268 MAN AND NATUKE. 



upon the latter diffused over the globe, the former 

 not limited to our narrow sphere, but, some of them 

 at least, energetic throughout all sidereal space we 

 may well find much of grandeur in this appropriation 

 to human purposes of powers above human compre- 

 hension. The instincts of inferior animals act through 

 these powers, but without consciousness of them, and 

 with no ability to control or direct them by intelli- 

 gence. 



We must not, however, carry too far this assump- 

 tion of superiority. We are seeking now to define 

 what Man can do in modifying the physical conditions 

 of the earth ; and Climate comes in among the first 

 points in question. Its intimate relation to all other 

 objects of physical science has just been noticed ; and 

 the term Meteorology expresses that independent 

 branch of science designed to embrace these relations. 

 The name is one inherited from antiquity partially 

 and ignorantly applied in its origin ; now, like many 

 other cognate terms, amplified in its meaning, to satisfy 

 the exigencies of growing knowledge and a higher 

 philosophy. But meteorology is yet far from taking 

 rank among the exact sciences. Notwithstanding all 

 that has been done of late years, and the better defi- 

 nition of the objects sought for, it is still in compara- 

 tive infancy as a branch of human knowledge. We 

 can but partially and doubtfully explain the events it 

 records. The power of predicting them is limited to 

 certain periodical phenomena ; and to those more local 

 sequences and averages which we are wont to note 

 without being able to interpret them. As respects, 



