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hours, only St are exempt from her pretended do- 
minion. Hence, though the changes of the weather 
fhould happen to have no connedtion whatever wdth the 
Moon’s afpe61:s, though the fadt fliould be, that they take 
place at all times of the Moon indifferently, and are dif- 
tributed in an equal proportion through the w^hole fyn- 
odic month; yet any one who fliall predidt, that a 
change fhall happen on fome one of the 24 days af- 
ligned, rather than on any one of the remaining 54, 
will always have .the chances 24 to 5^ in his favour. 
Merely becaufe more changes will fall with in the greater 
time, and, upon an average, as many more in proportion 
as the time is greater. It is evident therefore, that this is a 
matter in which men may eafily deceive themfelves, ef- 
pecially in fo unfettled a climate as that of this ifland : 
and the advocates for lunar influence are not to imagine 
they have fadt on their fide, unlefs it fhould appear, 
from fuch tables as thefe carefully kept for a long courfe 
of years, that the changes happening on the days, which 
they hold to be fubjedt to the Moon, are more than thofe 
which happen on the exempted days, in a much greater 
proportion than that of 24 to 5^. 
The antiquity of the opinion may perhaps be al- 
ledged in its favour ; and it may feem an anfwer to the 
objedlion taken from the inftability of the weather of 
this part of the world, that it had its origin in more fet- 
tled climates. We find it, it mufl be confefled, in the ear- 
liefl; Greek v/riters, who probably had it with the reft of 
tlieir phyfics from the Eaft, . A}\d to this circumftance, I 
4 am 
