Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
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Title: Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
Author: Alexander von Humboldt
Translator: E. C. Otté
Release date: January 3, 2005 [eBook #14565]
Most recently updated: October 28, 2024
Language: English
Other information and formats: www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/14565
Credits: This eBook was prepared by Amy Zelmer
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This material taken from pages i-ii, iv and v, and 3-12
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
by Alexander von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
--------------------------------------------------
p i
COSMOS
VOLUME I
[p ii is blank]
[p iii - not copied; pertains to reprint series]
p iv [portrait]
p v
COSMOS
A SKETCH
OR
A PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE
BY
ALEXANDER VON HUMBOLDT
TRANSLATED FROM THE GERMAN
BY E. C. OTTE
Naturae vero rerum vis atque majestas in omnibus momentis fides caret, si
quis modo partes ejus ac non totam complectatur animo. -- Plin., 'Hist.
Nat.', lib. vii, c. 1.
VOLUME I
WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY NICOLAAS A. RUPKE
THE JOHNS HOPKINS UNIVERSITY PRESS
Baltimore and London
[page vi and Introduction to the 1997 edition not copied]
p 1
COSMOS
VOLUME I
[p 2 is blank]
p 3
TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE.
-----------------------
I CAN not more appropriately introduce the Cosmos than by presenting a brief
sketch of the life of its illustrious author.* While the name of Alexander
von Humboldt is familiar to every one, few, perhaps, are aware of the
peculiar circumstances of his scientific career and of the extent of his
labors in almost every department of physical knowledge. He was born on the
14th of September, 1769, and is, therefore, now in his 80th year. After
going through the ordinary course of education at Gottingen, 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, among
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 practicing
the use of those astronomical and physical instruments which he afterward
turned to so singularly excellent an account.
[footnote] *For the following remarks I am mainly indebted to the articles
on the Cosmos in the two leading Quarterly Reviews.
The political disturbances of the civilized world at the close
p 4
of the last century prevented our author from carrying out 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 possessions 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
diametrically 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 has 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 before 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 observations. 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 labor 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 unparalleled in the
history of travel -- he was accompanied by two companions hardly less
distinguished than himself, Ehrenberg and Gustav Rose, and
p 5
the results obtained during their expedition are recorded by our author in
his 'Fragments Asiatiques', and in his 'Asie 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 travelers on the physical geography of Northern 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 into
the consideration of the different epochs in the progress of discovery and
of the corresponding stages of advance in human civilization. The 'third'
volume, the publication of which, as M. Humboldt himself informs me in a
letter addressed to my learned friend and publisher, Mr. H. G. Bohn, "has
been somewhat delayed, owing to the present state of public affairs, will
comprise the special and scientific development of the great Picture of
Nature
p 6
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 can
not 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
accomplished every way worthy of the author's fame, and a crowning laurel
added to that wreath with which Europe will always delight to surround the
name of Alexander von Humboldt."
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 scientific 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.
[footnote] *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.
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 in
silence. The present volumes differ from those of Mrs. Sabine in having all
the foreign measures converted into corresponding 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 in
omitting passages, sometimes amounting to pages, simply because they might
be deemed slightly obnoxious to our national prejudices.
p 7
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 a century.
I have 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 contemporaries with a diffidence inspired by a just mistrust of my own
powers, while I would willingly forget that writings long expected are
usually received with less indulgence.
Although the outward relations of life, and an irresistible impulse toward
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
determinations 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 endeavor 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 intercourse with highly-gifted men early
led me to discover that, without an earnest striving to attain to a
knowledge of special 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 natural
p 8
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 of 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 causes 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 travelers 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 districts such as these,
could not fail to encourage the natural tendency of my mind toward a
generalization 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 a 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 no inconsiderable
difficulties in the choice of the form under
p 9
which such a work must be presented, if it would aspire to the honor of
being regarded as a literary composition. Descriptions of nature ought not
to be deficient in a tone of life-like truthfulness, while the mere
enumeration of a series of general results is productive of a no less
wearying impression 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 composition, 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 return 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 faculties are so strongly
manifested, than by means of any thing which it could itself impart. In the
work on the Cosmos on which I am now engaged, I have endeavored to show, as
in that entitled '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 afterward 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 of the science. 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,
p 10
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 animation must, I think, be derived
from an association with some definite epoch, where the object of the writer
is to delineate the present condition of knowledge and opinions. Since the
additions 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 telluric 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, while 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
knowledge. The two succeeding volumes will contain a consideration of the
particular means of incitement toward the study of nature (consisting in
animated delineations, landscape 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
p 11
branches of the several departments of science, whose mutual connection is
indicated in the beginning of the work. Wherever it has been possible to do
so, I 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 reference 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 relations, and to my own
distrust of the care and correctness 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 is so dangerous
to treat of in a work of this uncontroversial kind, has rarely been touched
upon. Where I have occasionally referred to classical antiquity, and to
that happy period of transition which has rendered the sixteenth and
seventeenth centuries so celebrated, owing to the great geographical
discoveries by which the age was characterized, 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 earlier presentiments.
It has frequently been regarded as a subject of discouraging consideration,
that while purely literary products of intellectual activity are rooted in
the depths of feeling, and interwoven with the creative force of
imagination, all works treating 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
p 12
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 'antiquated'
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 any thing which
promises future additions and a greater degree of perfection to general
knowledge. Many important 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; while 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 vacillating, ever-recurring alternation of
physical metamorphoses, will not be wholly disregarded even at a future age.
'Potsdam, Nov.', 1844.
This material taken from pages 13-22
NB - The page numbers will be properly aligned in Courier 12 font.
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
by Alexander von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
--------------------------------------------------
p 13
CONTENTS OF VOL. I.
----------------------
Page
The Translator's Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3
The Author's Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7
Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
INTRODUCTION.
The Results of the Study of Physical Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . 23
The different Epochs of the Contemplation of the external World . .24
The different Degrees of Enjoyment presented by the Contemplation
of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 25
Instances of this Species of Enjoyment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Means by which it is induced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27-33
The Impressions awakened by the Aspect of tropical Regions . . . . 34
The more accurate Knowledge of the Physical Forces of the
Universe, acquired by the Inhabitants of a small Section
of the temperate Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36
The earliest Dawn of the Science of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . 36
The Difficulties that opposed the Progress of Inquiry . . . . . . . 37
Consideration of the Effect produced on the Mind by the
Observation of Nature, and the Fear entertained by some of
its injurious Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40
Illustrations of the Manner in which many recent Discoveries have
tended to Remove the groundless Fears entertained
regarding the Agency of certain Natural Phenomena . . . . . . 43
The Amount of Scientific Knowledge required to enter on the
Consideration of Physical Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
The Object held in View by the present Work . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
The Nature of the Study of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 50
The special Requirements of the present Age . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Limits and Method of Exposition of the Physical Description of the
Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Considerations on the terms Physiology and Physics . . . . . . . . .58
Physical Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 59
Celestial Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 63
The Natural Philosophy of the Ancients directed more to Celestial
than to Terrestrial Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .65
The able Treatises of Varenius and Carl Ritter . . . . . . . . .66, 67
Signification of the Word Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 68-70
The Domain embraced by Cosmography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Empiricism and Experiments . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 74
The Process of Reason and Induction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .77
p 14
GENERAL REVIEW OF NATURAL PHENOMENA.
Connection between the Material and the Ideal World . . . . . . . . 80
Delineation of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 82
Celestial Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 83
Sidereal Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 89
Planetary Systems . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .90
Comets . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 99
Aerolites . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .111
Zodiacal Light . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 137
Translatory Motion of the Solar System . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 145
The Milky Way . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .150
Starless Openings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 152
Terrestrial Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .154
Geographical Distribution . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .161
Figure of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .163
Density of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 169
Internal Heat of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 172
Mean Temperature of the Earth . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .175
Terrestrial Magnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 177
Magnetism . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .183
Aurora Borealis . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . . .193
Geognostic Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 202
Earthquakes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 204
Gaseous Emanations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 207
Hot Springs . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .221
Salses . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .224
Volcanoes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .227
Rocks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .247
Palaeontology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .270
Geognostic Periods . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 286
Physical Geography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Meteorology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .311
Atmospheric Pressure . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 315
Climatology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .317
The Snow-line . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .329
Hygrometry . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 332
Atmospheric Electricity . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .335
Organic Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 339
Motion in Plants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 341
Universality of Animal Life . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .342
Geography of Plants and Animals . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .346
Floras of different Countries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .350
Man . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .352
Races . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .353
Language . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 357
Conclusion of the Subject . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .359
p 15
SUMMARY.
-----------
Translator's Preface.
Author's Preface.
Vol I.
GENERAL SUMMARY OF THE CONTENTS.
Introduction. -- Reflections on the different Degrees of Enjoyment presented
to us by the Aspect of Nature and the scientific Exposition of the Laws of
the Universe . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . .Page 23-78
Insight into the connection of phenomena 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, or 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 permitted to man
simultaneously to behold all the stars of the firmament and all the forms of
vegetation -- p. 23-33.
