo. sition of meteoric asteroids—(p. 117 and note. Ring of zodiacal — » SUMMARY. (vj light. Limitation of the present solar atmosphere—-(p. 13) and note), Translatory motion of the whole solar system—(pp. 135—139 and note). The existence of the law of gravitation beyond our solar system, The milky way of stars and its conjectured breaking up. Milky way of nebujous spots, at right angles with that of the stars. Periods of revo- lutions of bi-coloured double stars. Canopy of stars; openings in the stellar stratum. Events in the universe; the apparition of new stars Propagation of lieht, the aspect of the starry vault of the heavens con- -eys to the mind an idea of inequality of time—(pp.139~145 and notes). Il. Terrestrial portion of the Cosmos F 3 . pp 145-369 a. Figure of the earth. Density, quantity of heat, electro-magnetic tension, and terrestrial light—(pp. 145-197 and note). Knowledge of the compression and curvature of the earth’s surface acquired by measurements of degrees, pendulum oscillations and certain inequa- lities in the moon’s orbit. Mean density of the earth. The earth’s crust, and the depth to which we are able to penetrate—(p. 151 note). Three-fold movement of the heat of the earth; its thermic condition Law of the increase of heat with the increase of depth—(p. 152 and note). Magnetism electricity in motion. Periodical variation of ter- restrial magnetism. Disturbance of the regular course of the magnetic needle. Magnetic storms; extension of their action. Manifestations of magnetic force on the earth’s surface presented under three classes of phenomena; viz.: lines of equal force (isodynamic); equal inclination (isoclinic); and equal deviation (isogonic). Position of the magnetic pole. Its probable connection with the poles of cold. Change of all the magnetic phenomena of the earth. Erection of magnetic obser- vatories since 1828; a far-extending net-work of magnetic stations— (p. 184 and note). Development of light at the magnetic poles; terres: trial light as a consequence of the electro-magnetic activity of our planet. Elevation of polar light. Whether magnetic storms are ac- companied by noise? Connection of polar light (an electro-magnetic development of light) with the formation of cirrus clouds. Other examples of the generation of terrestrial light—(p. 197 and note). b. The vital activity of a planet manifested from within outward, the principal source of geognostic phenomena. Connection between merely dynamic concussions or the upheaval of whole portions of the earth’s crust, accompanied by the effusion of matter, and the gene ration of gaseous and liquid fluids, of hot mud and fused earths, which solidify into rocks. Volcanic action in the most general conception ot the idea, is the reaction of the interior of a planet on its outer surface. Earthquakes. Extent of the circles of commotion and their gradual increase. Whether there exists any connection between the changes in terrestrial magnetism and the processes of the atmosphere. Noises, subterranean thunder without any perceptible concussion. The rocks which modify the propagation of the waves of concussion. Upheavals; eruption of water, hot steam, mud mofettes, smoke and flame during an eartiquake—(pp. 197-214 and notes). ¢. Closer consideration of materia. products as a consequence o. [vi] COSMOS. internal planetary activity. There rise from the depths of the earth through fissures and cones of eruption, various gases, liquid fluids (pure or acidulated), mud and molten earths. Volcanoes are a species of intermittent spring. Temperature of thermal springs; their constancy and change. Depth of the foci—(pp. 218-221 and notes). Salses, mud-voleanoes. Whilst fire-emitting mountains being sources of molten earths, produce volcanic rocks, spring water forms, by precipitation, strata of limestone. Continued generation of sedimentary rocks—(p. 226 and note). d. Diversity of voleanic elevations. Dome-like closed trachytic mountains. Actual volcanoes which are formed from craters of eleva- tion or among the detritus of their original structure. Permanent con- nection of the interior of our earth with the atmosphere. Relation to certain rocks. Influence of the relations of height on the frequency of the eruptions. Height of the cone of cinders. Characteristics of those volcanoes which rise above the snow-line. Columns of ashes and fire. Volcanic storm during the eruption. Mineral composition of lavas—(p. 234 and notes). Distribution of volcanoes on the earth’s surface; central and linear volcanoes; insular and littoral voleanoes. Distance of volcanoes from the sea-coast. Extinction of volcanic forces —(p. 245 and notes). e. Relation of voleanoes to the character of rocks.—Voleanie forces form new rocks, and metamorphose the more ancient ones. The study ofthese relations leads by a double course to the mineral portion of geognosy, (the study of the textures and of the position of the earth’s strata), and to the configuration of continents and insular groups ele- vated above the level of the sea (the study of the geographical form and outlines of the different parts of the earth.) Classification of rocks according to the scale of the phenomena of structure and metamorphosis, which are still passing before our eyes. Rocks of eruption, sedimentary rocks, changed (metamorphosed) rocks, conglomerates—compound rocks are definite associations of oryctognostically simple fossils. There are four phases in the formative condition; rocks of eruption, endogenous (granite, sienite, porphyry, greenstone, hypersthene, rock, euphotide, me- laphyre, basalt, and phonolithe) ; sedimentary rocks (silurian schist, coal measures, lime stone, travertino, infusorial deposit); metamorphosed rock, which contains also together with the detritus of the rocks of eruption and sedimentary rocks, the remains of gneiss, mica schist, and more ancient metamorphic masses. Aggregate and sandstone forma- tions. The phenomenon of contact explained by the artificial imita- tion of minerals. Effects of pressure and the various rapidity of cooling. Origin of granular or saccharoidal marble, silicification of schist into ribbon jasper. Metamorphosis of caleareous marl into micaceous schist through granite. Conversion of dolomite and gra- nite into argillaceous schist, by contact with basaltic and doleritic rocks, Filling up of the veins from below. Processes of cemen- tation in agglomerate structures. Friction conglomerates—(p. 271 and note). Relative age of rocks, chronometry of the earth’s crust. Fossiliferous strata. Relative age of organisms. Simplicity of the first SUMMARY. [ vil) ital forms. Dependence of physiological gradations on the age of tha formations. Geognostic horizon, whose careful investigation may yield certain data regarding the identity or the relative age of formations, the periodic recurrence of certain strata, their parallelism, or their total suppression. Types of the sedimentary structures considered in their most simple and general characters; silurian and devonian formations (formerly known as rocks of transition); the lower trias (mountain lime-ston2, coal-measures, together with todéliegende and zechstein) ; the upper trias (bunter sandstone, muschelkalk, and keuper); jura lime- stone (lias and oolite); free-stone, lower and upper chalk, as the last of the flétz strata, which begin with mountain limestone; tertiary formations in three divisions, which are designated by granular lime- stone, lignite, and south apennine gravel—pp. 271-280. ‘he faunas and floras of an earlier world, and their relations to exist- ing organisms. Colossal bones of antediluvian mammalia in the upper alluvium. Vegetation of an earlier world; monuments of the history of its vegetation. The points at which certain vegetable groups attain their maximum; cycadez in the keuper and lias, and coniferee in the bunter sandstone. Lignite and coal measures (amber-tree). Deposition of large masses of rock ; doubts regarding their origin—p. 288 and note. Ff. The knowledge of geognostic epochs—of the upheaval of mountain chains and elevated plateaux, by which lands are both formed and destroyed, leads, by an internal causal connection, to the distribution into solids and fluids, and to the peculiarities in the natural configura- tion of the earth’s surface. Existing areal relations of the solid to the fluid differ considerably from those presented by the maps of the physi- cal portion of a more ancient geography. Importance of the eruption of quartzose porphyry with reference to the then existing configuration of continental masses. Individual conformation in horizontal extension (relations of articulation), and in vertical elevation (hypsometrical views). Influence of the relations of the area of land and sea on the temperature, direction of the winds, abundance or scarcity of organic products, and on all meteorological processes collectively. Direction of the major axes of continental masses. Articulation and pyramidal termination towards the south. Series of peninsulas. Valley-like formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Forms which frequently recur— pp. 288-297 and notes. Ramifications and systems of mountain chains, and the means of determining their relative ages. Attempts to deter. mine the ceatre of gravity of the volume of the lands upheaved above the level of the sea. The elevation of continents is still progressing slowly, and is being compensated for at some definite points by a per- eeptible sinking. All geognostic phenomena indicate a periodical alternation of activity in the interior of our planet. Probability of new elevations of ridges—pp. 297-306 and notes. g. The solid surface of the earth has two envelopes, one liquid, and the _ other aeriform. Contrasts and analogies which these envelopes—the sea and the atmosphere—present in their conditions of aggregation and elec- tricity, and in their relations of currents and temperature. Depths of the ocean and of the atmosphere, the shoals of which constitute our highlanda [ viii | CUSMOS. snd mountain chains. The degree of heat at the surface of the sea in diffe. rent latitudes and in the lower strata. Tendency of the sea to maintain the temperature of the surface in the strata nearest to the atmosphere, in consequence of the mobility of its particles, and the alteration in its density. Maximum of the density of salt water. Position of the zones of the hottest water, and of those having the greatest saline contents. Thermic influence of the lower polar current and the counter-currentg in the straits of the sea—pp. 306-309 and notes. General level of the sea, and permanent local disturbances of equilibrium; the periodic disturbances manifested as tides. Oceanic currents; the equatorial or rotation current, the Atlantic warm Gulf-stream, and the further im- pulse which it receives; the cold Peruvian stream in the eastern portion of the Pacific Ocean of the southern zone. Temperature of shoals. The universal diffusion of life in the ocean. Influence. of the small sub- marine sylvan region at the bottom of beds of rooted alge, or on far-extending floating layers of fucus—pp. 309-316 and notes. h. The gaseous envelope of our planet, the atmosphere. Chemical composition of the atmosphere, its transparency, its polarisation, pres- gure, temperature, humidity, and electric tension. Relation of oxygen to nitrogen; amount of carbonic acid; carburetted hydrogen; ammo- niacal vapours. Miasmata. Regular (hoerary) changes in the pres- sure of the atmosphere. Mean barometrical height at the level of the sea in different zones of the earth. Isobarometrical curves. Baro- metrical windroses. Law of rotation of the winds, and its importance with reference to the knowledge of many meteorological processes. Land and sea winds, trade winds and monsoons—pp. 316-322. Climatic distribution of heat in the atmosphere, as the effect of the relative posi- tion of transparent and opaque masses, (fluid and solid superficial area,) and of the hypsometrical configuration of continents. Curvature of the isothermal lines in a horizontal and vertical direction, on the earth’s sur- face and in the superimposed strata of air. Convexity and concavity of the isothermal lines. Mean heat of the year, seasons, months, and days. Enumeration of the causes which produce disturbances in the form of the isothermal lines, 7. e. their deviation from the position of the geogra- phical parallels. Isochimenal and isotheral lines are the lines of equal winter and summer heat. Causes which raise or lower the temperature. Radiation of the earth’s surface according to its inclination, colour, density, dryness, and chemical composition. ‘The form of the cloud which announces what is passing in the upper strata of the atmosphere is the image of the strongly radiating ground projected on a hot sum- mer sky. Contrast between an insular or littoral climate, such as ig experienced by all deeply-articulated continents, and the climate of the interior of large tracts of land. East and west coasts. Difference be- tween the southern and northern hemispheres. Thermal scales of culti- vated plants, going down from the vanilla, cacoa, and musacez, to citrons, and olives, and to vines yielding potable wines. The influence which these scales exercise on the geographical distribution of cultivated plants, The favourable ripening and the immaturity of fruits are essentially influ. enced by the difference in the action of direct or scattered: light in a SUMMARY. “ix] clear sky, or in one overcast with mist. General summary of the causes which yield a more genial climate to the greater portion of Europe considered as the western peninsula of Asia—p. 333. Determination of the changes in the mean annual and summer temperature, which correspond to one degree of geographical latitude. Equality of the mean temperature of a mountain station, and of the polar distance of any point lying at the level of the sea. Decrease of temperature with the decrease in elevation. Limits of perpetual snow, and the fluctua- tions in these limits. Causes of disturbance in the regularity of the phenomenon. Northern and southern chains of the Himalaya; habita- bility of the elevated plateaux of Thibet—p. 338. Quantity of moisture in the atmosphere according to the hours of the day, the seasons of the year, degrees of latitude, and elevation. Greatest dryness of the atmo- sphere observed in Northern Asia between the river districts of the Irtysch and the Obi. Dew, a consequence of radiation. Quantity of rain—-p. 342. Electricity of the atmosphere, and disturbance of the electric tension. Geographical distribution of storms. Predetermina- tion of atmospheric changes. The most important climatic disturbances cannot be traced at the place of observation to any local cause, but are rather the consequence of some occurrence by which the equilibrium inthe atmospheric currents has been destroyed at some considerable distance. i. Physical geography is not limited to elementary inorganic terres- trial life, but, elevated to a higher point of view, it embraces the sphere of organic life, and the numerous gradations of its typical development. Animal and vegetable life. General diffusion of life in the sea and on the land; microscopic vital forms discovered in the polar ice no less than in the depths of the ocean within the tropics. Extension imparted to the horizon of life by Ehrenberg’s discoveries. Estimation of the mass (volume) of animal and vegetable organisms —pp. 347-356. Geography of plants and animals. Migrations of organisms in the ovum, or by means of organs capable of spontaneous motion. Spheres of distribution depending on climatic relations. Regions of vegetation, and classification of the genera of animals. Isolated and social living plants and animals. The character of floras and faunas is not determined so much by the predominance of separate families in certain parallels of latitude as by the highly complicated relations of the association of rnany families, and the relative numerical value of their species. The forms of natural families which increase or decrease from the equator to the poles. Inves- tigations into the numerical relation existing in different districts of the earth between each one of the large families to the whole mass of phane- rogamia—pp. 356-560. The human race considered according to its physical gradations, and the geographical distribution of its simultane- ously occurring types. Racesand varieties. All races of men are forms of one single species. Unity of the human race. Languages -onsidered as the inteliectual creations of mankind, or as portions of ¢h« history of mental actizity manifest a character of nationality, although certain his- torical occusrences have been the means of diffusing iticms of the sume family of languages amongst nations of wholly differen: descent -- ;p. 360-369. ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT (1769-1859) COSMOS (1845-1862) INTRODUCTION. REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF ENJOY. MENT PRESENTED TO US BY THE ASPECT OF NATURE, AND THE STUDY OF HER LAWS. in attempting, after a long absence from my native country, to develope the physical phenomena of the globe, and the simultaneous action of the forces that pervade the regions of space, I experience a twofold cause of anxiety. The subject before me is so inexhaustible and so varied, that I fear either to fall into the superficiality of the encyclopedist, or to weary the mind of my reader by aphorisms consisting of mere gene- ralities clothed in dry and dogmatical forms. Undue concise- ness often checks the flow of expression, whilst diffuseness is alike detrimental to a clear and precise exposition of our ideas. Nature is a free domain; and the profound conceptions and enjoyments she awakens within us can only be vividly deli- neated by thought clothed in exalted forms of speech, worthy of bearing witness to the majesty and greatness of the creation. In considering the study of physical phenomena, not merely in its bearings on the material wants of life, but in its genera influence on the intellectual advancement of mankind, we find its noblest and most important result to be a knowledge of the chain of connection, by which all natural forces are linked together, and made mutually dependent upon each other; and it is the perception of these relations that exalts our views and ennobles our enjoyments. Such a result can, however only be reaped as the fruit of observation and intellect, com- bined with the spirit of the age, in which are reflected all the varied phases of thought. He who can trace, through by-gone times, the stream of our knowledge to its primitive source, will learn from history how, for thousands of years, may B 2 COSMOS. has laboured, amid the ever-recurring changes of form, to recognise the invariability of natural laws, and har thus the force of mind gradually subdued a great portion of the phy- sical world to hisdominion. In interrogating the history of the past, we trace the mysterious course of ideas yielding the cont glimmering perception of the same image of a Cosmos, ‘or harmoniously ordered whole, which, dimly shadowed forth to the human mind ‘in the primitive ages of the world, is now fully revealed to the maturer intellect of mankind as the result of long and laborious observation. Each of these epochs of the contemplation of the external world—the earliest dawn of thought, and the advanced stage of civilisation—has its own source of enjoyment. In the former, this enjoyment, in accordance with the simplicity of the primitive ages, flowed from an intuitive feeling of the order that was proclaimed by the invariable and suc- _ cessive re-appearance of the heavenly bodies, and by the progressive development of orgamised beings; whilst in the latter, this sense of enjoyment springs from a definite know- ledge of the phenomena of nature. When man began to interrogate nature, and, not content with observing, learnt to evoke phenomena under definite conditions; when once he sought to collect and record facts, in order that the fruit of his labours might aid investigation after his own brief exist- ence had passed away, the philosophy of Nature cast aside the vague and poetic garb in which she had been enveloped from her origin, and having assumed a severer aspect, she now weighs the value of observations, and substitutes induction and reasoning for conjecture and assumption. The dogmas of former ages survive now only in the superstitions of the people and the prejudices of the ignorant, or are perpetuated in a few systems, which, conscious of their weakness, shroud themselves in a veil of mystery. We may also trace the same primitive intuitions in languages exuberant in figurative expressions; and a few of the best chosen symbols engendered by the happy inspiration of the earliest ages, having by degrees iost their vagueness through a better mode of inter- pretation, are still preserved amongst our’scientific terms. Nature considered rationally, that is to say, submitted to - the process of thought, is a unity in diversity of phenomena ; a harmony, blending together all created things, however dis- » INTRODUCTION. 3 similar in form and attributes; one great whole (ro nis) animated by the breath of life. The most important result of a rational inquiry into nature is, therefore, to establish the unity and harmony of this stupendous mass of force and matter, to determine with impartial justice what is due to the discoveries of the past and to those of the present, and to analyze the individual parts of natural phenomena without succumbing beneath the weight of the whole. Thus, and thus alone, is it permitted to man, while mindful of the high destiny of his race, to comprehend nature, to lift the veil that shrouds her phenomena, and, as it were, submit the results of observation to the test of reason and of intellect. In reflecting upon the different degrees of enjoyment pre- sented to us in the contemplation of nature, we find that the first place must be assigned to a sensation, which is wholly independent of an intimate acquaintance with the physical phenomena presented to our view, or of the peculiar cha- _racter of the region surrounding us. In the uniform plain bounded only by a distant horizon, where the lowly heather, the cistus,.or waving grasses, deck the soil; on the ocean shore, where the waves, softly rippling over the beach, leave a track, green with the weeds of the sea; everywhere, the mind is penetrated by the same sense of the grandeur and vast expanse of nature, revealing to the soul, by a mysterious inspiration, the existence of laws that regulate the forces of the universe. Mere communion with nature, mere contact with the free air, exercise a soothing yet strengthening influ ence on the wearied spirit, calm the storm of passion, ang soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths, Everywhere, in every region of the globe, in every stage of intellectual culture, the same sources of enjoyment are alike vouchsafed toman. The earnest and solemn thoughts awakened by a communion with nature intuitively arise from a presen- timent of the order and harmony pervading the whole uni- verse, and from the contrast we draw between the narrow limits of our own existence and the image of infinity revealed on every side, whether we look upwards to the starry vault of heaven, scan the far-stretching plain before us, or seek to trace the dim horizon across the vast expanse of ocean. The contemplation of the individual characteristics of the landscape, and of the conformation of the land in any definite B2 + COSMOS region of the earth, gives rise to a different source of enjoy- ment, awakening impressions that are more vivid, better defined, and more congenial to certain phases of the mind, than those of which we have already spoken. At one time the heart is stirred by a sense of the grandeur of the face of nature, by the strife of the elements, or, as in Northern Asia, by the aspect of the dreary barrenness of the far-stretching steppes; at another time, softer emotions are excited by the contemplation of rich harvests wrested by the hand of man from the wild fertility of nature, or by the sight of human habitations raised beside some wild and foaming torrent. Here I regard less the degree of intensity, than the difference existing in the various sensations that derive their charm and permanence from the peculiar character of the scene. If I might be allowed to abandon myself to the recollec- tions of my own distant travels, I would instance, among the most striking scenes of nature, the calm sublimity of a tropicat night, when the stars, not sparkling, as in our northern skies, A shed their soft and planetary light over the gently-heaving ocean ;—or I would recall the deep valleys of the Cordilleras, where the tall and slender palms pierce the leafy veil around them, and waving on high their feathery and arrow-like branches, form, as it were, “a forest above a forest ;’’* or I would describe the summit of the Peak of Teneriffe, when a horizontal layer of clouds, dazzling in whiteness, has separated the cone of cinders from the plain below, and suddenly the ascending current pierces the cloudy veil, so that the eye of the traveller may range from the brink of the crater, along the vine-clad slopes of Orotava, to the orange-gardens and banana- groves that skirt the shore. In scenes like these, it is not the peaceful charm uniformly spread over the face of nature that moves the heart, but rather the peculiar physiognomy and con. / formation of the land, the features of the landscape, the ever- varying outline of the clouds, and their blending with the horizon of the sea, whether it lies spread before us like a smooth and shining mirror, or is dimly seen through the morning mist. All that the senses can but imperfectly com- .prehend, all that is most awful in such romantic scenes ot nature, may become a source of enjoyment to man, by open- * This expression is taken from a beautiful description of tropical forest scenery in Paul and Virginia, by Bernardin de Saint Pierre. _ INTRODUCTION, § mg a wide field to the creative powers of his imagination. Impressions change with the varying movements of the mind, and we are led by a happy illusion to believe that we receive from the external world that with which we have ourselves invested it. When far from our native country, after a long voyage, we tread for the first time the soil of a tropical land, we experi- ence a certain feeling of surprise and gratification in recog- nising, in the rocks that surround us, the same inclined schistose strata, and the same columnar basalt covered with cellular amygdaloids, that we had left in Europe, and whose identity - of character, in latitudes so widely different, reminds us, that the solidification of the earth’s crust is altogether independent of climatic influences. But these rocky masses of schist and of basalt are covered with vegetation of a character with which we are unacquainted, and of a physiognomy wholly unknown to us; and it is then, amid the colossal and majestic forms of an exotic flora, that we feel how wonderfully the flexibility of our nature fits us to receive new impressions, linked together by a certain secret analogy. We so readily perceive the affinity existing amongst all the forms of organic life, that although the sight of a vegetation similar to that of our native country might at first be most welcome to the eye, as the sweet familiar sounds of our mother tongue are to the ear, we nevertheless, by degrees, and almost imperceptibly, become familiarised with a new home and a new climate. As a true citizen of the world, man everywhere habituates himself to that which surrounds him; yet fearful, as it were, of breaking the links of association that bind him to the home of his child- hood, the colonist applies to some few plants in a far distant clime the names he had been familiar with in his native land ; and by the mysterious relations existing amongst all types of organisation, the forms of exotic vegetation present them- selves to his mind as nobler and more perfect developments of those he had loved in earlier days. Thus do the spontaneous impressions of the untutered mind lead, like the laborious deductions of cultivated intellect, to the same intimate per- suasion, that one sole and indissoluble chain binds together all nature. It may seem a rash attempt to endeavour to separate, into its different elements, the magic power exercised upon our minds © COSMOS. by the physical world, since the character of the landscape, ard of every imposing scene in nature, depends so materially upon the mutual relation of the ideas and sentiments simultaneously excited in the mind of the observer. The powerful effect exercised by nat ire springs, as it were, from the connection and unity of the impressions and emotions produced; and we can only trace their different sources by analysing the individuality of objects, and the diversity of forces. The richest and most varied elements for pursuing an analysis of this nature present themselves to the eyes of the traveller in the scenery of Southern Asia, in the Great Indian Archipelago, and more especially, too, in the New Continent, where the summits of the lofty Cordilleras pene- trate the confines of the aerial ocean surrounding our globe, and where the same subterranean forces that once raised these mountain chains, still shake them to their foundation and threaten their downfall. Graphic delineations of nature, arranged according to sys- tematic views, are not only suited io please the imagination, but may also, when properly considered, indicate the grades of the impressions of which I Lave spoken, from the uni- formity of the sea-shore, or the barren steppes of Siberia, to the inexhaustible fertility of the torrid zone. If we were even to picture to ourselves Mount Pilatus placed on the Schreckhorn,* or the Schneekoppe of Silesia on Mont Blanc, * These comparisons are only approximative. The several elevations above the level of the sea are, in accurate numbers, as follows :— The Schneekoppe or Riesenkoppe, in Silesia, about 5,270 feet, accord- ing to Hallaschka. The Righi 5,902 feet, taking the height of the Lake of Lucerne at 1426 feet, according to Eschman. (See Compte Rendu des Mesures Trigonométriques en Suisse, 1840, p. 230.) Mount Athos 6,775 feet, according to Captain Gaultier; Mount Pilatus 7,546 feet; Mount Etna 10,871 feet, according to Captain Smyth; or 10,874 feet, according to the barometrical measurement made by Sir John Herschel, and com- municated to me in writing in 1825, and 10,899 feet, according to angles of altitude taken by Cacciatore at Palermo (calculated, by assuming the terrestrial refraction to be 0°076); the Schreckhorn 12,383 feet; the Jungfrau 13,720 feet, according to Tralles; Mont Blanc 15,775 feet, according to the different measurements considered by Roger (Bibi. Univ., May, 1828, pp. 24—53), 15,733 feet, according to the measurements taken from Mount Columbier by Carlini, in 1821, and 15,748 feet, ag measured by the Austrian engineers from Trelod and the Glagier d’ Ambin. ‘ INTRODUCTION. W : we should not have attained to the height of that great Colos- sus of the Andes, the Chimborazo, whose height is twice that of Mount Etna; and we must pile the Righi, or Mount Athos, on the summit of the Chimborazo, in order to form a just estimate of the elevation of the Dhawalagiri, the highest point The actual height of the Swiss mountains fluctuates, according to Eschman’s observations, as much as 25 English feet, owing to the varying thickness of the stratum of snow that covers the summits. Chimborazo is, according to my trigonometrical measurements, 21,421 feet, (see Hum- boldt, Recueil d’Obs. Astr., tome i., p. 73), and Dhawalagiri 28,074 feet. As there is a difference of 445 feet between the determinations of Blake and Webh, the elevation assigned to the Dhawalagiri, (or white mountain from the Sanscrit dhawala, white, and givi, mountain), cannot he received with the same confidence as that of the Jawahir. 25,749 feet since the latter rests on a complete trigonometrical measurement, (see Herbert and Hodgson in the Asiat. Res., vol. xiv., p. 189, and Suppl. to Encycl. Brit., vol. iv., p. 643.) I have shown elsewhere (Ann. des Sciences Naturelles, Mars, 1825,) that the height of the Dhawalagiri (28,074 feet) depends on several elements that have not been ascertained with certainty, as azimuths and latitudes, (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, t. iii.. p- 282). It has been believed, but without foundation, that in the Tar- taric chain, north of Thibet, opposite to the chain of Kouen-jun, there are several snowy summits, whose elevation is about 30,000 English feet, (almost twice that of Mont Blanc,) or, at any rate, 29,000 feet, (see Captain Alexander Gerard’s and John Gerard’s Journey to the Boorendo Pass, 1840, vol. i., pp. 143 and 311). Chimborazo is spoken of in the text only as one of the highest summits of the chain of the Andes; for in the year 1827, the learned and highly gifted traveller, Pentland, in his memorable expedition to Upper Peru (Bolivia), measured the elevation of two mountains situated to the east of Lake Titicaca, viz., the Sorata 25,200 feet, and the Illimani 24,000 feet, both greatly exceeding the height of Chimborazo, which is only 21,421 feet, and being nearly equal in elevation to the Jawahir, which is the highest mountain in the Himalaya, that has as yet been accurately measured. Thus Mont Blanc is 5,646 feet below Chimborazo; Chimborazo 3,779 feet below the Sorata; the Sorata 549 feet below the Jawahir, and probably about 2,880 feet below the Dhawalagiri. According to a new measurement of the Illimani, by Pentland, in 1838, the elevation of this mountain is given at 23,868 feet, varying only 133 feet from the measurement taken in 1827. The elevations have been given in this note with minute exactness, as erroneous numbers have been introduced into many maps and tables recently pub- .ished, owing to incorrect reductions of the measurements. [In the preceding note, taken from those appended to the Introduction in the French Translation, rewritten by Humboldt himself, the measure- ments are given in metres, but these have been converted into English feet for the greater convenience of the general reader. ]—Tr. 8 COSMOS, of the Himalaya. But although the mountains of India greatly surpass the Cordilleras of South America, by their astonishing elevation, (which after being long contested has at last been eonfirmed by accurate measurements, ) they cannot, from their geographical position, present the same inexhaustible variety of phenomena by which the latter are characterised. The impression produced by the grander aspects of nature does not depend exclusively on height. The chain of the Himalaya is placed far beyond the limits of the torrid zone, and scarcely is a solitary palm-tree to be found in the beautiful valleys of Kumaoun and Garhwal.