INTRODUCTION. 



nances this idea, in the stirring times in which 

 we live, very certainly misunderstands the joys 

 of that higher intelligence which is the appa- 

 nage of the general progress of human society — 

 of that tendency of the mind which resolves 

 multiplicity into unity, and loves especially to 

 dwell with the General and the Exalted. To 

 taste, to enjoy this Exalted, it is imperative 

 that the individualities which have been the 

 prize of the carefully cultivated field of special 

 natural forms and natural phenomena be care- 

 fully kept in the background ; he who has him- 

 self most clearly seen their importance, and 

 whom they have most safely led to loftier 

 views, must more especially hold them in re- 

 serve. 



To the groundless fears for the loss of an 

 unfettered enjoyment of nature, under the in- 

 fluence of reflective surveys, or scientific scru- 

 tinies of her domains, may be associated those 

 which are derived from alarm lest a due meas- 

 ure of this knowledge, or an adequate concep- 

 tion of its bearings, prove unattainable to the 

 mass of mankind. In the wonderful tissues of 

 organized beings, in the eternal tendencies and 

 workings of the living powers, each new and 

 deeper inquiry seems but to lead to the en- 

 trance into a new labyrinth. But this very 

 multiplicity of untrodden and intricate paths 

 excites a kind of joyful amazement on each 

 successive grade of science. Each natural law 

 which reveals itself to the observer leads to 

 the inference of one yet higher and unknown ; 

 for Nature, as Carus well says("), and as the 

 word itself was understood by the ancient 

 Greeks and Romans, " is the Ever-becoming, 

 the Ever-engaged in fashioning and evolving." 

 The circle of organic types extends the wider 

 the more the earth is searched over, in travels 

 by land and voyages by sea ; the more living 

 organic forms are compared with the remains 

 of those that are extinct, the more the micro- 

 scope is improved, and adds to the empire of 

 the eye. In the multiplicity and changes of 

 organic forms, in consonance with climatic in- 

 fluences, the prime mystery of all formation is 

 incessantly reproduced ; it is the problem of 

 metamorphosis, so happily developed by Go- 

 ethe, upon the grandest scale, and proclaims 

 the necessity for an ideal reference of organic 

 forms at large to certain elementary types. 

 With an extension of knowledge, the feeling 

 o* the immeasurableness of the life of nature 

 IS still increased, and we perceive that, neither 

 in the solid crust of the globe, nor in the aerial 

 covering that invests the solid, neither in the 

 depths of the ocean, nor in the depths of heav- 

 en, will the bold scientific conqueror(") lack 

 scope for his inquiries for thousands of years 

 to come. 



General views of the Fashioned, be it matter 

 aggregated into the farthest stars of heaven, 

 be it the phenomena of earthly things at hand, 

 are not merely more attractive and elevating 

 than the special studies which embrace partic- 

 ular portions of natural science ; they further 

 recommend themselves peculiarly to those who 

 have little leisure to bestow on occupation of 

 the latter kind. The descriptive natural scien- 

 ces are mostly adapted to particular circum- 

 stances : they are not equally attractive at ev- 

 ery season of the year, in every country, or in 



every district we inhabit. The immediate in- 

 spection of natural objects, which they require, 

 we must often forego, either for long years, or 

 always in these northern latitudes ; and if our 

 attention be limited to a determinate class of 

 objects, the most graphic accounts of the trav- 

 elling naturalist afford us little pleasure if the 

 particular matters, which have been the spe- 

 cial subjects of our studies, chance to be pass- 

 ed over without notice. 



As universal history, when it succeeds in ex- 

 posing the true causal connection of events, 

 solves many enigmas in the fate of nations, and 

 explains the varying phases of their intellectu- 

 al progress — why it was now impeded, now ac- 

 celerated — so must a physical history of crea- 

 tion, happily conceived, and executed with a 

 due knowledge of the state of discovery, re- 

 move a portion of the contradictions which the 

 warring forces of nature present, at first sight, 

 in their aggregate operations. General views 

 raise our conceptions of the dignity and gran- 

 deur of nature ; and have a peculiarly enlighten- 

 ing and composing influence on the spirit ; for 

 they strive simultaneously to adjust the con- 

 tentions of the elements by the discovery of 

 universal laws, laws that reign in the most del- 

 icate textures which meet us on earth, no less 

 than in the Archipelagos of thickly clustered 

 nebulae which we see in heaven, and even in 

 the awful depths of space — those wastes with- 

 out a world. General views accustom us to 

 regard each organic form as a portion of a 

 whole ; to see in the plant and in the animal 

 less the individual or dissevered kind, than the 

 natural form, inseparably linked with the ag- 

 gregate of organic forms. General views give 

 an irresistible charm to the assurance we have 

 from the late voyages of discovery undertaken 

 towards either pole, and sent from the stations 

 now fixed under almost every parallel of lati- 

 tude, of the almost simultaneous occurrence of 

 magnetic disturbances or storms, and which 

 furnish us with a ready means of divining the 

 connection in which the results of later obser- 

 vation stand to phenomena recorded as having 

 occurred in bygone times ; general views en- 

 large our spiritual existence, and bring us, even 

 if we live in solitude and seclusion, into com- 

 munion with the whole circle of life and activ- 

 ity—with the earth, with the universe. 



Who — to select a particular instance from 

 the realms of space — who, that has paid any 

 attention to scientific events in the course of 

 the last few years, can perceive, without a gen- 

 eral knowledge of the ordinary orbits of com- 

 ets, how pregnant with results is Encke's dis- 

 covery, that a comet, which, in its elliptical or- 

 bit, never leaves our planetary system, reveals 

 the existence of a fluid controlling its centrifu- 

 gal force 1 With the recent spread of a kind 

 of half-education, which attracts scientific con- 

 clusions into the circle of social amusement 

 and conversation, but so commonly distorts 

 them, we have seen the old solicitude revived 

 about a collision between the heavenly bodies, 

 threatening danger or destruction to all, and 

 cosmic influences, in an altered and therefore 

 more deceitful guise, quoted to account for pre- 

 sumed deteriorations of climates, and the like. 

 Clear conceptions of nature, though they may 

 not be more than historical, preserve us from 



