COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 | Page 5

It has frequently been regarded as a subject of discouraging consideration, that while
purely literary products of intellectual activity are rooted in the depths of feeling, and
interwoven with the creative force of imagination, all works treating of empirical
knowledge, and of the connection of natural phenomena and physical laws, are subject to
the most marked modifications of form in the lapse of short periods of time, both p 12 by
the improvement in the instruments used, and by the consequent expansion of the field of
view opened to rational observation, and that those scientific works which have, to use a
common expression, become 'antiquated' by the acquisition of new funds of knowledge,
are thus continually being consigned to oblivion as unreadable. However discouraging
such a prospect must be, no one who is animated by a genuine love of nature, and by a
sense of the dignity attached to its study, can view with regret any thing which promises
future additions and a greater degree of perfection to general knowledge. Many important
branches of knowledge have been based upon a solid foundation which will not easily be
shaken, both as regards the phenomena in the regions of space and on the earth; while

there are other portions of science in which general views will undoubtedly take the place
of merely special; where new forces will be discovered and new substances will be made
known, and where those which are now considered as simple will be decomposed. I
would, therefore, venture to hope that an attempt to delineate nature in all its vivid
animation and exalted grandeur, and to trace the 'stable' amid the vacillating,
ever-recurring alternation of physical metamorphoses, will not be wholly disregarded
even at a future age. 'Potsdam, Nov.', 1844.
This material taken from pages 13-22 NB - The page numbers will be properly aligned in
Courier 12 font.
COSMOS: A Sketch of the Physical Description of the Universe, Vol. 1 by Alexander
von Humboldt
Translated by E C Otte
from the 1858 Harper & Brothers edition of Cosmos, volume 1
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p 13
CONTENTS OF VOL. I. ----------------------
Page The Translator's Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3 The Author's
Preface . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7 Summary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .15
INTRODUCTION. The Results of the Study of Physical Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . 23 The
different Epochs of the Contemplation of the external World . .24 The different Degrees
of Enjoyment presented by the Contemplation of Nature . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
25 Instances of this Species of Enjoyment . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 Means by which it is
induced . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26 The Elevations and climatic Relations of many of the
most celebrated Mountains in the World, considered with Reference to the Effect
produced on the Mind of the Observer . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .27-33 The
Impressions awakened by the Aspect of tropical Regions . . . . 34 The more accurate
Knowledge of the Physical Forces of the Universe, acquired by the Inhabitants of a small
Section of the temperate Zone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .36 The earliest Dawn of the
Science of the Cosmos . . . . . . . . . . 36 The Difficulties that opposed the Progress of
Inquiry . . . . . . . 37 Consideration of the Effect produced on the Mind by the Observation
of Nature, and the Fear entertained by some of its injurious
Influence . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 40 Illustrations of the Manner in which many recent
Discoveries have tended to Remove the groundless Fears entertained regarding the
Agency of certain Natural Phenomena . . . . . . 43 The Amount of Scientific Knowledge
required to enter on the Consideration of Physical Phenomena . . . . . . . . . . . . .