70 COSMOS. 



revolution. Of this impeding, etherial, and cosmical matter, 

 it may be supposed that it is in motion ; that it gravitates not- 

 withstanding its original tenuity ; that it is condensed in the 

 vicinity of the great mass of the Sun ; and finally, that it may, 

 for myriads of ages, have been augmented bv the vapour 

 emanating from the tails of comets. 



If we now pass from the consideration of tne vaporous 

 matter of the immeasurable regions of space (ovpavov ^oproy)^ 

 whether, scattered without definite form and limits, it exists 

 as a cosmical ether, or is condensed into nebulous spots and 

 becomes comprised among the solid agglomerated bodies of 

 the universe we approach a class of phenomena exclusively 

 designated by the term of stars, or as the sidereal world. 

 Here, too, we find differences existing in the solidity or den- 

 sity of the spheroidally agglomerated matter. Our own solar 

 system presents all stages of mean density (or of the relation 

 of volume to mass}. On comparing the planets from Mercury 

 to Mars with the Sun and with Jupiter, and these two last 

 named with the yet inferior density of Saturn, we arrive, by a 

 descending scale, to draw our illustration from terrestrial 

 substances, at the respective densities of antimony, honey, 

 water, and pine wood. In comets, which actually constitute 

 the most considerable portion of our solar system with respect 

 to the number of individual forms, the concentrated part, 

 usually termed the head, or nucleus, transmits sidereal light 

 unimpaired. The mass of a comet probably in no case equals 

 the five thousandth part of that of the earth, so dissimilar are 



* I should have made use, in the place of garden of the uni verge, of 

 the beautiful expression \oproQ ovpavov, borrowed by Hesychius fr om an 

 unknown poet, if %opro had not rather signified in general an en closed 

 space. The connexion with the German Garten, and the English gar- 

 den, gards in Gothic (derived, according to Jacob Grimm, from gair- 

 dan, to gird), is, however, evident, as is likewise the affinity with 

 the Sclavonic grad, gorod, and as Pott remarks, in his EtymoL For- 

 schungen, th. i. s. 144 (Etymol. Eesearches), with the Latin chors, 

 whence we have the Spanish corte, the French cour, and the English word 

 court, together with the Ossetic khart. To these may be further added 

 the Scandinavian gard*, gdrd, a place enclosed, as a court, or a country 

 seat, and the Persian gerd, gird, a district, a circle, a princely country- 

 seat, a castle or city, as we find the term applied to the names of places 

 in Firdusi's Schahnameh, as SiyawaTcscligird, Darabgird, &c. 



[This word is written gaard in the Danish.] Tr. 



