SPECIAL RESULTS OF OBSERVATION 



IN THE 



DOMAIN OF COSMICAL PHENOMENA. 



INTRODUCTION. 



In accordance with the object I have proposed to myself, 

 and which, as far as my own powers and the present state 

 of science permit, I have regarded as not unattainable, I 

 have, in the preceding volumes of Cosmos, considered Nature 

 in a two-fold point of view. In the first place, I have en- 

 deavored to present her in the pure objectiveness of external 

 phenomena ; and, secondly, as the reflection of the image im- 

 pressed by the senses upon the inner man, that is, upon his 

 ideas and feelings. 



The external world of phenomena has been delineated un- 

 der the scientific form of a general picture of nature in her 

 two great spheres, the uranological and the telluric or ter- 

 restrial. This delineation begins with the stars, which glim- 

 mer amid nebuloB in the remotest realms of space, and, pass- 

 ing from our planetary system to the vegetable covering of 

 the earth, descends to the minutest organisms which float in 

 the atmosphere, and are invisible to the naked eye. In order 

 to give due prominence to the consideration of the existence 

 of one common bond encircling the whole organic world, of 

 the control of eternal laws, and of the causal connection, as 

 far as yet known to us, of whole groups of phenomena, it was 

 necessary to avoid the accumulation of isolated facts. This 

 precaution seemed especially requisite where, in addition to 

 the dynamic action of moving forces, the powerful influence 

 of a specific difference of matter manifests itself in the ter- 

 restrial portion of the universe. The problems presented to 

 us in the sidereal, or uranological sphere of the Cosmos, are, 

 considering their nature, in as far as they admit of being ob- 

 served, of extraordinary simplicity, and capable, by means of 

 the attractive force of matter and the quantity of its mass, 

 of being submitted to exact calculation in accordance with 