* On the southern slope of the ancient Paropamisus, in the latitudes of 28° and 34°, nature no longer displays the same abundance of tree-ferns, and arborescent grasses, heliconias and orchideous plants, which in tropical regions are to be found even on the highest plateaux of the mountains. On the slope of the Himalaya, under the shade of the Deodora and the broad-leaved oak, peculiar to these Indian Alps, the rocks of granite and of mica schist are covered with vegetable forms, almost similar to those which characterise Europe and Northern Asia. The species are not identical, but closely analogous in aspect and physiognomy, as for instance, the juniper, the alpine birch, the gentian, the marsh parnassia, and the prickly species of Ribes.t ~ The * The absence of palms and tree-ferns on the temperate slopes of the Himalaya is shown in Don’s Flora Nepalensis, 1825, and in the remark- able series of lithographs of Wallich’s Flora Indica, whose catalogue contains the enormous number of 7,683 Himalaya species, almost al] phanerogamic plants, which have as yet been but imperfectly classified. In Nepaul (lat. 264° to 274°) there has hitherto been observed only one species of palm, Chamerops martiana, Wall. (Plante Asiat., lib. iii., pp.5, 211), which is found at the height of 5,250 English feet above the level of the sea, in the shady valley of Bunipa. The magnificent tree-fern, Alsophila brunoniana, Wall. (of which a stem 48 feet long has been in the possession of the British Museum since 1831) does not grow in Nepaul, but is found on the mountains of Silhet, to the north-west of Calcutta, in lat. 24° 50’. The Nepaul fern, Paranema cyathdides, Don, formerly known as Spheroptera barbata, Wall. (Plante Asiat., lib. i., pp. 42,48) is, indeed, nearly related to Cyathea, a species of which I have seen in the South American Missions of Caripe, measuring 33 feet in height; this 1s not, however, properly speaking, a tree. + Ribes nubicola, R. glaciale, R. grossularia. The species which compose the vegetation of the Himalaya are four pines, notwithstanding the assertion of the ancients regarding Eastern Asia (Strabo, lib 11, a INTRODUCTION. a chain of the Himalaya is also wanting in the imposing pheno- mena of voleanoes, which in the Andes and in the Indian Archipelago often reveal to the inhabitants, under the most terrific forms, the existence of the forces pervading the interior of our planet. Moreover, on the southern declivity of the Himalaya, where the ascending current deposits the exhalations rising from a vigorous Indian vegetation, the region of perpetual snow begins at an elevation of 11,000 or 12,000 feet above the level of the sea,* thus setting a limit to the development of p. 510, Cas.), twenty-five oaks, four bitches, two chesnuts, seven maples, twelve willows, fourteen roses, three species of strawberry, seven species of Alpine roses (rhododendra), one of which attains a height of 20 feet, and many other northern genera: Large white apes, having black faces, inhabit the wild chesnut-tree of Kashmir, which grows to a height of 100 feet, in lat. 33° (see Carl Von Hiigel’s Kaschmir, 1840, 2nd pt., 249.) Among the conifers, we find the Pinus deodwara, or deodara (in ' Sanscrit, déwa-daru—the timber of the gods), which is nearly allied to Pinus cedrus. Near the limit of perpetual snow, flourish the large and showy flowers of the Gentiana venusta, G. Moorcroftiana, Swertia pur- purescens, S. speciosa, Parnassia armata, P. nubicola, Poeonia Emodi, Tulipa stellata ; and, besides varieties of European genera peculiar to these Indian mountains, true European species, as Leontodon taraxacum, Pru- nella vulgaris, Galium aparine, and Thlaspi arvense. The heath men- tioned by Saunders, in Turner’s Travels, and which had been confounded with Caliuna vulgaris, is an Andromeda, a fact of the greatest importance in the geography of Asiatic plants. If I have made use, in this work, of the unphilosophical expressions of European genera, European species, growing wild in Asia, &c., it has been in corisequeénce of the old botanical language, which instead of the idea of a large dissemination, or rather of the co-existence of organic productions, has dogmatically substituted the false hypothesis of a migration, which from predilection for Europe, is further assumed to have been from west to east. * On the southern declivity of the Himalaya, the limit of perpetual snow is 12,978 feet above the level of the sea; on the northern deelivity, or rather on the peaks which rise above the Thibet, or Tartarian plateau, this limit is at 16,625 feet from 304° to 32° of latitude, whilst at the equator, in the Andes of Quito, it is 15,790 feet. Such is the result I bave deduced from the combination of numerows data furnished by Webb, Gerard, Herbert, and Moorcroft. (See my two memoirs on the mountains of India, in 1816 and 1820, in the Ann. de Chimie et de Phi. segue, t. iii. p, 303, t. xiv. pp. 6, 22,50.) The greater elevation to which the limit of perpetual snow recedes on the Tartarian declivity is owing to the radiation of heat from the neighbouring elevated plains, to the purity of the atmosphere, and to the infrequent formation of snow in an air which is both very cold and very dry. (Humboldt, Asie Centrale, t. iii, 10 COSMOS. organic life in a zone that is nearly 3000 feet lower than that to which it attains in the equinoctial region of the Cor- dilleras. But the countries bordering on the equator possess another pp. 281-326.) My opinion on the difference of height of the snow-line on the two sides of the Himalaya has the high authority of Colebrooke in its favour. He wrote to me in June, 1824, as follows :—‘‘I also find, from the data in my possession, that the elevation of the line of perpetual snow is 13,000 feet. On the southern declivity, and at lat. 31°, Webb’s mea~ surements give me 13,500 feet, consequently 500 feet more than the height deduced from Captain Hogdson’s observations. Gerard’s mea- surements fully confirm your opinion that the line of snow is higher on the northern than on the southern side ’’ It was not until the present year (1840) that we obtained the complete and collected journal of the brothers Gerard, published under the supervision of Mr. Lloyd. (Narra- tive of a Journey from Cawnpoor to the Boorendo Pass, in the Himalaya, by Captain Alexander Gerard and John Gerard, edited by George Lloyd, vol. i. pp. 291, 311, 320, 327, and 341.) Many interesting details re- garding some localities may be found in the narrative of A visit to the Shatool, for the purpose of determining the line of perpetual snow on the southern face of the Himalaya, in August, 1822. Unfortunately, how- ever, these travellers always confound the elevation at which sporadic snow falls, with the maximum of the height that the snow-line attains on the Thibetian plateau. Captain Gerard distinguishes between the summits that rise in the middle of the plateau, where he states the elevation of the snow-line to be between 18,000 and 19,000 feet, and the northern slopes of the chain of the Himalaya, which border on the defile of the Sutledge, and can radiate but little heat, owing to the deep ravines with which they are intersected. The elevation of the village of Tangno is given at only 9300 feet, while that of the plateau surrounding the sacred lake of Manasa is 17,000 feet. Captain Gerard finds the snow-line 500 feet lower on the northern slopes, where the chain of the Himalaya is broken through, than towards the southern declivities facing Hindostan, and he there estimates the line of perpetual snow at 15,000 feet. The most striking differences are presented between the vegetation on the Thibetian plateau, and that characteristic of the southern slopes of the Himalaya. On the latter the cultivation of grain is arrested at 9974 feet, and even there the corn has often to be cut when the blades are still green. The extreme limit of forests of tall oaks and deodars is 11,960 feet; that of dwarf birches ]2,983 feet. On the plains, Captain Gerard found pastures up to the height of 17,000 feet; the cereals will grow at 14,100 feet, or even at 18,540 feet ; birches with tall stems at 14,100 feet, and copse or brush- wood applicable for fuel is found at an elevation of upwards of 17,000 feet, that is to say, 1280 feet above the lower limits of the snow-line at the equator, in the province of Quito. It is very desirable that the mean elevation of the Thibetian plateau, which I have estimated at only about $200 feet between the Himalaya and the Kouen-Lun, and the differenc; in INTRODUCTION, It advantage, to which sufficient attention has not hitherto been directed. This portion of the surface of the globe affords in the smallest space the greatest possible variety of impressions from the contemplation of nature. Among the colossal moun- the height of the line of perpetual snow on the southern and on the northern slopes of the Himalaya, should be again investigated by tra- vellers who are accustomed to judge of the general conformation of the land. Hitherto simple calculations have too often been confounded with actual measurements, and the elevations of isolated summits with that of the surrounding plateau. (Compare Carl Zimmerman’s excellent Hypso- metrical Remarks in his Geographischen Analyse der Karte von Inner Asien, 1841, s. 98.) Lord draws attention to the difference presented by the two faces of the Himalaya and those of the Alpine chain of Hindoo- Coosh, with respect to the limits of the snow-line. ‘‘ The latter chain,” he says, ‘‘ has the table-land to the south, in consequence of which the snow-line is higher on the southern side, contrary to what we find to be the case with respect to the Himalaya, which is bounded on the south by shel- tered plains, as Hindoo-Coosh is on the north.’”’ It must, however, be ad- mitted thatthe hypsometrical data, on which these statements are based, ree quire a critical revision with regard to several of their details; but still they suffice to establish the main fact, that the remarkable configuration of the land in Central Asia affords man all that is essential to the maintenance of life, as habitation, food, and fuel, at an elevation above the level of the sea, which in almost all other parts of the globe is covered with perpetual ice. We must except the very dry districts of Bolivia, where snow is so rarely met with, and where Pentland (in 1838) fixed the snow-line at 15,667 feet, between 16° and 17$° south latitude. The opinion that I had ad- vanced regarding the difference in the snow-line on the two faces of the Himalaya has been most fully confirmed by the barometrical observations of Victor Jacquemont, who feil an early sacrifice to his noble and unwea- ‘ied ardour. (See his Correspondance pendant son voyage dans I’ Inde, 1828 @ 1832, liv. 23, pp. 290, 296, 299.) ‘* Perpetual snow,’’ says Jacquemont, ‘‘descends lower on the southern than on the northern slopes of the Himalaya, and the limit constantly rises as we advance to the north ‘of the chain bordering on India. On the Kioubrong, about 18,317 feet in elevation, according to Captain Gerard, I was still considerably below the limit of perpetual snow, which, I believe to be 19,690 feet in this part of Hindostan.’’ (This estimate I consider much too high.) The same traveller says, ‘‘To whatever height we rise on the southern declivity of the Himalaya, the climate retains the same character, and the same division of the seasons as in the plains of India; the summer solstice being every year marked by the same prevalence of rain, which continues to fall without intermission until the autumnal equinox. But a new, a totally different climate begins at Kashmir, whose elevation I estimate to be 5350 feet, nearly equal to that of the cities of Mexico and Popayan,’’ (Correspand. de Jacquemont, t. ii., pp. 58 et 74). The warm and humid air of the sea, as Leopold von Buch well observes, is carried by the mons 12 COSMOS. tains of Cundinamarca, of Quito, and of Peru, furrowed by deep ravines, man is enabled to contemplate alike all the families of plants, and all the stars of the firmament. There, at a single glance, the eye surveys majestic palms, humid forests of bambusa, and the varied species of musacez, while above these forms of tropical vegetation appear oaks, medlars, the sweetbrier, and umbelliferous plants, as in our European homes. There, as the traveller turns his eyes to the vault of heaven, a single glance embraces the constellation of the Southern Cross, the Magellanic clouds, and the guiding stars of the constellation of the Bear, as they circle round the arctic pole. There the depths of the earth and the vaults of heaven display all the richness of their forms and the variety of their phenomena. There the different climates are ranged the one above the other, stage by stage, like the vegetable zones, whose succession they limit; and there the observer may readily trace the laws that regulate the diminution of heat, as they stand indelibly inscribed on the rocky walls and abrupt declivities of the Cordilleras. Not to weary the reader with the details of the phenomena which I long since endeavoured graphically to represent,* I soons across the plains of India to the skirts of the Himalaya, which arrest its course, and hinder it from diverging to the Thibetian districts of Ladak and Lassa. Carl von Hiigel estimates the elevation of the valley of Kashmir above the level of the sea at 5818 feet, and bases his observation on the determination of the boiling point of water, (see theil 11, s. 155, and Journal of Geog. Soc., vol. vi. p. 215). In this valley, where the atmsphere is scarcely ever agitated by storms, and in 34° 7’ lat., snow is found, several feet in thickness, from December to March. * See, generally, my Essai sur la Géographie des Plantes, et le Tableau physique des Régions Equinoxiales, 1807, pp. 80-88. On the diurnal and nocturnal variations of temperature, see Plate 9 of my Ailas Géogr. et Phys. du Nouveau Continent; and the Tables in my work, . entitled De distributione geographica Plantarum secundum celi tem- periem et altitudinem montium, 1817, pp. 90-116; the meteorological portion of my Asie Centrale, tom. iii., pp. 212, 224 5 and, finally, the more recent and far more exact exposition of the variations of temperature experienced in correspondence with the increase of altitude on the chain of the Andes, given in Boussingault’s Memoir, Sur la profondeur @ la- quelle on trouve, sous les Tropiques, la couche de Temperature Invariable. ‘Ann, de Chimie et de Physique, 1833, t. liii., pp. 225-247.) This treatise contains the elevations of 128 points, included between the level of the sea and the declivity of the Antisana (17,900 feet), as well as the mean temperature of the atmosphere, which varies with the height between 81° and 35° F. INTRODUCTION. 13 will here limit myself to the consideration of a few of the general results whose combination constitutes the physical delineation of the torrid zone. That which, in the vagueness of our impressions, loses all distinctness of form, like some distant mountain shrouded from view by a veil of mist, is clearly revealed by the light of mind, which by its scrutiny into the causes of phenomena learns to resolve and analyze their different elements, assigning to each its mdividual cha- racter. Thus in the sphere of natural investigation, as in poetry and painting, the delineation of that which appeals most strongly to the imagination, derives its collective interest from the vivid truthfulness with which the individual features are pourtrayed. The regions of the torrid zone not only give rise to the most powerful impressions by their organic richness and their abundant fertility, but they likewise afford the inestimable advantage of revealing to man, by the uniformity of the varia- tions of the atmosphere and the development of vital forces, and by the contrasts of climate and vegetation exhibited at different elevations, the invariability of the laws that regulate the course of the heavenly bodies, reflected, as it were, in terrestrial phenomena. Let us dwell then for a few moments on the proofs of this regularity, which is such, that it may be submitted to numerical calculation and computation. In the burning plains that rise but little above the level of the sea, reign the families of the banana, the cycas, and the palm, of which the number of species comprised in the flora of tropical regions has been so wonderfully increased in the present day, by the zeal of botanical travellers. To these groups succeed, in the Alpine valleys and the humid and shaded clefts on the slopes of the Cordilleras, the tree-ferns, whose thick cylindrical trunks and delicate lacelike foliage stand out in bold relief against the azure of the sky, and the cinchona, from which we derive the febrifuge bark. The medicinal strength of this bark is said to increase in propor- tion to the degree of moisture imparted to the foliage of the tree by the light mists which form the upper surface of the clouds resting over the plains. Everywhere around, the con fines of the forest are encircled by broad bands of social lants, as the delicate aralia, the thibaudia and the myrtle- ed andromeda, whilst the Alpine rose, the magnificent 14 COSMOS. befaria, weaves a purple girdle round the spiry peaks. In the cold regions of the Paramos, which is continually exposed to the fury of storms and winds, we find that flowering shrubs and herbaceous plants, bearing large and variegated blossoms, have given place to monocotyledons, whose slender spikes constitute the sole covering of the soil. This is the zone of the grasses, one vast savannah extending over the immense mountain, plateaux, and reflecting a yellow, almost golden tinge, to the slopes of the Cordilleras, on which graze the kama and the cattle domesticated by the European colonist. Where the naked trachyte rock pierces the grassy turf and penetrates into those higher strata of air which are supposed to be less charged with carbonic acid, we meet only with plants of an inferior organisation, as lichens, lecideas, and the brightly-coloured dustlike lepraria, scattered around in circular patches. Islets of fresh-fallen snow, varying in form and extent, arrest the last feeble traces of vegetable develop- ment, and to these succeeds the region of perpetual snow, whose elevation undergoes but little change, and may be easily determined. It is but rarely that the elastic forces at work within the interior of our globe, have succeeded in breaking through the spiral domes, which, resplendent in the brightness of eternal snow, crown the summits of the Cordil- leras—and even where these subterranean forces have opened a permanent communication with the atmosphere, through circular craters or long fissures, they rarely send forth cur- - rents of lava, but merely eject ignited scorie, steam, sulphu- retted hydrogen gas, and jets of carbonic acid. In the earliest stages of civilisation the grand and imposing spectacle presented to the minds of the inhabitants of the tropics could only awaken feelings of astonishment and awe. It might perhaps be supposed, as we have already said, that the periodical return of the same phenomena, and the uniform manner in which they arrange themselves in successive groups, would have enabled man more readily to attain to a knowledge of the laws of nature; but as far as tradition and history guide us, we do not find that any application was made of the advantages presented by these favoured regions. Recent researches have rendered it very doubtful whether the primitive seat of Hindoo civilisation—one of the most remarkable phases in the progress of mankind—was actually » INTRODUCTION. 15 within the tropics. Airyana Vaedjo, the ancient cradle of the Zend, was situated to the north-west of the upper Indus, and after the great religious schism, that is to say, after the separation of the Iranians from the Brahminical institution, the language that had previously been common to them and to the Hindoos, assumed amongst the latter people (together with the literature, habits, and condition of society) an indi. vidual form in the Magodha or Madhya Desa,* a district that is bounded by the great chain of Himalaya and the smaller range of the Vindhya. In less ancient times the Sanscrit language and civilisation advanced towards the south- east, penetrating further within the torrid zone, as my brother Wilhelm von Humboldt has shown in his great work on the Kavi and other languages of analogous structure.t} Notwithstanding the obstacles opposed in northern lati- tudes to the discovery of the laws of nature, owing to the excessive complication of phenomena, and the perpetual local variations that, in these climates, affect the movements of the atmosphere and the distribution of organic forms; it is to the inhabitants of a small section of the temperate zone, that the rest of mankind owe the earliest revelation of an intimate and rational acquaintance with the forces governing the physical world. Moreover, it is from the same zone (which is appa- rently more favourable to the progress of reason, the soften- ing of manners, and the security of public liberty), that the germs of civilisation haye been carried to the regions of the tropics, as much by the migratory movement of races as by the establishment of colonies, differing widely in their insti- tution from those of the Phenicians or Greeks. In speaking of the influence exercised by the succession of phenomena on the greater or lesser facility of recognising the causes producing them, I have touched upon that important * See, on the Madhjadéca, properly so called, Lassen’s excellent work, entitled Indische Alterthumskunde, bd.i., s. 92. The Chinese give the name of Mo-kie-thi to the southern Bahar, situated te the south of the Ganges, (see Foe-Koue-Ki, by Chy-Fa-Hian, 1536, p. 256). Djambu-dwipa is the name given to the whole of India; but the words also indicate one of the four Budhist continents. , + Ueber die Kawi Sprache auf der Insel Java, nebst einer Einleitung aiber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren Einfluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengeschlecht’s, von Wilhelm v. Humholdt, 1836, bd. i., s. 5—d10. 