18 COSMOS. 



recognise 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 sub- 

 jects that may be comprehended in a single glance. Increased 

 mental cultivation has given rise, in all classes of society, to an 

 increased desire of embellishing life by augmenting the mass 

 of ideas, and by multiplying means for their generalization ; 

 and this sentiment fully refutes the vague accusations ad- 

 vanced against the age in which we live, showing that other 

 interests, besides the material wants of life, occupy the minds 

 of men. 



It is almost with reluctance that I am about to speak of a 

 sentiment, which appears to arise from narrow-minded views, 

 or from a certain weak and morbid sentimentality, I allude 

 to the fear entertained by some persons, that nature may by 

 degrees lose a portion of the charm and magic of her power, 

 as we learn more and more how to unveil her secrets, com- 

 prehend the mechanism of the movements of the heavenly 

 bodies, and estimate numerically the intensity of natural 

 forces. It is true that, properly speaking, the forces of 

 nature can only exercise a magical power over us, as long as 

 their action is shrouded in mystery and darkness, and does 

 not admit of being classed among the conditions with which 

 experience has made us acquainted. The effect of such a 

 power is, therefore, to excite the imagination, but that, assur- 

 edly, is not the faculty of mind we would evoke to preside 

 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 pla- 



* Arago's ocular micrometer, a happy improvement upon Rochon's 

 prismatic or double-refraction micrometer. See M. Mathieu's note in 

 Delambre's Histoire de I' Astronomic au dix-huitiSme Siecle, 1827. / 