Tendency toward the investigation of the causes of physical phenomena.
Erroneous views of the character of natural forces arising from an imperfect
mode of observation or of induction. The crude accumulation of physical
dogmas transmitted from one country to another. Their diffusion among the
higher classes.
Scientific physics are associated with another and a deep-rooted system of
untried and misunderstood experimental positions. Investigation of natural
laws. Apprehension 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 specialties.
Examples drawn from astronomy, recent optical discoveries, physical
geognosy, and the geography of plants. Practicability of the study of
physical cosmography -- p. 33-54. Misunderstood popular knowledge,
confounding cosmography with a mere encyclopedic enumeration of natural
sciences. Necessity for a simultaneous regard for all branches of natural
science. Influence of this study on national prosperity and the welfare of
nations; its more earnest and characteristic aim is an inner one, arising
from exalted mental activity. Mode of treatment with regard to the object
and presentation; reciprocal connection existing between thought and speech
-- p. 54-56.
The notes to p. 28-33. Comparative hypsometrical data of the elevations of
the Dhawalagiri, Jawahir, Chimborazo, Aetna (according to the measurement of
Sir John Herschel), the Swiss Alps, etc. -- p. 28. Rarity
p 16
of palms and ferns in the Himalaya Mountains -- p. 29. European vegetable
forms in the Indian Mountains -- p. 30. Northern and southern limits of
perpetual snow on the Himalaya; influence of the elevated plateau of Thibet
-- p. 30-33. Fishes of an earlier world -- p. 46.
Limits and Method of Exposition of the Physical Description of the Universe
. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .. . . . .
Page 56-78
Subjects embraced by the study of the Cosmos or of physical cosmography.
Separation of other kindred studies -- p. 56-62. The uranological 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' can not be absolutely separated
in our contemplation of nature from the 'future'. History of the world and
description of the world -- p. 26-73.
Attempts to embrace the multiplicity of the phenomena of the Cosmos in the
unity of thought and under the form of a purely rational combination.
Natural philosophy, which preceded all exact observation in antiquity, is a
natural, but not unfrequently ill-directed, effort of reason. Two forms of
abstraction rule in the whole mass of knowledge, viz.: the 'quantitative',
relative determinations according to number and magnitude, and
'qualitative', material characters. Means of submitting phenomena to
calculation. Atoms, mechanical methods of construction. Figurative
representations; mythical conception of imponderable matters, 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 generalization. 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 --
p. 73-78.
[In the notes appended to p. 66-70 are considerations of the general and
comparative geography of Varenius. Philological investigation into the
meaning of the words [Greek word] and 'mundus'.]
Delineation of Nature. General Review of Natural Phenomena. . . . . p.
79-359
Introduction -- p. 79-83. A descriptive delineation of the world embraces
the whole universe ([Greek words]) in the celestial and terrestrial spheres.
Form and course of the representation. It begins with the laws of
gravitation, and with the region of the remotest nebulous spots and double
stars, and then, gradually descending through the starry stratum to which
our solar system belongs, it contemplates this terrestrial 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
fullness of organic vitality which is unfolded on its surface under the
action of light. Partial insight into the relative dependence existing
among 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 conglomerated into rotating
p 17
and circling heavenly bodies of very different density and magnitude, and
partly scattered as self-luminous vapor. 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 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Page
83-154
II. Terrestrial Portion of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .p.
154-359
a. Form of the earth, its mean density, quantity of heat, electro-magnetic
activity, process of light -- p. 154-202.
b. Vital activity of the earth toward its external surface. Reaction of
the interior of a planet on its crust and surface. Subterranean noise
without waves of concussion. Earthquakes dynamic phenomena -- p. 202-217.
c. Material products which frequently accompany earthquakes. Gaseous and
aqueous springs. Salses and mud volcanoes. Upheavals of the soil by
elastic forces -- p. 217-228.
d. Fire-emitting mountains. Craters of elevation. Distribution of
volcanoes on the earth -- p. 228-247.
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 -- p.
247-384.
f. Geognostical epochs, which are indicated by the mineralogical difference
of rocks, have determined the distribution of solids and fluids into
continents and seas. Individual configuration of solids into horizontal
expansion and vertical elevation. Relations of area. Articulation.
Probability of the continued elevation of the earth's crust in ridges -- p.
284-301.
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 -- p. 301-311.
h. The atmosphere. Its chemical composition. Fluctuations in its density.
Law of the direction of the winds. Mean temperature. Enumeration of the
causes which tend to raise and lower the temperature. Continental and
insular climates. East and west coasts. Cause of the curvature of the
isothermal lines. Limits of perpetual snow. Quantity of vapor.
Electricity in the atmosphere. Forms of the clouds -- p. 311-339.
i. Separation of inorganic terrestrial life from the geography of vital
organisms; the geography of vegetables and animals. Physical gradations of
the human race -- p. 339-359.
Special Analysis of the Delineation of Nature, including References to the
Subjects treated of in the Notes.
I. Celestial Portion of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . p.
83-154
The universe and all that it comprises -- multiform nebulous spots,
planetary vapor, and nebulous stars. The picturesque charm of a southern
sky -- note, p. 85. Conjectures on the position in space of the world. Our
stellar masses. A cosmical island. Gauging stars. Double stars revolving
round a common center. Distance of the star 61 Cygni -- p. 88 and note.
Our solar system more complicated than was conjectured at the close of the
last century. Primary planets with Neptune, Astrea, Hebe, Iris, and Flora,
now constitute 16; secondary planets 18; myriad of comets of which many of
the inner ones are inclosed
p 18
in the orbits of the planets; a rotating ring (the zodiacal light) and
meteoric stones, probably to be regarded as small cosmical bodies. The
telescopic planets, Vesta, Juno, Ceres, Pallas, Astrea, Hebe, Iris and
Flora, with their frequently intersecting, strongly inclined, and more
eccentric orbits, constitute a central group of separation between the inner
planetary group (Mercury, Venus, the Earth, and Mars) and the outer group
(Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune). Contrasts of these planetary
groups. Relations of distance from one central body. Differences of
absolute magnitude, density, period of revolution, eccentricity, 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. 96 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. 98 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 toward the
sun; change of form of fixed stars by the nuclei of comets. Eccentricity of
their orbits and periods of revolution. Greatest distance and greatest
approximation of comets. Passage through the system of Jupiter's
satellites. Comets of short periods of revolution, more correctly termed
inner comets (Encke, Biela, Faye) -- p. 107 and note. Revolving aerolites
(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 composition of meteoric
asteroids -- p. 130 and notes. Ring of zodiacal light. Limitation of the
present solar atmosphere -- p. 141 and note. Translatory motion of the
whole solar system -- p. 145-149 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 nebulous spots, at right angles with
that of the stars. Periods of revolutions of bi-colored double stars.
Canopy of stars; openings in the stellar stratum. Events in the universe;
the apparition of new stars. Propagation of light, the aspect of the starry
vault of the heavens conveys to the mind an idea of inequality of time -- p.
149-154 and notes.
II. Terrestrial Portion of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Page
154-359
a. Figure of the earth. Density, quantity of heat, electro-magnetic
tension, and terrestrial light -- p. 154-202 and note. Knowledge of the
compression and curvature of the earth's surface acquired by measurements of
degrees, pendulum oscillations, and certain inequalities 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. 159, 160, note. Threefold movement of
the heat of the earth; its thermic condition. Law of the increase of heat
with the increase of depth -- p. 160, 161 and note. Magnetism electricity
in motion. Periodical variation of terrestrial 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, namely, 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 observatories
p 19
since 1828; a far-extending net-work of magnetic stations -- p. 190 and
note. Development of light at the magnetic poles; terrestrial light as a
consequence of the electro-magnetic activity of our planet. Elevation of
polar light. Whether magnetic storms are accompanied 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. 202 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 generation of gaseous and
liquid fluids, of hot mud and fused earths, which solidify into rocks.
Volcanic action, in the most general conception of 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 earthquake -- p. 202-218 and notes.
c. Closer consideration of material products as a consequence of 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 -- p. 219-224 and notes. Salses, mud volcanoes.
While 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. 228 and note.
d. Diversity of volcanic elevations. Dome-like closed trachytic mountains.
Actual volcanoes which are formed from craters of elevations or among the
detritus of their original structure. Permanent connection 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. Heights 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. 236 and notes. Distribution of volcanoes
on the earth's surface; central and linear volcanoes; insular and littoral
volcanoes. Distance of volcanoes from the sea-coast. Extinction of
volcanic forces -- p. 246 and notes.
e. Relation of volcanoes to the character of rocks. Volcanic forces form
new rocks, and metamorphose the more ancient ones. The study of these
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 elevated 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
cryctognostically simple fossils. There are four phases in the formative
condition; rocks of eruption,
p 20
endogenous (granite, sienite, porphyry, greenstone, hyperathene, rock,
euphotide, melaphyre, basalt, and phonolithe); sedimentary rocks (silurian
schist, coal measures, limestone, travertino, infusorial deposit);
metamorphosed rock, which contains also, together with the detritus mica
schist, and more ancient metamorphic masses. Aggregate and sandstone
formations. The phenomenon of contact explained by the artificial imitation
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 calcareous marl into micaceous schist
through granite. Conversion of dolomite and granite into argillaceous
schist, by contact with basaltic and doleritic rocks. Filling up of the
veins from below. Processes of cementation in agglomerate structures.
