348 



COSMOS. 



The idea of vitality is so intimately associated with the idea 

 of the existence of the active ever blending natural forces which 

 animate the terrestrial sphere, that the creation of plants and 

 animals is ascribed in the most ancient mythical representa- 

 tions of many nations to these forces, whilst the condition of 

 the surface of our planet, before it was animated by vital 

 forms, is regarded as coeval with the epoch of a chaotic con- 

 flict of the struggling elements. But the empirical domain 

 of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet 

 in its present condition, do not include a consideration 

 of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and 

 existence. 



A cosmical history of the universe, resting upon facts as its 

 basis, has, from the nature and limitations of its sphere, neces- 

 sarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a 

 history of organisms* if we understand the word history in its 



* The history of plants, which Endlicher and linger have described 

 in a most masterly manner (Orundzuge der Botanik, 1843, s. 449-468), 

 I myself separated from the geography of plants, half a century ago. 

 In the aphorisms appended to my Subterranean Flora, the following 

 passage occurs : " Geognosia naturam animantem et inanimam vel, ut 

 vocabulo minus apto, ex antiquitate saltern hand petito, utar, corpora 

 organica seque ac inorgahica considerat. Sunt enim tria quibus absol- 

 vitur capita : Geographia oryctologica qu'am simpliciter Geognosiam vel 

 Geologiam dicunt, virque acutissimus Wernerus egregie digessit ; Geo- 

 graphia zoologica, cujus doctrinse fundamenta Zimmermannus et 

 Treviranus jecerunt; et Geographia plantarum quam aequales nostri 

 diu intactam reliquerunt. Geographia plantarum vincula et cognatio- 

 nem tradit, quibus omnia vegetabilia inter se connexa sint, terras 

 tractus quos teneant, in aerem atmosphaericum quae sit eorum vis osten- 

 dit, saxa atque rupes quibus potissimum algarum primordiis radici- 

 busque destruantur docet, et quo pacto in telluris superficie humus 

 nascatur, commemorat. Est itaque quod difierat intei Geognosiam et 

 Physiographiam, historia naturalis perperam nuncupatam quum Zoo- 

 gnosia, Phytognosia, et Oryctognosia, quae quidem omnes in naturae 

 investigatione versantur, non >nisi singulorum animalium, plantarum, 

 rerum metallicarum vel (venia sit verbo) fossilium fonnas, anatomen, 

 vires scrutantur. Historia Telluris, Geognosiae magis quam Physiogra- 

 phiae affinis, nemini adhuc tentata, plantarum animaliumque genera 

 orbem inhabitantia primaevum, migrationes eorum compluriurnque 

 interitum, ortum quern montes, valles, saxorum strata et venae metalli- 

 ferae ducunt, aerem, mutatis temporum vicibus, modo purum, modo 

 vitiatum, terrae superficiem humo plantisque paulatim obtectam, flumi- 

 num inundantium irnpetu decuo nudatam, iterumque siccatam et gra- 

 mine vestitam couimemorat. Igitur Historia zoologica, Historia planta- 



