Book Description

Excerpt from Cosmos a Sketch of a Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 3 In accordance with the object I have proposed to myself and which, as far as my own powers and the present state of science permit, I have regarded as not unattainable, I have, in the preceding volumes of Cosmos, considered Nature in a two-fold point of view. In the first place, I have endeavored to present her in the pure objectiveness of external phenomena; and, secondly, as the reflection of the image impressed by the senses upon the inner man, that is, upon his ideas and feelings. The external world of phenomena has been delineated under the scientific form of a general picture of nature in her two great spheres, the uranological and the telluric or terrestrial. This delineation begins with the stars, which glimmer amid nebulæ in the remotest realms of space, and, passing from our planetary system to the vegetable covering of the earth, descends to the minutest organisms which float in the atmosphere, and are invisible to the naked eye. In order to give due prominence to the consideration of the existence of one common bond encircling the whole organic world, of the control of eternal laws, and of the causal connection, as far as yet known to us, of whole groups of phenomena, it was necessary to avoid the accumulation of isolated facts. This precaution seemed especially requisite where, in addition to the dynamic action of moving forces, the powerful influence of a specific difference of matter manifests itself in the terrestrial portion of the universe. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.