340 COSMOS. 



of the mysterious and insoluble problems of origin and exist- 

 ence. 



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 broadest sense. It must, however, be remembered, that 

 the inorganic crust of the Earth contains within it the same 

 elements that enter into the structure of animal and vegeta- 

 ble organs. A physical cosmography would therefore be in 



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

 in a most masterly manner {Grundzuge der Botanik, 1843, s. 449-468), 

 I 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 animantera et inanimam vel, ut 

 vocabulo minus apto, ex antiquitate saltem haud petito, utar, corpora 

 organica Jeque ac inorganica considerat. Sunt enim tria quibus absol 

 vitur capita : Geographia oryctologica quam simpliciter Geognosiam vel 

 Geologiam dicunt, virque acutissimus Weraerus egregie digessit ; Geo- 

 graphia zoologica, cujus doctrinae fundamenta Zimmermannus et Tre- 

 viranus jecenmt; et Geographia plantarum quam aequales nostri diu in- 

 tactam reliquerunt. Geographia plantarum vincula et cognationem 

 tradit, quibus omnia vegetabilia inter se counexa sint, terrse tractus 

 quos teneant, in aerem atmosphaericum quae sit eorum vis ostendit, saxa 

 atque rupes quibus potissimum algarum primordiis radicibusque destru- 

 antur docet, et quo pacto in telluris superficie humus nascatur, com- 

 memorat. Est itaque quod difFerat inter Geognosiam et Physiographiam, 

 historia naluralis perperam nuncupatam quum Zoognosia, Phytognosia, 

 et Oryctognosia, quae quidem omnes in naturae investigatione versautur, 

 non nisi singulorum animalium, plantarum, rerum metallicamm vel 

 (venia sit verbo) fossilium formas, anatomen, vires scrutantur. Historia 

 Telluris, Geognosiae magis quam Physiographiae affinis, nemini adhuc 

 tentata, plantarum animaliumque genera orbem inhabitantia primaevum, 

 migrationes eorum compluriumque interitum, ortum quem monies, 

 valles, saxorum strata et venae metalliferae ducunt, aerem, mutatis tem- 

 porum vicibus, mode purum, mode vitiatum, terrae superficiem humo 

 plantisque paulatim obtectam, fluminum inundantium impetu denuo 

 uudatam, iterumque siccatam et gramine vestitam commemorat. Igi- 

 tur Historia zoologica, Historia plantarum et Historia oryctologica, quae 

 non nisi pristinum orbis terrae statum indicant, a Geognosia probe dis- 

 iinguendafi." — Humboldt, Flora FHburgensis Subterranea, cui acceduni 

 Aphorismi ex Physiologia Chemica Plantarum, 1793, p. ix.-x. Respect- 

 ing the " spontaneous motion," which is referred to in a subsequent 

 part of the text, see the remarkable passage in Aristotle, De CcrIo, ii., 

 2, p. 284, Bekker, where the distinction between animate and inanimate 

 bodies is made to depend on the internal or external position of the 

 seat of the determining motion. " No movement," says the Stagirite, 

 " proceeds from the vegetable spirit, because plants are buried in a 

 Btill sleep, from which nothing can arouse them" (Aristotle, De General. 

 Animal., v. i., p. 778, Bekker); and again, "because plants have no 

 desires which ircite them to spontaneous motion." ( Arist., De Somno 

 et Vigil., cap. i., p. 455, Bekker.) 