16 COSMOS. stage of our communior. with the external world, when the enjoyment arising from a knowledge of the laws, and the mutual connection of phenomena, associates itself with the charm of a simple contemplation of nature, That which for a long time remains merely an object of vague intuition, by degrees acquires the certainty of positive truth; and man, as an immortal poet has said, in our own tongue—Amid ceaseless change seeks the unchanging pole. * In order to trace to its primitive source the enjoyment derived from the exercise of thought, it is sufficient to cast a rapid glance on the earliest dawnings of the philosophy of nature, or of the ancient doctrine of the Cosmos. We find even amongst the most savage nations (as my own travels enable me to attest), a certain vague, terror-stricken sense of the all-powerful unity of natural forces, and of the existence of an invisible, spiritual essence manifested in these forces, whether in unfolding the flower and maturing the fruit of the nutrient tree, in upheaving the soil of the forest, or in rending the clouds with the might of the storm. We may here trace the revela- tion of a bond of union, linking together the visible world and that higher spiritual world which escapes the grasp of the senses. The two become unconsciously blended together, developing in the mind of man, as a simple product of ideal conception, and independently of the aid of observation, the first germ of a Philosophy of Nature. Amongst nations least advanced in civilisation, the imagi- nation revels in strange and fantastic creations; and by its predilection for symbols, alike influences ideas and language. Instead of examining, men are led to conjecture, dogmatize, and interpret supposed facts that have never been observed. The inner world of thought and of feeling does not reflect the image of the external world in its primitive purity. That which in some regions of the earth manifested itself as the rudiments of natural philosophy, only to a small number of persons endowed with superior intelligence, appears in other regions, and among entire races of men, to be the result of mystic tendencies and instinctive intuitions. An intimate communion with nature, and the vivid and deep emotions thus awakened, are likewise the source from which have * This verse occurs in a poem of Schiller, entitled Der Spaziergang. which first appeared, in 1795, in the Horen, s UNTRODUCTION. 17 aprung the first impulses towards the worship and deification of the destroying and preserving forces of the universe. But by degrees as man, after having passed through the different gradations of itellectual development, arrives at the free enjoyment of the regulating power of reflection, and learns by gradual progress, as it were, to separate the world of ideas from that of sensations, he no longer rests satisfied merely with a vague presentiment of the harmonious unity of natural forces; thought bégins to fulfil its noble mission ; and observation, aided by reason, endeavours to trace phenomena to the causes from which they spring. The history of science teaches us the difficulties that have opposed the progress of this active spirit of inquiry. Inaccu- rate and imperfect observations have led by false inductions to the great number of physical views that have been per- petuated as popular prejudices among all classes of society, Thus by the side of a solid and scientific knowledge of natural phenomena there has been preserved a system of the pre- tended results cf observation, which is so much the more difficult to shake, as it denies the validity of the facts by which it may be refuted. This empiricism, the melancholy heritage transmitted to us from former times, invariably coutends for the truth of its axioms with the arrogance of a narrow- minded spirit. Physical philosophy, on the other hand, when based upon science, doubts because it seeks to investigate, distinguishes between that which is certain and that which is merely probable, and strives incessantly to perfect theory by extending the circle of observation. This assemblage of imperfect dogmas bequeathed by one age to another—this physical philosophy, which is composed of popular prejudices,—is not only injurious because it per- petuates error with the obstinacy engendered by the evidence of ill observed facts, but also because it hinders the mind from attaining to higher views of nature. Instead of seeking to discover the mean or medium point, around which oscillate, in apparent independence of forces, all the phenomena of the external world, this system delights in multiplying exceptions }. to the law, and seeks, amid phenomena and in organic forms, | for something beyond the marvel of a regular succession, and | an internal and progressive development. Ever inclined to | believe that the order of nature is disturbed, it refuses to “ | 13 COSMOR. recognise in the present any analegy with the past, and guided by its own varying hypotheses, seeks at hazard, either in the interior of the globe or in the regions of space, for the cause of these pretended perturbations. It is the special object of the present work to combat those errors which derive their source from a vicious empiricism and from imperfect inductions. The higher enjoyments yielded by the study of nature depend upon the correetness and the depth of our views, and upon the extent of the sub- jects that may be comprehended in a single glance. Increased mental cultivation has given rise, in all classes of society, to an increased desire of embellishing life by augmenting the mass of ideas, and by multiplying means for their generalization ; and this sentiment fully refutes the vague accusations ad- vanced against the age in which we live, showing that other interests, besides the material wants of life, occupy the minds of men. It is almost with reluctance that I am about to speak of a sentiment, which appears to arise from narrow-minded views, or from a certain weak and morbid sentimentality,—I allude to the fear entertained by some persons, that nature may by degrees lose a portion of the charm and magic of her power, as we learn more and more how to unveil her secrets, com- prehend the mechanism of the movements of the heavenly bodies, and estimate numerically the intensity of natural forces. It is true that, properly speaking, the forces of nature can only exercise a magical power over us, as long as their action is shrouded in mystery and darkness, and does not admit of being classed among the conditions with which experience has. made us acquainted. The effect of such a power is, therefore, to excite the imagination, but that, assur- edly, is not the faculty of mind we would evoke to preside aver the laborious and elaborate observations by which we strive to attain to a knowledge of the greatness and excellence of the laws of the universe. The astronomer who, by the aid of the heliometer or a double-refracting prism,* determines the diameter of pla- * Arago’s ocular micrometer, a happy improvement upon Rochon’s prismatic or double-refraction micrometer. See M. Mathieu’s note in Delambre’s Histoire de ? Astronomie au dix-huitiéme Siécle, 1827. » INTRODUCTION. 19 netary bodies, who measures patiently, year after year, tho meridian altitude and the relative distances of stars, or who seeks a telescopic comet in a group of nebulae, does not feel his imagination more excited—and this is the very guarantee of the precision of his labours—than the botanist who counts the divisions of the calyx, or the number of stamens in a flower, or examines the connected or the separate teeth of the peristoma surrounding the capsule of a moss. Yet the multi- plied angular measurements, on the one hand, and the detail of organic relations on the other, alike aid in preparing the way for the attainment of higher views of the laws of the universe. | We must not/confound the disposition of mind in the observer at the time he is pursuing his labours, with the ulte- rior greatness of the views resulting from investigation and the exercise of thought. The physical philosopher measures with admirable sagacity the waves of light of unequal length . which by interference mutually strengthen or destroy each other, even with respect to their chemical actions: the astronomer, armed with powerful telescopes, penetrates the regions of space, contemplates, on the extremest confines o1 our solar system, the satellites of Uranus, or decomposes faintly sparkling points into double stars differing in colour. The botanist discovers the constancy of the gyratory motion of the chara in the greater number of vegetable cells, and recog- nises in the genera and natural families of plants the intimate relations of organic forms. ‘The vault of heaven, studded with nebule and stars, and the rich vegetable mantle that covers the soil.in the climate of palms, cannot surely fail to produce on the minds of these laborious observers of nature, an impression more imposing and more worthy of the majesty ' of creation, than on those who are unaccustomed to investi- gate the great mutual relations of phenomena. I cannot, therefore, agree with Burke when he says, “it is our igno- rance of natural things that causes all our admiration, and chiefly excites our passions.” Whilst the illusion of the senses would make the stars sta- tionary in the vault of heaven, astronomy by her aspiring labours has assigned indefinite bounds to space; and if she have set limits to the great nebula to which our solar system belongs, it has only been to show us in those remote regions c2 20 COSMOS. of space, which appear to expand in proportion to the increase of our optic powers, islet on islet of scattered nebulae. ‘The feeling of the sublime, so far as it arises from a contemplation of the distance of the stars, of their greatness and physical extent, reflects itself in the feeling of the infinite, which belongs to another sphere of ideas included in the domain of mind. ‘The solemn and imposing impressions excited by this sentiment, are owing to the combination of which we have spoken, and to the analogous character of the enjoyment and emotions awakened in us, whether we float on the surface of the great deep, stand on some lonely mountain summit enveloped in the half-transparent vapoury veil of the atmo- sphere, or by the aid of powerful optical instruments scan the regions of space, and see the remote nebulous mass resolve itself inte worlds of stars. The mere accumulation of unconnected observations of details, devoid of generalization of ideas, may doubtlessly have tended to create and foster the deeply-rooted prejudice, that the study of the exact sciences must necessarily chill the feelings, and diminish the nobler enjoyments, attendant upon a contemplation of nature. Those who still cherish such erroneous views in the present age, and amid the progress of public opinion, and the advancement of all branches of know- ledge, fail in duly appreciating the value of every enlarge- ment of the sphere of intellect, and the importance of the detail of isolated facts in leading us on to general results. The fear of sacrificing the free enjoyment of natuge, under the influence of scientific reasoning, is often assdécidted with an apprehension, that every mind may not be capable of grasping the truths of the philosophy of nature. It is certainly true that in the midst of the universal fluctuation of phenomena pnd vital forces—in that inextricable network of organisms by turns developed and destroyed—each step that we make in the more intimate knowledge of nature, leads us to the entrance of new labyrinths ; but the excitement produced by a presentiment of discovery, the vague intuition of the mys- veries to be unfolded, and the multiplicity of the paths before us, all tend to stimulate the exercise of thought in every stage of knowledge.. The discovery of each separate law of nature leads to the establishment of some other more general law, or at least imaicates to the intelligent observer its exist« s INTRODUCTION. 2. ence. Nature, as a celebrated physiologist* has defined it, and as the word was interpreted by the Greeks and Romans, is “that which is ever growing and ever unfolding itself in new forms.” The series of organic types becomes extended or perfected, in proportion as hitherto unknown regions are laid open to our view by the labours and researches of travellers and observers; as living organisms are compared with those which have disappeared in the great revolutions of our planet; and as microscopes are made more perfect and are more extensively and efficiently employed. In the midst of this immense variety, and this periodic transformation of animal and vegetable productions, we see incessantly revealed the primordial mystery of all organie development, that same great problem of metamorphosis which Géthe has treated with more than common sagacity, and to the solution of which man is urged by his desire of reducing vital forms to the smaJlest number of fundamental types. As men contem- plate the riches of nature, and see the mass of observations incessantly increasing befor: them, they become impressed with the intimate convictio. that the surface and the interior of the earth, the depthsec he ocean, and the regions of air will still, when thousands a..d thousands of years have passed away, open to the scientific observer untrodden paths of dis- covery. The regret of Alexander cannot be applied to the progress of observation and intelligence.t| General consi- derations, whether they treat of the agglomeration of matter in the heavenly bodies, or of the geographical distribution of terrestrial organisms, are not only in themselves more attrac- tive than special studies, but they also afford superior advan- tages to those who are unable to devote much time to occupa- tions of this nature. The different branches of the study of natural history are only accessible in certain positions of social life, and do not at every season and in every climate present like enjoyments. Thus, in the dreary regions of the north, man is deprived for a long period of the year of the spectacle presented by the activity of the productive forces of organic nature; and if the mind be directed to one sole class * Carus, Von den Urtheilen des Knochen und Schalen Geristes, 1828, § 6. t Plut., in Vita Alex, Magni, cap. 7. 22 COSMOS. of objects, the most animated narratives of voyages in distant lands will fail to interest and attract us, if they do not touch upon the subjects to which we are most partial. As the history of nations—if it were always able to trace events to their true causes— might solve the ever-recurring enigma of the oscillations experienced by the alternately pro- gressive and retrograde movement of human society, so might also the physical description of the world, the science of the Cosmos, if it were grasped by a powerful intellect, and based upon a knowledge of all the results of discovery up to a given period, succeed in dispelling a portion of the contradic- tions, which, at first sight, appear to arise from the complica- tion of phenomena and the multitude of the perturbations simultaneously manifested. The knowledge of the laws of nature, whether we can trace them in the alternate ebb and flow of the ocean, in the measured path of comets, or in the mutual attractions of raultiple stars, alike increases our sense of the calm of nature, whilst the chimera so long cherished by the human mind in its early and intuitive contemplations, the belief in a ‘“ discord of the elements,”’ seems gradually to vanish in proportion as science extends her empire. General views lead us habitually to consider each organism as a part of the entire creation, and to recognise in the plant or the animal, not merely an isolated species, but a form linked in the chain of being to other forms either living or extinct. They aid us in comprehending the relations that exist between the most recent discoveries and those which have prepared the way for them. Although fixed to one point of space, we eagerly grasp at a knowledge of that which has been observed in different and far distant regions, We delight in tracking the course of the bold mariner through seas of polar ice, or in following him to the summit of that volcano of the antarctic pole, whose fires may be seen from afar, even at mid-day. Itis by an acquaintance with the results of distant voyages, that we may learn to comprehend some of the marvels of terrestrial magnetism, and be thus ted to appre- ciate the importance of the establishments of the numerous observatories, which in the present day, cover both hemispheres, and are designed to note the simultaneous occurrence of perturbations, and the frequency and duration of magnetic storms. Fs \w » INTRODUCTION. 