INTRODUCTION. 5 



the world-tree, Yggdrasil, whose branches tower above the 

 heavens, while one of its triple roots penetrates to the 

 " foaming cauldron springs" of the lower world. 6 Thus the 

 cloud-region of physical myths is filled with pleasing or 

 with fearful forms, according to the diversity of character 

 in nations and climates ; and these forms are preserved for 

 centuries in the intellectual domain of successive generations. 



If the present work does not fully bear out its title, the 

 adoption of which I have myself designated as bold and 

 inconsiderate, the charge of incompleteness applies especially 

 to that portion of the COSMOS which treats of spiritual life; 

 that is, the image reflected by external nature on the inner 

 world of thought and feeling. In this portion of my work 

 I have contented myself with dwelling more especially upon 

 those objects which lie in the direction of long-cherished 

 studies; on the manifestation of a more or less lively appre- 

 ciation of nature in classical antiquity and in modern times ; 

 on the fragments of poetical descriptions of nature, the 

 colouring of which has been so essentially influenced by indi- 

 viduality of national character, and the religious monotheistic 

 view of creation ; on the fascinating charm of landscape- 

 painting ; and on the history of the contemplation of the physi- 

 cal universe, that is, the history of the recognition of the uni- 

 verse as a whole, and of the unity of phenomena, a recognition 

 gradually developed during the course of two thousand years. 



In a work of so comprehensive a character, the object of 

 which is to give a scientific, and at the same time an animated 

 description of nature, a first imperfect attempt must rather 

 lay claim to the merit of inciting than to that of satisfying 



6 See, for the world-tree Yggdrasil, and the rushing (foam- 

 ing) cauldron- spring Hvergelmir, the Deutsche Mythologie 

 of Jacob Grimm, 1844, s. 530, 756; also Mallet's Northern 

 Antiquities, (Bohn's edition), 1847, pp. 410, 489, and 492, 

 and frontispiece to ditto. 