Friction conglomerates -- p. 269 and note. Relative age of rocks,
chronometry of the earth's crust. Fossiliferous strata. Relative age of
organisms. Simplicity of the first vital forms. Dependence of
physiological gradations on the age of the 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 limestone, coal measures, together with 'todilegende' and
zechstein); the upper trias (butter sandstone, muschelkalk, and keuper);
Jura limestone (lias and oolite); freestone, lower and upper chalk, as the
last of the flotz strata, which begin with mountain limestone; tertiary
formations in three divisions, which are designated by granular limestone,
lignite, and south Apennine gravel -- p. 269-278.
The faunas and floras of an earlier world, and their relations to existing
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; cycadeae
in the keuper and lias, and coniferae in the butter sandstone. Lignite and
coal measures (amber-tree). Deposition of large masses of rock; doubts
regarding their origin -- p. 285 and note.
f. 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 configuration of the earth's
surface. Existing areal relations of the solid to the fluid differ
considerably from those presented by the maps of the physical 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 toward the south. Series of
peninsulas. Valley-like formation of the Atlantic Ocean. Forms which
frequently recur -- p. 285-293 and notes. Ramifications and systems of
mountain chains, and the means of determining their relative ages. Attempts
to determine the centre of gravity of the volume of the lands upheaved above
the level
p 21
of the sea. The elevation of continents is still progressing slowly, and is
being compensated for at some definite points by a perceptible sinking. All
geognostic phenomena indicate a periodical alteration of activity in the
interior of our planet. Probability of new elevations of ridges -- p.
293-301 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
electricity, and in their relations of currents and temperature. Depths of
the ocean and of the atmosphere, the shoals of which constitute our
highlands and mountain chains. The degree of heat at the surface of the sea
in different 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
currents in the straits of the sea -- p. 302-304 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 impulse
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 submarine sylvan
region at the bottom of beds of rooted algae, or on far-extending floating
layers of fucus -- p. 302-311 and notes.
h. The gaseous envelope of our planet, the atmosphere. Chemical
composition of the atmosphere, its transparency, its polarization, pressure,
temperature, humidity, and electric tension. Relation of oxygen to
nitrogen; amount of carbonic acid; carbureted hydrogen; ammoniacal vapors.
Miamata. Regular (horary) changes in the pressure of the atmosphere. Mean
barometrical height at the level of the sea in different zones of the earth.
Isobarometrical curves. Barometrical 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 --
p. 311-317. Climatic distribution of heat in the atmosphere, as the effect
of the relative position 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 surface 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 isothermal lines, i.e., their deviation from the position of the
geographical 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, color,
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 summer sky. Contrast
between an insular or littoral climate, such as is experienced by all
deeply-articulated continents, and the climate of the interior of large
tracts of land. East and west coasts. Difference between the southern and
northern hemispheres. Thermal scales of
p 22
cultivated plants, going down from the vanilla, cacoa, and musaceae, by
citrous and olives, and to vines yielding potable wines. The influence
which these scales exercise on the geographical distribution of cultivated
plants. The favorable ripening and the immaturity of fruits are essentially
influenced by the difference in the action of direct or scattered light in a
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. 326. 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 fluctuations in these limits. Causes of disturbance
in the regularity of the phenomenon. Northern and southern chains of the
Himalaya; habitability of the elevated plateaux of Thibet -- p. 331.
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 atmosphere observed in Northern Asia, between the river
districts of the Irtysch and the Obi. Dew, a consequence of radiation.
Quantity of rain -- p. 335. Electricity of the atmosphere, and disturbance
of the electric tension. Geographical distribution of storms.
Predettermination of atmospheric changes. The most important climatic
disturbances can not be traced, at the place of observation, to any local
cause, but are rather the consequence of some occurrence by which the
equilibrium in the atmospheric currents has been destroyed at some
considerable distance -- p. 335-339.
i. Physical geography is not limited to elementary inorganic terrestrial
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 -- p. 339-346. 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
flora and fauna 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 many families, and the relative numerical
value of their species. The forms of natural families which increase or
decrease from the equator to the poles. Investigations into the numerical
relation existing in different districts of the earth between each one of
the large families to the whole mass of phanerogamia -- p. 346-351. The
human race considered according to its physical gradations, and the
geographical distribution of its simultaneously occurring types. Races and
varieties. All races of men are forms of one single species. Unity of the
human race. Languages considered as the intellectual creations of mankind,
or as portions of the history of mental activity, manifest a character of
nationality, although certain historical occurrences have been the means of
diffusing idioms of the same family of languages among nations of wholly
different descent -- p. 351-359.
In This material taken from pages 23 to 56
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
by Alexander von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
--------------------------------------------------
p 23
INTRODUCTION.
----------------
REFLECTIONS ON THE DIFFERENT DEGREES OF ENJOYMENT 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 develop the
physical phenomena of the globe, and the simultaneous action of the forces
that pervade the regions of space, I experience a two-fold 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 generalities clothed in dry and
dogmatical forms. Undue conciseness often checks the flow of expression,
while 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 delineated 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 general 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, combined 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, man has labored, amid the
ever-recurring changes of form, to recognize the invariability of natural
laws, and has thus, by the force of mind, gradually subdued a great portion
of the physical world to his dominion. In interrogating the history of the
past, we trace the mysterious course of ideas yielding the first glimmering
perception of the same image of
p 24
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 civilization -- 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 successive reappearance
of the heavenly bodies, and by the progressive development of organized
beings; while in the latter, this sense of enjoyment springs from a definite
knowledge of the phenomena of nature. When man began to interrogate nature,
and, not content with observing, learned to evoke phenomena under definite
conditions; when once he sought to collect and record facts, in order that
the fruit of his labors might aid investigation after his own brief
existence 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 vail 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 lost their
vagueness through a better mode of interpretation, are still preserved among
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 dissimilar in form and attributes; one great
whole ([Greek words]) 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
p 25
of his race, to comprehend nature, to lift the vail 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 presented 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 character 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; every where, 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 influence
on the wearied spirit, calm the storm of passion, and soften the heart when
shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths. Every where, in every region of the
globe, in every stage of intellectual culture, the same sources of enjoyment
are alike vouchsafed to man. The earnest and solemn thoughts awakened by a
communion with nature intuitively arise from a presentiment of the order and
harmony pervading the whole universe, 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 upward 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 region of the earth, gives rise
to a different source of enjoyment, 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
p 26
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 recollections of my own
distant travels, I would instance, among the most striking scenes of nature,
the calm sublimity of a tropical night, when the stars, not sparkling, as in
our northern skies, 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 vail around them, and
waving on high their feathery and arrow-like branches for, 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 vail, so that the eye of the traveler
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
conformation 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 comprehend, all that is most awful in such romantic scenes of
nature, may become a source of enjoyment to man, by opening 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.
[footnote] *This expression is taken from a beautiful description of
tropical forest scenery in 'Paul and Virginia', by Bernardia de Saint Pierre.
When far from our native country, after a long voyage, we tread for the
first time the soil of a tropical land, we experience a certain feeling of
surprise and gratification in recognizing, 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
p 27
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 among 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 familiarized with a new home and a
new climate. As a true citizen of the world, man every where 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 childhood, 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 among all types of organization, the forms of exotic vegetation
present themselves to his mind as nobler and more perfect developments of
those he had loved in earlier days. Thus do the spontaneous impressions of
the untutored mind lead, like the laborious deductions of cultivated
intellect, to the same intimate persuasion, that one sole and indissoluble
chain binds together all nature.
It may seem a rash attempt to endeavor to separate, into its different
elements, the magic power exercised upon our minds by the physical world,
since the character of the landscape, and 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 nature springs, as it were, from the
connection and unity of the impressions and emotions produced; and we can
only trace their different sources by analyzing 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 traveler 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 penetrate 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 systematic views, are
not only suited to please the imagination,
p 28
but may also, when properly considered, indicate the grades of the
impressions of which I have spoken, from the uniformity 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, we should
p 29
not have attained to the height of that great Colossus of the Andes, the
Chimborazo, whose height is twice that of Mont Aetna; 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 of the
Himalaya.
[footnote] *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 5270 feet, according to
Hallaschka. The Righi, 5902 feet, taking the height of the Lake of Lucerne
at 1426 feet, according to Eschman. (See 'Compte Rendu des Mesures
Trigonometriques en Suisse', 1840, p. 230.) Mount Athos, 6775 feet,
according to Captain Gaultier; Mount Pilatus, 7546 feet; Mount Aetna, 10,871
feet, according to Captain Smyth; or 10,874 feet, according to the
barometrical measurement made by Sir John Herschel, and communicated 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; Mount Blanc, 15,775 feet, according to the different
measurements considered by Roger ('Bibl. Univ.', May, 1828, 0. 24-53),
15,733 feet, according to the measurements taken from Mount Columbier by
Carlini in 1821, and 15,748 feet, as measured by the Austrian engineers from
Trelod and the Glacier d'Ambin.
