INTRODUCTION. 



13 



WNivERsE. The latter of these titles is fashion- 

 ed from the former. But it is the history of 

 the universe, or the doctrine of Cosmos, as I 

 conceive it ; by no means an encyclopaedic ex- 

 position of the most general and important re- 

 sults derived from particular natural historical, 

 natural philosophical, and astronomical books. 

 Such results will only be introduced incidental- 

 ly into my description, and be used as mate- 

 rials only in so far as they illustrate the con- 

 nection and co-operation of the forces of the 

 universe, the production and limitation of nat- 

 ural phenomena. The study of the distribu- 

 tion of organic types according to soil and cli- 

 mate, the geography of plants and animals, is 

 as dissimilar from descriptive botany and zo- 

 ology, as geological knowledge of the crust of 

 the Earth is different from oryctognosy. A 

 physical history of the universe, consequently, 

 must not be confounded with an encyclopaedia 

 of the natural sciences. In our survey of the 

 Universe, the Individual will only be regarded 

 in its relations to the General, and the higher 

 the point of outlook now indicated is assumed, 

 the more will this survey be made susceptible 

 of especial treatment, and of interesting dis- 

 cussion. 



Thought and Language, however, stand in 

 most intimate and old relationship to one an- 

 other. When speech adds grace and clearness 

 to ideas, when its picturesqueness of derivation 

 and organic structure favour our efforts sharp- 

 ly to define natural phenomena as a whole, it 

 scarcely fails at the same time, and almost un- 

 consciously to us, to infuse its animating pow- 

 er into the fulness of thought itself The word 

 is, therefore, more than the mere sign and form, 

 and its mysterious influence still reveals itself 

 most strikingly where it springs among free- 

 minded communities, and attains its growth 

 upon native soils. Proud of our fatherland, 

 whose intellectual unity is the prop and stay of 

 every manifestation of mental power, we turn 

 our eyes with joy upon this privilege of our na- 

 tive country. Highly-favoured, indeed, may 

 we call him who draws, in his accounts of the 

 phenomena of creation, from the depths of a 

 language, which, through the force aad unfet- 

 tered application of intellect, in the regions 

 of creative fancy, no less than in those of 

 searching reason, has for centuries influenced 

 so powerfully all that affects the deitinies of 



