THE EARTH. 9 



Bekker), and of a spontaneous incentive to motion. This kind 

 of mental comprehension which I have named intuition, to- 

 gether with that felicitous acumen in the power of combining 

 his ideas, which was so characteristic of the Stagyrite, led him 

 to the assumption of an apparent transition from the inani- 

 mate to the living, from the mere element to the plant, and 

 induced him even to adopt the view that in the ever ascend- 

 ing processes of plastic formation there were gradual and 

 intermediate stages connecting plants with the lower animals 

 (Aristot. de part. Animal, iv, 5, p. 681, a 12, and hist. Animal. 

 viii, 1, p. 588, a 4, Bekker). The history of organisms (taking 

 the word history in its original sense, and therefore in rela- 

 tion to the faunas and floras of earlier periods of time) is so 

 intimately connected with geology, with the order of suc- 

 cession of the superimposed terrestrial strata and with the 

 chronometrical annals of the upheaval of continents and 

 mountains ; that it has appeared most appropriate to me, on 

 account of the connection of great and widely diffused phe- 

 nomena, to avoid establishing the natural division of organic 

 and inorganic terrestrial life as the main element of classifi- 

 cation in a work treating of the Cosmos. We are not here 

 striving to give a mere morphological representation of the 

 organic world, but rather to arrive at bold and compre- 

 hensive views of nature, and the forces which she brings 

 into play. 



I. 



Size, Configuration, and Density of the Earth. The Heat in 

 the interior of the Earth, and its distribution. Magnetic 

 Activity, manifested in changes of Inclination, Declination, 

 and Intensity of the force under the influence of the Sun's 

 position in reference to the Heat and Rarefaction of the 

 Air. Magnetic Storms. Polar Light. 



That which in all languages is comprehended under ety- 

 mologically differing symbolical forms by the expression 

 Nature, and which man, who originally refers everything 



