products of tropical climates; thus, in the coal formations, we find the
trunks of palms standing upright amid coniferae, tree ferns, goniatites, and
fishes having rhomboidal osseous scales;* in the Jura limestone, colossal
skeletons of crocodiles, plesiosauri, planulites, and stems of the cycadeae;
in the chalk formations, small polythalmia and bryozoa, whose species still
exist in our seas; in tripoli, or polishing slate, in the semi-opal and the
farina-like opal or mountain meal, agglomerations of siliceous infusoria,
which have been brought to light by the powerful microscope of Ehrenberg;**
and, lastly, in transported soils, and in certain caves, the bones of
elephants, hyenas, and lions.
[Footnote] *See the classical work on the fishes of the Old World by
Agassiz, 'Rech. sur les Poissons Fossiles', 1834, vol. i., p. 38; vol. ii.,
p. 3, 28, 34, App., p. 6. The whole genus of Amblypterus, Ag., nearly
allied to Palaeoniscus (called also Palaeothrissum), lies buried beneath the
Jura formations in the old carboniferous strata. Scales which, in some
fishes, as in the family of Lepidoides (order of Ganoides), are formed like
teeth, and covered in certain parts with enamel, belong, after the
Placoides, to the oldest forms of fossil fishes; their living
representatives are still found in two genera, the 'Bichir' of the Nile and
Senegal, and the 'Lepidosteus' of the Ohio.
[Footnote] **[The 'polishing slate' of Bilin is stated by M. Ehrenberg to
form a 'series' of strata fourteen feet in thickness, entirely made up of
the siliceous shells of 'Gaillonellae', of such extreme minuteness that a
cubic inch of the stone contains forty-one thousand millions! The
'Bergmehl' ('mountain meal' or 'fossil farina') of San Fiora, in Tuscany, is
one mass of animalculites. See the interesting work of G. A. Mantell, 'On
the Medals of Creation', vol. i., p. 233.] -- Tr.
An intimate acquaintance with the physical phenomena of the universe leads
us to regard the products of warm latitudes that are thus found in a fossil
condition in northern regions not merely as incentives to barren curiosity,
but as subjects awakening deep reflection, and opening new sources of study.
The number and the variety of the objects I have alluded to give rise to the
question whether general considerations of physical phenomena can be made
sufficiently clear to persons who have not acquired a detailed and special
knowledge of
p 47
descriptive natural history, geology, or mathematical astronomy? I think we
ought to distinguish here between him whose task it is to collect the
individual details of various observations, and study the mutual relations
existing among them, and him to whom these relations are to be revealed,
under the form of general results. The former should be acquainted with the
specialities of phenomena, that he may arrive at a generalization of ideas
as the result, at least in part, of his own observations, experiments, and
calculations. It can not be denied, that where there is an absence of
positive knowledge of physical phenomena, the general results which impart
so great a charm to the study of nature can not all be made equally clear
and intelligible to the reader, but still I venture to hope, that in the
work which I am now preparing on the physical laws of the universe, the
greater part of the facts advanced can be made manifest without the
necessity of appealing to fundamental views and principles. The picture of
nature thus drawn, notwithstanding the want of distinctness of some of its
outlines, will not be the less able to enrich the intellect, enlarge the
sphere of ideas, and nourish and vivify the imagination.
There is, perhaps, some truth in the accusation advanced against many German
scientific works, that they lessen the value of general views by an
accumulation of detail, and do not sufficiently distinguish between those
great results which form, as it were, the beacon lights of science, and the
long series of means by which they have been attained. This method of
treating scientific subjects led the most illustrious of our poets* to
exclaim with impatience, "The Germans have the art of making science
inaccessible." An edifice can not produce a striking effect until the
scaffolding is removed, that had of necessity been used during its erection.
[Footnote] *Gothe, in 'Die Aphorismen uber Naturwissenschaft', bd. I., s.
