on different Parts of the Earth's Surface,. 24<7 



These ancients considered the sun to be the only source of 

 the variation of temperature, except some small influence 

 which Hippocrates attributed to the winds in Greece and 

 some of the neighbouring countries, where a few local ob- 

 servations had been made. But, as nations became civil- 

 ised and enlightened, travellers were despatched to every 

 part of the habitable globe, and observations have been suc- 

 cessfully made not only upon every thing that affected science 

 in general, but particularly upon atmospheric temperature; 

 and it is from a comparison of these patient and laborious 

 investigations that the science of climatology has kept pace 

 with every other science. Climate, therefore, in its present 

 sense, serves to denote that admirable combination of circum- 

 stances, which everywhere exhibits the most striking scenes of 

 omnipotence and divine skill, and which so essentially tends 

 to make the earth desirable for the habitation of man. 



When we speak of climate in general terms, v/e say either 

 a good or a bad climate ; but, when w^e particularise, we speak 

 of hot, cold, dry, moist, healthy, unhealthy, &c.j according 

 to varying circumstances ; hence climatology may be deno- 

 minated one of the most amusing and instructive studies, 

 that can occupy the attention of a lover of nature. 



It is an amusing study, because it brings to a small focus, 

 viz. to our own imaginations, the results of different observers 

 upon the surrounding atmosphere ; and the various and beau- 

 tiful changes that we see there daily exhibited to our view, 

 fill us with astonishment. Sometimes we behold the sky co- 

 vered with sable clouds, at other times we see it tinged with 

 every hue which fancy could suggest, by the rays of the rising 

 or the setting sun. At one time we behold the rainbow raise 

 its majestic arch, and at another the aurora borealis illumi- 

 nate the nocturnal sky with fantastic and varied coruscations ; 

 sometimes the heavens appear like a boundless and frightful 

 desert, and at other times they exhibit an innumerable host 

 of stars, and the moon " walking in brightness." 



It is an amusing study, also, because it makes us acquainted 

 with many of the characteristics of the various nations on the 

 globe, and the produce of the climates which they inhabit. 

 Thus, we see the rays of a perpendicular sun in the torrid 

 zone darken the complexion of the inhabitants, enervate their 

 bodily powers, and enfeeble the nobler faculties of the mind. 

 Nor is the extreme of cold more congenial to human nature ; 

 for the nearer we approach the cold and barren region of 

 the pole, we find man sinking under the opposite extreme to 

 that which relaxed His powers in tonnd regions; in fact, he 



R 4? 