[footnote continued]
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 Humboldt, '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 Webb, the
elevation assigned to the Dhawalagiri (or white mountain, from the Sanscrit
'dhawala', white, and 'giri', mountain) can not be received with the same
confidence as that of the Jawahir, 25,749 feet, since the latter rests on a
complete trigonomietrical 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 Tartaric chain, north of
Thibet, opposite to the chain of Kuen-lun, 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., p. 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 traveler, 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 5646 feet below Chimborazo; Chimborazo, 3779 feet below the
Sorata; the Sorata, 549 feet below the Jawahir, and probably about 2880 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 published, 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 measurements are
given in meters, but these have been converted into English feet, for the
greater convenience of the general reader.] -- 'Tr.'
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 confirmed by accurate measurements), they can not, from
their geographical position, present the same inexhaustible variety of
phenomena by which the latter are characterized. The impression produced by
the grander aspects of nature dies 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.*
[Footnote] *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
remarkable series of lithographs of Wallich's 'Flora Indica', whose
catalogue contains the enormous number of 7683 Himalaya species, almost all
phanerogamic plants, which have as yet been but imperfectly classified. In
Nepaul (lat. 26 1/2 degrees to 27 1/4 degrees) there has hitherto been
observed only one species of palm, Chamaerops martiana, Wall. ('Plantae
Asiat.', lib. iii., p. 5,211), which is found at the height of 5250 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 northwest of
Calcutta, in lat. 24 degrees 50 minutes. The Nepaul fern, Paranema
cyathoides, Don, formerly known as Sphaeroptera barbata, Wall. ('Plantae
Asiat.', lib. i., p. 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 is not, however, properly speaking a tree.
On the southern slope of the ancient Paropamisus, in the latitudes of 28
degrees and 34 degrees, nature no longer displays the same abundance of
tree-ferns and arborescent grasses, heliconias and orchideous plants, which
in tropical
p 30
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
characterize Europe and Northern Asia. The species are not identical, but
closely analogous in aspect and physiognomy, as, marsh parnassia, and the
prickly species of Ribes.* The chain of the Himalaya is also wanting in the
imposing phenomena of volcanoes, 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.
[footnote] *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, p. 510,
Cas.), twenty-five oaks, four birches, two chestnuts, 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 chestnut-tree of Kashmir, which grows to a height of 100 feet, in
lat. 33 degrees (see Carl von Hugel's 'Kaschmir', 1840, 2d pt. 249). Among
the Coniferae, we find the Pinus deodwara, or deodara (in Sanscrit,
'dewa-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 purpurescens, S.
speciosa, Parnassia armata, P. nubicola, Poenia Emode, Tulipa stellata; and
besides varieties of European genera peculiar to these Indian mountains,
true European species as Leontodon taraxacum, Prunella vulgaris, Galium
aparine, and Thlaspi arvense. The heath mentioned by Saunders, in Turner's
'Travels', and which had been confounded with Calluna 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' special, 'growing wild in Asia',
etc., it has been in consequence of the old botanical language, which,
instead of the idea of a large dissemination, or, rather, of the coexistence
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.
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
organic
p 31
life in a zone that is nearly 3000 feet lower than that to which it attains
in the equinoctial region of the Cordilleras.
[footnote] *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
declivity, or, rather, on the peaks which rise above the Thibet, or
Tartarian plateau, this limit is at 16,625 feet from 30 1/2 degrees to 32
degrees of latitude, while at the equator, in the Andes of Quito, it is
15,790 feet. Such is the result I have deduced from the combination of
numerous 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 Physique', t. iii., p. 303; t. xiv., p. 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 neighboring
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., p. 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 favor. 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 latitude 31 degrees, Webb's measurements give me 13,500
feet, consequently 500 feet more than the height deduced from Captain
Hodgson's observations. Gerard's measurements 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. ('Narrative 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., p. 292, 311, 320, 327 and 341.) Many interesting details
regarding 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, however,
these travelers 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 Maqasa 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 toward 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, 12,983 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 upward of 17,000 feet, that is to say, 1280 feet and 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 8200 feet between the Himalaya and the
Kuen-lun, and the difference in the height of the line of perpetual snow on
the southern and on the northern slopes of the Himalaya, should be again
investigated by travelers 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
Hypsometrical 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 sheltered plains,
as Hindoo-Coosh is on the north." It must, however, be admitted that the
hypsometrical data on which these statements are based require 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 degrees and 17 3/4 degrees south latitude. The opinion that I
had advanced 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 fell an early sacrifice to his noble and unwearied
ardor. (See his 'Correspondance pendant son Voyage dans l'Inde', 1828 'a'
1832, liv. 23, p. 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 Kionbrong, 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.)
[Footnote continues] The same traveler 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" ('Correspond. de Jacquemont', t. ii., p. 58 et 74). The warm and
humid air of the sea, as Leopold von Buch well observes, is carried by the
monsoons 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 Hugel 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
atmosphere is scarcely ever agitated by storms, and in 34 degrees 7 minutes
lat., snow is found, several feet in thickness, from December to March.
p 32
But the countries bordering on the equator possess another advantage, to
which sufficient attention has not hitherto been
p 33
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 mountains of Cundinamarea, 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 Musaceae, while above these forms of tropical vegetation
appear oaks, medlars, the sweet-brier, and umbelliferous plants, as in our
European homes. There as the traveler 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
endeavored graphically to represent,* I 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
p 34
impressions, loses all distinctness of form, like some distant mountain
shrouded from view by a vail 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 individual
character. 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 portrayed.
[footnote] *See, generally my 'Essai sur la Geographie des Plantes, et le
Tableau physique des Regions Equinoxiales', 1807, p. 80-88. On the diurnal
and nocturnal variations of temperature, see Plate 9 of my 'Atlas Geogr. et
Phys. du Nouveau Continent'; and the Tables in my work, entitled 'De
distributione Geographica Plantarum, secundum coeli tempriem, et altitudinem
Montium', 1817, p. 90-116; the meteorological portion of my 'Asie Centrale',
t. iii., p. 212, 224; 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 a laquelle on trouve, sous les
Tropiques, la couche de Temperature Invariable.' (Ann. de Chimie et de
Physique, 1833, t. liii., p. 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 degrees and 35
degrees F.
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 variations of the atmosphere and the development of vital
forces, and by the contrasts of climate and vegetation exhibited at the
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 travelers. 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 lace-like 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 proportion 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.
Every where around, the confines of the forest are encircled by broad bands
of social plants, as the delicate aralia, the thibaudia, and the
myrtle-leaved Andromeda, while the Alpine rose, the magnificent 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
p 35
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 lama 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
organization, as lichens, lecideas, and the brightly-colored, dust-like
lepraria, scattered around in circular patches. Islets of fresh-fallen
snow, varying in form and extent, arrest the last feeble traces of vegetable
development, 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 Cordilleras; and
even where these subterranean forces have opened a permanent communication
with the atmosphere, through circular craters or long fissures, they rarely
send forth currents of lava, but merely eject ignited scoriae, steam,
sulphureted hydrogen gas, and jets of carbonic acid.
In the earliest stages of civilization, 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 favored
regions. Recent researches have rendered it very doubtful whether the
primitive seat of Hindoo civilization -- one of the most remarkable phases
in the progress of mankind -- was actually within the tropics. Airyana
Vaedjo, the ancient cradle of the Zend, was situated to the northwest 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 among the
latter people (together with the literature, habits, and conditions of
society) an individual form in the Magodha of Madhya Desa,* a district that
is bounded by the great chain
p 36
of Himalaya and the smaller range of the Vindhya.
[footnote] *See, on the Madhjadeca, 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 to the south of the
Ganges (see 'Foe-Koue-Ki' by, 'Chy-Fa-Hian', 1836, p. 256). Djambu-dwipa is
the name given to the whole of India; but the words also indicate one of the
four Buddhist continents.
In less ancient times the Sanscrit language and civilization advanced toward
the southeast, 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.*
[Footnote] *'Ueber die Kawi Sprache auf der Insel Java, nebst einer
Einleitung uber die Verschiedenheit des menschlichen Sprachbaues und ihren
Ein fluss auf die geistige Entwickelung des Menschengrshlecht's' von Wilhelm
v. Humboldt, 1836, bd. i., s. 50519.
Notwithstanding the obstacles opposed in northern latitudes to the discovery
of the laws of nature, owing to the excessive complication of phenomena, and
the perpetual local variations 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 apparently more favorable to the progress of reason, the
softening of manners, and the security of public liberty) that the germs of
civilization have 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 institution from those of the Phoenicians or Greeks.
