INTRODUCTION. 



In order to give the reader a clear and full 

 knowledge of the Seasons, it will be necessary to 

 illustrate their astronomical causes ; consequently 

 I must begin with a familiar view of the Solar 

 System, of which our earth forms a part, and of 

 whose laws our seasons are an effect. Some in- 

 sight into the atmosphere is likewise good, in order 

 to understand the sources of the weather and its 

 changes. For the Seasons Tempora are deter- 

 mined divisions of time which uniformly return, 

 and are marked by the determinate length of the 

 daylight, and are caused by tlie position of our 

 globe in its orbit : which belongs to the study of 

 Astronomy; whereas the Weather Tempestas 

 means the various changes of wind, rain, sunshine, 

 clouds, and so on, which belong to the atmosphere 

 or air that surrounds the globe : it is the ail* also 

 which we breathe and in which we live and move, 

 and which by its many changes produces all the 

 diversified phenomena of nature, and nearly all 

 the varieties of health and disease : its study^be- 

 longs properly to Meteorology. Climate Climas 

 signifies the effect of the seasons and of the weather 



a2. 



