viii PREFACE. 



the picturesque imagery of coloured clouds and 

 golden haze. The atmosphere and its phaeno- 

 mena are every where, and thunder rolls, and 

 rainbows glitter in all conceivable situations, 

 and we may view them whether it may be our 

 lot to dwell in the frozen countries of polar ice, 

 in the mild climates of the temperate zone, or 

 in the parched regions which lay more imme- 

 diately under the path of the sun. 



Among the ancient nations of oriental shep- 

 herds, the cultivation of this science must have 

 been t particularly useful ; chemistry and many 

 other sciences which are necessary to the pro- 

 motion of a more cultivated condition of society, 

 for the improvement of the arts, and manufac- 

 tures of civil life, were of less utility among 

 tribes, whose chief employment consisted in 

 watching their flocks, and procuring the fruit 

 and other vegetable productions on which they 

 subsisted. 



Constantly abroad in a serene atmosphere, 

 and endowed with strong faculties for observa- 

 tion and analogy, the eastern tribes of old, in 

 Egypt and Syria, observed accurately the phae- 

 nomena of the heavens, and collected, compared, 

 and recorded, facts that laid the foundation of 

 astronomy and meteorology, which the Grecian 



