Cosmos: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1

by Alexander von Humboldt

[Footnote] *Gothe, in 'Die Aphorismen uber Naturwissenschaft', bd. I., s. 155 ('Werke kleine Ausgabe','von' 1833.)

Thus the uniformity of figure observed in the distribution of continental masses, which all terminate toward the south in a pyramidal form, and expand toward the north (a law that determines the nature of climates, the direction of currents in the ocean and the atmosphere, and the transition of certain types of tropical vegetation toward the southern temperate zone), may be clearly apprehended without any knowledge of the geodesical and astronomical operations by means of which these pyramidal forms of continents have been determined. In like manner, physical geography teaches us by how many leagues p 48 the equatorial axis exceeds the polar axis of the globe, and shows us the mean equality of the flattening of the two hemispheres, without entailing on us the necessity of giving the detail of the measurement of the degrees in the meridian, or the observations on the pendulum, which have led us to know that the true figure of our globe is not exactly that of a regular ellipsoid of revolution, and that this irregularity is reflected in the corresponding irregularity of the movements of the moon.

The views of comparative geography have been specially enlarged by that admirable work, 'Erdkunde im Verhältniss zur Natur und sur Geschichte', in which Carl Ritter so ably delineates the physiognomy of our globe, and shows the influence of its external configuration on the physical phenomena on its surface, on the migrations, laws, and manners of nations, and on all the principal historical events enacted upon the face of the earth.

France possesses an immortal work, 'L'Exposition du Système du Monde', in which the author has combined the results of the highest astronomical and mathematical labors, and presented them to his readers free from all processes of demonstration. The structure of the heavens is here reduced to the simple solution of a great problem in mechanics; yet Laplace's work has never yet been accused of incompleteness and want of profundity.

The distinction between dissimilar subjects, and the separation of the general from the special, are not only conducive to the attainment of perspicuity in the composition of a physical history of the universe, but are also the means by which a character of greater elevation may be imparted to the study of nature. By the suppression of all unnecessary detail, the great masses are better seen, and the reasoning faculty is enabled to grasp all that might otherwise escape the limited range of the senses.

The exposition of general results has, it must be owned, been singularly facilitated by the happy revolution experienced since the close of the last century, in the condition of all the special sciences, more particularly of geology, chemistry, and descriptive natural history. In proportion as laws admit of more general application, and as sciences mutually enrich each other, and by their extension become connected together in more numerous and more intimate relations, the development of general truths may be given with conciseness devoid of superficiality. On being first examined, all phenomena appear to be p 49 isolated, and it is only by the result of a multiplicity of observations, combined by reason, that we are able to trace the mutual relations existing between them. If, however, in the present age, which is so strongly characterized by a brilliant course of scientific discoveries, we perceive a want of connection in the phenomena of certain sciences, we may anticipate the revelation of new facts, whose importance will probably be commensurate with the attention directed to these branches of study. Expectations of this nature may be entertained with regard to meteorology, several parts of optics, and to radiating heat, and electro-magnetism, since the admirable discoveries of Melloni and Faraday. A fertile field is here opened to discovery, although the voltaic pile has already taught us the intimate connection existing between electric, magnetic, and chemical phenomena. Who will venture to affirm that we have any precise knowledge, in the present day, of that part of the atmosphere which is not oxygen, or that thousands of gaseous substances affecting our organs may not be mixed with the nitrogen, or, finally, that we have even discovered the whole number of the forces which pervade the universe?

It is not the purpose of this essay on the physical history of the world to reduce all sensible phenomena to a small number of abstract principles, based on reason only. The physical history of the universe, whose exposition I attempt to develop, does not pretend to rise to the perilous abstractions of a purely rational science of nature, and is simply a 'physical geography, combined with a description of the regions of space and the bodies occupying them.' Devoid of the profoundness of a purely speculative philosophy, my essay on the 'Cosmos' treats of the contemplation of the universe, and is based upon a rational empiricism, that is to say, upon the results of the facts registered by science, and tested by the operations of the intellect. It is within these limits alone that the work, which I now venture to undertake, appertains to the sphere of labor to which I have devoted myself throughout the course of my long scientific career. The path of inquiry is not unknown to me, although it may be pursued by others with greater success. The unity which I seek to attain in the development of the great phenomena of the universe, is analogous to that which historical composition is capable of acquiring. All points relating to the accidental individualities, and the essential variations of the actual, whether in the form and arrangement of natural objects in the struggle of man against the elements, or of nations against nations, do not admit of being p 50 based only on a 'rational foundation' — that is to say, of being deduced from ideas alone.

It seems to me that a like degree of empiricism attaches to the Description of the Universe and to Civil History; but in reflecting upon physical phenomena and events, and tracing their causes by the process of reason, we become more and more convinced of the truth of the ancient doctrine, that the forces inherent in matter, and those which govern the moral necessity, and in accordance with movements occurring periodically after longer or shorter intervals.

It is this necessity, this occult but permanent connection, this periodical recurrence in the progressive development of forms, phenomena, and events, which constitute 'nature', obedient to the first impulse imparted to it. Physics, as the term signifies, is limited to the explanation of the phenomena of the material world by the properties of matter. The ultimate object of the experimental sciences is, therefore, to discover laws, and to trace their progressive generalization. All that exceeds this goes beyond the province of the physical description of the universe, and appertains to a range of higher speculative views.

Emmanuel Kant, one of the few philosophers who have escaped the imputation of impiety, has defined with rare sagacity the limits of physical explanations, in his celebrated essay 'On the Theory and Structure of the Heavens', published at Konigsberg in 1755.