COSMOS: 

 SKETCH OF A PHYSICAL HISTORY OP THE UNIVERSE. 



INTRODUCTION. 



THE VARIOUS SOURCES OF OUR ENJOYMENT IN THE 



CONTEMPLATION OF NATURE. THE SCIENTIFIC 



FOUNDATION OP THE LAWS THAT GOVERN THE 

 UNIVERSE.* 



In undertaking thus, after so long an absence 

 from my native country, to discourse with you 

 freely on the general physical phenomena of 

 our globe, and to develop the connection of 

 the forces which actuate the universe, I feel 

 myself oppressed with a two-fold difficulty. 

 On one hand, the subject I have to treat is so 

 vast, and the time allowed me is so short, that 

 I am fearful either of appearing superficial, or 

 else, generalizing over much, of proving tire- 

 some to you through aphoristic brevity. On 

 the other, the life of action I have led has pre- 

 pared me indifferently for the duty of a public 

 teacher ; so that, in the embarrassed state of 

 my mind, I fear I may not always succeed in 

 expressing myself with the clearness and pre- 

 cision which the vastness and the variety of 

 my subject require. But the realm of nature 

 is also the realm of freedom ; and to exhibit in 

 lively characters the ideas and emotions which 

 a true love of nature inspires, the language 

 must likewise move in harmony with the dig- 

 nity and freedom of the subject, and this it is 

 only given to high mastery to impart. 



He who regards the influences of the study 

 of nature in their relations not to particular 

 grades of civilization or the individual require- 

 ments of social life, but in their wider bearings 

 upon mankind at large, promises himself, as 

 the principal fruit of his researches, that the 

 enjoyment of nature will be increased and en- 

 nobled through insight into the connection of 

 her phenomena. Such increase, such nobility, 

 however, is the work of observation, of intelli- 

 gence, and of time, in which all the efforts of 

 the understanding of man are reflected. How 

 the human kind have been striving for thou- 

 sands of years, amidst eternally recurring chan- 

 ges in the forms of things, to discover that 

 which is stable in the law, and so gradually, 

 by the might of mind, to vanquish all within 

 the wide-spread orbit of the earth, is familiar 

 to him who has traced the trunk of our knowl- 

 edge through the thick strata of bygone ages to 

 its root. To question these ages is to trace the 

 mysterious course of the idea stamped with the 

 same image as that which, in times of remote 

 antiquity, presented itself to the inward sense 

 in the guise of an harmoniously ordered whole. 

 Cosmos, and which meets us at last as the prize 

 of long and carefully accumulated experience. 



* A Discourse delivered on opening the Course of Lec- 

 tures in the Great Hall of the Singing Academy of Berlin. 

 Many interpolations belong to a later period. 



In these two epochs in the contemplation 

 of creation — the first dawn of consciousness 

 among men, and the ultimate and simultaneous 

 evolution of every element of human science — 

 two distinct kinds of enjoyment are reflected. 

 The mere presence of unbounded nature, and 

 an obscure feeling of the harmony that reigns 

 amidst the ceaseless changes of her silent work- 

 ings, are the source of the one. The other be- 

 longs to a higher stage of civilization of the spe- 

 cies, and the reflection of this upon the individ- 

 ual ; it springs from an insight into the order 

 of the universe, and the co-ordination of the 

 physical forces. Even as man now contrives 

 instruments by which he may question nature 

 more closely, and steps beyond the limited cir- 

 cle of his fleeting existence ; as he no longer 

 observes only, but has learned to produce phe- 

 nomena under determinate conditions ; as, in 

 fine, the philosophy of nature has doffed hei 

 ancient poetical garb, and assumed the earnest 

 character of a thinking impersonation of things 

 observed, positive knowledge and definition 

 have taken the place of obscure imaginings and 

 imperfect inductions. The dogmatical specu- 

 lations of former ages only exist at present in 

 the prejudices of the vulgar, or in circumstan 

 ces where, as if conscious of their weakness, 

 they willingly keep themselves in the shade. 

 They also maintain themselves as a heavy in- 

 heritance in language, which is disfigured by 

 symbolical words and phrases innumerable. A. 

 small number only of the elegant creations of 

 the imagination which have reached us, sur- 

 rounded as it were with the haze of antiquity^ 

 acquire a more definite outline and a renovated 

 shape. 



Nature, to the eye of the reflecting observer, 

 is unity in multiplicity ; it is combination of 

 the manifold in form and composition ; it is 

 the conception of natural things and natural 

 forces as a living whole. The most important 

 consequences of physical researches are there- 

 fore these : To acknowledge unity in multipli- 

 city ; from the individual to embrace all ; amidst 

 the discoveries of later ages to prove and sep- 

 arate the individuals, yet not to be overwhelmed 

 with their mass ; to keep the high destinies of 

 man continually in view ; and to comprehend 

 the spirit of nature which lies hid beneath the 

 covering of phenomena. In this way our aspi- 

 rations extend beyond the narrow confines of 

 the world of sense, and we may yet succeed, 

 comprehending nature intimately, in master- 

 ing the crude matter of empirical observation 

 through the might of mind. 



When, in the first place, we reflect on the 

 different degrees of enjoyment which the con- 

 templation of nature affords, we find that the 

 first or lowest are independent of all insight 



