i7i the Temperature of JFiiiter. 9 



during the day, but erected altars, offered incense, and 

 performed other pagan rites to the deities of the country ; 

 and we have the express authority of the Scriptures to 

 prove that as early as the days of Samuel, it was custom- 

 ary to sleep on the tops of the houses, as it is at this day. 

 See Deut. xxii. 8 — Josh. ii. 6 — Judges xvi. 27 — Jer. xix. 

 13 — Zeph. i. 5 — Dan. iv. 29 — 1 Sam. ix. 25, 26. 



In winter, it was not unusual to kindle fires in Judea. 

 Thus we find Jehoiakim sat by a fire in the ninth month, 

 Chisleu, which answers to a part of our November and 

 December.... Jer. xxxvi. 22 — and Dr. Russel informs us 

 that at Aleppo, they begin to kindle fires about the end 

 of November.... Afl?. Hist, of Aleppo^ p. 14. Parkhursty 

 330, under Sd3. 



Dr. Williams proceeds to prove that the winters in It- 

 aly have, in about eighteen centuries, become warmer 

 by seventeen degrees on Farenheit's scale. His proofs 

 are, that Virgil in many places of his Georgics, has giv- 

 en directions for securing cattle and sheep from the ef- 

 fects of snow and cold — that Virgil, Pliny, Juvenal and 

 jElian speak of ice, snow, and the freezing of rivers, as 

 events common and annual. But he observes, that in 1782 

 and 3, the mean temperature at Rome in January was 

 46°, and the mean of the greatest cold 42°, which is 17 

 degrees less cold than what is necessary for the freezing 

 of rivers. 



The Abbe du Bos, Hume, and others alledge, in proof 

 of the same doctrine, the following facts : In the year of 

 Rome 480, the winter was so severe as to kill the trees — 

 the Tiber was frozen, and the ground was covered with 

 snow for forty days. Juvenal describes a superstitious 

 woman as breaking the ice of the Tiber to perform her 

 ablutions. 



" Hybernam fracta s^Iacie descendet in amnem, 

 Ter matutino Tiberi mei'getur."....'Sa^. vi. 521. 



Horace also, says the Abbe, speaks of the streets of 

 Rome as full of ice and snow. These authors, it is al- 

 ledged, speak of these as common events. But, says 

 the Abbe, " at present the Tiber no more freezes at 

 Rome, than the Nile at Cairo."*- 



* I cite this from Hume. Ess. xi. 



c 



