42 COSMOS. 



son and m every climate, present like enjoyments. Thus, in 

 the dreary regions of the north, man is deprived for a long 

 period of the year of the spectacle presented by the activity 

 of the productive forces of organic nature ; and if the mind 

 be directed to one sole class of objects, the most animated 

 narratives of voyages in distant lands w^ill fail to interest and 

 attract us, if they do not touch upon the subjects to v^^hich 

 we are most partial. 



As the history of nations — if it were always able to trace 

 events to their true causes — might solve the ever-recurring 

 enigma of the oscillations experienced by the alternately pro- 

 gressive and retrograde movement of human society, so might 

 also the physical description of the world, the science of the 

 Co&inos, if it were grasped by a powerful intellect, and based 

 upon a knowledge of all the results of discovery up to a giv- 

 en period, succeed in dispelling a portion of the contradictions 

 which, at first sight, appear to arise from the complication oi 

 phenomena and the multitude of the perturbations simultane- 

 ously manifested. 



The knowledge of the laws of nature, whether we can 

 trace them in the alternate ebb and flow of the ocean, in the 

 measured path of comets, or in the mutual attractions of mul- 

 tiple stars, alike increases our sense of the calm of nature, 

 while the chimera so long cherished by the human mind in 

 its early and intuitive contemplations, the belief in a "discord 

 of the elements," seems gradually to vanish in proportion as 

 science extends her empire. General views lead us habitu- 

 ally to consider each organism as a part of the entire creation, 

 and to recognize in the plant or the animal not merely an 

 isolated species, but a form linked in the chain of being to 

 other forms either living or extinct. They aid us in compre- 

 hending the relations that exist between the most recent dis 

 coveries and those which have prepared the way for them. 

 Although fixed to one point of space, we eagerly grasp at a 

 knowledge of that wliich has been observed in different and 

 far-distant regions. We delight in tracking the course of the 

 bold mariner through seas of polar ice, or in following him to 

 the summit of that volcano of the antarctic pole, whose fires 

 may be seen from afar, even at mid-day. It is by an ac- 

 quaintance with the results of distant voyages that we may 

 learn to comprehend some of the marvels of" terrestrial mag- 

 netism, and be thus led to appreciate the importance of the 

 estal lishments of the numerous observatories which in the 

 present day cover both hemispheres, and are designed to note 



