254« DR. CARUS ON THE KINGDOMS OF NATURE, ETC. 



connected with the lowest, and the human organization itself falls at last 

 into inorganic dust, the form and culture of the land, the course of the 

 rivers, vegetation, and population, along with different animal species, 

 are in various ways changed by the activity of man. If therefore we 

 compare the condition of countries which have once flourished and 

 exhibited the activity of human industry, with the desert state which 

 they now present, when, after the fall of these nations, they are deprived 

 of the care and culture of man, we shall be convinced that, as a mo- 

 dern writer* expresses himself on this subject, " Not only does man 

 need the earth in order to live and be active, but the earth also stands 

 in need of man" 



We may hope now to have attained the object of the present essay, 

 if, by throwing some new light upon certain aspects of infinite nature 

 which have hitherto remained less observed, we have awakened a new 

 attention to the indissoluble union as well as the beauty and regularity 

 of the phsenomena surrounding man and existing within him ; and as 

 the contemplation of these must necessarily stimulate us, not only to 

 penetrate more deeply into the mysteries of science, but also to conform 

 our own inward life to that harmony and purity which are presented 

 by universal nature ; for what would be the value of all scientific 

 knowledge, did it not manifest itself in ennobling and elevating the 

 human mind ? 



• T. F. Koreff, De Regionibits Italiee aere pernicioso contaminatis Observa- 

 tiones. Berol. 1817. 4. 



NOTE, 



[In some of his reasonings the Author will, perhaps, be thought to 

 deal with abstract terms as if they were real essences, or to employ them 

 in a sense somewhat peculiar. Whatever diflference of opinion may, 

 however, exist with regard to the speculative parts of this memoir, it 

 will, it is presumed, be acceptable and interesting to many readers, as 

 showing the manner in which physiological subjects are viewed by 

 some distinguished writers on the Continent. — Edit.] 