155 ('Werke kleine Ausgabe','von' 1833.)
Thus the uniformity of figure observed in the distribution of continental
masses, which all terminate toward the south in a pyramidal form, and expand
toward the north (a law that determines the nature of climates, the
direction of currents in the ocean and the atmosphere, and the transition of
certain types of tropical vegetation toward the southern temperate zone),
may be clearly apprehended without any knowledge of the geodesical and
astronomical operations by means of which these pyramidal forms of
continents have been determined. In like manner, physical geography teaches
us by how many leagues
p 48
the equatorial axis exceeds the polar axis of the globe, and shows us the
mean equality of the flattening of the two hemispheres, without entailing on
us the necessity of giving the detail of the measurement of the degrees in
the meridian, or the observations on the pendulum, which have led us to know
that the true figure of our globe is not exactly that of a regular ellipsoid
of revolution, and that this irregularity is reflected in the corresponding
irregularity of the movements of the moon.
The views of comparative geography have been specially enlarged by that
admirable work, 'Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und sur Geschichte', in
which Carl Ritter so ably delineates the physiognomy of our globe, and shows
the influence of its external configuration on the physical phenomena on its
surface, on the migrations, laws, and manners of nations, and on all the
principal historical events enacted upon the face of the earth.
France possesses an immortal work, 'L'Exposition du Système du Monde', in
which the author has combined the results of the highest astronomical and
mathematical labors, and presented them to his readers free from all
processes of demonstration. The structure of the heavens is here reduced to
the simple solution of a great problem in mechanics; yet Laplace's work has
never yet been accused of incompleteness and want of profundity.
The distinction between dissimilar subjects, and the separation of the
general from the special, are not only conducive to the attainment of
perspicuity in the composition of a physical history of the universe, but
are also the means by which a character of greater elevation may be imparted
to the study of nature. By the suppression of all unnecessary detail, the
great masses are better seen, and the reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp
all that might otherwise escape the limited range of the senses.
The exposition of general results has, it must be owned, been singularly
facilitated by the happy revolution experienced since the close of the last
century, in the condition of all the special sciences, more particularly of
geology, chemistry, and descriptive natural history. In proportion as laws
admit of more general application, and as sciences mutually enrich each
other, and by their extension become connected together in more numerous and
more intimate relations, the development of general truths may be given with
conciseness devoid of superficiality. On being first examined, all
phenomena appear to be
p 49
isolated, and it is only by the result of a multiplicity of observations,
combined by reason, that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing
between them. If, however, in the present age, which is so strongly
characterized by a brilliant course of scientific discoveries, we perceive a
want of connection in the phenomena of certain sciences, we may anticipate
the revelation of new facts, whose importance will probably be commensurate
with the attention directed to these branches of study. Expectations of
this nature may be entertained with regard to meteorology, several parts of
optics, and to radiating heat, and electro-magnetism, since the admirable
discoveries of Melloni and Faraday. A fertile field is here opened to
discovery, although the voltaic pile has already taught us the intimate
connection existing between electric, magnetic, and chemical phenomena. Who
will venture to affirm that we have any precise knowledge, in the present
day, of that part of the atmosphere which is not oxygen, or that thousands
of gaseous substances affecting our organs may not be mixed with the
nitrogen, or, finally, that we have even discovered the whole number of the
forces which pervade the universe?
It is not the purpose of this essay on the physical history of the world to
reduce all sensible phenomena to a small number of abstract principles,
based on reason only. The physical history of the universe, whose
exposition I attempt to develop, does not pretend to rise to the perilous
abstractions of a purely rational science of nature, and is simply a
'physical geography, combined with a description of the regions of space and
the bodies occupying them.' Devoid of the profoundness of a purely
speculative philosophy, my essay on the 'Cosmos' treats of the contemplation
of the universe, and is based upon a rational empiricism, that is to say,
upon the results of the facts registered by science, and tested by the
operations of the intellect. It is within these limits alone that the work,
which I now venture to undertake, appertains to the sphere of labor to which
I have devoted myself throughout the course of my long scientific career.
