208 Outlines of Meteoric Astronomy. 



Yes, kind reader, leave the fern ; so, in the aftertime, shall it 

 often in its quiet, unmolested beauty, " flash upon that inward 

 eye which is the bliss of solitude." 



There is even some risk of plants once tolerably common 

 becoming rare, owing to the constant depredations of collectors. 

 A very few years ago in far Basedale, an unfrequented glen 

 near Grasmere, the banks of the stream were rich with forests 

 of Osmunda regalis. Last autumn I heard that not a plant re- 

 mained. From the more accessible habitats of Hydal and 

 Grasmere it has long disappeared, though it once fringed the 

 lake with a luxuriant beauty which sent De Quincey into rap- 

 tures, and drew from Wordsworth a 'line which the Opium-eater 

 styles "the most beautiful independent line in the whole 

 records of poetry" — ■ 



" Fair ferns and flowers, and chiefly that tall fern, 

 So stately, of the Queen Osniunda named ; 

 Plant lovelier, in its own retired abode 

 On Grasmiere's beach, than naiad by the side 

 Of Grecian brook, or Lady of the Mere, 

 Sole-sitting by the shores of old romance.'" 



OUTLINES OF METEOEIC ASTRONOMY. 



BY A. S. HEKSCHEL, B.A. 



(1.) The history of Meteoric Astronomy may be briefly divided 

 into four periods — of Speculation, Observation, Explanation, and 

 Prediction. The first of these periods dates from the time of 

 Aristotle (330 e.g.) to the time of Cornelius Gemma (a.d. 1450). 

 In the absence of any evidence to the contrary, we may suppose 

 the opinions of Aristotle to have prevailed during the whole 

 of the period, and the following summary of his views is derived 

 from the chapter of his works in which he treats of meteor- 

 ology. 



The Principle of Heat, or " Phlogiston," to borrow a word 

 from later chemical writers, must, he says, levitate, or 

 tend upwards, while all other known bodies gravitate towards 

 the earth. Suppose that, by combining with " phlogiston/' 

 large quantities of humid and terrestrial vapours have been 

 elevated to the summit of the atmosphere, they will there 

 come into immediate contact with the revolving celestial 

 sphere, and the " phlogiston " being set free by friction they 

 inflame, and the northern-lights are produced. When the 

 vapours are drawn up in a column and kindled at the summit 

 of the atmosphere, a fire-ball is generated, just as a flame runs 



