The
world of perceptive phenomena is reflected in the depths of the ideal world,
and the richness of nature and the mass of all that admits of classification
gradually become the objects of inductive reasoning.
I would here allude to the advantage, of which I have already
p 157
spoken, possessed by that portion of physical science whose origin is
familiar to us, and is connected with our earthly existence. The physical
description of celestial bodies from the remotely-glimmering nebulae with
their suns, to the central body of our own system, is limited, as we have
seen, to general conceptions of the volume and quantity of matter. No
manifestation of vital activity is there presented to our senses. It is
only from analogies, frequently from purely ideal combinations, that we
hazard conjectures on the specific elements of matter, or on their various
modifications in the different planetary bodies. But the physical knowledge
of the heterogeneous nature of matter, its chemical differences, the regular
forms in which its molecules combine together, whether in crystals or
granules; its relations to the deflected or decomposed waves of light by
which it is penetrated; to radiating, transmitted, or polarized heat; and to
the brilliant or invisible, but not, on that account, less active phenomena
of electro-magnetism -- all this inexhaustible treasure, by which the
enjoyment of the contemplation of nature is so much heightened, is dependent
on the surface of the planet which we inhabit, and more on its solid than on
its liquid parts.
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