ADVERTISEMENT. Vil 



The Gentleman who has the greateft number of 

 fupporters, and who, undouDtedly well merits 

 that rupporr, for the tafte which he difplays, in 

 his daily criticifms of liternry produftions, has ob- 

 jecfbed to me, tranfiently, that I deftroy the adion 

 of the Moon, which is in fuch perfed harmony 

 with the phenomena of the tides. It is evident, 

 that he has not taken the trouble to inform him- 

 felf, either refpecling my new Theory, or the old 

 one. I deftroy nothing of the Moon's aftion on 

 the Seas ; but, inftead of making her to aél on the 

 fluid Seas of the Equator, by an aftronomical at- 

 tradion, which produces not the flighteft efFed 

 on the mediterraneans and lakes of the torrid Zone 

 itfelf, I make her to ad on the frozen Seas of the 

 Poles, by the refleded heat of the Sun, acknow- 

 ledged by the Ancients *, demonflrated by the 



Moderns, 



* " The Moon difTolves ice by the humidity of her influ- 

 *' ence." Pliny's Natural Hiilory, book ii. chap. loi. When 

 the Moon fliines, in the nights of Winter, in all her luftre, it 

 freezes, no doubt, very fhai-ply : becaule that, in this cafe, the 

 North wind, which occafions this ferenity of the air, checks the 

 warming influence of the Moon ; but if the wind is flilled ever 

 fo little, you fee the Heavens covered with vapours which ex- 

 hale from the Earth, and you feel the Atmofphere foftened. I 

 afcribe, as Pliny does, to the light of that Star, a particular ac- 

 tion on the frozen waters of the Earth and on the Air ; for I 

 have frequently feen, in the fine nights of the torrid Zone, all 

 the clouds of the Atmofphere difperfe, in au afcending dii-ec- 

 a 4 tion, 



