416 



HIGH OBJECTS OF STUDY. 



Scientific 

 occupations. 



Objects 

 aimed at. 



ClI.^PTER to my contemporaries, with a diffidence inspired by a 

 ^ ^^ ^^ '' just mistruht of my own powers, whilst I wouhl willingly 

 t'urn;t't that writings long expected are usually received 

 with less indulgence. 



"Although the outward relations of life, and an irre- 

 sistible impulse towards knowledge of various kinds, have 

 led me to occupy myself for many years — and apparently 

 exclusively — with separate branches of science, as, for 

 instance, with descriptive botany, geognosy, chemistry, 

 astronomical determinations of position, and terrestrial 

 magnetism, in order that I might the better prepare my- 

 self for the extensive travels in which I was desirous of 

 engaging, the actual object of my studies has neverthe- 

 less been of a liigher character. The principal impulse 

 by which I was directed, was the earnest endeavour to 

 comprehend the phenomena of phj'sical objects in their 

 general connection, and to represent nature as one great 

 whole, moved and animated by internal forces. My in- 

 tercourse with highly-gifted men early led rae to discover 

 that, without an earnest striving to attain to a know- 

 ledge of special branches of study, all attempts to give a 

 gi'and and general view of the universe would be nothing 

 more than a vain illusion. These special departments 

 in the great domain of natural science are, moreover, 

 capable of being reciprocallj' fructified by means of the 

 appropriative forces by which they are endowed. Descrip- 

 tive botany, no longer confined to the narrow circle of the 

 determination of genera and species, leads the observer 

 who traverses distant lands and loft}^ mountains to the 

 study of the geographical distribution of plants over the 

 earth's surface, according to distance from the equator 

 and vertical elevation above the sea. It is futher neces- 

 sary to investigate the laws which regulate the differences 

 of temperature and climate, and the njcteorological pro- 

 cesses of the atmosphere, before we can hope to explain 

 the involved causes of vegetable distribution; and it is 

 thus that the observer wlio earnestly i)ursues the path of 

 kuowledge is led from one class of phenomena to another, 



licpcriptive 

 botany. 