The path of inquiry is not unknown to me, although it may be pursued by
others with greater success. The unity which I seek to attain in the
development of the great phenomena of the universe, is analogous to that
which historical composition is capable of acquiring. All points relating
to the accidental individualities, and the essential variations of the
actual, whether in the form and arrangement of natural objects in the
struggle of man against the elements, or of nations against nations, do not
admit of being
p 50
based only on a 'rational foundation' -- that is to say, of being deduced
from ideas alone.
It seems to me that a like degree of empiricism attaches to the Description
of the Universe and to Civil History; but in reflecting upon physical
phenomena and events, and tracing their causes by the process of reason, we
become more and more convinced of the truth of the ancient doctrine, that
the forces inherent in matter, and those which govern the moral necessity,
and in accordance with movements occurring periodically after longer or
shorter intervals.
It is this necessity, this occult but permanent connection, this periodical
recurrence in the progressive development of forms, phenomena, and events,
which constitute 'nature', obedient to the first impulse imparted to it.
Physics, as the term signifies, is limited to the explanation of the
phenomena of the material world by the properties of matter. The ultimate
object of the experimental sciences is, therefore, to discover laws, and to
trace their progressive generalization. All that exceeds this goes beyond
the province of the physical description of the universe, and appertains to
a range of higher speculative views.
Emmanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers who have escaped the imputation
of impiety, has defined with rare sagacity the limits of physical
explanations, in his celebrated essay 'On the Theory and Structure of the
Heavens', published at Konigsberg in 1755.
The study of a science that promises to lead us through the vast range of
creation may be compared to a journey in a far-distant land. Before we set
forth, we consider, and often with distrust, our own strength, and that of
the guide we have chosen. But the apprehensions which have originated in
the abundance and the difficulties attached to the subjects we would
embrace, recede from view as we remember that with the increase of
observations in the present day there has also arisen a more intimate
knowledge of the connection existing among all phenomena. It has not
unfrequently happened, that the researches made at remote distances have
often and unexpectedly thrown light upon subjects which had long resisted
the attempts made to explain them within the narrow limits of our own sphere
of observation. Organic forms that had long remained isolated, both in the
animal and vegetable kingdom, have been connected by the discovery of
intermediate links or stages of transition. The geography of beings endowed
p 51
with life attains completeness as we see the species, genera, and entire
families belonging to one hemisphere, reflected as it were, in analogous
animal and vegetable forms in the opposite hemisphere. There are, so to
speak, the 'equivalents' which mutually personate and replace one another in
the great series of organisms. These connecting links and stages of
transition may be traced, alternately, in a deficiency or an excess of
development of certain parts, in the mode of junction of distinct organs, in
the differences in the balance of forces, or in a resemblance to
intermediate forms which are not permanent, but merely characteristic of
certain phases of normal development. Passing from the consideration of
beings endowed with life to that of inorganic bodies, we find many striking
illustrations of the high state of advancement to which modern geology has
attained. We thus see, according to the grand views of Elie de Beaumont,
how chains of mountains dividing different climates and floras and different
races of men, reveal to us their 'relative age', both by the character of
the sedimentary strata they have uplifted, and by the directions which they
follow over the long fissures and which the earth's crust is furrowed.
Relations of superposition of trachyte and of syenitic porphyry, of diorite
and of serpentine, which remain in the rich platinum districts of the Oural,
and on the south-western declivity of the Siberian Alti, are elucidated by
the observations that have been made on the plateaux of Mexico and
Antioquia, and in the unhealthy ravines of Choco. The most important facts
on which the physical history of the world has been based in modern times,
have not been accumulated by chance. It has at length been fully
acknowledged, and the conviction is characteristic of the age, that the
narratives of distant travels, too long occupied in the mere recital of
hazardous adventures, can only be made a source of instruction where the
traveler is acquainted with the condition of the science he would enlarge,
and is guided by reason in his researches.
