Meteorological Essays and Observations. 339 
not till its second revolution upon its axis, call the firmament iuto 
existence. Now, one result of the previous inquiry has been, that 
a sphere unequally heated and covered with water, must be enve- 
loped in an atmosphere of steam, which would necessarily be turbid 
in its whole depth with precipitating moisture. The exposure of 
such a sphere to the orb of day would produce illumination upon it, 
that dispersed and equal light, which now penetrates in a cloudy day, 
and which indeed is * good :” but the glorious source of light could 
not have been visible from its surface. On the second day the 
permanently-elastic firmament was produced, and we have seen that 
the natural consequences of this mixture of gaseous matter, with 
vapour, must have been, that the waters would begin to collect 
above the firmament, and divide themselves from the waters which 
were below the firmament. ‘The clouds would thus be confined to 
definite plains of precipitation, and exposed to the influence of the 
winds, and still invisible sun. The gathering together of the waters 
on the third day, and the appearance of dry land, would present a 
greater heating surface, and a less surface of evaporation, and the 
atmosphere during this revolution would let fall its excess of con- 
densed moisture: and, upon the fourth day it would appear pro- 
bable, even to our short-sighted philosophy, that the sun would be 
enabled to dissipate the still-remaining mists, and burst forth with 
splendour upon the vegetating surface. So far, therefore, is it from 
being impossible that light should have appeared upon the earth 
before the appearance of the sun, that the present imperfect state of 
our knowledge will enable us to affirm, that, if the recorded order of 
creation be correct, the events must have exhibited themselves in the 
succession which is described. ‘The argument, therefore, recoils with 
double force in favour of the inspiration of an account of natural 
phenomena, which in all probability, no human mind, in the state of 
knowledge at the time it was delivered, could have suggested; but 
which is found to be consistent with facts that a more advanced state 
of science and experience have brought to light.” P. 134. 
The important modifying influence exerted over atmospheric phe- 
nomena by the electric fluid and the moon, are not entirely passed 
over by our author in his interesting inquiry, although he has not 
been able to add any thing to our existing stock of knowledge on 
the subject : from those experiments, however, instituted by him, he is 
inclined to believe that the elasticity of vapour is increased when elec- 
trically charged, but on this point he has nothing decisive to offer. 
The popular and general opinion of the different phases of the moon 
possessing an influence over atmospherical vicissitudes which has 
been denied by some philosophers, and considered as the offspring of 
superstition and ignorance, is attentively considered by the author, 
and accorded with. Innumerable observations have shewn that such a 
relationship does actually exist, and it is not at all more extraordinary 
than the influence exerted over the tides by that satellite. 
