28 REMARKABLE EFFECTS OF SOL-LUNAR 



the diflferent processes of nature, and operations of 

 art. We shall ultimately discover where it assists, 

 where it counteracts, and where it produces no ef- 

 fects at all ; precepts and cautions will thence arise 

 to direct our conduct: and thus assuming the real 

 character and office of science, it will hecome an 

 instrument of improvement and perfection in the 

 useful occupations of life. In our native country 

 the respectable tradesmen, who are employed in 

 the important national concerns, of supplying our 

 fleets destined for distant vovao-es and warm cli- 

 mates, with wholesome and durable provisions, are 

 often unaccountably disappointed in the quality of 

 the different articles which they provide. Perhaps 

 they may discover that all the days of the month 

 are not alike favourable for the important processes 

 of brewing, and baking, and of preserving meat. 

 And perhaps abroad, the manufacturers of indigo, 

 sugar, saltpetre, and opium, may find out hereafter, 

 that the success of their diti'erent operations are not 

 altogether unconnected with certain periods of time. 



To those who are proficient in astronomy it will 

 readily occur, that the construction of an EphemeriSf 

 such as that which is [)roposed, is not merely specu- 

 lative or impracticable. It will occur to them that 

 there is no hour or division of the column appropri- 

 ated to the variations of sol-lunar power, for which 

 the precise degree or quantum of its force is not 

 either ascertained by astronomical theorems already 

 demonstrated, or readily dcducible from such de- 

 monstrations. On those gentlemen, whose studies 

 have qualified them, and whose zeal may incline 

 them, from a sense of its utility, to complete the con- 

 struction of this instrument, 1 must for the present 

 rest my hopes. My own imperfect knowledge of as- 

 tronomy , and the precarious state of my health, render 

 me at this time totally unequal to such an exertion. 



