[ 4 ] 



• 



rioiis ether cafes miicli more certain and eafy than it could be 

 under the guidance of blind and fortuitous experiment. Hence 

 a connexion of fome kind or other, whether real or imaginary, 

 betwixt known facfts, began to be traced, and thence the fcienccs 

 originated. With refpetfl to Aletereology, the connexion of the 

 different feafons of the year with each other, and with the 

 general ftate of vegetables and animals, prefenting little or no 

 variation, was difcovered from the earlieft times ; but the 

 numerous modifications of each feafon, whether of heat or 

 cold, moifturc or drynefs, though known to have fome con- 

 nexion with the preceding weather, yet not being conne(5ted 

 with that fingly, but with the recent and adlual ftate of the 

 atmofphere in the moft diftant countries, the order in which 

 they prefent themfelves and fucceed each other has hitherto in 

 a great meafure eluded all refearch. 



The deCre, however, of gaining the flighteft view even of 

 the fliorteft period of this fucceflion has been evermore fo 

 urgent, that fome mode or other of divining it has always 

 been adopted*. Thefe modes are either empyric, fcientific or 

 mixed. Of the empyi'ic methods fome are general, but vague, 

 and uncertain for the moft part ; others topical and more cer- 

 tain, but varying with the place of obfervation. The fcien- 

 tific method, as yet in its infancy, is grounded on a long feries 

 of obfervations accurately taken, of all the changes in the 



atmofphere, 



* See Pliny's Nat. Hift. Lib. i8. Cap. 35. 