In speaking of the influence exercised by the succession of phenomena on the
greater or lesser facility of recognizing the causes producing them, I have
touched upon that important stage of our communion 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.*
[Footnote] *This verse occurs in a poem of Schiller, entitled 'Der
Spaziergang' which first appeared in 1795, in the 'Horen.'
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
p 37
among 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 revelation 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.'
Among nations least advanced in civilization, the imagination 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 sprung the first impulses toward 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 intellectual 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 begins to fulfill its noble mission; and
observation, aided by reason, endeavors 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. Inaccurate and imperfect
observations have led, by false inductions, to the great number of physical
views that have been perpetuated 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 pretended
p 38
results of 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 contends 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 perpetuates 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 recognize in the present any
analogy 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
correctness and the depth of our views, and upon the extent of the subjects
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 advanced 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,
p 39
as we learn more and more how to unvail her secrets, comprehend 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, assuredly, is not the faculty of mind we would evoke to preside over
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 planetary bodies; who measures patiently
year after year, the 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 labors -- 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
multiplied 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.
[Footnote] *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 l'Astronomie au dix-huitieme Siecle', 1827.
We must not confound the disposition of mind in the observer at the time he
is pursuing his labors, with the ulterior 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 of
our solar system, the satellites of Uranus, or decomposes faintly sparkling
points into double stars differing in color. The botanist discovers the
constancy of the gyratory motion of the chara in the greater number of
vegetable cells, and recognizes in the genera and natural families of plants
the intimate relations or organic forms. The vault of heaven, studded with
nebulae
p 40
and stars, and the rich vegetable mantle that covers the soil in the climate
of palms, can not 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 investigate the
great mutual relations of phenomena. I can not, therefore, agree with Burke
when he says, "it is our ignorance of natural things that causes all our
admiration and chiefly excites our passions."
While the illusion of the senses would make the stars stationary in the
vault of heaven, Astronomy, by her aspiring labors, 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 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 vapory vail of the atmosphere, or by the
aid of powerful optical instruments scan the regions of space, and see the
remote nebulous mass resolve itself into 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 knowledge, fail in duly appreciating the
value of every enlargement 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 nature, under the influence of
scientific reasoning, is often associated 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 and vital
p 41
forces -- in that inextricable net-work 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 mysteries 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 indicates to the intelligent observer its existence.
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."
[Footnote] *Carus, 'Von den Urtheilen des Knochen und Schalen Gerustes',
1828 6.
The series of organic types becomes extended or perfected in proportion as
hitherto unknown regions are laid open to our view by the labors and
researches of travelers 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 organic development, that same great
problem of 'metamorphosis' which Göthe 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 smallest number of fundamental types. As men
contemplate the riches of nature, and see the mass of observations
incessantly increasing before them, they become impressed with the intimate
conviction that the surface and the interior of the earth, the depths of the
ocean, and the regions of air will still, when thousands and thousands of
years have passed away, open to the scientific observer untrodden paths of
discovery. The regret of Alexander can not be applied to the progress of
observation and intelligence.*
[footnote] * Plut., in 'Vita Alex. Magni', cap. 7
General considerations, 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 attractive than special studies,
but they also afford superior advantages to those who are unable to devote
much time to occupations 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
p 42
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 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 progressive 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 contradictions which, at first sight, appear to
arise from the complication or 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 multiple stars, alike increases our sense of the
calm of nature, while 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 recognize 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. It is
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 led to
appreciate the importance of the establishments of the numerous
observatories which in the present day cover both hemispheres, and are
designed to note
p 43
the simultaneous occurrence of perturbations, and the frequency and duration
of 'magnetic storms.'
Let me be permitted here to touch upon a few points 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 appreciate 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 comprehended scientific 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 climatic 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 science. 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
guarantee against the exaggerated apprehension of a general and progressive
deterioration of the climates of Europe. Encke's comet, which is one of the
three 'interior comets', completes its course in 1200 days, but from the
form and position of its orbit it is as little dangerous to the earth as
Halley'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 force of the sun; that is to say, upon the
condition of its gaseous coverings, and upon the relative position of the
planet and the central body.
p 44
There are variations, it is true, which, in obedience to the laws of
universal gravitation, affect the form of the earth's 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 can not 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 center 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 currents ejected from active volcanoes, and those
endogenous masses of granite, porphyry, and serpentine, which, issuing from
the interior of the earth, have broken, as eruptive rocks, through the
secondary strata, and modified them by contact, either in rendering them
harder by the introduction of silex, 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
p 45
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 of 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 consequence 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
elevating 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 rapidly with the increase of depth that granite is in a state of fusion
about twenty or thirty geographical miles below the surface,* can not 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
intersection of 'circles of commotion' in earthquakes, or of the uniformity
of temperature, and equality of chemical composition observed in thermal
springs during a long course of years.
[Footnote] * 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 degrees F.
[Dr. Mantell states in 'The Wonders of Geology', 1848, vol. i., p. 34, that
this increase of temperature amounts to 1 degree of Fahrenheit for every
fifty-four feet of vertical depth.] -- Tr.
The quantity of heat peculiar to a planet is, however, a matter of such
importance -- being the result of its primitive condensation, and varying
according to the nature and duration of the radiation -- that the study of
this subject may 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
p 46
of the globe, at a period when the earth's crust was still furrowed and
rent, and only in a state of semi-solidification; 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
reaction 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 sedimentary strata, the
products of tropical climates; thus, in the coal formations, we find the
trunks of palms standing upright amid coniferae, tree ferns, goniatites, and
fishes having rhomboidal osseous scales;* in the Jura limestone, colossal
skeletons of crocodiles, plesiosauri, planulites, and stems of the cycadeae;
in the chalk formations, small polythalmia 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, and in certain caves, the bones of
elephants, hyenas, and lions.
[Footnote] *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.,
p. 3, 28, 34, App., p. 6. The whole genus of Amblypterus, Ag., nearly
allied to Palaeoniscus (called also Palaeothrissum), lies buried beneath the
Jura formations 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 in two genera, the 'Bichir' of the Nile and
Senegal, and the 'Lepidosteus' of the Ohio.
[Footnote] **[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 'Gaillonellae', of such extreme minuteness that a
cubic inch of the stone contains forty-one thousand millions! The
'Bergmehl' ('mountain meal' or 'fossil farina') of San Fiora, in Tuscany, is
one mass of animalculites. See the interesting work of G. A. Mantell, 'On
the Medals of Creation', vol. i., p. 233.] -- Tr.
An intimate acquaintance with the physical phenomena 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 reflection, 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 persons who have not acquired a detailed and special
knowledge of
p 47
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 among 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 can not be denied, that where there is an absence of
positive knowledge of physical phenomena, the general results which impart
so great a charm to the study of nature can not all 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 the
necessity of appealing to fundamental views and principles. The picture of
nature thus drawn, notwithstanding the want of distinctness of some of its
outlines, 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 German
scientific works, that they lessen the value of general views by an
accumulation of detail, and do not sufficiently distinguish between those
great results which form, as it were, the beacon lights of science, 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 have the art of making science
inaccessible." An edifice can not produce a striking effect until the
scaffolding is removed, that had of necessity been used during its erection.
[Footnote] *Gothe, in 'Die Aphorismen uber Naturwissenschaft', bd. I., s.
155 ('Werke kleine Ausgabe','von' 1833.)
Thus the uniformity of figure observed in the distribution of continental
masses, which all terminate toward the south in a pyramidal form, and expand
toward 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 toward 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
p 48
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 been specially enlarged by that
admirable work, 'Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und sur Geschichte', in
which Carl Ritter so ably delineates the physiognomy of our globe, and shows
the influence of its external configuration on the physical phenomena 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, 'L'Exposition du Système du Monde', in
which the author has combined the results of the highest astronomical and
mathematical labors, 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 separation of the
general from the special, are not only conducive to the attainment of
perspicuity in the composition of a physical history of the universe, but
are also the means by 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 connected together in more numerous and
more intimate relations, the development of general truths may be given with
conciseness devoid of superficiality. On being first examined, all
phenomena appear to be
p 49
isolated, and it is only by the result of a multiplicity of observations,
combined by reason, that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing
between them. If, however, in the present age, which is so strongly
characterized 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 history of the universe, whose
exposition I attempt to develop, does not pretend to rise to the perilous
abstractions of a purely rational science of nature, and is simply a
'physical geography, combined with a description of the regions of space and
the bodies 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 labor to which
I have devoted myself throughout the course of my long scientific career.
The path of inquiry 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 individualities, 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
p 50
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 necessity,
and in accordance with movements occurring periodically after longer or
shorter intervals.
It is this necessity, this occult but permanent connection, this periodical
recurrence in the progressive development of forms, phenomena, and events,
which constitute 'nature', obedient 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 description of the universe, and appertains to
a range of higher speculative views.
Emmanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers who have escaped the imputation
of impiety, has defined with rare sagacity the limits of physical
explanations, in his celebrated essay 'On the Theory and Structure of the
Heavens', published at Konigsberg in 1755.
