But as the sphere of contemplation
contracts in dimension our perception of the richness of individual parts,
the fullness of physical phenomena, and of the heterogeneous properties of
matter becomes enlarged. From the regions in which we recognize ony the
dominion of the laws of attraction, we descend to our own planet, and to the
intricate play of terrestrial forces. The method here described for the
delineation of nature is opposed to that which mst be pursued in
establishing conclusive results. The one enumerates what the other
demonstrates.
Man learns to know the external world through the organs of the senses.
Phenomena of light proclaim the existence of matter in remotest space, and
the eye is thus made the medium through which we may contemplate the
universe. The discovery of telescopic vision more than two centuries ago,
has transmitted to latest generations a power whose limits are as yet
unattained.
The first and most general consideration of the Cosmos is that of the
'contents of space' -- the distribution of matter, or of creation, as we are
wont to designate the assemblage of all that is and ever will be developed.
We see matter either agglomerated into rotating, revolving spheres of
different density and size, or scattered through space in the form of
self-luminous vapor.
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