314 OF ATMOSPHERICAL CHAP. 10. t. 



Decertantem Aquilonibus, 



Nee tristes Hyadas, nee rabiem Not! : 



Quo non arbiter Adriae 



Major, tollere seu ponere vult freta." * 



I am curious to know whence were derived 

 the notions of the ancients respecting the in- 

 fluence of certain constellations, by their rising 

 or setting, on the weather ; we read of the 

 stormy Orion, the blustering Hyades ? If 

 these allusions were made only to the heliacal 

 and cosmical risings of the stars, their imme- 

 diate reference to the time of year, and its 

 respective weathers, would explain their mean- 

 ing ; but many passages seem to relate to the 

 respective rising, that is the exhorizontal 

 emersion of particular groups of stars, which 

 cannot possibly be supposed to have any in- 

 fluence on the weather.f From the examina- 



* Hor Carm. lib. i. 3. The reader will find some curious 

 historical falsehoods exposed, which have arisen out of per- 

 sonification, in Dupuis' Origin de tons les Cultes, 3 voh. 4to. 

 with plates. 



Aratus observes : 



t "Aapa yjxr y v VVH.TWV KWOLI uoxaiexa potpai 

 "Apxia* %&nfe~v' fa. $e irov peya.v eif Jviaorov, 

 *lpy [iev r dpd<ra.i vsic/vf, wpy Ss <pyry<ra;, 

 'Ex AJOJ ijfoj Tfavra, Tfs^ay^svtx, rt 

 Kal /^e'v rif xa< VTJI" -ffoXvKXva-fov 

 ', ij Jg<v8t; 



