ii., s. 96, etc.). Taken in a still more limited sense, the word
appears to have signified among the Goths the terrestrial surface girded by
seas ('marei, meri',) the 'merigard', literally, 'garden of seas.'
From the Italian school of philosophy, the expression passed, in this
signification, into the language of those early poets
p 71
of nature, Parmenides and Empedocles, and from thence into the works of
prose writers. We will not here enter into a discussion of the manner in
which, according to the Pythagorean views, Philolaus distinguishes between
Olympus, Uranus, or the heavens, and Cosmos, or how the same word, used in a
plural sense, could be applied to certain heavenly bodies (the planets)
revolving round one central focus of the world, or to groups of stars. In
this work I use the word Cosmos in conformity with the Hellenic usage of the
term subsequently to the time of Pythagorus, and in accordance with the
precise definition given of it in the treatise entitled 'De Mundo', which
was long erroneously attributed to Aristotle. It is the assemblage of all
things in heaven and earth, the universality of created things constituting
the perceptible world. If scientific terms had not long been diverted from
their true verbal signification, the present work ought rather to have borne
the title of 'Cosmography', divided into 'Uranography' and 'Geography.
Pages:
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149