xii PREFACE. 



Unions institutions of seclusion. Shortly after 

 learning again began to flourish, and the ener- 

 gies of the human mind again exerted them- 

 selves on a more general scale, according to the 

 particular genius of individuals, there appeared 

 persons who delighted in aerial phaenomena, 

 and Saussure, De Luc, Bertholon, and others at 

 length roused the attention of mankind to the 

 production of our atmosphere. The attention 

 of philosophers since their writings seem more 

 particularly to have been directed to these sub- 

 jects, which can only be brought towards per- 

 fection by the repeated observations of people 

 in different places. To add what few I have 

 made myself, and to engage the attention of 

 more able and industrious meteorologists to 

 some facts in the science at present little known, 

 is the reason of the present publication. 



In conclusion of this rude sketch of the 

 science from its earliest records to the present 

 day, we are naturally led to reflect on the me- 

 lancholy picture of the revolution of human 

 society, which the history of almost any science 

 or art will always excite. Science seems to have 

 illumined first the banks of the Nile, and to have 

 dawned on the early tribes of Egypt ; travel- 

 ling down from Thebes to Memphis, Cairo, and 



