35^ 0?t the Influence of the Sun • • 



mankind from the moft remote antiquity. The true nature 

 ^11(1 extent of their influence feerns, however, not to have been 

 well underftood until the epoch of the fublime difcoveries of 

 Newton. 



Whether the firfl profefTors of aftrology, a fcience which 

 we find to have been fo antiently cultivated in the Eaft, en- 

 tertained more juft ideas of the planetary influence than iheir 

 fucceflbrs in later times, we may not now be able to deter-, 

 mine. With refpedl to the pretenfions of the latter, it is, 

 hovi'ever, certain, that the mai's of abfurd notions, the pro- 

 duct of credulity and imagination, under which is buried 

 every thing true or valuable in their writings, has given oc- 

 cafion to their falling into general contempt, more efpecially 

 in the prefent advanced flate of aftronomy. The more myf- 

 terious and impofing fludy of aftrology has ftill neverthelefs 

 its advocates ; and the pretenders to it, jivailing themfelves 

 of the meteorological facts recorded by their predeceflbrs, 

 and countenanced by fomething not well underftood in the 

 experience of the multitude, continue to put forth their an-, 

 nual predictions of the weather ; and, -in this refpeft, in fpite 

 of fufticiently frequent proofs of this want o'i fpecial forefight, 

 they fucceed often enough to keep up a fort of credit with 

 their wondering readers. In the mean time, is it any credit 

 to thofe who have long had in their hands corre6l regifters of 

 the weather, and other means of forming an accurate judg- 

 ment of fuch matters, that they either fuffer thefe deceptions 

 to pafs unnoticed, or content themlelves with fubftituting 

 ridicule for inquiry ? 



Obferving that the fubjeft of lunar influence on the atmo- ^ 

 fphere promifes at length to obtain due confideration (by 

 fome paflTages in foreign journals, as the Theory given by 

 Lamarck in the Journal de Phjyjique, Floreal, An. 8, ifs^c.^J, 

 I am inclined to bring forward fome obfervations which firft 

 occurred in keeping the regifter of the barometer for 1798 



* In particular a paper by Toa'.do, in the Journal des Sciences utiles, 

 tranflated in the Philofoohical Magazine, Vol. III. p-izi, with which 

 the reader is requeftcd to compare thefe obfervations (which were written 

 previous to the author's knovviedge ofToaldo's Thtory), as they n.u- 

 lually fupport each other. 



annexed. 



