A Glance at the Progress of the Nineteenth Century in Solving Cosmic Problems--I. Progress of Astronomy and Cosmology--Physical and Chemical Unity of the Universe--Cosmic Metamorphoses--Evolution of the Planetary System--Analogy of the Phylogenetic Processes on the Earth and on Other Planets--Organic Inhabitants of Other Heavenly Bodies--Periodic Variation in the Making of Worlds--II. Progress of Geology and Palæontology--Neptunism and Vulcanism--Theory of Continuity--III. Progress of Physics and Chemistry--IV. Progress of Biology--Cellular Theory and Theory of Descent--V. Anthropology--Origin of Man--General Conclusion
At the close of our philosophic study of the riddles of the universe we turn with confidence to the answer to the momentous question, How nearly have we approached to a solution of them? What is the value of the immense progress which the passing nineteenth century has made in the knowledge of nature? And what prospect does it open out to us for the future, for the further development of our system in the twentieth century, at the threshold of which we pause? Every unprejudiced thinker who impartially considers the solid progress of our empirical science, and the unity and clearness of our philosophic interpretation of it, will share our view: the nineteenth century has made greater progress in knowledge of the world and in grasp of its nature than all its predecessors; it has solved many great problems that seemed insoluble a hundred years ago; it has opened out to us new provinces of learning, the very existence of which was unsuspected at the beginning of the century. Above all, it has put clearly before our eyes the lofty aim of monistic cosmology, and has pointed out the path which alone will lead us towards it--the way of the exact empirical investigation of facts, and of the critical genetic study of their causes. The great abstract law of mechanical causality, of which our cosmological law--the law of substance--is but another and a concrete expression, now rules the entire universe, as it does the mind of man; it is the steady, immovable pole-star, whose clear light falls on our path through the dark labyrinth of the countless separate phenomena. To see the truth of this more clearly, let us cast a brief glance at the astonishing progress which the chief branches of science have made in this remarkable period.