The study of a science that promises to lead us through the vast range of
creation may be compared to a journey in 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 had long remained isolated, both in the
animal and vegetable kingdom, have been connected by the discovery of
intermediate links or stages of transition. The geography of beings endowed
p 51
with life attains completeness as we see the species, genera, and entire
families belonging to one hemisphere, reflected as it were, in analogous
animal and vegetable forms in the opposite hemisphere. There 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 junction of distinct organs, in
the differences in the balance of forces, or in a resemblance to
intermediate forms which are not permanent, but merely characteristic of
certain phases of normal development. Passing from the consideration of
beings endowed 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 mountains 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 directions which they
follow over the long fissures and which the earth's crust is furrowed.
Relations of superposition of trachyte and of syenitic porphyry, of diorite
and of serpentine, which remain in the rich platinum districts of the Oural,
and on the south-western declivity of the Siberian Alti, 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
traveler 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 property of all classes of society; but, in order to
render the instruction impaired 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
p 52
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 restricted within the circumscribed limits of ordinary
life, and have long remained 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 physical phenomena will also
tend to remove the prevalent error that 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
organized 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 fiber 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 luster, 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 Hygens
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 from a solid body or a gaseous covering, or
p 53
whether comets transmit light directly or merely by reflection.*
[Footnote] *Arago's Discoveries in the year 1811. -- Delambro's 'Histoire
de l'Ast.', p. 652. (Passage already quoted.)
An equal appreciation 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 principally based
upon a more enlightened employment of the products and forces of nature.
The most superficial glance 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 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 expression of Göthe,*
"knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all
inaction."
[Footnote] *Gothe, in 'Die Aphorismen uber Naturwissenschaft.' -- 'Werke',
bd. 1., s. 4
The propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of science can therefore
alone avert the dangers of which I have spoken. Man can not act upon
nature, or appropriate her forces to his own use, without comprehending
their full 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
neighboring countries become strengthened and invigorated under the genial
influence of arts and sciences.
As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philosophy, 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
p 54
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 improvement of agriculture in the hands of freemen, and on properties of
a moderate extent -- the flourishing state of the mechanical arts freed from
the trammels of municipal restrictions -- the increased impetus imparted to
commerce by the multiplied means 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 characteristic 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 civilization are developed beneath the
aegis of free institutions and wise legislation, there is no cause for
apprehending that any one branch of knowledge should be cultivated 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."*
[Footnote] *Pseudo-Plato, -- 'Alcib.', xi., p. 184, ed. Steph.; Plut.,
'Instituta Laconica', p. 253, ed. Hatten.
I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influence 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. Accustomed 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 mountains: they praise the view even when
great part of the distant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this
half-transparent vapory vail imparts to the scene a certain charm from
p 55
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 indistinctness will not, however, be wholly owing to the present
imperfect state of some of the sciences, but in part, likewise, to the
unskillfulness 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 her
vast sublimity, she reveals herself as the creative force of the universe --
before all time, eternal, ever active, she calls to life all 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 modeled 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 can not 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 distribution 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 confounded 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.
p 56
The higher the point of view, the greater is the necessity for a systematic
mode of treating the subject in language at once animated 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 reaction 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 spontaneously 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 phenomena 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.
This material taken from pages 56 to 78
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1
by Alexander von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
--------------------------------------------------
p 56
LIMITS AND METHOD OF EXPOSITION OF THE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE.
I HAVE endeavored, in the preceding part of my work, to explain and
illustrate, by various examples, how the enjoyments presented by the aspect
of nature, varying as they do in the sources from when they flow, may be
multiplied and ennobled by an acquaintance with the connection of phenomena
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 accordance with the views I have acquired in the course
of my studies and travels in various parts of the earth. I trust I may
flatter myself with a hope that a treatise of this nature will justify the
title I have ventured to adopt for my work, and exonerate me from the
reproach of a presumption that would be doubly reprehensible in a scientific
discussion.
Before entering upon the delineation of the partial phenomena
p 57
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 intellectual advancement. Under this
head will be comprised the following considerations:
1. The precise limits of the physical description of the universe,
considered as a distinct science.
2. A brief enumeration of the totality of natural phenomena, 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 toward the study of
natural science, by giving animation to the description of distant regions
and to the delineation of natural scenery, as far as it is characterized by
vegetable 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 progressive
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 circumscribe 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 substances or forces -- that is, all
the material beings that constitute the universe. The science which I would
attempt to define presents itself, therefore, to man, as the inhabitant of
the earth, under a two-fold 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 comparative geography', that I will pause for
a few moments to consider that portion of the science of the Cosmos which
concerns the earth. As the history of philosophy does not consist 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 compilation 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
p 58
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 signification in
those classical languages of antiquity from thish chey 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
reciprocal limitation. Such is the influence of long habit upon language,
that by one of the nations of Europe most advanced in civilization the word
"physic" is applied to medicine, while 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
Freiburg, toward the close of the fifteenth century, to Lord Bacon, and from
Bacon to D'Alembert; and in recent times to an eminent physicist, Andre
Marie Ampere.**
[footnote] *The 'Margarita Philosophica' of Gregory Reisch, prior of the
Chartreuse at Freiburg, first appeared under the following title: Aepitome
omnis Philosophiæ, 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 Freiburg edition
of the same year, as well as in the twelve subsequent editions, which
succeeded one another, at short intervals, till 1535. This work exercised a
great influence on the diffusion of mathematical and physical sciences
toward the beginning of the sixteenth century, and Crasles, the learned
author of 'L'Aperçu Historique des Methodes en Géometrica' (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 Waldseemuller), the first who
gave the name of America to the New Continent, and those of Amerigo
Vespucci, Rene, 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 Gegraphie du Nouveau Continent, et des Progres de
l'Astronomie Nautique aux 15e et 16e Siecles', t. iv., p. 99-125.
[footnote] II Ampère, 'Essai sur la Phil. des Sciences', 1834, p. 25.
Whewell, 'Philosophy of the Inductive Sciences', vol. ii., p. 277. Park,
'Pantology', p. 87.
p 59
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 universe as an object
of the external senses, does undoubtedly require the aid of general physics
and of descriptive natural history, but thecontemplation of all created
things, which are linked together, and form one 'whole', animated by
internal forces, given to the science we are considering a peculiar
character. Phyical 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,* all the
phenomena of nature are considered as depending upon the primitive and vital
action of one sole force, from which emaate all the movements of the
universe.
[footnote] * All changes in the physical world may be reduced to motion.
Aristot., 'Phys. Ausc.', iii., 1 and 4, p. 200, 201. Bekker, viii., 1, 8,
and 9, p. 250, 262, 265. 'De Genere et Corr.', ii., 10, p. 336.
Pseudo-Aristot., 'De Mundo.' cap. vi., p. 398.
The terrestrial portion of physical cosmography, for which I would willingly
retain the expressive designation of 'physical geography', treats of the
distribution of magnetism in our planet with relation to its intensity and
direction, but does not enter into a consideration of the laws of attraction
or repulsion of the poles, or the means of eliciting either permanent or
transitory electro-magnetic 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 powerful influence on the
diversity of climate and the meteorological modifications of the atmosphere;
this science defines the character of mountain chains, which, having been
elevated at different 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 center 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 inclining them at
various angles; it
p 60
considers volcanoes either as isolated, or ranged in single or in double
series, and extending their sphere of action to various distances, either by
raising 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 direction of their inclination correspond to the
configuration of the table-land. It is only the general results of
comparative 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 falliing 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 zones of our
planet, and to its physical constitution generally. The specialties both of
inorganic and organized matter, classed according to analogy of form and
composition, undoubtedly 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 descriptive 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
p 61
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 luxuriance of growth of the
vegetable forms predominating in the general mass. The catalogues of
organized beings to which was formerly given the pompous title of 'Systems
of Nature', present us with an admirably connected arrangement by analogies
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 developed
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 in groups 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 have
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 special 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 progressive 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 organized bodies which embellish creation are considered rather according
to 'zones of habitation' or 'stations', and to differently inflected
'isothermal bands', than with reference to the principles of gradation in
the development of internal organism. Notwithstanding this, botany and
zoology, which constitute
p 62
the descriptive natural history of all organized 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.
We will 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 -- Graminae and Orchideae, Coniferae and oaks, in local
approximation to one another; while natural families and genera, instead of
being locally associated, are dispersed as if by chance. This dispersion
is, however, only apparent. The physical description of the globe teaches
us that vegetation every where 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 neighboring one
by other species of the same family; and that this 'law of substitution',
which seems to depend upon some inherent mysteries 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 revealed in the multiplicity of the distinct organizations 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 composition, and those attractions that are not determined solely
by the relations of mass, we must admit that the description of the earth
comprises at
p 63
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,* and which, being differently modified by
electricity, heat, condensation in porous bodies, or by the contact of an
intermediate substance, animate equally the inorganic world and animal and
vegetable tissues.
