GENERAL SUMMARY OF CONTENTS 



OF 



VOLS. III. AND IV. OF COSMOS. 



Special results of Observation in the domain of Cosmical Phenomena. 

 Introduction. 



Retrospect ot the subject. Nature considered under a two-fold aspect: 

 in the pure objectivity of external phenomena, and in their inner reflection 

 in the mind. A significant classification of phenomena leads of itself to 

 their casual connection. Completeness in the enumeration of details is 

 not intended, at least in the representation of the reflected picture of 

 nature under the influence of the creative power of imagination. Besides 

 an actual or external world, there is produced an ideal or an inner world : 

 filled with physical symbolic myths, different according to race and cli- 

 mate, bequeathed for fcenturies to subsequent generations, and clouding a 

 clear view of nature. Fundamental imperfectibility of the knowledge of 

 cosmical phenomena. The discovery of empirical laws, the insight into the 

 causal connection of phenomena, description of the universe, and theory 

 of the universe. How, by means of existing things, a small part of their 

 genetic history is laid open. Different phases of the theory of the uni- 

 verse, attempts to comprehend the order of nature. Most ancient fun- 

 damental conception of the Hellenic mind : physiologic phantasies of the 

 Ionian school, germs of the scientific contemplation of nature. Double 

 direction of the explanation of natural phenomena, by the assumption of ma- 

 terial principles (elements), and by processes of rarefaction and condensa- 

 tion. Centrifugal revolution. Theories of vortices. The Pythagoreans; 

 philosophy of measure and harmony, commencement of a mathematical 

 treatment of physical phenomena. The order and government of the 

 universe according to the physical works of Aristotle. The communication 

 of motion considered as the cause of all phenomena; the tendency of the 

 Aristotelean school but little directed to the opinion of the heterogeneity 

 of matter. This species of natural philosophy bequeathed in fundamental 

 ideas and form to the Middle Ages. Roger Bacon, the Mirror of 

 Nature of Vinceatz of Beauvais, Liber Cosmographicu* of Albertus 



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