112 COSMOS 



From tlie above considerations, and the examples by wh?:ch 

 they have been illustrated, the comparative study of languagei 

 appears as an important rational means of assistance, by which 

 scientific and genuinely philological investigations may lead to 

 a generalization of views regarding the affinity of races, and 

 their conjectural extension in various directions from one com- 

 mon point of radiation. The rational aids toward the gradual 

 development of the science of the Cosmos are, therefore, of 

 very different kinds, viz., investigations into the structure of 

 languages ; the deciphering of ancient inscriptions and histor- 

 ical monuments in hieroglyphics and arrow-headed writing ; 

 the greater perfection of mathematics, especially of that pow- 

 erful analytic calculus by which the form of the earth, the ebb 

 and flow of the sea, and the regions of space are brought within 

 the compass of calculation. To these aids must be further 

 added the material inventions wdiich have procured for us, as 

 it were, new organs, sharpened the power of our senses, and 

 enabled men to enter into a closer communication with terres- 

 trial forces, and even with the remote regions of space. In 

 order tc enumerate only a few of the instruments whose in- 

 vention characterizes great epochs in the history of civilization, 

 I would name the telescope, and its too long-delayed connec- 

 tion with instruments of measurement ; the compound micro- 

 Bcope, which furnishes us with the means of tracing the con- 

 ditions of the process of development of organisms, which 

 Aristotle gracefully designates as " the formative activity, the 

 source of being ;" the compass, and the different contrivances 

 invented for measuring terrestrial magnetism ; the use of the 



nard, nanartlia. See Lassen, Indische Altertlnimskunde, bd. i., 1843, s. 

 245, 250, 270, 289, und 538. On ^sarkara and kanda (whence oui- sugar 

 candy), consult my Prolegomena de Distrihutione Geographicd Planta- 

 rum, 1817, p. 211. " Confudisse videntur veteres saccharum verum 

 cum Tebaschiro Bambuspe, cum quia utraque in arundinibus inveniun- 

 tur, turn etiam quia vox Sanscradana scharkara, quae hodie (ut Pers, 

 schakar et Hindost. schukur) pro saccharo nostro adhibetur, observante 

 Boppio, ex auctoritate Amarasinhte, proprie nil dulce (madu) eignificat, 

 sed quicquid lapidosum et arenaceum est, ac vel calculura vesicae. 

 Verisimile igitur, vocem scharkara initio dumtaxat tebaschirum (saccar 

 nornbii) indicasse, postei'ius in saccharum iiostrum humilioris arundinis 

 (tkschu, kandekschu, kanda), ex similitudine aspectus translatara esse. 

 Vox Bambusae ex mamhu derivatur ; ex kanda nostratium voces candis 

 zuckerkand. In tebaschiro agnoscitur Persarum schir, h. e. lac. Sanscr. 

 kschiram." The Sanscrit name for tabaschir is tvakkschird, bark-milk; 

 milk from the bark. See Lassen, bd. i., s. 271-274. Compare, also, 

 Pott, Kurdische Studien in the Zeitschrift fur die Kunde des Morgen- 

 landes, bd. vii., s. 163-166, and the masterly treatise by Carl Ritter, in 

 nis Erdkunde von Asien, bd. vi., 2, s. 232-237. 



