64-66.
Bessel, Poggendorf's 'Annalen', bd. xxv., s. 417. Encke, 'Abhandlungen der
Berliner Academie' (Trans. of the Berlin Academy), 1826, s. 257.
Mitscherlich, 'Lehrbuch der Chemie' (Manual of Chemistry), 1837 bd. i. s.
352.
This absence of any perceptible difference in the nature of matter, alike
proved by direct observation and theoretical deductions, imparts a high
degree of simplicity to the mechanism of the heavens. The immeasurable
extent of the regions of space being subjected to laws of motion alone, the
sidereal portion of the science of the Cosmos is based on the pure and
abundant source of mathematical astronomy, as is the terrestrial portion on
physics, chemistry, and organic morphology; but the domain of these three
last-named sciences embraces
p 65
the consideration of phenomena which are so complicated and have, up to the
present time, been found so little susceptible of the application of
rigorous method, that the physical science of the earth can not boast of the
same certainty and simplicity in the exposition of facts and their mutual
connection which characterize the celestial portion of the Cosmos. It is
not improbable that the difference to which we allude may furnish an
explanation of the cause which, in the earliest ages of intellectual culture
among the Greeks, directed the natural philosophy of the Pythagoreans with
more ardor to the heavenly bodies and the regions of space than to the earth
and its productions, and how through Philolaus, and subsequently through the
analogous views of Aristarchus of Samos, and of Seleucus of Erythrea, this
science has been made more conducive to the attainment of a knowledge of the
true system of the world than the natural philosophy of the Ionian school
could ever be to the physical history of the earth.
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