p 56 LIMITS AND METHOD OF EXPOSITION OF THE PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION OF THE UNIVERSE. I HAVE endeavored, in the preceding part of my work, to explain and illustrate, by various examples, how the enjoyments presented by the aspect of nature, varying as they do in the sources from when they flow, may be multiplied and ennobled by an acquaintance with the connection of phenomena and the laws by which they are regulated. It remains, then, for me to examine the spirit of the method in which the exposition of the 'physical description of the universe' should be conducted, and to indicate the limits of this science in accordance with the views I have acquired in the course of my studies and travels in various parts of the earth. I trust I may flatter myself with a hope that a treatise of this nature will justify the title I have ventured to adopt for my work, and exonerate me from the reproach of a presumption that would be doubly reprehensible in a scientific discussion. Before entering upon the delineation of the partial phenomena p 57 which are found to be distributed in various groups, I would consider a few general questions intimately connected together, and bearing upon the nature of our knowledge of the external world and its different relations, in all epochs of history and in all phases of intellectual advancement. Under this head will be comprised the following considerations: 1. The precise limits of the physical description of the universe, considered as a distinct science. 2. A brief enumeration of the totality of natural phenomena, presented under the form of a 'general delineation of nature.' 3. The influence of the external world on the imagination and feelings, which has acted in modern times as a powerful impulse toward the study of natural science, by giving animation to the description of distant regions and to the delineation of natural scenery, as far as it is characterized by vegetable physiognomy and by the cultivation of exotic plants, and their arrangement in well-contrasted groups. 4. The history of the contemplation of nature, or the progressive development of the idea of the Cosmos, considered with reference to the historical and geographical facts that have led to the discovery of the connection of phenomena. The higher the point of view from which natural phenomena may be considered, the more necessary it is to circumscribe the science within its just limits, and to distinguish it from all other analogous or auxiliary studies.