152 ELEMENTARY PROPERTIES 



ated with relation to surrounding objects i* 

 general, and to this world in particular ; in a 

 manner similar and analogous to any collected 

 mass of sublunary fire : its power may differ in 

 intensity, but its influence must be the same ; 

 so far, however, from the effects which flow 

 from both, being one and the same, they are 

 found to be totally different from each other. 

 It may be considered as a general truth, that 

 these effects continue to increase in a progres- 

 sive degree, in proportion as the fire is ap- 

 proached, and that its maximum of power is 

 more especially displayed, when foreign bodies 

 are in immediate contact with it With respect 

 to the sun, the effects are altogether different ; 

 if the sun is a globe of fire, it must, as a 

 consequence, follow, that the degree of heat 

 and of expansion which it excites, ought uni- 

 formly and progressively to increase, not only 

 in proportion to its proximity to us, but more 

 especially, according to the purity and rarity of 

 the medium through which the rays of the sun 

 are transmitted. Although the temperature 

 varies, in an infinite degree, in different latitudes, 

 from the line of the equator to the poles, when 

 the temperature is measured on the plain sur- 

 face: at the highest point of elevation, on the 

 contrary, a general a uniformity is found to exist; 

 so far from the temperature increasing as we 

 ascend, the very reverse takes place; the tempe- 



