CHAP. 1. OF CLOUDS. 3 



I speak first of clouds, because in the ob- 

 servance of the varying countenance of the 

 sky, as M. Howard terms it, and of its con- 

 nexion with atmospheric changes, consisted the 

 popular meteorology of the ancient agricultu- 

 rists, who were chiefly concerned to inquire 



Quo signo caderent Austri, quid saepe videntes 

 Agricolae propius stabulis armenta tenerent. 



And the accuracy of their observations, with 

 respect to prognostics of the change of weather, 

 have been verified by those of more modern 

 meteorologists. It is obvious, however, that 

 the ancients wanted definite terms whereby to 

 express the peculiarities observable in clouds 

 and other atmospheric phaenomena; a de- 

 ficiency which has been in some degree supplied 

 by the moderns, and particularly by M. 

 Howard, whose theory of the formation and 

 destruction of clouds appears, as far as I am 

 capable of judging, to be extremely accurate in 

 most particulars. As it will be necessary for 

 me to have perpetual reference to this theory, 

 and as I shall always use the terms which he has 

 adopted, it will be proper to present the reader 

 with the substance of it, as nearly as I can re- 

 collect it, with such additional observations as I 

 have been enabled to make since, together with 



B2 



