May the immeasurable diversity of phenomena which crowd into the picture of
nature in no way detract from that harmonious impression of rest and unity
which is the ultimate object of every literary or purely artistical
composition.
Beginning with the depths of space and the regions of remotest nebulae, we
will gradually descend through the starry zone to which our solar system
belongs, to our own terrestrial spheroid, circled by air and ocean, there to
direct our attention
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to its form, temperature, and magnetic tension, and to consider the fullness
of organic life unfolding itself upon its surface beneath the vivifying
influence of light. In this manner a picture of the world may, with a few
strokes, be made to include the realms of infinity no less than the minute
microscopic animal and vegetable organisms which exist in standing waters
and on the weather-beaten surface of our rocks. All that can be perceived
by the senses, and all that has been accumulated up to the present day by an
attentive and variously directed study of nature, constitute the materials
from which this representation is to be drawn, whose character is an
evidence of its fidelity and truth. But the descriptive picture of nature
which we purpose drawing must not enter too fully into detail, since a
minute enumeration of all vital forms, natural objects, and processes is not
requisite to the completeness of the undertaking.
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