3ii 
the Nature of the Sun . 
in their greatest elevation, as well as in the time when they 
happen on the coasts of different parts of this globe. The sim- 
plicity of their cause, the solar and lunar attractions, we might 
have expected, would have precluded every extraordinary and 
seemingly discordant result. 
In a much higher degree, may the influence of more or less 
light and heat from the sun, be liable to produce a great variety 
in the severity or mildness of the seasons of different climates, 
and under different local circumstances ; yet, when many things 
which are already known to affect the temperature of different 
countries, and others which future attention may still discover, 
come to be properly combined with the results we propose to 
draw from solar observations, we may possibly find this subject 
less intricate than we might apprehend on a first view of it 
If, for instance, we should have a warm summer in this coun- 
try, when phenomena observed in the sun indicate the expecta- 
tion of it, I should by no means consider it as an unsurmount- 
able objection, if it were shewn that in another country the 
weather had not been so favourable. And, if it were generally 
found that our prognostication from solar observations held good 
in any one given place, I'should be ready to say that, with pro- 
per modifications, they would equally succeed in every other 
situation. 
Before we can generalize the influence of a certain cause, we 
ought to confine our experiment to one permanent situation, 
where local circumstances may be supposed to act nearly alike 
at all times, which will remove a number of difficulties. 
To recur to our instance of the tides, if we were to examine 
the phenomena which they offer to our inspection in any one 
given place, such as the mouth of the Thames, we should soon 
be convinced of their agreement with the motion of the sun and 
