INTRODUCTION. 51 



It was natural that, in the midst of the extreme variability 

 of phenomena presented by the surface of our globe, and the 

 aerial ocean by which it is surrounded, man should have been 

 impressed by the aspect of the vault of heaven, and the uni- 

 form and regular movements of the sun and planets. Thus 

 the word Cosmos, which primitively, in the Homeric ages, 

 indicated an idea of order and harmony, was subsequently 

 adopted in scientific language, where it was gradually applied 

 to the order observed in the movements of the heavenly 

 bodies, to the whole universe, and then finally to the world 

 in which this harmony was reflected to us. According to the 

 assertion of Philolaus, whose fragmentary works have been 

 so ably commented upon by Bockh, and conformably to the 

 general testimony of antiquity, Pythagoras was the first who 

 used the word Cosmos to designate the order that reigns in 

 the universe, or entire world.* 



From the Italian school of philosophy, the expression passed 

 in this signification into the language of those early poets of 



* Koffftoe, in the most ancient, and at the same time most precise, 

 definition of the word, signil'-ed ornament (as an adornment for a man, 

 a woman, or a horse); taken figuratively for evTa^ia, it implied the order 

 or adornment of a discourse. According to the testimony of all the 

 ancients, it was Pythagoras who first used the word to designate the ordef 

 in the universe, and the universe itself. Pythagoras left no writings; 

 but ancient attestation to the truth of this assertion is to be found in 

 several passages of the fragmentary works of Philolaus (Stob., Eclog., 

 pp. 360 and 460, Heeren) ; pp. 62, 90, in Bockh's German edition. I do 

 not, according to the example of Nake, cite Timseus of Locris, since his 

 authenticity is doubtful. Plutarch (De Plac. Phil., ii, 1), says in the 

 most express manner, that Pythagoras gave the name of Cosmos to the 

 universe on account of the order which reigned throughout it ; so likewise 

 does Galen (Hist. Phil., p. 429J. This word, together with its novel 

 signification, passed from the schools of philosophy into the language of 

 poets and prose writers. Plato designates the heavenly bodies by the 

 name of Uranos, but the order pervading the regions of space he too 

 terms the Cosmos, and in his Timaus, (p. 30 B.) he says that the world it 

 an animal endowed with a soul (Koafj-ov J)ov */zj/w%ov). Compare Anaxag. 

 Claz., ed. Schaubach, p. Ill, and Plut., De Plac. Phil., ii, 3) on spirit 

 apart from matter, as the ordaining power of nature. In Aristotle (De 

 Coelo, 1, 9,) Cosmos signifies "the universe and the order pervading it," 

 but it is likewise considered as divided in space into two parts, the 

 sublunary world, and the world above the moon. (Meteor. I, 2, 1, and 

 t, 3, 13, pp. 339 a, and 340 6, Bekk.) The definition of Cosmos, which 

 I have already cited, is taken from Pseudo-Aristoteles de Mundo, cap. ii. 

 j>. 391); the passage referred to is as follows : Koa/iof tarl 



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