[footnote] * On the question already discussed by Newton, regarding the
difference existing between the attraction of masses and molecular
attraction, see Laplace, 'Exposition du Systeme du Monde', p. 384, and
supplement to book x. of the 'Mecanique Celeste', p. 3, 4; Kant, 'Metaph.
Anfangegrunde der Naturwissenschaft, Säm. Werke', 1839, bd. v., s. 309
(Metaphysical Principles of the Natural Sciences); Pectet, 'Physique', 1838,
vol. i., p. 59-63.
If we except the small asteroids, which appear to us under the forms of
aerolites and shooting stars, the regions of space have hitherto presented
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 of 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
hererogeneous 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 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
aerolites or meteoric stones, which, as we have already observed, enter
within the limits of our terrestrial 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
p 64
they are small celestial bodies, which, being attracted by our planet, are
made to deviate from their original course, and thus reach the earth
enveloped in vapors, 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 conclusion to be drawn
from these facts is that, in general, planets and other sidereal masses,
which by the influence of a central body, have been agglomerated into rings
of vapor, and subsequently into spheroids, being integrant parts of the same
system, and having one common origin, may likewise be composed of substances
chemically identical.
[footnote] I[The analysis of an aerolite which fell a few years since in
Maryland, United States, and was examined by Professor Silliman, of New
Haven, Connecticut, gave the following results: Oxyd of iron, 24; oxyd of
nickel, 1.25; silica, with earthy matter, 3.46; sulphur, a trace - 28.71.
Dr. Mantell's 'Wonders of Geology', 1848, vol. i., p. 51.] -- 'Tr.'
Again, experiments 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 aerolites) experience a perfectly similar
degree of acceleration 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 Enck'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.*
[footnote] *Poisson, 'Connaissances des Temps pour l'Anne' 1836, p. 64-66.
Bessel, Poggendorf's 'Annalen', bd. xxv., s. 417. Encke, 'Abhandlungen der
Berliner Academie' (Trans. of the Berlin Academy), 1826, s. 257.
Mitscherlich, 'Lehrbuch der Chemie' (Manual of Chemistry), 1837 bd. i. s.
352.
This absence of any perceptible difference in the nature of matter, alike
proved by direct observation and theoretical deductions, imparts a high
degree of simplicity to the mechanism of the heavens. The immeasurable
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
p 65
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 can not boast of the
same certainty and simplicity in the exposition of facts and their mutual
connection which characterize the celestial portion of 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
among the Greeks, directed the natural philosophy of the Pythagoreans with
more ardor to the heavenly bodies and the regions of space than to the earth
and its productions, and how through Philolaus, and subsequently through the
analogous views of Aristarchus of Samos, and of Seleucus of Erythrea, this
science has been made more conducive to the attainment of a knowledge of the
true system of the world than the natural philosophy of the Ionian school
could ever be to the physical history of the earth. Giving but little
attention to the properties and specific differences of matter filling
space, the great Italian school, in its Doric gravity, turned by preference
toward all that relates to measure, to the form of bodies, and to the number
and distances of the planets,* while the Ionian physicists directed their
attention to the qualities of matter, its true or supposed metamorphoses,
and to relations of origin.
[footnote] *Compare Otfried Muller's 'Dorien', bd. i., s. 365.
It was reserved for the powerful genius of Aristotle, alike profoundly
speculative and practical to sound with equal success the depths of
abstraction and the inexhaustible resources of vital activity pervading the
material world.
Several 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 must, therefore, begin with the description of
the heavenly bodies,
p 66
and with a geographical sketch of the universe, or, I would rather say, a
true 'map of th 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
disproportion in the extent of our knowledge of that which is accessible and
of that which is closed to our observation. This subordination 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.
[Footnote] *'Geographia Generalis in qua affectiones generales telluris
explicantur.' The oldest Elzevir edition bears date 1650, the second 1672,
and the third 1681; these were published at Cambridge, under Newton'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 center of vast commercial relations,
had brought him in contact with a great number of well-iinformed travelers.
'Generalis sive Universalis Geographia dictur quae tellurem in genere
considerat atque affectiones explicat, non habita particularium regionum
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 himself ('Geographia
Comparativa', cap. xxxiii.-xl.), although this must be understood in a
limited acceptation. We may cite the following among 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 (p. 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 neighboring 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. 139); the direction of the winds as the
result of differences of temperature, etc. We may further instance the
remarkable considerations 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 Verde and the island
of Fernando Po in the Gulf of Guinea. Varenius explains the formation of
sporadic islands by supposing them to be "the raised bottom of the sea:"
'magna spirituum inclusorum vi, sicut aliquando 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 Cambridge 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 birth-place of Varenius. Jaecher says it was
England, while, according to 'La Biographie Universelle' (b.xlvii., 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
burned and completely destroyed during a long war," words which appear to
apply to the north of Germany, and to the devastations of the Thirty Years'
War. In his dedication of another work, 'Descriptio regni Japoniae' (Amst.,
1649), to the Senate of Hamburgh, Varenius says that he prosecuted 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. xlvi., 1745, p. 187).
p 67
He was the first to distinguish between 'general and special geography', the
former of which he subdivides into an 'absolute', or, properly speaking,
'terrestrial' part, and a 'relative or planetary' portion, according 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
skillful hand of Carl Ritter.*
[Footnote] *Carl Ritter's 'Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und zur
Geschichte des Menschen, oder allgemeine vergleichende Geographie'
(Geography in relation to Nature and the History of Man, or general
Comparative Geography).
The enumeration of the most important results of the astronomical and
physical sciences which in the history of the Cosmos radiate toward 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
p 68
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 indiscriminantely, have been
modeled upon those of 'physical descriptions 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 hiimself by special studies,
including even that of human anatomy. The uncommon, 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 all things with which space is filled, from the remotest
nebulae to the climatic distribution of those delicate tissues of vegetable
matter which spread a variegated covering over the surface of our rocks.
The influence of narrow-minded views peculiar to the earlier ages of
civilization led in all languages to a confusion of ideas in the synonymic
use of the words 'earth' and 'world', while 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
expressions of 'system of the world', 'the planetary world', and 'creation
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.
It was natural that, in the midst of the extreme variability of phenomena
presented by the surface of our globe, and the aerial ocean by which it is
surrounded, man should have been impressed by the aspect of the vault of
heaven, and the uniform and regular movements of the sun and planets. Thus
the word Cosmos, which primitively, in the Homeric 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
Philolaus, whose fragmentary works have been so ably commented upon by
Böckh, and conformably to the general testimony
p 69
of antiquity, Pythagoras was the first who used the word Cosmos to designate
the order that reigns in the universe, or entire world.*
[footnote] *[Greek word], in the most ancient, and at the same time most
precise, definition of the word, signified 'ornament' (as an adornment for a
man, a woman, or a horse); taken figuratively for [Greek word], it implied
the order or adornment of a discourse. According to the testimony of all
the ancients, it was Pythagoras who first used the word to designate the
order 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 Philolaus (Stob.,
'Eclog.', p. 360 and 460, Heeren), p. 62, 90, in Bockh's German edition. I
do not, according to the example of Nake, cite Timof Locris, since his
authenticity is doubtful. Plutarch ('De plac. Phil.', ii., I) says, in the
most express manner, that Pythatoras 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 schools 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
'Timus' (p. 30 a.) he says 'that the world is an animal endowed with a soul'
[Greek words]. Compare Anaxag. Claz., ed. Schaubach, p. III, and Plut.
('De plac. Phil.', in Aristotle ('De Caelo', I, 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., w, 1, and I., 3, 13, p. 339, 'a', and 340, 'b',
Bekk.) The definition of Cosmos, which I have already cited is taken from
Pseudo-Aristoteles 'de Mundo', cap. ii. (p. 391); the passage referred to is
as follows: [Greek words]. 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, p.
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, p. 9, 15; and, finally in Theophilus
Schmidt, 'ad Cleom. Cycl. Theor.', met. I., 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 immensity of space,
and each composed of a sun and a moon. (Anax. Claz., 'Fragm.', p. 89, 93,
120; Brandis, 'Gesch. der Griechisch-Römischen Philosophie', b. i., s. 252
(History of the Greco-Roman Philosophy). Each of these groups forming thus
a 'Cosmos', the universe, [Greek words], 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. Bockh has made known
inscriptions in praise of Trajan and Adrian ('Corpus Inscr. Graec.', I, n.
