88 OJN THE .KAIJSPALL OF SINGAPORE. 



ahead of the Meteorologist, in that he can foretell with wonderful 

 precision the movements of the stars and planets, proving thereby 

 of great assistance to the navigator, who determines his position 

 at sea, by night as well as by day, with the aid of the carefully 

 prepared tables of the Nautical Almanac. 



The Astronomer knows what influences the planets bear on one 

 another, and on this globe ; singly, or in conjunction duriug their 

 movements through space ; but the Meteorologist is still only on 

 the borders of the vast unknown, and cannot compete with the 

 Astronomer; he is still only a recorder of events passing and 

 past, and not a diviner of events to come. Though the barometer 

 is, in some latitudes, a faithful monitor, too often, the change pre- 

 dicted comes about faster than it was anticipated, and he is left 

 only to register that which has happened. 



Notwithstanding all that has been done to get together such 

 information as may help to unravel the mystery of the laws which 

 govern Nature, there is much more still wanting ; but we may en- 

 tertain the hope, that in the perhaps not distant future, by the aid 

 of faithfully recorded meteorological registers which at present 

 seem of little value, some Keplee or Newton will yet arise, and 

 discover the effects of solar spots, and the influences of the celestial 

 objects on our atmosphere from ivithout ; and the workings of this 

 vast globe, generating, and maintaining electricity, magnetism and 

 and a host of other operations from within* causes which operate 

 no doubt in some recurrent order, guided and governed by solar 

 and lunar cycles. f We may hope, that when it is understood how 

 these causes act and react on one another, certain rules will be 



*In Astronomy, Keplee in 1609-1618 could never Lave arrived at the conclu- 

 sions known as bis laws, but for the labours of Tyco Beahe, who, about fifty years 

 previously, laboured to collect a large amount of correct, trustworthy, facts unin- 

 teresting perhaps to many, but invaluable to Kepleb. With the advantage of the 

 labours of these two, Newton, about fifty years later, was enabled to announce his 

 Laws of Gravitation and the movements of the planets, &c, in their orbits ; laws 

 which have proved to be so correct, that about a hundred and fifty years later, 

 with the Laws of Newton as the basis of operation, Adams in England, and 

 Levebbieb in France, fixed the position of an unknown disturber of the move- 

 ments of Uranus, and discovered it to be the planet which has been named 

 Neptune, 



f Herr Schwabs of Dessau calculates the recurrent cycles of Solar Spots at 

 eleven years. A solar cycle is 28 years, and a Iwiar rycU 19 years. 



