Volume 2

Cosmos, a sketch of a physical description of the universe / by Alexander von Humboldt ; translated from the German by E.C. Otté.

  • Humboldt, Alexander von, 1769-1859.
Date:
1849-1858
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: Cosmos, a sketch of a physical description of the universe / by Alexander von Humboldt ; translated from the German by E.C. Otté. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    PART I. INCITEMENTS TO THE STUDY OF NATURE. Page rap. IMAGE REFLECTED BY THE EXTERNAL WORLD ON THE IMAGINA- TION. POETIC DESCRIPTION OF NATURE. LANDSCAPE PAINTING. —THE CULTIVATION OF EXOTIC PLANTS WHICH CHARACTERISE THE VEGETABLE PHYSIOGNOMY OF THE VARIOUS PARTS OF THE EARTH’S SURFACE 370-372 I. Desertion of nature.— The difference of feeling excited by the contemplation of nature at different epochs, and amongst dif- ferent races of men 372-439 Descriptions of nature by the ancients 313 ] descriptions of nature by the Greeks 375 Descriptions of nature by the Romans 383 Descriptions of nature in the Christian fathers 393 Descriptions of nature by the Indians 397 Descriptions of nature by the Minnesingers 399 Descriptions of nature by the Arian races 403 Natural descriptions by the Indians 405 Natural descriptions in the Persian writers 409 Natural descriptions in the Hebrew writers 411 11ebrew poetry 413 Literature of the Arabs 415 General retrospect 417 Descriptions of nature in early Italian poets 419 Descriptions of nature by Columbus 421 Descriptions of nature in Camoens’ Lusiad 425 Descriptions of nature in Ercilla’s Araucana 427 Calderon 429 Modern prose writers 431 Travellers of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries 435 Modern travellers 437 Goethe 439 II. Landscape painting, in its influence on the study of nature.— Graphical representation of the physiognomy of plants.— The character and aspect of vegetation in different zones 440-457 Landscape painting among the ancients 443 The brothers Van Eyck 445 Landscape painting of sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 447 Franz Post of Haarlem s. 449 Introduction of hot-houses in our garden 450 The treasures open to the landscape painter in the tropics 453 b