COSMOS, 



PART I. 



INCITEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURE 



THE IMAGE REFLECTED BY THE EXTERNAL WORLD ON THE IMAGIN- 

 ATION.— POETIC DESCRIPTION OF NATURE.-LANDSCAPE PAINTING.— 

 THE CULTIVATION OF EXOTIC PLANTS, WHICH CHARACTERIZE THE 

 VEGETABLE PHYSIOGNOMY 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 inner 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 intel- 

 lectual 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 predilection for dis- 

 tant travels.^ The inducements which promote such con- 

 templations of nature are, as I have already remarked, of 

 three different kinds, namely, the sBsthetic treatment of nat- 

 ural scenery by animated delineations of animal and vegetable 

 forms, constituting a very recent ]\ranch of literature ; land- 

 scape painting, especially where it has caught the character- 

 istic features of the animal and vegetable world ; and tha 

 * See vol. i., p, 57. 



