340 COSMOS. 



of the mysterious and insoluble prolDlenis of origin and exist- 

 ence. 



A cosmical history of the universe, resting upon facts as its 

 basis, has, from the nature and limitations of its sjDhere, neces- 

 sarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a 

 history of organisms* if we understand the word history in 

 its broadest sense. It must, however, be remembered, that 

 the inorganic crust of the Earth contains within it the same 

 elements that enter into the structure of animal and vegeta- 

 ble organs. A physical cosmography would therefore be in 



* The history of plants, which Eudlicher and Unger have described 

 in a most masterly manner {Grundzuge der Botanik, 1843, s. 449-468), 

 I myself separated from the geography of plants half a century ago 

 In the aphorisms appended to my Subterranean Flora, the following 

 passage occurs : " Geognosia naturam animantem et inanimam vel, ut 

 vocabulo minus apto, ex antiquitate saltem hand petito, utar, corpora 

 orgauica aeque ac inorganica considerat. Sunt enim tria quibus absol 

 vitur capita : Geographia oryctologica quam simpliciter Geognosiam vel 

 Geologiam dicunt, virque acutissimus Wemerus egregie digessit ; Geo- 

 graphia zoologica, cujus doctrinse fundamenta Zimmermannus et Tre- 

 virauus jecerunt; et Geographia plantarum quam sequales nostri diu in- 

 tactam reliquerant. Geographia plantarum vincula et cognationem 

 tradit, quibus omnia vegetabilia inter se connexa sint, ten-ae tractus 

 quos teueant, in aerem atmosphasricum qui3e sit eorum vis ostendit, saxa 

 atque rupes quibus potissimum algarum primordiis radicibusque destru- 

 antur docet, et quo pacto in telluris superficie humus nascatur, com- 

 memorat. Est itaque quod dilFerat inter Geognosiam et Physiographiam, 

 historia naturalis perperam imncupatam quum Zoognosia, Phytognosia, 

 et Oryctognosia, quse quidem omnes in naturae investigatione versantur, 

 non nisi singulorum animalium, plantarum, rerum metallicanim vel 

 (venia sit verbo) fossilium formas, anatomen, vires scrutantur. Historia 

 Telluris, Geognosiae magis quam Physiographiae affinis, nemini adhuc 

 tentata, plantarum animaliumque genera orbem inhabitantia primaevum, 

 migrationes eorum compluriumque interitum, ortum quem montes, 

 valles, saxorura strata et venae metalliferoe ducunt, aerem, mutatis tem- 

 porum vicibus, modo purum, modo vitiatum, teiTas superficiem humo 

 plantisque paulatim obtectam, fluminum inundantium impetu denuo 

 nudatam, iteruraque siccatam et gramine vestitam commemorat. Igi- 

 tur Historia zoologica, Historia plantarum et Historia oryctologica, quaa 

 non nisi pristinum orbis terrae statum indicant, a Geognosia probe dis- 

 tinguendai." — Humboldt, Flora Friburgensis Subterranea, cui accedunt 

 Aphorismi ex Physiologia Chemica Plantarum, 1793, p. ix.-x. Respect- 

 ing the " spontaneous motion," which is referred to in a subsequent 

 part of the text, see the remarkable passage in Aristotle, De Codo, ii., 

 2, p. 284, Bekker, where the distinction between animate and inanimate 

 bodies is made to depend on the internal or external position of the 

 seat of the determining motion. " No movement," says the Stagirite, 

 " proceeds fi'om the vegetable spirit, because plants are buried in a 

 Btill sleep, from which nothing can arouse them" (Aristotle, De General. 

 Animal., v. i., p. 778, Bekker); and again, "because plants have no 

 desires which incite them to spontaneous motion." (Arist., De Sovino 

 et Vigil., cap. i., p. 455, Bekker.) 



