46 PROLEGOMENON. 



would appear in due order of sequence. In the chain of 

 rational connection with this would follow the " Flora," 

 the plant or vegetable life-clothing of the mountain, which 

 is again dependent upon the soil, water, climate, &c. of 

 the same, associated with all of which would arrive a 

 chapter of its " Fauna/' or animal life. 



A catalogue of animals namely, mammals, birds, reptiles, 

 and fishes which inhabit the mountain, or a hurried enu- 

 meration of the different orders of creation in that depart- 

 ment, would be required. 



Then would arrive the consideration of the ocean of air 

 above, upon which all created things depend, the great 

 medium of existence, the reservoir of vitality or life-cur- 

 rents ; for, as " all life comes from the sea," so the sea itself, 

 in the "nebular theories" of philosophers, came from the 

 air. The story of this air-ocean, its MACHINERY, as they 

 call it, its organization, or systematic order of movements, 

 as vital to the planet, to animal, to vegetable, to all living 

 things, would constitute the " Climatology of the Moun- 

 tain/' Succeeding this would come the aspect of the same 

 as a great SANITARY CREATION, an immeasurable deposi- 

 tory of healing forces, curative agencies, acknowledged 

 therapeutic powers in every shape, as the great exponent 

 of all which elements of the world stands the son of 

 Apollo and Coronis, the laurel-crowned god of physic and 

 physicians, "jiEsculapius." 



It occurred that a book in his name, dedicated to him as 

 a votive offering, would be the end fulfilled, would be 

 appropriate and comely, would be an expression of the fit- 

 ness and perfection of things. The fables of his life point 

 to him as the "personification of the healing powers of 

 Nature," in the formula of the God as physician, the func- 

 tion and end of whose existence is health, physical regene- 

 ration, and well-being, the God who uses the world as an 

 hospital, and to whom all objects must classify themselves 

 as medicinal or not-medicinal, plus or minus in the scale of 

 healing properties, the world simply existing for the ends of 



