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
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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.
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