3i24 OF ATMOSPHERICAL CHAP. 10. 2. 



The many superstitions relating to flying 

 gossamers, and other productions of this sort, 

 would swell a large volume, and form a dispro- 

 portionate appendage to a work on meteoro- 

 logy.* In illustrating the physical cause of 

 these, and in tracing the origin of the super- 

 stitions conjoined with them, we must always 

 remember how much matter for supernatural 

 wonder fortunate coincidences can add to 

 physical facts, and how frequently some par- 

 ticular accident will give rise to a whole train 

 of fables.f 



And the extraordinary ascendency and domi- 

 nion over the mind, which particular prejudices 

 of this kind will sometimes get, forms a very 

 interesting subject in the Natural History of 

 the Human Understanding. 



Among meteorological delusions, may be 

 noticed the strange figures of Dragons, and 

 other hideous creatures, which a roving imagin- 



* See many in Pointer's Rational Account of the Weather, 

 London, 1778. And many remarkable recorded cases in A 

 Chronological History of the Weather, 2 vols. 8vo. London, 

 1749. 



t " It is a wonder, since almost every thing has been written 

 on, that there has been no distinct treatise on that most 

 curious subject COINCIDENCES." 



