ON THE INFLUENCE OF COMETS. 



heavens is " something rich and strange ;" the closely-pent artizan 

 and the laborious student are little interested or concerned in the 

 variations of the weather ; but they whose prosperity is immediately 

 connected with it, and who look with anxiety and eagerness upon 

 the tokens of the sky, will be the last to treat such an opinion with 

 doubt or ridicule. 



An impartial review of the evidence in favour of " the precious 

 things put forth by the moon,'^* may lead us to admit that it esta- 

 blishes, at least, a considerable degree of probability : with regard 

 to the solar influence, our certainty arises almost to that of demon- 

 stration. At once we perceive that the action of the sun is incalcu- 

 lably more important and universal than can be attributed to its 

 light and heat alone ; or, at least, that these emanations — the form- 

 er especially — must be possessed of properties far more various than 

 have, as yet, been accurately ascertained, in order to produce those 

 wonderful effects in renewing the face of the earth, which so clearly 

 demonstrate the superintendence and bounty of an unfailing Pro- 

 vidence. These unknown properties may, in fact, be said to be 

 some of the identical influences of which we are in search ; since 

 they may be more philosophically ascribed to emanations, contempo- 

 raneous and similar to light — but imperceptible to our organs — 

 than to light itself. We are passing entirely beyond the bounds of 

 certainty, when we attribute to light any other properties except 

 those by which it becomes the medium of vision, and without which 

 its existence would be wholly unknown to us. We immediately 

 perceive the impropriety of ascribing the peculiar effects of heat to 

 the action of light, though they are closely connected, and governed 

 by the same laws ; and we should be guilty of nearly the same in- 

 accuracy, in referring the vivifying influences of the sun to his 

 luminous rays. The solar emanations apj^ear to be compounded of 

 many distinct principles, of which we have succeeded in insulating 

 only the luminous, the calorific, the deoxydizing, and, perhaps, the 

 magnetic rays ; but it is very possible that a future analysis of the 

 spectrum, conducted by methods hitherto untried, may enable us 

 to detect others, of which we have, at present, no conception : at 



• Deuteronomy, xxxiii., 14. 