It is by this tendency to generalization, which is only dangerous in its
abuse, that a great portion of the physical knowledge already acquired may
be made the common property of all classes of society; but, in order to
render the instruction impaired by these means commensurate with the
importance of the subject, it is desirable to deviate as widely as possible
from the imperfect compilations designated, till the close of the eighteenth
century, by the inappropriate term of 'popular
p 52
knowledge.' I take pleasure in persuading myself that scientific subjects
may be treated of in language at once dignified, grave, and animated, and
that those who are restricted within the circumscribed limits of ordinary
life, and have long remained strangers to an intimate communion with nature,
may thus have opened to them one of the richest sources of enjoyment, by
which the mind is invigorated by the acquisition of new ideas. Communion
with nature awakens within us perceptive faculties that had long lain
dormant; and we thus comprehend at a single glance the influence exercised
by physical discoveries on the enlargement of the sphere of intellect, and
perceive how a judicious application of mechanics, chemistry, and other
sciences may be made conducive to national prosperity.
A more accurate knowledge of the connection of physical phenomena will also
tend to remove the prevalent error that all branches of natural science are
not equally important in relation to general cultivation and industrial
progress. An arbitrary distinction is frequently made between the various
degrees of importance appertaining to mathematical sciences, to the study of
organized beings, the knowledge of electro-magnetism, and investigations of
the general properties of matter in its different conditions of molecular
aggregation; and it is not uncommon presumptuously to affix a supposed
stigma upon researches of this nature, by terming them "purely theoretical,"
forgetting , although the fact has been long attested, that in the
observation of a phenomenon, which at first sight appears to be wholly
isolated, may be concealed the germ of a great discovery. When Aloysio
Galvani first stimulated the nervous fiber by the accidental contact of two
heterogeneous metals, his contemporaries could never have anticipated that
the action of the voltaic pile would discover to us, in the alkalies, metals
of a silvery luster, so light as to swim on water, and eminently
inflammable; or that it would become a powerful instrument of chemical
analysis, and at the same time a thermoscope and a magnet. When Hygens
first observed, in 1678, the phenomenon of the polarization of light,
exhibited in the difference between the two rays into which a pencil of
light divides itself in passing through a doubly refracting crystal, it
could not have been foreseen that, a century and a half later, the great
philosopher Arago would, by his discovery of 'chromatic polarization', be
led to discern, by means of a small fragment of Iceland spar, whether solar
light emanates from a solid body or a gaseous covering, or
p 53
whether comets transmit light directly or merely by reflection.*
[Footnote] *Arago's Discoveries in the year 1811. -- Delambro's 'Histoire
de l'Ast.', p. 652. (Passage already quoted.)
An equal appreciation of all branches of the mathematical, physical, and
natural sciences is a special requirement of the present age, in which the
material wealth and the growing prosperity of nations are principally based
upon a more enlightened employment of the products and forces of nature.
The most superficial glance at the present condition of Europe shows that a
diminution, or even a total annihilation of national prosperity, must be the
award of those states who shrink with slothful indifference from the great
struggle of rival nations in the career of the industrial arts. It is with
nations as with nature, which, according to a happy expression of Göthe,*
"knows no pause in progress and development, and attaches her curse on all
inaction."
[Footnote] *Gothe, in 'Die Aphorismen uber Naturwissenschaft.' -- 'Werke',
bd. 1., s. 4
The propagation of an earnest and sound knowledge of science can therefore
alone avert the dangers of which I have spoken. Man can not act upon
nature, or appropriate her forces to his own use, without comprehending
their full extent, and having an intimate acquaintance with the laws of the
physical world. Bacon has said that, in human societies, knowledge is
power. Both must rise and sink together. But the knowledge that results
from the free action of thought is at once the delight and the
indestructible prerogative of man; and in forming part of the wealth of
mankind, it not unfrequently serves as a substitute for the natural riches,
which are but sparingly scattered over the earth. Those states which take
no active part in the general industrial movement, in the choice and
preparation of natural substances, or in the application of mechanics and
chemistry, and among whom this activity is not appreciated by all classes of
society, will infallibly see their prosperity diminish in proportion as
neighboring countries become strengthened and invigorated under the genial
influence of arts and sciences.