23 {Let me be permitted here to touch upon a few puints connected with discoveries, whose importance can only be estimated by those who have devoted themselves to the study of the physical sciences generally. Examples chosen from among the phenomena to which special attention has been directed in recent times, will throw additional light upon the preceding considerations. Without a preliminary knowledge of the orbits of comets we should be unable duly to appre- ciate the importance attached to the discovery of one of these bodies, whose elliptical orbit is included in the narrow limits of our solar system, and which has revealed the existence of an ethereal fluid, tending to diminish its centrifugal force and the period of its revolution. The superficial half-knowledge, so characteristic of the present day, which leads to the introduction of vaguely com- prehended scientifie views into general conversation, also gives rise, under various forms, to the expression of alarm at the supposed danger of a collision between the celestial bodies, or of disturbance in the elimatic relations of our globe. These phantoms of the imagination are so much the more injurious as they derive their source from dogmatic pretensions to true scierce. The history of the atmosphere, and of the annual variations of its temperature, extends already sufficiently far back to show the recurrence of slight disturbances in the mean temperature of any given place, and thus affords sufficient gua- rantee against the exaggerated apprehension of a general and progressive deterioration of the climates of Europe. Encke’s comet, which is one of the three inferior comets, completes its course in 1,200 days, but from the form and position of its orbit it is as little dangerous to the earth as Haliey’s great comet, whose revolution is not completed in less than seventy-six years, (and which appeared less brilliant in 1835 than it had done in 1759;) the interior comet of Biela intersects the earth’s orbit, it is true, but it can only approach our globe when its proximity to the sun coincides with our winter solstice. The quantity of heat received by a planet, and whose unequal distribution determines the meteorological variations of its atmosphere, depends alike upon the light-engendering toree of the sun, that is to say, upon the condition of its gaseous coverings, and upon the relative position of the pianet and the central body. 24 COSMOS There are variations, it is true, which in obedience to the ‘aws of universal gravitation, affect the form of the earth’ orbit, and the inclination of the ecliptic, that is, the angle which the axis of the earth makes with the plane of its orbit; but these periodical variations are so slow, and are restricted within such narrow limits, that their thermic effects would hardly be appreciable by our instruments in many thousands of years. ‘The astronomical causes of a refrigeration of our globe, and of the diminution of moisture at its surface, and the nature and frequency of certain epidemics—phenomena which are often discussed in the present day according to the benighted views of the middle ages—ought to be considered as beyond the range of our experience in physics and chemistry. Physical astronomy presents us with other phenomena, which cannot be fully comprehended in all their vastness without a previous acquirement of general views regarding the forces that govern the universe. Such, for instance, are the innumerable double stars, or rather suns, which revolve round one common centre of gravity, and thus reveal in distant worlds the existence of the Newtonian law; the larger or smaller number of spots upon the sun, that is to say, the openings formed through the luminous and opaque atmosphere surrounding the solid nucleus; and the regular appearance, about the 13th of November, and the 11th of.- August, of shooting stars, which probably form part of a belt of asteroids, intersecting the earth's orbit, and moving with planetary velocity. | Descending from the celestial regions to the earth, we would fain inquire into the relations that exist between the oscillations of the pendulum in air (the theory of which has been perfected by Bessel), and the density of our planet ; and how the pendulum, acting the part of a plummet, can, to a certain extent, throw light upon the geological constitution of strata at great depths? By means of this instrument we are enabled to trace the striking analogy which exists between the formation of the granular rocks composing the lava cur- rents ejected from active volcanoes, snd those endogenous masses of granite, porphyry, and serpentine, which, issuing from the interior of the earth have broken, as eruptive rocks, through the secondacy strata, and modified them by contact, eithz: in rendering ther harder by the introduction of silex, » INTRODUCTION 25 or reducing them into dolomite ; or finally by inducing within them the formation of crystals of the most varied composition. The elevation of sporadic islands, of domes of trachyte, and cones of basalt, by the elastic forces emanating from the fluid interior of our globe, has led one of the first geologists of the age, Leopold von Buch, to the theory of the elevation o: continents, and of mountain chains generally. This action of subterranean forces in breaking through, and elevating strata of sedimentary rocks, of which the coast of Chili, in conse- quence of a great earthquake, furnished a recent example, leads to the assumption, that the pelagic shells found by M. Bonpland and myself on the ridge of the Andes, at an elevation of more than 15,000 English feet, may have been conveyed to so extraordinary a position, not by a rising of the ocean, but by the agency of volcanic forces capable of ele- vating into ridges the softened crust of the earth. I apply the term volcanic, in the widest sense of the word, to every action exercised by the interior of a planet on its external crust. The surface of our globe, and that of the moon, manifest traces of this action, which in the former, at least, has varied during the course of ages. Those, who are ignorant of the fact, that the internal heat of the earth increases so ra- pidly with the increase of depth, that granite is in a state of fusion about twenty or thirty geographical miles below the surface,* cannot have a clear conception of the causes, and the simultaneous occurrence of volcanic eruptions at places widely removed from one another, or of the extent and inter- section of circles of commotion in earthquakes, or of the uniformity of temperature, and equality of chemical com- position observed in thermal springs during a long course of years. The quantity of heat peculiar to a planet is, however, a matter of such importance,—being the result of its primitive condensation, and yarying according to the nature and duration of the radiation,—that the study of this subject may _* The determinations usually given of the point of fusion are in general much too high for refracting substances. According to the very - accurate researches of Mitscherlich, the melting point of granite can hardly exceed 2372° F. [Dr. Mantell states in The Wonders of Geology, 1848, vol. i. page 34. that this increase of temperature amounts to 1° of Fahrenheit for every 54 feet of vertical depth.]—7h. 26 COSMOS. throw some degree of light on the history of the atmosphere, and the distribution of the organic bodies imbedded in the solid crust of the earth. This study enables us to understand how a tropical temperature, independent of latitude (that is, of the distance from the poles), may have been produced by deep fissures remaining open, and exhaling heat from the interior of the globe, at a period when the earth's crust was still furrowed and rent, and only in a state of semi-solidifi- cation; and a primordial condition is thus revealed to us, in which the temperature of the atmosphere, and climates generally were owing rather to a liberation of caloric and of different gaseous emanations, (that is to say, rather to the energetic re-action of the interior on the exterior,) than to the position of the earth with respect to the central body, the sun. The cold regions of the earth contain, deposited in sedi- mentary strata, the products of tropical climates; thus, in the coal formations, we find the trunks of palms standing upright amid conifers, tree ferns, goniatites and fishes having rhomboidal osseous scales;* in the Jura lime- stone colossal skeletons of crocodiles, plesiosauri, planulites, and stems of the cycadee; in the chalk formations, small polythalamia and bryozoa, whose species still exist in our seas; in tripoli, or polishing slate, in the semi-opal and the farina-like opal or mountain meal, agglomerations of siliceous infusoria which have been brought to light by the powerful microscope of Ehrenberg{; and lastly, in transported soils, * See the classical work on the fishes of the old world by Agassiz Rech. sur les Poissons Fossiles, 1834, vol.i. p. 38; vol. ii. pp. 3, 28, 34, App. p. 6. The whole genus of Amblypterus, Ag. nearly allied to Pa- leoniscus (called also Paleothrissum) lies buried beneath the Jura forma- tions in the old carboniferous strata. Scales which, in some fishes, as in the family of Lepidoides (order of Ganoides), are formed like teeth, and covered in certain parts with enamel, belong, after the Placoides, to the oldest forms of fossil fishes ; their living representatives are still found intwo genera, the Bichir of the Nile and Senegal, and the Lepidosteus of Ohio. + [The polishing slate of Bilin is stated by M. Ehrenberg to form a series of strata fourteen feet in thickness, entirely made up of the siliceous shells of Gatllonella, of such extreme minuteness, that a cubic inch of the stone contains forty-one thousand millions! The Bergmehl (moun- tain-meal or fossil farina), of San Fiora, in Tuscany, is one mass of animalculites. See the interesting work of G. A. Mantell, On the Meda ef Creation, vol. i. p. 223.) —~T¥. | INTRODUCTION. 24 and in certain caves, the bones of elephaxts, hyenas, and lions. An intimate acquaintance with the physical pheno- mena of the universe leads us to regard the products of warm latitudes that are thus found in a fossil condition in northern regions, not merely as incentives to barren curiosity, but as subjects awakening deep eflection, and opening new sources of study. The number and the variety of the objects I have alluded to, give rise to the question whether general considerations of physical phenomena can be made sufficiently clear to per- sons, who have not acquired a detailed and special know: ledge of descriptive natural history, geology, or mathematical astronomy? I think we ought to distinguish here between him, whose task it is to collect the individual details of various observations, and study the mutual relations existing amongst them, and him to whom these relations are to be revealed, under the form of general results. The former should be acquainted with the specialities of phenomena, that he may arrive at a generalization of ideas as the result, at least in part, of his own observations, experiments, and calculations. It cannot be denied, that where there is an absence of positive knowledge of physical phenomena, the gereral results which impart so great a charm to the study of nature.cannot ali be made equally clear and intelligible to the reader, but still I venture to hope, that in the work which I am now preparing on the physical laws of the universe, the greater part of the facts advanced can be made manifest without th2 necessity of appealing to fundamental views and principle:. The picture of nature thus drawn, notwithstanding the want of distinctness of some of its out- lines, will not be the less able to enrich the intellect, enlarge the sphere of ideas, and nourish and vivify the imagination. There is, perhaps, some truth in the accusation advanced against many Germaa scientific works, that they lessen the value of general views by an accumulation of detail; and do not sufficiently distinguishing between those great results _ which form, as it were, the beacon lights of scieuce, and the long series of means by which they have been attained. This method of treating scientific subjects led the most illustrious of our poets* to exclaim with impatience—‘'The Germans * Gothe, in Die Aphorismen oer Naturwissenschaft, bd. 1., 8. 155. (Werke kleine Ausyabe, von 1833.) 28 CusMOS. nave the art of making science inaccessible.” An edifice cannot produce a striking effect until the scaffolding is re- movea, that had of necessity been used during its erection. Thus the uniformity of figure observed in the distribution of continental masses, which all terminate towards the south in a pyramidal form, and expand towards the north (a law that determines the nature of climates, the direction of currents in the ocean and the atmosphere, and the transition of certain types of tropical vegetation towards the southern temperate zone), may be clearly apprehended without any knowledge of the geodesical and astronomical operations by means of which these pyramidal forms of continents have been determined. In like manner, physical geography teaches us by how many leagues the equatorial axis exceeds the polar axis of the globe ; and shows us the mean equality of the flattening of the two hemispheres, without entailing on us the necessity of giving the detail of the measurement of the degrees in the meridian, or the observations on the pendulum, which have led us to know that the true figure of our globe is not exactly that of a regular ellipsoid of revolution, and that this irregularity is reflected in the corresponding irregularity of the movements of the moon. ; The views of comparative geography have oeen specially enlarged by that admirable work, Hrdkunde im Verhaliniss zur Natur und zur Geschichte, in which Carl Ritter so ably delineates the physiognomy of our globe, and shows the ‘influence of its external configuration on the physical phe- nomena on its surface, on the migrations, laws, and manners, of nations, and on all the principal historical events enacted upon the face of the earth. France possesses an immortal work, Z’ Exposition du Systéme du Monde, in which the author has combined the results of the highest astronomical and mathematical labours, and presented them to his readers free from all processes of demonstration. The structure of the heavens is here reduced to the simple solution of a great problem in mechanics; yet Laplace’s work has never yet been accused of incompleteness and want of profundity. The distinction between dissimilar subjects, and the sepa- ration of the general from the special are not only conducive to the attainment of perspicuity in the composition of a g hysical history of the universe, but are also the means by » INTRODUCTION. 29 which, a character of greater elevation may be imparted to the study of nature. By the suppression of all unnecessary detail, the great masses are better seen, and the reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp all that might otherwise escape the limited range of the senses. The exposition of general results has, it must be owned, been singularly facilitated by the happy revolution experienced since the close of the last century, in the condition of all the special sciences, more particularly of geology, chemistry, and descriptive natural history. In proportion as laws admit of more general application, and as sciences mutually enrich each other, and by their extension become convected together in more numerous and more intimate relations, the develop- ment of general truths may be given with conciseness devoid of superficiality. On being first examined, all phenomena appear to be isolated, and it is only by the result of a multi- plicity of observations, combined by reason, that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing between them. If, how- ever, in the present age, which is so strongly characterised by a brilliant course of scientific discoveries, we perceive a want of connection in the phenomena of certain sciences, we may anticipate the revelation of new facts, whose importance will probably be commensurate with the attention directed to these branches of study. Expectations of this nature may be entertained with regard to meteorology, several parts of optics, and to radiating heat, and electro-magnetism, since the admirable discoveries of Melloni and Faraday. A fertile field is here opened to discovery, although the voltaic pile has already taught us the intimate connection existing between electric, magnetic, and chemical phenomena. Who will venture to affirm that we have any precise knowledge, in the present day, of that part of the atmosphere which is not oxygen, or that thousands of gaseous substances affecting our organs may not be mixed with the nitrogen, or finally, that we have even discovered the whole number of the forces which pervade the universe ? It is not the purpose of this essay on the physical history of - the world to reduce all sensible phenomena to a small number of abstract principles, based on reason only. The physical astory of the universe, whose exposition I attempt to deve- iope, does not j:r2send to rise to the perilous abstractions of a 80 COSMOS. purely rational science of nature, and is simply a physicat geography, combined with a description of the regions of space and the bodes occupying them. Devoid of the profoundness of a purely speculative philosophy, my essay on the Cosmos treats of the contemplation of the universe, and is based upon a rational empiricism, that is to say, upon the results of the facts registered by science, and tested by the operations of the intellect. It is within these limits alone that the work, which I now venture to undertake, appertains to the sphere of labour, to which I have devoted myself throughout the course of my long scientific career. ‘This path of enquiry is not unknown to me, although it may be pursued by others with greater success. The unity which I seek to attain in the development of the great phenomena of the universe, is analogous to that which historical composition is capable of acquiring. All points relating to the accidental indi- vidualities, and the essential variations of the actual, whether in the form and arrangement of natural objects in the struggle of man against the elements, or of nations against nations, do not admit of being based only on a rational foundation —that is to say, of being deduced from ideas alone. It seems to me that a like degree of empiricism attaches to the Description of the Universe and to Civil History ; but in reflecting upon physical phenomena and events, and tracing their causes by the process of reason, we become more and more convinced of the truth of the ancient doctrine, that the forces inherent in matter, and those which govern the moral world, exercise their action under the control of primordial necessity, and in accordance with movements occurring periodi- cally after longer or shorter intervals. It is this necessity, this occult but permanent connection, this periodical recurrence in the progressive dovelopment of forms, phenomena, and events, which constitute nature, obedi- ent to the first impulse imparted to it. Physics, as the term signifies, is limited to the explanation of the phenomena of the material world by the properties of matter. The ultimate object of the experimental sciences is, therefore, to discover laws, and to trace their progressive generalization. All that exceeds this goes beyond the province of the physical descrip- tion of the universe, and appertains to a range of higher speculative views. » INTRODU STION. 