742 COSMOS. 



If art may be said to dwell within the magic circle of the 

 imagination, the extension of knowledge, on the other hand, 

 especially depends on contact with the external world, and 

 this becomes more manifold and close in proportion with the 

 increase of general intercourse. The creation of new organs 

 (instruments of observation) increases the intellectual and 

 not unfrequently the physical powers of man. More rapid 

 than light the closed electric current conveys thought and 

 will to the remotest distance. Forces, whose silent operation 

 in elementary nature, and in the delicate cells of organic 

 tissues, still escape our senses, will, when recognised, 

 employed, and awakened to higher activity, at some future 

 time enter within the sphere of the endless chain of means 

 which enable man to subject to his control separate domains 

 of nature, and to approximate to a more animated recognition 

 of the Universe as a Whole. 



s. 152, th. ii. s. 76; Kunth, Lehrbuch der otatfc,th.i. 1847,8. 91-100, 

 and 505. 



