324 CRITICAL NOTICES OF NEW PUBLICATIONS. 



The Earth. The Air. The Heavens. By Robert Mudie. 3 vols. 

 Ward & Co., Paternoster Row. 1835. 



We have rarely seen publications of more transcendent merit than 

 these last productions of Mr. Mudie. He has simplified, and re- 

 duced into three small volumes, the essence of the most comprehen- 

 sive works on these important subjects, and unravelled the mysteries 

 of those parts of science which, excepting to the illuminated few, 

 have hitherto been enveloped in the clouds of mystery. His mode 

 of instruction, too, is so clear and explanatory, so comprehensible to 

 even the weakest understanding, that ignorance, or a merely super- 

 ficial knowledge, of these luminous topics, will, in future, be unpar- 

 donable in every branch of respectable society. 



In tlie volume entitled " The Earth," the author has supplied 

 that information which will in vain be sought for in any one book, 

 and probably in any number of books, which have been hitherto 

 published. He has succeeded in giving as clear and comprehensive 

 a view as possible of the earth, considered as a whole, having equal 

 regard to the causes or agencies which produce the more general 

 terrestrial phenomena ; and has pointed out the great practical ad- 

 vantages which are derived from a proper knowledge of the earth, 

 and the characters and relations of the several seas and lands of 

 which its surface is composed. After glancing over the various 

 lands, and the seas by which they are separated, the author has 

 clearly shewn the general character of each of the great natural di- 

 visions of the land, and how they work together in bringing about 

 all that occurs by natural causes. Then follows some account of 

 the agents and instruments which are chiefly influential in produc- 

 ing terrestrial phenomena. Of the first, the grand agent is the sun, 

 and the grand instruments are, the air of the atmosphere and the 

 water of the sea, which distribute the solar action over the surface 

 of the earth. With a view to simplify this sublime and important 

 matter, Mr. Mudie has first considered what would be the general 

 effect of the sun upon a hemisphere of the earth, if both sun and 

 earth were at perfect rest, situated at the same distance from each 

 other as they are now, and if the sun-beams had precisely the same 

 nature as they have at present, but that there were no moveable air 

 or water, or any marked difference of surface, to modify their ac- 

 tion. This, he remarks, is the elementary view, and the determina- 

 tion of it is a matter of geometry, partaking of all the certainty of 

 that science ; this being once understood, the observed departures 

 from it of themselves lead to the investigation of their causes. The 

 full statement, or even the mere enumeration of all those causes, more 

 especially the local ones, would have been incompatible with the 

 space to which he was restricted ; he has, therefore, considered 

 chiefly the two general sources of modification — the daily rotation 

 of the earth upon its own axis, and its annual motion round the sun 

 in its orbit. By means of these, he has been enabled to state gene- 

 rally the effect which is produced by the reciprocal actions of the 