31 Emanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers who have escaped the imputation of impiety, has defined with rare sagacity ‘he limits of physical explanations, in his celebrated essay On the Theory and Structure of the Heavens, published at Kénigsberg, in 1755. ; The study of a science that promises to lead us through the vast range of creation may be compared to a journey im a far distant land. Before we set forth we consider, and often with distrust, our own strength and that of the guide we have chosen. But the apprehensions which have originated in the abundance and the difficulties attached to the subjects we would embrace, recede from view as we remember that with the increase of observations in the present day, there has also arisen a more intimate knowledge of the connection existing among all phenomena. It has not unfrequently happened, that the researches made at remote distances have often and unexpectedly thrown light upon subjects which had long resisted the attempts made to explain them, within the narrow limits of our own sphere of observation. Organic forms that ~j had long remained isolated, both in the animal and vegetable~- | kingdom, have been connected by the discovery of inter-— mediate links or stages of transition. The geography of beings endowed with life attains completeness, as we see the species, genera, and entire families belonging to one hemi sphere, 1 eflected, as it were, in analogous animal and vegetabl forms in the opposite hemisphere. ‘These are, so to speak, the equivalents which mutually personate and replace one another in the great series of organisms. ‘These connecting links and stages of transition may be traced, alternately, in a deficiency or an excess of development of certain parts, in the mode of junc- tion of distinct organs, in the differences in the balance of forces, or in a resemblance to intermediate forms which are not per- manent, but merely characteristic of certain phases of normal development. Passing from the consideration of beings en- dowed with life to that of inorganic bodies, we find many striking illustrations of the high state of advancement to which modern geology has attained. We thus see, according to _the grand views of Elie de Beaumont, how chains of moun- ‘ tains dividing different climates and floras and different races. of men, reveal to us their relative age, both by the character of the sedimentary strata they have uplifted, and by the direa< 32 COSMOR. tious which they follow over the long fissures with which the earth's crust is furrowed. Relations of super-position of trachyte and of syenitic porphyry, of diorite and of serpen- tine, which remain doubtful when considered in the auriferous soil cf Hungary, in the rich platinum districts of the Oural, and on the south-western declivity of the Siberian Altai, are elucidated by the observations that have been made on the plateaux of Mexico and Antioquia, and in the unhealthy ravines of Choco. The most important facts on which the physical history of the world has been based in modern times, have not been accumulated by chance. It has at length been fully acknowledged, and the conviction is characteristic of the age, that the narratives of distant travels, too long occupied in the mere recital of hazardous adventures, can only be made a source of instruction, where the traveller is acquainted with the condition of the science he would enlarge, and is guided by reason in his researches It is by this tendency to generalization, which is only dangerous in its abuse, that a great portion of the physical knowledge already acquired may be made the common pro- perty of all classes of society ; but in order to render the instruction imparted by these means commensurate with the importance of the subject, it is desirable to deviate as widely as possible from the imperfect compilations designated, till the close of the eighteenth century, by the inappropriate term of popular knowledge. I take pleasure in persuading myself that scientific subjects may be treated of in language at once dignified, grave and animated, and that those who are re- stricted within the circumscribed limits of ordinary life, and have long rermained strangers to an intimate communion with nature, may thus have opened to them one of the richest sources of enjoyment by which the mind is invigorated by the acquisition of new ideas. Communion with nature awakens within us perceptive faculties that had long lain dormant ; and we thus comprehend at a single glance the influence exercised by physical discoveries on the enlargement of the sphere of intellect, and perceive how a judicious application of mechanics, chemistry, and other sciences may be made conducive to national prosperity. A more accurate knowledge of the connection of physica: phenomena will also tend to remove the prevalent error that ~~ INTRODMCTION. 33 all branches of natural science are not equally important in relation to general cultivation and industrial progress. An arbitrary distinction is frequently made between the various degrees of importance appertaining to mathematical sciences, to the study of organised beings, the knowledge of electro- magnetism, and investigations of the general properties of matter in its different conditions of molecular aggregation ; and it is not uncommon presumptuously to affix a supposed stigma upon researches of this nature, by terming them ‘purely theoretical,” forgetting, although the fact has been long attested, that in the observation of a phenomenon, which at first sight appears to be wholly isolated, may be concealed the germ of a great discovery. When Aloysio Galvani first stimulated the nervous fibre by the accidental contact of two heterogeneous metals, his contemporaries could never have anticipated, that the action of the voltaic pile would discover to us, in the alkalies, metals of a silvery lustre, so light as to swim on water, and eminently inflammable ; or that it would become a powerful instrument of chemical analysis, and at the same time a thermoscope, and a magnet. When Huyghens first observed, in 1678, the phenomenon of the polarization of light, exhibited in the difference between the two rays into which a pencil of light divides itself in passing through a doubly refracting crystal, it could not have been foreseen, that a century and a half later the great philosopher, Arago, would by his discovery of chromatic polarization, be led to discern, by means of a small fragment of Iceland spar, whether solar light emanates trom a solid body, or a gaseous covering ; or whether comets iwwansmit light directly, or merely by re- flection.* An equal appreciat:or of all branches of the mathematical, physical and natural sciences, is a special requirement of the present age, in which the material wealth and the growing prosperity of nations are principaily based upon a more en- lightened employment of the products and forces of nature. The most superficial giance at the present condition of Europe shows that a diminution, or even a total annihilation of ‘national prosperity, must be the award of those states who * Arago’s Discoveries in the year 1811.— Delambre’s Histoire de /’ Ast., p. 652. (Passage already quoted.) D 34 CUSMOS. shrink with slothful indifference from the great struggle of rival nations in the career of the industrial arts. It is with nations as with nature, which, according to a happy ex- pression of Géthe,* ‘knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all inaction.” Tbe propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of science can therefore alone avert the dangers of which I have spoken. Man cannot act upon nature, or appropriate her forces to his own use, without comprehending their fnll extent, and having an intimate acquaintance with the laws of the physical world. Bacon has said that, in human societies, knowledge is power. Both must rise and sink together. But the knowledge that results from the free action of thought, is at once the delight and the indestructible prerogative of man; and in forming part of the wealth of mankind, it not unfrequently serves as a substitute for the natural riches, which are but sparingly scattered over the earth. Those states which take no active part in the general industrial movement, in the choice and preparation of natural substances, or in the application of mechanics and chemistry, and among whom this activity is not appreciated by all classes of society, will infallibly see their prosperity diminish in proportion as neighbouring coun- tries become strengthened and invigorated under the genial influence of arts and sciences. As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philo- sophy, poetry, and the fine arts, the object at which we aim ought to be an inward one—an ennoblement of the intellect— so ought we likewise, in our pursuit of science, to strive after a knowledge of the laws and the principles of unity that pervade the vital forces of the universe; and it is by such a course that physical studies may be made subservient to the progress of industry, which is a conquest of mind over matter. By a happy connection of causes and effects, we often see the useful linked to the beautiful and the exalted. The improve- ment of agriculture in the hands of free men, and on pro- perties of a moderate extent—-the flourishing state of the mechanical arts freed from the trammels of municipal restrie- tions—the increased impetus imparted to commerce by the * Gothe, in Die Aphorismen itber Naturwissenschaft.—Werke, bd. k ». 4. ; » INTRODUCTION. 35 multiplied means of contact of nations with each other—are all brilliant results of the intellectual progress of mankind, and of the amelioration of political institutions, in which this progress is reflected. The picture presented by modern history ought to convince those who are tardy in awakening to the truth of the lesson it teaches. Nor let it be feared, that the marked predilection for the study of nature, and for industrial progress, which is so charac- teristic of the present age, should necessarily have a tendency to retard the noble exertions of the intellect in the domains of philosophy, classical history, and antiquity; or to deprive the arts by which life is embellished of the vivifying breath of imagination. Where all the germs of civilisation are developed beneath the egis of free institutions and wise legislation, there is no cause for apprehending that any one branch of knowledge should be eultivated to the prejudice of others. All afford the state precious fruits, whether. they yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical wealth, or whether, more permanent in their nature, they transmit in the works of mind the glory of nations to remotest posterity. The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric austerity, prayed the gods to grant them “ the beautiful with the good.” * I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influ- ence exercised by the mathematical and physical sciences on all that appertains to the material wants of social life ; for the vast extent of the course on which I am entering forbids me to insist further upon the utility of these applications. Accus- tomed to distant excursions, I may, perhaps, have erred in describing the path before us as more smooth and pleasant than it really is, for such is wont to be the practice of those who delight in guiding others to the summits of lofty moun- tains: they praise the view even when great part of the distant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this half- transparent vapoury veil imparts to the scene a certain charm from the power exercised by the imagination over the domain of the senses. In like manner, from the height occupied by the physical history of the world, all parts of the horizon will not appear equally clear and well-defined. This indistinct- * Pseudo-Plato.—Alcib. xi. p. 184, ed. Steph., Plut., Insti‘uta Laconica, p. 253, ed, Hutten. D3 — 36 COSMOS. ness will not, however, be wholly owing to the present imper- fect state of some of the sciences, but in part, likewise, to the unskilfulness of the guide who has imprudently ventured to ascend these lofty summits. The object of this introductory notice is not, however, solely to draw attention to the importance and greatness of the physical history of the universe, for in the present day | these are too well understood to be contested, but likewise to prove how, without detriment to the stability of special studies, we may be enabled to generalize our ideas by concentrating them in one common focus, and thus arrive at a point of view from which all the organisms and forces of nature may be seen as one living active whole, animated by one sole impulse. ‘Nature,’ as Schelling remarks in his poetic discourse on art, ‘‘ is not an inert mass ; and to him, who can comprehend er vast sublimity, she reveals herself as the creative force of the universe——before all time, eternal, ever active, she calls to life al! things, whether perishable or imperishable.” By uniting, under one point of view, both the phenomena of - our own globe and those presented in the regions of space, we embrace the limits of the science of the Cosmos, and convert the physical history of the globe into the physical history of the universe ; the one term being modelled upon that of the other. This science of the Cosmos is not, however, to be regarded as a mere encyclopedic aggregation of the most important and general results that have been collected together from special branches of knowledge. These results are nothing more than the materials for a vast edifice, and their combination cannot constitute the physical history of the world, whose exalted part it is to show the simultaneous action and the connecting links of the forces which pervade the universe. The distri- bution of organic types in different climates and at different elevations—that is to say, the geography of plants and animals —differs as widely from botany and descriptive zoology as geology does from mineralogy, properly so called. The _ physical history of the universe must not, therefore, be con- founded with the Encyclopedias of the Natural Sciences, as they have hitherto been compiled, and whose title is as vague as their limits are ill-defined. In the work before us, partial facts will be considered only in relation to the whole. The higher the point of view the greater is the necessity for a syste- “ INTRODUCTION. 37 matic mode of treating the subject in language at once ani- mated and picturesque. But thought and language have ever been most intimately allied. If language, by its originality of structure, and its native richness, can, in its delineations, interpret thought with grace and clearness, and if, by its happy flexibility, it.can paint with vivid truthfulness the objects of the external world, it reacts at the same time upon thought, and animates it, as it were, with the breath of life. It is this mutual re-action which makes words more than mere signs and forms \of thought ; and the beneficent influence of a language is most strikingly manifested on its native soil, where it has sprung sponta- neously from the minds of the people, whose character it embodies. Proud of a country that seeks to concentrate her strength in intellectual unity, the writer recalls with delight the advantages he has enjoyed in being permitted to express his thoughts in his native language; and truly happy is he, who, in attempting to give a lucid exposition of the great pheno- mena of the universe, is able to draw from the depths of a language, which through the free exercise of thought, and by the effusions of creative fancy, has for centuries past exercised so powerful an influence over the destinies of man. LIMITS AND METHOD OF EXPOSITION OF THE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE. I HAVE endeavoured, in the preceding part of my work, to explain and illustrate by various examples, how the enjoy- ments presented by the aspect of nature, varying as they do in the sources from whence they flow, may be multiplied and ennobled by an acquaintance with the connection of pheno- mena and the laws by which they are regulated. It remains, then, for me to examine the spirit of the method in which the exposition of the physical description of the universe should be - conducted, and to indicate the limits of this science, in accord- ance with the views I have acquired in the course of my studies and travels in various parts of the earth. I trust i may fatter myself with a hope that a treatise of this natwre 48 COSMOB. will justify the title I have ventured to adopt for my work, aud exonerate me from the reproach of a presumption that would be doubly reprehensible in a scientific discussien. Before entering upon the delineation of the partial pheno- mena which are found to be distributed in various groups, I would consider a few general questions intimately connected together, and bearing upon the nature of our knowledge of the external world and its different relations, in all epochs of history and in all phases of intelectual advancement. Under this head will be comprised the following considerations :— 1. The precise limits of the physical deseription of the uni- verse, considered as a distinct science. 2. A brief enumeration of the totality of natural pheno- mena, presented under the form of a general delineation of nature. 3. The influence of the external world on the imagination and feelings, which has acted in modern times as a powerful impulse towards the study of natural science, by giving ani- mation to the description of distant regions and to the deline- ation of natural scenery, as far as it is characterised by vege- table physiognomy, and by the cultivation of exotic plants, and their arrangement in well-contrasted groups. 