114 OF JJETEORS. CHAP. 3. 



CHAPTER III. 



OF CERTAIN ACCENSIONS WHICH APPEAR TO 

 TAKE PLACE SPONTANEOUSLY IN THE ATMO- 

 SPHERE, CALLED FALLING STARS, METEORS, &c. 



THE igneous Meteors which occasionally take 

 place in the atmosphere, have been noticed by 

 most of the ancient writers on natural philosophy 

 with which we are acquainted, as may be found 

 by the works of Aristotle,* Pliny ,f Virgil,! 

 Lucretius, || Seneca, J and others. But the pe- 

 culiarities remarkable in the different kinds of 

 them do not appear to have been duly noticed. 

 The most minute differences between them 

 ought to be commemorated, together with their 

 relation to other coexisting phaenomena: for 

 in investigating the causes of these luminous 

 accensions, we shall probably be assisted by 



* Arist. Meteor, lib. i. c. 4. 



t Plin. H. N. Lib. ii. cc. 4. 25. 36. 



J Virg. Georg. lib. i. 365. 



|| Lucret. <le Rer. Nat. lib. ii. 206. lib. v. 1190. 



Senec. Nat. Quaest. lib. i. c. 14. 