334 and 1036), in which [Greek word] occurs for [Greek word] 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
p 70 [Footnote continues]
into three parts, the 'Olympus, Cosmos' and 'Ouranos' (Stob., i., p. 488;
Philolaus, p. 95, 303); this division applies to the different regions
surrounding that mysterious focus of the universe, the [Greek words] of the
Pythagoreans. In the fragmentary passage in which this division is found,
the term [Greek word] 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 conceptions entertained of the universe,
exclusively termed 'Cosmos', while 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 done, 'Etymol. Forschungen', th.i., s. 39
and 252 ('Etymol. Researches'), the word [Greek word] from the Sanscrit
root 'sud', 'purificari', by assuming two conditions; first that the Greek
letter 'kappa' in [Greek word] comes from the palatial 'epsilon', which Bopp
represents by 's' and Pott by 'ç' (in the same manner as [Greek word],
'decem, taihun' in Gothic, comes from the Indian word 'dasan'), and, next,
that the Indian 'd'' corresponds, as a general rule, with the Greek 'theta'
('Vergleichende Grammatik' 99 -- Comparative Grammar), which shows the
relation of [Greek word] (for [Greek word]) with the Sanscrit root 'sud',
whence is also derived [Greek word]. Another Indian term for the world is
'gagat' (pronounced 'dschagat'), which is, properly speaking the present
participle of the verb 'gagami' (I go), the root of which is 'ga.' In
restricting ourselves to the circle of Hellenic etymologies, we find
('Etymol. M.', p. 532, 12) that [Greek word] is intimately associated with
[Greek word] or rather with [Greek word], whence we have [Greek word] or
[Greek word] Welcker ('Eine Kretische Col in Theben', s. 23 -- A Cretan
Colony in Thebes) combines with this the name [Greek word] , as in Hesychius
[Greek word] signifies a Cretan suit of arms. When the scientific language
of Greece was introduced among the Romans, the word 'mundus', which at first
had only the primary meaning of [Greek word] (female ornament), was applied
to designate the entire universe. Ennius seems to have been the first who
ventured upon this innovation. In one of the fragments of this poet,
preserved by Macrobius, on the occasion of his quarrel with Virgil, we find
the word used in its novel mode of acceptation: "Mundus caeli vastus
constitit silentio" (Sat., vi., 2). Cicero also says, "Quem nos lucentem
mundum vocamus" (Timæus, 'S.de univer.', cap. x.) The Sanscrit root 'mand'
from which Pott derives the Latin 'mundus' ('Etym. Forsch.', th. i., s.
240), combines the double signification of shining and adorning. 'Loka'
designates in Sanscrit the world and people in general, in the same manner
as the French word 'monde', and is derived according to Bopp, from 'lok' (to
see and shine); it is the same with the Slavonic root 'swjet', which means
both 'light' and 'world.' (Grimm, 'Deutsche Gramm.', b. iii., s. 394 --
German Grammar.) The word 'welt', which the Germans make use of at the
present day, and which was 'weralt' in old German, 'worold' in old Saxon,
and 'weruld' in Anglo-Saxon, was, according to James Grimm's interpretation,
a period of time, an age ('saeculum') rather than a term used for the world
in space. The Etruscans figured to themselves 'mundus' as an inverted dome,
symmetrically opposed to the celestial vault (Otfried Muller's 'Etrusken',
th. ii., s. 96, etc.). Taken in a still more limited sense, the word
appears to have signified among the Goths the terrestrial surface girded by
seas ('marei, meri',) the 'merigard', literally, 'garden of seas.'
From the Italian school of philosophy, the expression passed, in this
signification, into the language of those early poets
p 71
of nature, Parmenides and Empedocles, and from thence into the works of
prose writers. We will not here enter into a discussion of the manner in
which, according to the Pythagorean views, Philolaus distinguishes between
Olympus, Uranus, or the heavens, and Cosmos, or how the same word, used in a
plural sense, could be applied to certain heavenly bodies (the planets)
revolving round one central focus of the world, or to groups of stars. In
this work I use the word Cosmos in conformity with the Hellenic usage of the
term subsequently to the time of Pythagorus, and in accordance with the
precise definition given of it in the treatise entitled 'De Mundo', which
was long erroneously attributed to Aristotle. It is the assemblage of all
things in heaven and earth, the universality of created things constituting
the perceptible world. If scientific terms had not long been diverted from
their true verbal signification, the present work ought rather to have borne
the title of 'Cosmography', divided into 'Uranography' and 'Geography.' The
Romans, in their feeble essays on philosophy, imitated the Greeks by
applying to the universe the term 'mundus', which, in its primary meaning,
indicated nothing more than ornament, and did not even imply order or
regularity in the disposition of parts. It is probable that the
introduction into the language of Latium of this technical term as an
equivalent for Cosmos, in its double signification, is due to Ennius,* who
was a follower of the Italian school, and the translator of the writings of
Epicharmus and some of his pupils on the Pythagorean philosophy.
[footnote] *See, on Ennius, the ingenious researches of Leopold Krahner, in
his 'Grundlinien zur Geschichte des Verfalls der Romischen Staats-Reigion',
1837, s. 41-45 (Outlines of the History of the Decay of the Established
Religion among the Romans). In all probability, Ennius did not quote from
writings of Epicharmus himself, but from poems composed in the name of that
philosopher, and in accordance with his views.
We would first distinguish between the physical 'history' and the physical
'description' of the world. The former, conceived in the most general sense
of the word, ought, if materials for writing it existed, to trace the
variations experienced by the universe in the course of ages from the new
stars which have suddenly appeared and disappeared in the vault of heaven,
from nebulæ dissolving or condensing -- to the first stratum of cryptogamic
vegetation on the still imperfectly cooled surface of the earth, or on a
reef of coral uplifted from the depths of ocean. 'The physical description
of the world' presents a picture of all that exists in space -- of the
siimultaneous action of
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natural forces, together with the phenomena which they produce.
But if we would correctly comprehend nature, we must not entirely or
absolutely separate the consideration of the present state of things from
that of the successive phases through which they have passed. We can not
form a just conception of their nature without looking back on the mode of
their formation. It is not organic matter alone that is continually
undergoing change, and being dissolved to form new combinations. The globe
itself reveals at every phase of its existence the mystery of its former
conditions.
We can not survey the crust of our planet without recognizing the traces of
the prior existence and destruction of an organic world. The sedimentary
rocks present a succession of organic forms, associated in groups, which
have successively displaced and succeeded each other. The different
super-imposed strata thus display to us the faunas and floras of different
epochs. In this sense the description of nature is intimately connected
with its history; and the geologist, who is guided by the connection
existing among the facts observed, can not form a conception of the present
without pursuing, through countless ages, the history of the past. In
tracing the physical delineation of the globe, we behold the present and the
past reciprocally incorporated, as it were, with one another; for the domain
of nature is like that of languages, in which etymological research reveals
a successive development, by showing us the primary condition of an idiom
reflected in the forms of speech in use at the present day. The study of
the material world renders this reflection of the past peculiarly manifest,
by displaying in the process of formation rocks of eruption and sedimentary
strata similar to those of former ages. If I may be allowed to borrow a
striking illustration from the geological relations by which the physiognomy
of a country is determined, I would say that domes of trachyte, cones of
basalt, lava streams ('coules')of amygdaloid with elongated and parallel
pores, and white deposits of pumice, intermixed with black scoriae, animate
the scenery by the associations of the past which they awaken, acting upon
the imagination of the enlightened observer like traditional records of an
earlier world. Their form is their history.
The sense in which the Greeks and Romans originally employed the word
'history' proves that they too were intimately convinced that, to form a
complete idea of the present state of the universe, it was necessary to
consider it in its successive
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phases. It is not, however, in the definition given by Valerius Flaccus,*
but in the zoological writings of Aristotle, that the word 'history'
presents itself as an exposition of the results of experience and
observation.
[Footnote] *Aul. Gell., 'Nect. Att.', v., 18.
The physical description of the word by Pliny the elder bears the title of
'Natural History', while in the letters of his nephew it is designated by
the nobler term of 'History of Nature.' The earlier Greek historians did
not separate the description of countries from the narrative of events of
which they had been the theater. With these writers, physical geography and
history were long intimately associated, and remained simply but elegantly
blended until the period of the development of political interests, when the
agitation in which the lives of men were passed caused the geographical
portion to be banished from the history of nations, and raised into an
independent science.
It remains to be considered whether by the operation of thought, we may hope
to reduce the immense diversity of phenomena comprised by the Cosmos to the
unity of a principle, and the evidence afforded by rational truths. In the
present state of empirical knowledge, we can scarcely flatter ourselves with
such a hope. Experimental sciences, based on the observation of the
external world, can not aspire to completeness; the nature of things, and
the imperfection of our organs, are alike opposed to it. We shall never
succeed in exhausting the immeasurable riches of nature; and no generation
of men will ever have cause to boast of having comprehended the total
aggregation of phenomena. It is only by distributing them into groups that
we have been able, in the case of a few, to discover the empire of certain
natural laws, grand and simple as nature itself. The extent of this empire
will no doubt increase in proportion as physical sciences are more perfectly
developed. Striking proofs of this advancement have been made manifest in
our own day, in the phenomena of electro-magnetism, the propagation of
luminous waves and radiating heat. In the same manner, the fruitful
doctrine of evolution shows us how, in organic development, all that is
formed is sketched out beforehand, and how the tissues of vegetable and
animal matter uniformly arise from the multiplication and transformation of
cells.
The generalization of laws, which, being at first bounded by narrow limits,
had been applied solely to isolated groups of phenomena, acquires in time
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