4. The history of the contemplation of nature, or the pro- gressive development of the idea of the Cosmos, considered with reference to the historical and geographical facts that have led to the discovery of the connection of phenomena. The higher the point of view from which natural phenomena may be considered, the more necessary it is to cireumscribe the science within its just limits, and to distinguish it from all other analogous or auxiliary studies. Physical cosmography is founded on the-contemplation of all created things,—all that exists in space, whether as sub- stances or forces,—that is, all the material beings that con- stitute the universe. The science which I would attempt to define, presents itself therefore to man as the inhabitant of the earth, under a twofold form—as the earth itself, and the regions of space. It is with a view of showing the actual character and the independence of the study of physical cosmography, and at the same time indicating the nature of its relations to general physics, descriptive natural history, geology, and com- parative geograph,, that I will pause for a few moments te . INTRODUCTION, 39 consider that portion of the science of the Cosmos which con- | eerns the earth. As the history of philosophy does not con- sist of a mere material enumeration of the philosophical views entertained in different ages, neither should the physical description of the universe be a simple encyclopedic compila- tion of the sciences we have enumerated. The difficulty of defining the limits of intimately-connected studies has been increased, because for centuries it has been customary to designate various branches of empirical knowledge by terms which admit either of too wide or too limited a definition of the ideas which they were intended to convey, and are, besides, objectionable from having had a different significa- tion in those classical languages of antiquity from which they have been borrowed. ‘The terms physiology, physics, natural history, geology, and geography, arose, and were commonly used, long before clear ideas were entertained of the diversity of objects embraced by these sciences, and consequently of their reciproeal limitation. Such is the influence of long habit upon language, that by one of the nations of Europe most advanced in civilisation the word “ physic” is applied to medicine, whilst in a society of justly deserved universal reputation, technical chemistry, geology, and astronomy, (purely experimental sciences,) are comprised under the head of “ Philosophical Transactions.” An attempt has often been made, and almost always in vain, to substitute new and more appropriate terms for these ancient designations, which, notwithstanding their undoubted vagueness, are now generally understood. These changes have been proposed, for the most part, by those who have occupied themselves with the general classification of the various branches of knowledge, from the first appearance of the great encyclopedia (Margarita Philosophica) of Gregory Reisch,* prior of the Chartreuse at Friburg, towards the close * The Margarita Philosophica of Gregory Reisch, Prior of the Char- treuse at Friburg, first appeared under the following title: Aipitome omnis Philosophie, alias Margarita Philosophica, tractans de omni generi scibili. The Heidelberg edition (1486), and that of Strasburg (1504), both bear this title, but the first part was suppressed in the Friburg edition of the game year, as well as in the twelve subsequent editions which succeeded one another, at short intervals, till 1535. This work exercised a grent influence on the diffusion of mathematical and physical sciences, towards 40 COSMUS. of the fifteenth century, to Lord Bacon, and from Bacon to D’Alembert; and in recent times to an eminent physicist, Andre Marie Ampére.* The selection of an inappropriate Greek nomenclature has, perhaps, been even more prejudicial to the last of these attempts than the injudicious use of binary divisions, and the excessive multiplication of groups. The physical description of the world, considering the uni- verse as an object of the external senses, does undoubtedly require the aid of general physics and of descriptive natural history, but the contemplation of all created things, which are linked together, and form one whole, animated by internal forces, gives to the science we are considering a peculiar cha- racter. Physical science considers only the general properties of bodies; it is the product of abstraction,—a generalization of perceptible phenomena; and even in the work in which were laid the first foundations of general physics, in the eight books on physics of Aristotle,t all the phenomena of nature are considered as depending upon the primitive and vital action of one sole force, from which emanate all the inovements of the universe. The terrestrial portion of phy- sical cosmography, for which I would willingly retain the expressive designation of physical geography, treats of the dis- tribution of magnetism in our planet with relation to its intensity and direction, but does not enter into a considera- the beginning of the sixteenth century, and Chasles, the learned author of L’ Apergu Historique des Méthodes en Géométrie (1837), has shown the great importance of Reisch’s Encyclopedia in the history of mathematics in the middle ages. I have had recourse to a passage in the Margarita Philosophica, found only in the edition of 1513, to elucidate the important question of the relations between the statements of the geographer of Saint-Die, Hylacomilus (Martin Waldseemiiller), the first who gave the name of America to the New Continent, and those of Amerigo Vespucci, René, King of Jerusalem and Duke of Lorraine, as also those contained in the celebrated editions of Ptolemy, of 1513 and 1522. See my Examen Critique de la Géographie du Nowveau Continent, et des Progrés de I’ As- tronomie Nautique aux 15e et 16e Siécles, t. iv., pp. 99—125. * Ampére, Essai sur la Phil. des Sciences, 1834, p. 25. Whewell, Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences, vol. ii., p. 277. Park, Pantology, . 87. j + AlJl changes in the physical world may be reduced to motion. Aris- tot., Phys. Ausc., iii., 1 and 4, pp. 200, 201. Bekker, viii., 1, 8, and 9, pp. 250, 262, 265. De Genere et Corr.,ii., 10, p. 336 Pseudoe Aristot., De Mundo, cap. vi.. p 398 > INTRODUCTION. 4] tion of the laws of attraction or repulsion of the poles, or the means of eliciting either permanent or transitory electro-mag- netic currents. Physical geography depicts in broad outlines the even or irregular configuration of continents, the relations of superficial area, and the distribution of continental masses in the two hemispheres, a distribution which exercises a power- ful influence on the diversity of climate and the meteorological modifications of the atmosphere ; this science defines the cha- racter of mountain-chains, which, having been elevated at dir- ferent epochs, constitute distinct systems, whether they run in parallel lines, or intersect one another; determines the mean height of continents above the level of the sea, the position of the centre of gravity of their volume, and the relation of the highest summits of mountain-chains to the mean elevation of their crests, or to their proximity with the sea-shore. It depicts the eruptive rocks as principles of movement, acting upon the sedimentary rocks by traversing, uplifting, and inclin- ing them at various angles; it considers volcanoes either as isolated or ranged in single or in double series, and extend- ing their sphere of action to various distances, either by rais- ing long and narrow lines of rocks, or by means of circles of commotion, which expand or diminish in diameter in the course of ages. This terrestrial portion of the science of the Cosmos describes the strife of the liquid element with the solid land; it indicates the features possessed in common by all great rivers in the upper and lower portion of their course, and in their mode of bifurcation when their basins are unclosed ; and shows us rivers breaking through the highest mountain- chains, or following for a long time a course parallel to them, either at their base, or at a considerable distance, where the elevation of the strata of the mountain system and the direc- tion of their inclination correspond to the configuration of the table-land. It is only the general results of compara- tive orography and hydrography that belong to the science whose true limits I am desirous of determining, and not the special enumeration of the greatest elevations of our globe, of active volcanoes, of rivers, and the number of their tributaries; ~ these details falling rather within the domain of geography properly so called. We would here only consider phenomena in their mutual connection, and in their relations to different zoues of our planet, and to its physical constitution generally. 42 COSMOS. The specialities both of inorganic and organised matte classed according to analogy of form and. composition, un doubtedly constitute a most interesting branch of study, but they appertain to a sphere of ideas having no affinity with the subject of this work. The description of different countries certainly furnishes us with the most important materials for the composition of a physical geography; but the combination of these different descriptions, ranged in series, would as little give us a true image of the general conformation of the irregular surface of our globe, as a succession of all the floras of different regions would constitute that which I designate as a Geography of Plants. It is by subjecting isolated observations to the process of thought, and by combining and comparing them, that we are enabled to discover the relations existing in common between the climatic distribution of beings and the individuality of organic forms (in the morphology or descrip- tive natural history of plants and animals); and it is by induction that we are led to comprehend numerical laws, the proportion of natural families to the whole number of species, and to designate the latitude or geographical position of the zones in whose plains each organic form attains the maximum of its development. Considerations of this nature, by their tendency to generalization, impress a nobler character on the physical description of the globe ; and enable us to understand how the aspect of the scenery, that is to say, the impression produced upon the mind by the physiognomy of the vegetation, depends upon the local distribution, the number, and the luxu- riance of growth of the vegetable forms predominating in the general mass. The catalogues of organised beings, to which ~ was formerly given the pompous title of Systems of Nature, present us with an admirably connected arrangement by ana- logies of structure, either in the perfected development of these beings, or in the different phases which, in accordance with the views of a spiral evolution, affect in vegetables the leaves, bracts, calyx, corolla, and fructifying organs; and in animals, with more or less symmetrical regularity, the cellular and fibrous tissues, and their perfect or but obscurely deve- loped articulations. But these pretended systems of nature, however ingenious their mode of classification may be, do not show us organic beings, as they are distributed im groups > INTRODUCTION, © 43 throughout our planet, according to their different relations of latitude and elevation above the level of the sea, and to climatic influences, which are owing to general and often very remote causes, The ultimate aim of physical geography is, however, as we haye already said, to recognise unity in the vast diversity of phenomena, and by the exercise of thought and the combination of observations, to discern the constancy of phenomena in the midst of apparent changes. In the exposition of the terrestrial portion of the Cosmos, it will occasionally be necessary to descend to very speciai facts; but this will only be in order to recall the connection existing between the actual distribution of organic beings over the globe, and the laws of the ideal classification by natural families, analogy of internal organization, and pro- gressive evolution. It follows from these discussions on the limits of the — various sciences, and more particularly from the distinction which must necessarily be made between descriptive botany (morphology of vegetables) and the geography of plants, that in the physical history of the globe, the innumerable multitude of organised bodies which embellish creation are considered rather according to zones of habitation or stations and to differently inflected zsothermal bands, than with reference to the principles of gradation in the: development of internal organism. Notwithstanding this, botany and zoology, which constitute the descriptive natural history of all organised beings, are the fruitful sources whence we draw the materials necessary to give a solid basis to the study of the mutual relations and connection of phenomena. _ Weill here subjoin one important observation, by way of elucidating the connection of which we have spoken. The first general glance over the vegetation of a vast extent of a continent shows us forms the most dissimilar—graminez and orchides, coniferee and oaks, in local approximation to one another; whilst natural families and genera, instead of being locally associated, are dispersed as if by chance. This dis- persion is, however, only apparent. The physical description of the globe teaches us that vegetation everywhere presents numerically constant relations in the development of its forms and types; that in the same climates, the species which are wanting in one country are replaced in a neighbouring one by a4 COSMOS. other species of the same family; and that this Jaw of sub. stitution, which seems to depend upon some inherent mys- teries of the organism, considered with reference to its origin, maintains in contiguous regions a numerical relation between the species of various great families and the general mass of the phanerogamic plants constituting the two floras. We thus find a principle of unity and a primitive plan of dis- tribution revealed in the multiplicity of the distinct organiza- tions by which these regions are occupied; and we also discover in each zone, and diversified according to the families of plants, a slow but continuous action on the aerial ocean, depending upon the influence of light—the primary condition of all organic vitality—on the solid and liquid surface of our planet. It might be said, in accordance with a beautiful expression of Lavoisier, that the ancient marvel of the myth of Prometheus was incessantly renewed before our eyes. If we extend the course which we have proposed, following in the exposition of the physical description of the earth to the sidereal part of the science of the Cosmos, the delineation of the regions of space and the bodies by which they are occupied, we shall find our task simplified in no common degree. If, according to ancient but unphilosophical forms of nomenclature, we would distinguish between physics, that is to say, general considerations on the essence of matter, and the forces by which it is actuated, and chemistry, which treats of the nature of substances, their elementary com- position, and those attractions that are not determined solely by the relations of mass, we must admit that the description of the earth comprises at once physical and chemical actions. In addition to gravitation, which must be considered as a primitive force in nature, we observe that attractions of another kind are at work around us, both in the interior of our planet and on its surface. These forces, to which we apply the term chemical affinity, act upon molecules in contact, or at infinitely minute distances from one another,* * On the question already discussed by Newton, regarding the differ- ence existing between the attraction of masses and molecular attraction, see Laplace, Exposition du Systéme du Monde, p. 384, and supplement to book x. of the Mecunique Céleste, pp. 3, 4; Kant, Metaph. Anfangs- grinde der Naturwissenschaft, Sim. Werke, 1839, bd. v., s. 309 (Meta. physical Principles of the Natural Sciences); Pectet, Physigue, 1838, val. i., pp. 59-—63. ‘ INTRODUCTION. 45 and which being differently modified by electricity, heat, condensation in porous bodies, or by the contact of an intermediate substance, animate equally the inorganie world and animal and vegetable tissues. If we except the smali asteroids which appear to us under the forms of aérolites and shooting stars, the regions of space have hitherto pre- sented to our direct observation physical phenomena alone ; and in the case of these, we know only with certainty the effects depending upon the quantitative relations of matter or the distribution of masses. The phenomena of the regions of space may consequently be considered as influenced by simple dynamical laws—the laws of motion. The effects that may arise from the specific difference and the heterogeneous nature of matter, have not hitherto entered into our calculations of the mechanism of the heavens. The only means by which the inhabitants of our planet can enter into relation with the matter contained within the regions of space, whether existing in scattered forms or united into large spheroids, is by the phenomena of light, the propagation of luminous waves, and by the influence universally exercised by the force of gravitation or the attraction of masses. The existence of a periodical action of the sun and moon on the variations of terrestrial magnetism is even at the present day extremely problematical. We have no direct experimental knowledge regarding the properties and specific qualities of the masses circulating in space, or of the matter of which they are probably composed, if we except what may be derived from the fall of aérolites or meteoric stones, which, as we have already observed, enter within the limits of our ter- restrial sphere. It will be sufficient here to remark, that the direction and the excessive velocity of projection (a velocity wholly planetary) manifested by these masses, render it more. than probable that they are small celestial bodies, which being attraeted by our planet are made to deviate from their original course, and thus reach the earth enveloped in vapours, and in a high state of actual incandescence. ‘The familiar aspect of these asteroids, and the analogies which they present with the minerals composing the earth’s crust, undoubtedly afford ample grounds for surprise ;* but, in my opinion, the only con- * [The analysis of an asrolite which fell a few years since in Maryland, United States, and was examined by Professor Silliman of Newhaven 46 COSMOS, clusion to be drawn from these facts is, that in general planeta and other sidereal masses which, by the influence of a central body, have been agglomerated into rings of vapour, and sub- sequently into spheroids, being integrant parts of the same system, and having one common origin, may likewise be composed of substances chemically identical. Again, experi- ments with the pendulum, particularly those prosecuted with such rare precision by Bessel, confirm the Newtonian axiom, that bodies the most heterogeneous in their nature (as water, gold, quartz, granular limestone, and different masses of aérolites) experience a perfectly similar degree of accelera-— tion from the attraction of the earth. To the experiments of the pendulum may be added the proofs furnished by purely astronomical observations. The almost perfect identity of the mass of Jupiter, deduced from the influence exercised by this stupendous planet on its own satellites, on Encke’s comet of short period, and on the small planets Vesta, Juno, Ceres, and Pallas, indicates with equal certainty, that within the limits of actual observation attraction is determined solely by the quantity of matter.