{"product_id":"2940013755260","title":"Eureka","description":"[To the few who love me and whom I love--to those who feel rather than\u003cbr\u003eto those who think--to the dreamers and those who put faith in dreams\u003cbr\u003eas in the only realities--I offer this book of Truths, not in its\u003cbr\u003echaracter of Truth-Teller, but for the Beauty that abounds in its\u003cbr\u003eTruth, constituting it true. To these I present the composition as an\u003cbr\u003eArt-Product alone,--let us say as a Romance; or, if I be not urging\u003cbr\u003etoo lofty a claim, as a Poem.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat I here propound is true.--therefore it cannot die; or if by any\u003cbr\u003emeans it be now trodden down so that it die, it will \"rise again to\u003cbr\u003ethe Life Everlasting.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNevertheless, it is as a Poem only that I wish this work to be judged\u003cbr\u003eafter I am dead.]\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIt is with humility really unassumed--it is with a sentiment even of\u003cbr\u003eawe--that I pen the opening sentence of this work: for of all\u003cbr\u003econceivable subjects, I approach the reader with the most solemn--the\u003cbr\u003emost comprehensive--the most difficult--the most august.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWhat terms shall I find sufficiently simple in their sublimity--\u003cbr\u003esufficiently sublime in their simplicity--for the mere enunciation of\u003cbr\u003emy theme?\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI design to speak of the Physical, Metaphysical and Mathematical--of\u003cbr\u003ethe Material and Spiritual Universe--of its Essence, its Origin, its\u003cbr\u003eCreation, its Present Condition, and its Destiny. I shall be so rash,\u003cbr\u003emoreover, as to challenge the conclusions, and thus, in effect, to\u003cbr\u003equestion the sagacity, of many of the greatest and most justly\u003cbr\u003ereverenced of men.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn the beginning, let me as distinctly as possible announce--not the\u003cbr\u003etheorem which I hope to demonstrate--for, whatever the mathematicians\u003cbr\u003emay assert, there is, in this world at least, no such thing as\u003cbr\u003edemonstration--but the ruling idea which, throughout this volume, I\u003cbr\u003eshall be continually endeavoring to suggest.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy general proposition, then, is this:--In the Original Unity of the\u003cbr\u003eFirst Thing lies the Secondary Cause of All Things, with the Germ of\u003cbr\u003etheir Inevitable Annihilation.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eIn illustration of this idea, I propose to take such a survey of the\u003cbr\u003eUniverse that the mind may be able really to receive and to perceive\u003cbr\u003ean individual impression.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHe who from the top of Aetna casts his eyes leisurely around, is\u003cbr\u003eaffected chiefly by the extent and diversity of the scene. Only by a\u003cbr\u003erapid whirling on his heel could he hope to comprehend the panorama in\u003cbr\u003ethe sublimity of its oneness. But as, on the summit of Aetna, no man\u003cbr\u003ehas thought of whirling on his heel, so no man has ever taken into his\u003cbr\u003ebrain the full uniqueness of the prospect; and so, again, whatever\u003cbr\u003econsiderations lie involved in this uniqueness have as yet no\u003cbr\u003epractical existence for mankind.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eI do not know a treatise in which a survey of the Universe--using the\u003cbr\u003eword in its most comprehensive and only legitimate acceptation--is\u003cbr\u003etaken at all; and it may be as well here to mention that by the term\u003cbr\u003e\"Universe,\" wherever employed without qualification in this essay, I\u003cbr\u003emean, in most cases, to designate the utmost conceivable expanse of\u003cbr\u003espace, with all things, spiritual and material, that can he imagined\u003cbr\u003eto exist within the compass of that expanse. In speaking of what is\u003cbr\u003eordinarily implied by the expression \"Universe,\" I shall take a phrase\u003cbr\u003eof limitation--\"the Universe of Stars.\" Why this distinction is\u003cbr\u003econsidered necessary will be seen in the sequel.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eBut even of treatises on the really limited, although always assumed\u003cbr\u003eas the unlimited, Universe of stars, I know none in which a survey,\u003cbr\u003eeven of this limited Universe, is so taken as to warrant deductions\u003cbr\u003efrom its individuality. The nearest approach to such a work is made in\u003cbr\u003ethe \"Cosmos\" of Alexander Von Humboldt. He presents the subject,\u003cbr\u003ehowever, not in its individuality but in its generality. His theme, in\u003cbr\u003eits last result, is the law of each portion of the merely physical\u003cbr\u003eUniverse, as this law is related to the laws of every other portion of\u003cbr\u003ethis merely physical Universe. His design is simply synaeretical. In a\u003cbr\u003eword, he discusses the universality of material relation, and\u003cbr\u003ediscloses to the eye of Philosophy whatever inferences have hitherto\u003cbr\u003elain hidden behind this universality. But however admirable be the\u003cbr\u003esuccinctness with which he has treated each particular point of his\u003cbr\u003etopic, the mere multiplicity of these points occasions, necessarily,\u003cbr\u003ean amount of detail, and thus an involution of idea, which preclude\u003cbr\u003eall individuality of impression.","brand":"WDS Publishing","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47079661633776,"sku":"2940013755260","price":0.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/2940013755260_p0.jpg?v=1763589832","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/2940013755260","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}