164 SKETCH OF THE LIFE AND ACHIEVEMENTS 



purpose of life. The intercourse with, nature, 

 manifesting to us in every form and every 

 motion an intelligent government, is pre- 

 eminently calculated to ennoble man, by aiding 

 him to realize his own consciousness.* 



In the Introduction to the " Cosmos," Hum- 

 boldt, speaking on this subject, asserts that the 

 primary step of man regarding the apprecia- 

 tion and the enjoyment of nature, does not 

 depend on his insight into the activity of the 



* " There is something in the contemplation of general 

 laws which powerfully persuades us to merge individual 

 feeling, and to commit ourselves unreservedly to their dis- 

 posal; while the observations of the calm energetic regu- 

 larity of nature, the immense scale of her operations, and the 

 certainty with which her ends are attained, tend irresistibly 

 to tranquillize and reassure the mind, and render it less 

 accessible to repining, selfish, and turbulent emotions. And 

 this it does, not by debasing our nature into weak com- 

 pliances, and abject submission to circumstances, but by 

 filling us, as from an inward spring, with a sense of noble- 

 ness and power, which enables us to rise superior to them, 

 by showing us our strength and innate dignity, and by 

 calling upon us for the exercise of those powers and faculties 

 by which we are susceptible of the comprehension of so 

 much greatness, and which form, as it were, the link between 

 ourselves and the best and noblest benefactors of our species, 

 with whom we hold communion in thoughts and participate 

 in discoveries which have raised them above their fellow- 

 mortals, and brought them nearer to their Creator." Sir 

 John Herschel. 