* This absence of any perceptible difference in the nature ot — matter, alike proved by direct observation and theoretical | deductions, imparts a high degree of simplicity to the me- chanism of the heavens. The immeasureable extent of the regions of space being subjected to laws of motion alone, the sidereal portion of the science of the Cosmos is based on the pure and abundant source of mathematical astronomy, as is the terrestrial portion on physics, chemistry, and organic morphology ; but the domain of these three last-named sciences embraces the consideration of phenomena which are so complicated, and have, up to the present time, been found so little susceptible of the application of rigorous method, that the physical science of the earth cannot boast of the same Connecticut, gave the following results :—Oxide of iron 24; oxide of nickel, 1°25; silica, with earthy matter, 3°46; suiphur, atrace; = 28°71. Dr. Mantell’s Wonders of Geology. 1848. vol. i. p. 51.]—T*. * Poisson, Connaissances des Temps pour l’ Année 1836, pp. 64—66. Bessel, Poggendorff’s Annalen, bd. xxv., s. 417. Encke, Abhandlungen Jer Berliner Academie, (Trans. of the Berlin Academy,) 1826, s. 257. : Mitscherlich, Lehrbuch der Chemie, (Manual of Chemistry,) 182%, bd. i., s. 352. >. INTRODUCTION. 47 eeriainty ana simplicity in the exposition of facts and their mutual connection, which characterise the celestial portion o. the Cosmos. It is not improbable that the difference to which we allude may furnish an explanation of the cause which, in the earliest ages of intellectual culture amongst the Greeks, directed the natural philosophy of the Pythagoreans with more ardour to the heavenly bodies and the regions of space, than to the earth and its productions, and how through Philo- laiis, and subsequently through the analogous views of Aris- tarchus of Samos, and of Seleucus of Erythrea, this science has been made more conducive to the attainment of a know- ledge of the true system of the world, than the natural philo- sophy of the Ionian school could ever be. to the physical history of the earth. Giving but little attention to the pro- perties and specific differences of matter filling space, the great Italian school, in its Dorie gravity, turned by pre- ference towards all that relates to measure, to the form of bodies, and to°the number and distances of the planets ;* whilst the Ionian physicists directed their attention to the qualities of matter, its true or supposed metamorphoses, and to relations of origin. It was reserved for the powerful genius of Aristotle, alike prefoundly speculative and practical, to sound with equal success the depths of abstraction and the inexhaustible resources of vital activity pervading the material world. Severa! highly distinguished treatises on physical geography are prefaced by an introduction, whose purely astronomical sections are directed to the consideration of the earth in its planetary dependence, and as constituting a part of that great system which is animated by one central body, the sun. This course is diametrically opposed to the one which I propose following. In order adequately to estimate the dignity of the Cosmos, it is requisite that the sidereal portion, termed by Kant the natural history of the heavens, should not be made subordinate to the terrestrial. In the science of the Cosmos, according to the expression of Aristarchus of Samos, the pioneer of the Copernican system, the sun with its satellites _ was nothing more than one of the innumerable stars by which Space is occupied. The physical history of the world mst, * Compare Ottfried Miiller’s Dorzen, ba. i., s. 365. 48 COSMOS. therefore, begin with the description of the heavenly bodies, and with a geographical sketch of the universe, or I would rather say, a true map of the world, such as was traced by the bold hand of the elder Herschel. If, notwithstanding the smallness of our planet, the most considerable space and the most attentive consideration be here afforded to that which exclusively concerns it, this arises solely from the dispropor- tion in the extent of our knowledge of that which is accessible and of that which is closed to our observation. This subordina- tion of the celestial to the terrestrial portion is met with in the great work of Bernard Varenius,* which appeared in the middle of the seventeenth century. He was the first to dis- tinguish between general and special geography, the former of which he subdiyides into an absolute, or properly speaking, terrestrial part, and a relative or planetary portion, according * Geographia Generalis in qua affectiones generales telluris expli- cantur. The oldest Elzevir edition bears date 1650, the second 1672, and the third 1681; these were published at Cambridge, wider New- ton’s supervision. This excellent work by Varenius is, in the true sense of the words, a physical description of the earth. Since the work Historia Natural de las Indias, 1590, in which the Jesuit Joseph de Acosta sketched in so masterly a manner the delineation of the New Continent, questions relating to the physical history of the earth have never been considered with such admirable generality. Acosta is richer in original observations, while Varenius embraces a wider circle of ideas, since his sojourn in Holland, which was at that period the centre of vast commercial relations, had brought him in contact with a great number of ~vell-informed travellers. Generalis sive Universalis Geographia dicitur gue tellurem in genere considerat atque affectiones explicat, non habita particularium reyionum ratione. The general description of the earth by Varenius (Pars Absoluta, cap. i.—xxii.) may be considered as a treatise of comparative geography, if we adopt the term used by the author him- seli (Geoyraphi« Comparativa, cap. xxxiii.i—xt.), although this must be understood in a limited acceptation. We may cite the following amongst the most remarkable passages of this book; the enumeration of the systems of mountains; the examination of the relations existing between their directions and the general form of continents (pp. 66, 76, Ed. Cantab., 1681); a list of extinct volcanoes, and such as were still in a state of activity; the discussion of facts relative to the general distribution of islands and archipelagoes (p. 220); the depth of the ocean relatively to the height of neighbouring coasts (p. 103); the uniformity of level observed in all open seas (p. 97); the dependence of currents on the prevailing winds; the unequal saltness of the sea; the configuration of shores (p. 129); the direction of the winds as the result of differences of temperature, &c. We may further instance the remarkable consideia- » INTRODUCTION. 49 to the mode of considering our planet either with reference to its surface in its different zones, or to its relations to the sun and moon. It redounds to the glory of Varenius, that his work on General and Comparative Geography should in so high a degree have arrested the attention of Newton. The imperfect state of many of the auxiliary sciences from which this writer was’ obliged to draw his materials, prevented his work from corresponding to the greatness of the design, and it was reserved for the present age, and for my own country, to see the delineation of comparative geography, drawn in its full extent, and in all its relations with the history of man, by the skilful hand of Carl Ritter.* tions of Varenius regarding the equinoctial current from east to west, to which he attributes the origin of the Gulf Stream, beginning at Cape St. Augustin and issuing forth between Cuba and Florida (p. 140). Nothing can be more accurate than his description of the current which skirts the western coast of Africa, between Cape Verd and the island of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea. Varenius explains the formation of spo- radic islands by supposing them to be ‘‘the raised bottom of the sea:’’ magna spirituum inclusorun vi, sicut aliguando montes e terra protusos esse quidam scribunt, (p. 225). The edition published by Newton in 1681 (auctior et emendatior) unfortunately contains no additions from this great authority; and there is not even mention made of the polar compression of the globe, although the experiments on the pendulum by Richer had been made nine years prior to the appearance of the Cam- bridge edition. Newton’s Principia Mathematica Philosophie Naturalis were not communicated in manuscript to the Royal Society until April 1686. Much uncertainty seems to prevail regarding the birthplace of Varenius. Jzcher says it was England, while, according to La Biogra- phie Universeile (b. xtvii., p. 495), he is stated to have been born at Amsterdam; but it would appear from the dedicatory address to the Burgomaster of that city, (see his Geographia Comparativa), that both suppositions are false. Varenius expressly says that he had sought refuge in Amsterdam, ‘‘because his native city had been burnt and completely destroyed during a long war,’’ words which appear to apply to the north of Germany, and te the devastations of the thirty years’ war. In his dedication of another work, Descriptio regni Japonie, (Amst. 1649), to the senate of Hamburgh, Varenius says that he prose- cuted his elementary mathematical studies in the gymnasium of that city. There is, therefore, every reason to believe that this admirable geographer Was a native of Germany, and was probably born at Luneburg, ( Witten. ~ Mem. Theol., 1685, p. 2142; Zedler, Universal-Lexicon, vol. xtvi., 1745, p. 187.) : * Carl Ritter’s Erdkunde im Verhaltniss zur Natur und zur Ge- schichte des Menschen, oder allyemeine vergleichende Geographie (Geo. k &9 COSMOS, ‘The enumeration of the most important results of the astro. nomical and physical sciences which in the history of the Cosmos radiate towards one common focus, may perhaps, to a certain degree, justify the designation I have given to my work, and, considered within the circumscribed limits I have proposed to myself, the undertaking may be esteemed less adventurous’ than the title. The introduction of new terms, especially with reference to the general results of a science which ought to be accessible to all, has always been greatly in opposition to my own practice; and whenever I have enlarged upon.the established nomenclature, it has only been in the specialities of descriptive botany and zoology, where the introduction of hitherto unknown objects rendered new names necessary. The denominations of physical descriptions of the universe, or physical cosmography, which I use indis- criminately, have been modelled upon those of physical descrip- tions of the earth, that is to say, physical geography, terms that have long been in common use. Descartes, whose genius was one of the most powerful manifested in any age, has left us a few fragments of a great work, which he intended publishing under the title of Monde, and for which he had prepared him- self by special studies, including even that of human anatomy. The uncommor, but definite expression of the science of the Cosmos recalls to the mind of the inhabitant of the earth that we are treating of a more widely-extended horizon; of the assemblage of ail things with which space is filled, from the remotest nebula to the climatic distribution of those delicate tissues of vegetable matter, which spread a variegated covers ing over the surface of our rocks. The influence of narrow-minded views peculiar to the earlier ages of civilisation led in all languages to a confu ion of ideas in the synonymic use of the words earth and world; whilst the common expressions, voyages round the world, map of the world, and new world, afford further illustrations of the same confusion. The more noble and precisely-defined ex- pressions of system of the world, the planetary world, and crea- tion and age of the world, relate either to the totality of the substances by which space is filled, or to the origin of the whole universe. : graphy in relation to Nature and the History of Man, or genera: Com. parative Geography). “ INTRODUCTION. SL It was natural that, in the midst of the extreme variability of phenomena presented by the surface of our globe, and the aérial ocean by which it is surrounded, man should have been irapressed by the aspect of the vault of heaven, and the uni- form and regular movements of the sun and planets. Thus the word Cosmos, which primitively, in the Humerie ages, indicated an idea of order and harmony, was subsequently adopted in scientific language, where it was gradually applied to the order observed in the movements of the heavenly bodies, to the whole universe, and then finally to the world in which this harmony was reflected to us. According to the assertion of Philolaiis, whose fragmentary works have been so ably commented upon by Béckh, and conformably to the general testimony of antiquity, Pythagoras was the first who used the word Cosmos to designate the order that reigns in the universe, or entire world.* From the Italian school of philosophy, the expression passed in this signification into the language of those early poets of * Kodopoc, in the most ancient, and at the same time most precise, definition of the word, signifed ornament (as an adornment for a man, a woman, or a horse); taken figuratively for evrafia, it implied the order or adornment of a discourse. According to the testimony of all the encients, it was Pythagoras who first used the word to designate the ordet in the universe, and the universe itself. Pythagoras left no writings; but ancient attestation to the truth of this assertion is to be found in several passages of the fragmentary works of Philolaiis (Stob., Ec/og., pp- 360 and 460, Heeren) ; pp. 62, 90, in Béckh’s German edition. I do not, according to the example of Nike, cite Timzus of Locris, since his authenticity is doubtful. Plutarch (De Plac. Phil., ii, 1), says in the most express manner, that Pythagoras gave the name of Cosmos to the universe on account of the order which reigned throughout it; so likewise does Galen (Hist. Phil., p. 429). This word, together with its novel signification, passed from the schoois of philosophy into the language of poets and prose writers. Plato designates the heavenly bodies by the name of Uranos, but the order pervading the regions of space he too terms the Cosmos, and in his Timeus, (p. 30 B.) he says that the world is an animal endowed with a soul (xdcpov Céov tubixorv). Compare Anaxag. Claz., ed. Schaubach, p. 111, and Plut., De Plac. Phil., ii, 3) on spirit apart from matter, as the ordaining power of nature. In Aristotle (De Celo, 1, 9,) Cosmos signifies ‘‘the universe and the order pervading it,’’ _ but it is likewise considered as divided in space into two parts,—the sublunary world, and the world above the moon. (Meteor. I, 2, 1, and I, 3, 13, pp. 339 a, and 340 4, Bekk.) The definition of Cosmos, which { have already cited, is taken from Pseudo-Aristoteles de Mundo, cap. ii. “p- 391); the passage referred to is as follows: Kéopog tori ciotnpa tg E2 62 COSMOS. nature, Parmenides and Empedocles, and from thence inte the works of prose writers. We will not here enter into a discussion of the manner in which, according to the Pytha- gorean views, Philolaiis distinguishes between Olympus, obpavov Kai yij¢ Kai THy éy TobTUrE TEpLEXopévoY dioewy, Aéyerar Oé «ai Etépwe Koodo 7) THY Srwy Take TE Kal Staxdopnore, bd Oey TE Kai Oud Oey GvrAarropévyn, Most of the passages occurring in Greek writers on the word Cosmos, may be found collected together in the controversy between Richard Bentley and Charles Boyle (Opuscula Philologica, 1781, pp. 347, 445; Dissertation upon the Epistles of Phalaris, 1817, p. 254) ; on the historical existence of Zaleucus, legislator of Leucris, in Nake’s excellent work, Sched. crit., 1812, pp. 9, 15; and finally, in Theophilus Schmidt, Ad Cleom. cycl. theor., met. 1,1 p.ix., 1 and 99. Taken in a more limited sense, the word Cosmos is also used in the plural (Plut., 1, 5,) either to designate the stars (Stob., 1, p. 514; Plut., 11, 13,) or the innumerable systems scattered like islands through the immensi.y of space, and each composed of a sun anda moon, (Anax. Claz., Fraum. pp- 89,93, 120; Brandis, Gesch. der Griechisch-Rémischen Philosophie, bd. i., s. 252 (History of the Greco-Roman Philosophy). Each of these groups forming thus a Cosmos, the universe, Td may, the word must be understood in a wider sense (Plut. ii, 1.) It was not until long after the time of the Ptolemies that the word was applied to the earth. Boéckh has made known inscriptions in praise of Trajan and Adrian (Corpus Inser. Grec., 1, n. 334 and 1306) in which Kéopoc occurs for oicovyeyvy, in the same manner as we still use the term world to signify the earth alone. We have already mentioned the singular division of the regions of space into three parts, the Olympus, Cosmos, and QOuranos, (Stob. 1, p. 488; Philolatis, pp. 94, 202); this division applies to the different regions surrounding that mysterious focus of the universe, the ‘Eoria row zavrég of the Pythagoreans. In the fragmentary passage in which this division is found, the term Ouranos designates the innermost region, situated between the moon and earth; this is the domain of changing things. The middle region where the planets circulate in an invariable and harmonious order, is, in accordance with the special con- ceptions entertained of the universe, exclusively termed Cosmos, whilst the word Olympus is used to express the exterior or igneous region. Bopp, the profound philologist, has remarked, ‘‘ that we may deduce, as Pott has dene, Etymol. Forschungen, th.i., s.39 and 252 (Etymol. Researches} the word Késpog from the Sanscrit root ’sud’, purificari, by assuming twe conditions ; first, that the Greek « in kéopoc comes from the palatial ¢, which Bopp represents by ’s and Pott by ¢, (in the same manner as déxa, decem, tathun in Gothic, comes from the Indian word désan),and next, that the Indian d@’ corresponds as a general rule with the Greek 0 ( Veryleichende Grammatik, § 99,—Comparative Grammar), which shows the relation