Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/471

 COSMOGRAPHY

41. J

OOSMOLOaY

he animals and then man. Ataensic is said to mean yhe-who-is-in-the-watcr", i. e. the dry land in the lidst of the ocean; Joskeha is the growing light, or awn; Tawiscara, the evening twilight, or growing arkness. The Quiche of Guatemala have left us in heir sacred book " Popol Vuh " the most detailed cos- mogony of Central America. The universe first con- isted of the endless ocean and the twilight brooding ver it. Then the Creator took counsel with his heli> aate to produce the world. Though described as a lair of gods, male and female, this pair is conceived as unity of being, male and female being but different spects of the Deity. This Creator is called by every onceivable name, even with names proper to other cities. Thus he is called Heart of the Universe, ,hirh is a special title of the god Hurakan, or of Guku- latz the feathered serpent. He is evidently con- eived as the AU-in-One, as Hunabku, from whom len and gods descend. This Creator uttered the .'ord Earth, and the land began to rise out of the .•at«rs. As often as God called a thing so often it en- ered into reality. Then God takes counsel with the jsser gods, whom, apparently, he has meanwhile cre- ted, how to fashion man. They first created him out f clay, then of wood, and finally out of maize. The irst two attempts failed, the third succeeded. The aonkeys are the surviving remnants of the second un- uccessful endeavour.

Very weird are the cosmogonies of the ancient Mexicans. They are characterized by the strong in- lucnce of dualism, the universe being in the throes of a )erpctual contest between good and evil. The infinite leity has four sons: the black and the red Tezcatlipoca, ■nd Quetzalcoatl, and Huitzilopochtli. These four )rothers consulted together about the creation of hings. The actual work fell to the lot of Quetzal- oatl and Huitzilopochtli. They made fire, then half he sun, the heavens, the waters, and a certain great ish therein with the name of Cipactli. From its flesh vas formed solid earth and the first man and woman, 'ipactonal and < )xonuico. The half-sun created by Juetzalcoatl lighted the world but poorly, and the o\ir gods consult once more to add another half to it. Pezcatlipoca does not wait for their decision, but r.-iiisforms himself into the sun. But after thirteen imcs fifty-two years, t^uetzalcoatl seized a great stick md with a blow knocked Tezcatlipoca from the .sky ntn the waters, and became himself the sun. Four imcs wiis the earth destroyed in this struggle. Quet- )iily biding his time. This cosmogonic episode of var between brothers runs through other North American accounts, lus, e. g., Tawiscara and Joskeha imongst the Iroquois, and is prominent in the Egyp- tian cosmogony.
 * alc.itl is at present triumphant, but Tezcatlipoca is

The noblest account of the world's origin was found imongst the Maya of Yucatan, who ascribed all to an mmaterial, invisible god Hunabku, father of Itzamna, he personification of the heavenly fire. Similarly, he ancient Aymara a.seribed all to Viracocha (Foam- if-tlic-Sea — the colour white, the Spaniards, as white- skins, being called rinimchiis). This Viracocha, or rt'hite One, wa.s Creator and Pos,se.ssor of all things, \s all things were his, and he wa-s everywhere, the In- le rose from the bosom of the lake Titicaca .and presid- vl over the huililiiii;cif the ancient cities. He created the luminaries and pl:ic(>d them in the sky, and peo- ph'il the earth with inhabitants. Rut, jf)urneying from the lake westward, he was attacked by the creatures he liad made. Scorning the contest with the work of his own hands, he only hurled lightning over hillside and forest, and when his creatures repented he became reconciled and taught them all things. Viracocha was the divine light, .symbolized by, but not identical with, the sun. One can hardly retrain from a com- parison with Khu-n-Aten, the solar disc of Amenho-
 * as built him no temples. Ere sun or moon was made,

tep's foreign worship introduced into Egypt some three thousand years before the religious revival of the Incas of Peru.

LuKAS, Die Grundideen in den Koamogonien der alten Vnlker (1893); Lagrange, Etudes sut les religions semitiques (2d ed., Paris, 1905), 36(5—141; Von Orelli, AUqem. Religionsgeschiehte (Bonn, 1899); Jensen, Die Kosmologie der Babylonier (Leipzig, 1891); Darmestetter, Ormnzd et Ahrivuin (Paris, 1877); Hopkins, The Heligion.i of India (Boston, 1895); WiNDELBANn. History of Ancient Philosophy (tr., London, 1900); Meyer, Die etldische Kosmogojiir iVreihnrf]: im Br., 1891); Idem, Mythologie dtr (Ifrmancn (.Stmsburs, 1903); Habler, Religion d. mittl. Amrnka (Miinster, 1S99); Brinton, Religions oI Prim. Peoples (Philadelphia, 1897); h)EM, American Hero iiylhs (Philadel- phia, 1882); Idem, Myths of the New H'or/d (1868).

J. P. Arendzen. Cosmography. See GEocnAPHY.

Cosmology. — From its Greek etymology ((tia-jnos world ; \6-yos, knowledge or science) the word cosmol- ogy means the science of the world. It ought, there- fore, to include in its scope the study of the whole material universe: that is to say, of inorganic sub- stances, of plants, of animals, and of man himself. But, as a matter of fact, the wide range indicated by the etymology of the word has been narrowed in the actual meaning. In our day cosmology is a branch of philosophical study, and therefore excludes from its investigation whatever forms the object of the natural sciences. While the sciences of physics and biology seek the proximate causes of corporal phenomena, the laws that govern them, and the wonderful harmony resulting therefrom, cosmology aims to discover the deeper and remoter causes which neither observation nor experiment immediately reveals. This special purpose restricts in many ways the field of cosmology. There is another limitation not less important. Man's unique position in the imiverse makes him the object of a special philosophical study, viz, psychology, or anthropology; and, in consequence, that portion of the corporeal world with which these sciences deal has been cut off from the domain of cosmology properly so called.

There is a tendency at present to restrict the field still further; and limit it to what is known as inor- ganic creation. Psychology being by its very defini- tion the study of human life considered in its first principle and in the totality of its phenomena, its in- vestigations ought to comprise, it would seem, the threefold life of man, vegetative, animal, and rational. And, indeed, the inter-dependence of these three lives in the one living human being appears to justify the enlargement demanded nowadays by many authors of note for the psychological field. Hence for those who accept this view, cosmology has nothing to do with organic life but is reduced to "a philosophical study of the inorganic world". Such, in our opinion, is the best definition that can be given. At the same time it should be remarked that many philosophers still favour a broader definition, which would include not only the mineral kingdom but also living things con- sidered in a general way. In German-speaking coun- tries cosmology, as a rule, is known as Xaturphilo- sophic, i. e. philosophy of nature.

Under this name, philosophers usually understand a study of the imiverse along the lines of one of the fore- going definitions. Scientists, on the other hand, give a more scientific turn to this philosophy of nature, transforming it into a sort of general physics with an occasional excursion into the realm of sensitive and intellectual life. A notable instance is the work of Prof. Ostwald, " Vorlesungen liber Naturphilosophie" (Leipzig, 1902).

Origin of Co.smology. — The word itself is of recent origin. It was first used by Wolff when, in 1730, he entitled one of his works "Cosmologia Generalis" (Frankfort and Leipzig). In this treatise the author studies especially the laws of motion, the relations that exi.st among things in nature, the contingency of the universe, the hannony of nature, the necessity of