THE EARTH. 289 



With us on land, as the wind proceeds from so 

 many causes, and meets such a variety of obsta- 

 cles, there can be but little hopes of ever bring- 

 ing its motions to conform to theory ; or of 

 foretelling how it may blow a minute to come* 

 The great Bacon, indeed, was of opinion, that 

 by a close and regular history of the winds, con- 

 tinued for a number of ages together, and the par- 

 ticulars of each observation reduced to general 

 maxims, we might at last come to understand 

 the variations of this capricious element ; and 

 that we could foretell the certainty of a wind, 

 with as much ease as we now foretell the return 

 of an eclipse. Indeed, his own beginnings in 

 this arduous undertaking, seem to speak the pos- 

 sibility of its success j but, unhappily for man- 

 kind, this investigation is the work of ages, and 

 we want a Bacon to direct the process. 



To be able, therefore, with any plausibility, to 

 account for the variations of the wind upon land, 

 is not to be at present expected ; and to under- 

 stand any thing of their nature, we must have 

 recourse to those places where they are more 

 permanent and steady. This uniformity and 

 steadiness we are chiefly to expect upon the 

 ocean. There, where there is no variety of sub- 

 stances to furnish the air with various and incon- 

 stant supplies ; where there are no mountains to 

 direct the course of its current, but where all is 

 extensively uniform and even ; in such a place, 

 the wind arising from a simple cause, must have 

 but one simple motion. In fact we find it so. 

 There are many parts of the world where the 



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