370 COSMOS. 



INCITEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURE. 



THE IMAGE REFLECTED BY THE EXTERNAL WORLD ON THE 



IMAGINATION. POETIC DESCRIPTION OF NATURE. 



LANDSCAPE PAINTING. THE CULTIVATION OF EXOTIC 



PLANTS, WHICH CHARACTERISE THE VEGETABLE PHYSI- 

 OGNOMY OF THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE EARTH'S 

 SURFACE. 



WE are now about to proceed from the sphere of objects to 

 that of sensations. The main results of observation which, 

 stripped of all the extraneous charms of fancy, belong to the 

 purely objective domain of a scientific delineation of nature, 

 have been considered in the former part of this work in the 

 mutually connected relations, by which they constitute one 

 sole picture of the universe. It now, therefore, remains for 

 us to consider the impressions reflected by the external senses 

 on the feelings, and on the poetic imagination of mankind. 

 An iDner world is here opened before us, but in seeking to 

 penetrate its mysterious depths, we do not aspire, in turning 

 over the leaves of the great book of nature, to arrive at that 

 solution of its problems which is required by the philosophy 

 of art in tracing aesthetic actions through the psychical 

 powers of the mind, or through the various manifestations of 

 intellectual activity, but rather to depict the contemplation of 

 natural objects, as a means of exciting a pure love of nature, 

 and to investigate the causes, which, especially in recent 

 times, have, by the active medium of the imagination, so 

 powerfully encouraged the study of nature, and the predilec- 

 tion for distant travels.* 1 The inducements which promote 

 such contemplations of nature are, as I have already remarked, 

 of three different kinds, namely, the esthetic treatment of 

 natural scenery by animated delineations of animal and 

 vegetable forms, constituting a very recent branch of litera- 



* gee p. 38. 



