Outlines of a philosophy of the history of man / translated from the German of John Godfrey Herder, T. Churchill.
- Johann Gottfried Herder
- Date:
- 1800
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Outlines of a philosophy of the history of man / translated from the German of John Godfrey Herder, T. Churchill. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![Chap. V.] Our Earth enveloped with an Atmofphere, i * by two oppofite forces, and fortunately placed fo near us. Were all thefe ob- fervations, and their refults, once to be applied to our aerial orb, as they have already been to the ebb and flow of our ocean were the induftry of many years to proceed, in various places of the Earth, aflifted by delicate inftruments, part of which are already invented, to reduce to order, and conned in one whole, the revolutions of this celeftial fea, according to time and place ; I am of opi- nion, aftrology would appear anew among our fciences in the mod refpedable and uleful form; and what Toaldo began, what De Luc, Lambert, Mayer, Beckmann, and others, have promoted by the eftablifhment of principles or collateral helps, probably a Gatterer would complete, and afluredly with a com- prehenfive view of geography and the hiftory of man. • Be this as it may, we are, and we grow, we wander and toil, under or in a fea of celeftial powers, part of which we have obferved, and of part of which we have formed conjectures. Since air and weather have fo much power over us, and the whole Earth ; in all likelihood it was here an eledrical fpark, that fhot more pure into this human being; there a portion of inflammable matter, more forcibly comprefled into that; here a mafs of mere coldnefs and ferenity; there a foft, mollifying, diffufive eflence; that determined and produced the g'reateft epochs and revolutions of humankind. The omniprefent eye, under which this clay alfo is fafhioned according to eternal laws, can alone point out to every elementary atom, every emitted fpark, every ethereal ray, in this world of phy- fical powers, it’s place, it’s time, and it’s fphere of adion, to mix and qualify it with oppofite powers. CHAPTER VI. • i The planet we inhabit is an Earth of mountains^ ri/ing above the furface of the zvaters. Th i s is confirmed by a Ample infpedion of a map of the World, which exhibi ts chains of mountains, not merely traverfing the dry land, but evidently appearing to conftitute the fkeleton, on which the land was formed. In America the moun- tains run along the weftern coaft through the ifthmus. They proceed obliquely* as does the land : where they penetrate more interiourly, the land grows wider, till they are loft in the unknown regions of New-Mexico. It is likely, that here they not only proceed higher up to mount Elias, but are alfo laterally connected with others, particularly the Blue Mountains, as in South America, where the land](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b22010282_0037.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
