ABOUT THE WEATHER. 115 



dried, but out of the air of the room. The reason why 

 this previously invisible, aeriform water appears suddenly 

 in the form of little visible drops, lies in the difference of 

 the temperature of the air of the chamber in general, and 

 that of the air cooled by contact with the cold glass ; and 

 thereby is indicated the law, that the warmer air is, the 

 more invisible water it can contain. This is the cause of 

 the formation of clouds, rain, snow and similar phenomena 

 of our globe. 



The consideration of these two points, the cause of the 

 wind and formation of the watery precipitate of the atmo- 

 sphere, leads us to a force upon which both phenomena are 

 dependent, namely, heat. Seeking the general source of 

 this, we come to the sun. This is the mover of all upon 

 the earth, and, in a wonderfully simple manner, it main- 

 tains a constant circulation of matter, through which alone 

 the life of organic existence, of plants and animals, is 

 rendered possible. The Emperor Aurelian said, that 

 among all the gods which the universal ruler, Rome, had 

 borrowed from the vanquished and gathered together, he 

 had found none truly worthy of adoration but the sun ; 

 and among all the forms of heathenism, certainly that 

 is the most elevated form of worship which the Parsee 

 offers, waiting in the early morning on the sea-shore, till 

 the first rays of the sun dart over the shining waves, to 

 prostrate himself before them, and in silent prayer, to greet 

 the return of the all-vivifying and all-producing. 



Unhappily, the decision of the Bible, which asserts an 

 equal distribution of the heavenly gifts on all mankind 

 (" The Lord maketh it to rain over righteous and un- 

 righteous") is again wrong, and man has, according to his 

 place of abode, a very different share of the warming and 

 vivifying influence of the sun. It distributes its blessings 



8* 



