i;. YORKSHIRE. 28^ 



But this is fomcwhat unrcafonable : it 

 would, indeed, be equally philolbphical to 

 quarrel with the Icales when the guinea is 

 under weight. It is quarrelling with the 

 laws of nature, not with a glals tube and 

 quickfilver. 



All that the barometer pretends to is to 

 afcertain the weight of the atmosphere, 

 which it does with great delicacy and ac- 

 curacy : it is beyond the power of mechanifnt 

 to form fo fine a balance. 



To the ridiculous tables of the Jews and 

 ether makers (who ought to have judged bet- 

 ter) we muft afcribe thofe difappointments 

 which have brought their inflrument into 

 undeferved difrepute. If inll:cad of fair, rain, 

 and changeable, they bad fubftitutcd heavy, 

 light, and medium, or merely a fcalc of de- 

 grees, the barometer would have been con- 

 lidered what it really is, a balance for afcer- 

 taining the weight of the atmofphere ; not 

 what it never was or can be, /;/ itfelf, an in- 

 fallible prognollicator of the weather. 



In a former work * I digcfled my ideas on 

 this fubjed fully and circumfpedlly. It is 



now 



* Experiments and Observations concerning 

 Agriculture and the Weather. 



