COSMOS, VOL. II - World eBook Library

[_xiv]
COSMOS.
logy and descriptive geography. Importance and application of Barker's
panoramas. The conception of the unity of nature and the feeling of
the harmonious accord pervading the Cosmos will increase in force
amongst men in proportion to the multiplication of the means for
representing all natural phenomena in delineating pictures.
III. Cultivation of exotic forms. Impression of the physiognomy of
vegetable forms, as far as plantations are capable of producing such an
impression. Landscape gardening. Earliest plantation of parks in
Central and Southern Asia. Trees and groves sacred to the Gods p. 462.
The gardens of the nations of Eastern Asia. Chinese gardens under
the victorious dynasty of Han. Poem on a garden by the Chinese statesman,
See-ma-kuang, at the close of the llth century. Prescripts of
Lieu-tscheu. Poem of the Emperor Kien-long, descriptive of nature.
Influence of the connection of Buddhist monastic establishments on the
distribution of beautiful characteristic vegetable forms p. 465.
B. History of the Physical Contemplation of the Universe. The
history of the recognition of the universe is wholly different from
the history of the natural sciences, as given in our elementary works on
physics, and on the morphology of plants and animals. This is the history
of our conception of the unity of phenomena, and of the reciprocal connection
existing amongst the natural forces of the universe. Mode of
efforts of reason
treating a history of the Cosmos : a. The independent
to gain a knowledge of natural laws : b. Cosmical events which have
the horizon of observation : c. The invention of new
suddenly enlarged
means of sensuous perception. Languages. Points of radiation from
which civilisation has been diffused. Primitive physics and the natural
science of barbarous nations obscured by civilisation p. 480.
Principal momenta of a History of a Physical Contemplation of the
Universe.
I. The basin of the Mediterranean the starting point of the attempts
io extend the idea of the Cosmos. Sub-divisions in the form of the
basin. Importance of the form of the Arabian Gulf. Intersection of
two geognostic systems of elevation from N.E. to S.W., and from S.S.E.
to N.N.W. Importance of the latter direction of the lines of inter-
section considered with reference to general international intercourse.
Ancient civilisation of the nations dwelling round the Mediterranean.
The valley of the Kile, the ancient and modern kingdom of the Egyptians.
The Phoenicians, a race who favoured general intercourse, were the
means of diffusing alphabetical writing (Phoenician signs), coins as
medium of currency, and the original Babylonian weights and measures.
The science of numbers, arithmetic. The art of navigating by night.
West African colonies p. 492.
Pelasgian Tyrrhenians and Etruscans (Rasence). Peculiar tendency
of the Etrurian races to maintain an intimate communion with natural
forces; the fulguratores and aquileges p. 504.
Other anciently civilised races dwelling around the Mediterranean.
Traces of cultivation in the East, under the Phrygians and Lycians;
and in the West, under the Turduli and the Turdetani. Dawn of