As in nobler spheres of thought and sentiment, in philosophy, poetry, and
the fine arts, the object at which we aim ought to be an inward one -- an
ennoblement of the intellect -- so ought we likewise in our pursuit of
science, to strive after a knowledge of the laws and the principles of unity
that pervade the vital forces of the universe; and it is by such a course
that
p 54
physical studies may be made subservient to the progress of industry, which
is a conquest of mind over matter. By a happy connection of causes and
effects, we often see the useful linked to the beautiful and the exalted.
The improvement of agriculture in the hands of freemen, and on properties of
a moderate extent -- the flourishing state of the mechanical arts freed from
the trammels of municipal restrictions -- the increased impetus imparted to
commerce by the multiplied means of the intellectual progress of mankind,
and of the amelioration of political institutions, in which this progress is
reflected. The picture presented by modern history ought to convince those
who are tardy in awakening to the truth of the lesson it teaches.
Nor let it be feared that the marked predilection for the study of nature,
and for industrial progress, which is so characteristic of the present age,
should necessarily have a tendency to retard the noble exertions of the
intellect in the domains of philosophy, classical history, and antiquity, or
to deprive the arts by which life is embellished of the vivifying breath of
imagination. Where all the germs of civilization are developed beneath the
aegis of free institutions and wise legislation, there is no cause for
apprehending that any one branch of knowledge should be cultivated to the
prejudice of others. All afford the state precious fruits, whether they
yield nourishment to man and constitute his physical wealth, or whether,
more permanent in their nature, they transmit in the works of mind the glory
of nations to remotest posterity. The Spartans, notwithstanding their Doric
austerity, prayed the gods to grant them "the beautiful with the good."*
[Footnote] *Pseudo-Plato, -- 'Alcib.', xi., p. 184, ed. Steph.; Plut.,
'Instituta Laconica', p. 253, ed. Hatten.
I will no longer dwell upon the considerations of the influence exercised by
the mathematical and physical sciences on all that appertains to the
material wants of social life, for the vast extent of the course on which I
am entering forbids me to insist further upon the utility of these
applications. Accustomed to distant excursions, I may, perhaps, have erred
in describing the path before us as more smooth and pleasant than it really
is, for such is wont to be the practice of those who delight in guiding
others to the summits of lofty mountains: they praise the view even when
great part of the distant plains lie hidden by clouds, knowing that this
half-transparent vapory vail imparts to the scene a certain charm from
p 55
the power exercised by the imagination over the domain of the senses. In
like manner, from the height occupied by the physical history of the world,
all parts of the horizon will not appear equally clear and well defined.
This indistinctness will not, however, be wholly owing to the present
imperfect state of some of the sciences, but in part, likewise, to the
unskillfulness of the guide who has imprudently ventured to ascend these
lofty summits.
The object of this introductory notice is not, however, solely to draw
attention to the importance and greatness of the physical history of the
universe, for in the present day these are too well understood to be
contested, but likewise to prove how, without detriment to the stability of
special studies, we may be enabled to generalize our ideas by concentrating
them in one common focus, and thus arrive at a point of view from which all
the organisms and forces of nature may be seen as one living active whole,
animated by one sole impulse. "Nature," as Schelling remarks in his poetic
discourse on art, "is not an inert mass; and to him who can comprehend her
vast sublimity, she reveals herself as the creative force of the universe --
before all time, eternal, ever active, she calls to life all things, whether
perishable or imperishable."