312 Dr. Herschei/s Observations to investigate 
moon. A little reflection would easily reconcile us to every devi- 
ation from regularity, by taking into account the direction and 
violence of winds, the situation of the coast, and other circum- 
stances. Nor should we doubt the truth of the theory of the 
tides, though high water at Bristol, Liverpool, or Hull, should 
have been very deficient, at a time when, in the place of our 
experiments, it had happened to be uncommonly abundant. 
Now, with regard to the effects of the influence of the sun, 
we know already, that in the same latitudes the seasons differ 
widely in temperature ; that it is not hottest at noon, or coldest 
at midnight ; that the shortest day is neither attended with the 
severest frosts, nor the longest day with the most oppressing 
heats ; that large forests, lakes, morasses, and swamps, affect 
the temperature one way; and rocky, sandy, gravelly, and 
barren situations, in a contrary manner ; that the seasons of 
islands are considerably different from those of large continents, 
and so forth. 
But it will now be necessary to examine the accounts we 
already have of the appearance and disappearance of the solar 
spots, and to compare them with the temperature of the respec- 
tive times, as far as history will furnish us with records. 
The first thing which appears from astronomical observations 
is, that the periods of the disappearance of spots on the sun are 
of much shorter duration than those of their appearance; so 
that, if the symptoms which have been pointed out, as denoting 
the state of the sun with regard to light and heat, should be 
well founded, we ought rather to look upon the absence of 
spots as a sign of deficiency, than on their presence as one of 
abundance; and this would justify my expression, of the reco- 
very of the sun from an indisposition, as being a return to its 
usual splendour. 
