The earth and man: lectures on comparative physical geography, in its relation to the history of mankind / By Arnold Guyot. Translated from the French, by C. C. Felton.

  • Guyot, A. (Arnold), 1807-1884.
Date:
1849
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The earth and man: lectures on comparative physical geography, in its relation to the history of mankind / By Arnold Guyot. Translated from the French, by C. C. Felton. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    38/370 (page 6)
    petual play of the forces of matter, of which we are every day the witnesses. Yes, gentlemen, it is indeed life, but undoubtedly in a very inferior order of things. It is life ; the thousand voices of nature which make themselves heard around us, and which in so many ways betray that incessant and prodigious activity, proclaim it so loudly that we cannot shut our ears to their language. This general life, this physical and chemical life, be- longs to all matter. It is the basis of the existence of all superior beings, not as the source, but as the condition. It is in the plant, it is in the animal; only here it is in the service of a principle of higher life of a spiritual nature, of a principle of unity, of which the mysterious force, refer- ring all to a centre, modifies it, controls it, and organizes it, for the benefit of an individual. Now it is precisely this internal principle of unity be- longing to organized nature, which is wanting in individ- uals of inorganic nature ; and that is the difference. In inorganic nature, the bodies are only simple aggre- gations of parts, homogeneous or heterogenous, and differ- ing among themselves, the combination of which seems to be accidental. Nevertheless, to say nothing of the law which assigns to each species of mineral a particular form of crystallization, we see that every aggregation, fortui- tous in appearance, may constitute a whole, with limits and a determinate form, which, without having anything of ab- solute necessity, gives to it, however, the first lineaments of individuality. Such are the various geographical regions, the islands, the peninsulas, the continents ; the Antilles, for example, England, Italy, Asia, Europe, North