The higher the point of view from which natural phenomena may be considered,
the more necessary it is to circumscribe the science within its just limits,
and to distinguish it from all other analogous or auxiliary studies.
Physical cosmography is founded on the contemplation of all created things
-- all that exists in space, whether as substances or forces -- that is, all
the material beings that constitute the universe. The science which I would
attempt to define presents itself, therefore, to man, as the inhabitant of
the earth, under a two-fold form -- as the earth itself and the regions of
space. It is with a view of showing the actual character and the
independence of the study of physical cosmography, and at the same time
indicating the nature of its relations to 'general physics, descriptive
natural history, geology, and comparative geography', that I will pause for
a few moments to consider that portion of the science of the Cosmos which
concerns the earth. As the history of philosophy does not consist of a mere
material enumeration of the philosophical views entertained in different
ages, neither should the physical description of the universe be a simple
encyclopedic compilation of the sciences we have enumerated. The difficulty
of defining the limits of intimately-connected studies has been increased,
because for centuries it has been customary to designate various branches
p 58
of empirical knowledge by terms which admit either of too wide or too
limited a definition of the ideas which they were intended to convey, and
are, besides, objectionable from having had a different signification in
those classical languages of antiquity from thish chey have been borrowed.
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