THE ENJOYMENT OF NATURE. 15 



the perpetual local variations, both in the movements of the 

 atmosphere and in the distribution of organic forms, it was 

 to the inhabitants of the temperate zone that a rational 

 knowledge of physical forces first revealed itself. It is from 

 this northern zone, which has shown itself favourable to the 

 progress of reason, to the softening of manners, and to 

 public liberty, that the germs of civilisation have been 

 imported into the torrid zone, either by the great movements 

 of the migration of races, or by the establishment of colonies, 

 very different in their institution in modern times from those 

 of the Greeks and Phoenicians. 



In considering the influences which the order and succes- 

 sion of phsenomena may have exercised on the greater or less 

 facility of recognizing their producing causes, I have indicated 

 that important point in the contact of the human mind with 

 the external world, at which there is added to the charm 

 attendant on the simple contemplation of nature, the enjoy- 

 ment springing from a knowledge of the laws which govern 

 the order and mutual relations of phsenomena. Thenceforth 

 the persuasion of the existence of an harmonious system of 

 fixed laws, which was long the object of a vague intuition, 

 gradually acquires the certainty of a rational truth, and man, 

 as our immortal Schiller Jias said " Amid ceaseless change, 

 seeks the unchanging pole ( 9 )" 



In order to reascend to the first germ of this more 

 thoughtful enjoyment, we need only cast a rapid glance on 

 the earliest glimpses of the Philosophy of Nature, or of the 

 ancient doctrine of the Cosmos, We find amongst the most 

 savage nations (and my own travels have confirmed the 

 truth of this assertion), a secret and terror-mingled presenti- 

 ment of the unity of natural forces, blending with the dim 

 voi,. i. D 



