INTRODUCTION. 3 



similar in form and attributes ; one great whole (TO n >) 

 Animated by the breath of life. The most important result 

 of a rational inquiry into nature is, therefore, to establish 

 the unity and harmony of this stupendous mass of force and 

 matter, to determine with impartial justice what is due to the 

 discoveries of the past and to those of the present, and to 

 analyze the individual parts of natural phenomena without 

 succumbing beneath the weight of the whole. Thus, and 

 thus alone, is it permitted to man, while mindful of the high 

 destiny of his race, to comprehend nature, to lift the veil that 

 shrouds her phenomena, and, as it were, submit the results 

 of observation to the test of reason and of intellect. 



In reflecting upon the different degrees of enjoyment pre- 

 sented to us in the contemplation of nature, we find that the 

 first place must be assigned to a sensation, which is wholly 

 independent of an intimate acquaintance with the physical 

 phenomena presented to our view, or of the peculiar cha- 

 racter of the region surrounding us. In the uniform plain 

 bounded only by a distant horizon, where the lowly heather, the 

 cistus, or waving grasses, deck the soil; on the ocean shore, 

 where the waves, softly rippling over the beach, leave a track, 

 green with the weeds of the sea; everywhere, the mind 

 is penetrated by the same sense of the grandeur and vast 

 expanse of nature, revealing to the soul, by a mysterious 

 inspiration, the existence of laws that regulate the forces of 

 the universe. Mere communion with nature, mere contact 

 with the free air, exercise a soothing yet strengthening influ 

 ence on the wearied spirit, calm the storm of passion, ano 

 soften the heart when shaken by sorrow to its inmost depths. 

 Everywhere, in eveiy region of the globe, in every stage of 

 intellectual culture, the same sources of enjoyment are alike 

 vouchsafed to man. The earnest and solemn thoughts awakened 

 by a communion with nature intuitively arise from a presen- 

 timent of the order and harmony pervading the whole uni- 

 verse, and from the contrast we draw between the narrow 

 limits of our own existence and the image of infinity revealed 

 on every side, whether we look upwards to the starry vault 

 of heaven, scan the far-stretching plain before us, or seek to 

 trace the dim horizon across the vast expanse of ocean. 



The contemplation of the individual characteristics of the 

 landscape, and of the conformation of the land in any definite 



B 2 



