348 COSMOS. 



The idea of vitality is so intimately associated with the idea 

 of the existence of the active ever blending natural forces which 

 animate the terrestrial sphere, that the creation of plants and 

 animals is ascribed in the most ancient mythical representa- 

 tions of 'many nations to these forces, whil'st the condition of 

 the surface of our planet, before it was animated by vital 

 forms, is regarded as coeval with the epoch of a chaotic con- 

 flict of the struggling elements. But the empirical domain 

 of objective contemplation, and the delineation of our planet 

 in its present condition, do not include a consideration 

 of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and 

 existence. 



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

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

 sarily no connection with the obscure domain embraced by a 

 history of organisms,* if we understand the word history in its 



* The history of plants, which Endlicher and linger have described 

 in a most masterly manner (Grundzuge der Botanik, 1848, s. 449-468), 

 1 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 

 vocalmlo minus apto, ex antiquitate saltern hand petito, utar, corpora 

 organica reque ac inorganica considerat. Sunt enini tria quibus absol- 

 vitur capita : Geographia oryctologica quam simpliciter Geognosiam vel 

 Geologiam dicunt, virque acutissimns Wernarus egregie digessit ; Geo- 

 graphia zoologica, cujus doctrinae fundamenta Zimmermannus et 

 Treviranus jecerunt; et Geographia plantarum quam sequales nostri 

 diu intactam reliquerunt. Geographia plantarum vincula et cognatio- 

 nem tradit, quibus omnia vegetabilia inter se connexa sint, terra. 5 

 tractus quos teneant, in aerem atmosphaericum quse sit eorum vis osten- 

 dit, saxa atque rupes quibus potissimum algarum pr aordiis radici- 

 busque destruantur docet, et quo pacto in telluris superficie humus 

 nascatur, commemorat. Est itaque quod differat intei Geognosiam et 

 Physiographiam, historia naturalis perperam nuncupatam quum Zoo- 

 gnosia, Phytognosia, et Oryctognosia, quae quidem omnes in naturce 

 investigatione versantur, non -nisi singulorum animalium, plantarum, 

 re rum metallicarum vel (venia sit verbo) fossilium formas, anatomen, 

 vires scrutantur. Historia Telluris, Geognosiee magis quam Physiogra- 

 pkiae affinis, nemini adhuc tentata, plantarum animaliumque genera 

 orbem inhabitantia primaevum, migrationes eorum compluriumque 

 interitum, ortum quern montes, vallos, saxortim strata et venae metalli- 

 ferae ducunt, aerem, mutatis temporum vicibus, modo purum, niodo 

 vitiatum, terrae superficiem humo plantisque paulatim obtectam, flumi 

 num inundantium impetu denuo nudatam, iterumque siccatam et gnv 

 mine vestitam commemorat. Igitur Historia zoologica, Historia planta 



