METEOES AND AEEOLITES. 267 



concerned; and that we must carry our speculations still 

 higher, before we can compass all the facts which modern 

 observation has placed before us. 



It will be readily conceived how much the admission of the 

 fact, that Meteors are sometimes accompanied by the pre- 

 cipitation of stones or earthy and metallic matters from the 

 sky, affected every part of this enquiry. And when Chemistry 

 intervened, disclosing the singular and very similar compo- 

 sition of the bodies thus strangely conveyed to us, it became 

 obvious that new elements were concerned, of which science 

 was required to take larger cognizance. About the same 

 period, research was more exactly applied to determine the 

 height, velocity, and direction of meteors, and especially of 

 falling stars, while luminous to the eye. The results of this 

 enquiry, though embarrassed by various difficulties, tended 

 yet further to remove their physical causes beyond the region 

 of our globe ; by showing their elevation above the atmo- 

 sphere, their vast rapidity of passage through space, and lines 

 of movement involving other forces than that of simple 

 gravitation towards the earth. And when to such researches 

 were added, more recently, certain remarkable facts as to the 

 periodicity of falling stars, the enquiry assumed at once a 

 cosmical character, associating itself with some of the move- 

 ments and higher laws of the planetary system. 



We have sketched this preliminary outline of the subject, 

 from a feeling of the interest which ever attaches to the 

 successive stages of a new science ; those steps by which we 

 ascend from the rude, doubtful, or superstitious record of 

 isolated facts, to the absolute proof, the classification of phe- 

 nomena, and the determination of the physical laws which 

 govern them. Such notices are not more instructive as to 

 the philosophy of the material world than in relation to the 

 history of man himself, thus advancing in knowledge and 

 power amidst the elements which surround him. 



