Observations on Shooting Stars on August 10^/^4" 1 IM, 1839. 441 



movements may be extended to phaenomena of the most ele- 

 vated order, to facts purely moral ? Who does not know, for 

 example, that the liveliest joy is often followed by a sentiment 

 of sadness, which, gradually decaying, is again followed by 

 agreeable recollections, which are themselves finally effaced ? 

 Have we not here oscillations decreasing from pleasure to pai7i, 

 from pain to pleasure; and from pleasure to the normal state 

 of the mindT^ Our ingenious author employs the same prin- 

 ciple to explain the effects of moral contrast', but we shall 

 pursue the subject no further, lest we should be accused of 

 prejudicing our readers against our author's optics, by dwelling 

 upon the singularities of his metaphysics. We must warn 

 our young readers, however, against being led away from the 

 path of sober inquiry by th<!r^ursuit of such ingenious ana- 

 logies. It may be amusing to fanciful minds, for it certainly 

 is poetical, to regard pleasure and pain, joys and sorrows, as the 

 lights and shadows of our being, — as the positive and negative 

 tints which colour in succession the livid perspective of life ; 

 but the principle, if once encouraged, would soon be pushed 

 to a more hazardous extent, and the ever-varying phases of 

 our moral nature would soon be represented by the abscisses 

 and ordinates of a mathematical curve. 

 St. Leonard's, St. Andrews, Nov. 12, 1839. 



LXV. Observations of Shooting Stars o?i the nights of the lOth 

 and Mth of August, 1839. By R. M. Z.* 



To the Editors of the Philosophical Magazine and Journal. 



Gentlemen, 



A REQUEST having been made that any notice relative 

 -^^ to the August periodical shooting stars should be com- 

 municated to the Philosophical Magazine, I have transmitted 

 the following observations made by me on the 10th and 11th 

 of August inst. Brief and imperfect though these observa- 

 tions may be, yet perhaps, as facts bearing upon a hitherto 

 little explored subject, they may not be wholly devoid of in- 

 terest. 



I must be permitted to premise, that my observations were 

 confined to a limited portion of the heavens, the aspect of my 

 apartment being N.N.W. and that I was without an assistant. 

 On the night of the 10th I was prevented from commencing 

 any observations until twenty minutes past eleven, and at 

 thirty minutes* past twelve the sky became overcast, and 

 the observations were discontinued. During this time (witi), 



* On the subject of this coimnunication, see our last Number, p. 37*. 

 — Edit. 



