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tangled thicket. If the vista be in any degree thus opened, those who may follow will scarcely grudge the labour of smoothing asperities, filling up chasms, and making plain the road to the science. With regard to mathematical discussions, with which it would have been an easy task to some, to have interspersed the work, I think it right to avow, that a limited education in that branch of science has left me unqualified to furnish them; and possibly, to men capable of applying them to the test of sound theory, the simple data derived from observation may prove as acceptable, as a splendid series of ready-made demonstrations. One thing the reader may rely on— that much care has been exercised in the plain calculations which were continually required to bring out my results. It may be proper also to remark, that for the convenience of those who may incline to take up the subject only in parts, the Index has been made copious and minute, to a degree which on any other consideration would have been quite superfluous.

The result of my experience is, on the whole, unfavourable to the opinion of a permanent change having taken place of later time, either for the better or the worse, in the Climate of this country. Our recollection of the weather, even at the distance of a few years, being very imperfect, we are apt to suppose that the seasons are not what they formerly were; while in fact, they are only going through a series of changes, such as we may have heretofore already witnessed, and forgotten. That the shorter periods of annual variation in the mean temperature, depth of rain, and other phenomena of the year, which will be found exhibited in this volume, may be only component parts of a larger cycle is, however, very possible. Otherwise, considering that the changes

consequent on the clearing of woods, culture and drainage, with some other less obvious effects of an increased population, have probably by this time contributed their utmost to its improvement, I should venture to suppose, that our Climate is likely to remain for ages what it now is; and further that, in its great leading features, it differs little from what it was, when the present elevation of these islands above the sea was first established.

Having despatched the few remarks of this kind that were left for a preface, I may now claim the indulgence of the scientific reader for some thoughts of a more important nature. In the introduction to my earliest published observations (in 1807) I find the following remarks on the end and object of such enquiries. Every correct register of the weather may be considered as intended for two purposes: first, as a daily record of the phenomena regarded as passing occurrences; secondly, as a continued notation of facts interesting to the philosopher, and from which he may deduce results, for the purpose of extending our knowledge of the œconomy of the seasons. This application of the subject it is desirable to encourage: for it cannot be doubted, that from views less limited we should draw conclusions less partial as to these changes, and instead of that scene of confusion, that domain of chance, which as commonly seen they present, we should discover a chain of causes and effects, demonstrative like the rest of creation, of the infinite wisdom and goodness of its Author." Athenæum, vol. i. p. 80. I should indeed regret the many hours of leisure, which I have since bestowed on this pursuit, could I not persuade myself, that these anticipations are likely to be in some measure fulfilled: that Meteorology will, by future observers, at least,

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be rescued from empirical mysteriousness, and the reproach of perpetual uncertainty; and will contribute its share to the support of a proposition, so well illustrated by some of the brightest names in science, that the Almighty hand, that made the world of matter without form, hath ordered all things in measure and number and weight." Wisd. xi. 17, 20. Or, (to use more modern terms) that the Creator has, even in the course of the winds and the variations of the atmosphere, so adapted the means to the end, that amidst perpetual fluctuations, and occasional tremendous perturbations, the balance of the great machine is preserved, and its parts still move in harmony each returning season verifying the assurance given to mankind after the deluge," While the earth remaineth, seed-time and harvest, and cold and heat, and summer and winter, and day and night shall not cease." Gen. viii. 22.

I have occasionally observed with regret, in the writings of men of science, the continuance of a phraseology which I would gladly see exploded ; which is unmeaning in itself, when strictly examined, but tends directly to evade or weaken the force of some important truths upon the mind-a mode of expression by which Nature, personified, is made to do every thing, while the Great Author of nature is never mentioned or alluded to. Surely no well informed mind can now imagine, that the chain of causes and effects, which we contemplate in Natural philosophy, could ever arrange and move itself; that the material world, in which we dwell, and over which we ourselves have such dominion, was originally produced without design or impulse-or that it is without beginning, and will never have an end!

The fading leaves of the tree which I now behold from my window will, in the course of a few weeks, have fallen to the earth, and their elements will have mingled in part with the soil, in part with the atmosphere. It is in the nature of vegetable matter thus to decay, when separated from the unknown principle which gave it organization. In a few months, other leaves, now concealed in the buds, together with other branches, will have unfolded themselves, adding to the total bulk of the root, stem, &c which now It is the nature of trees thus to compose the tree. increase in bulk, and extend their parts, by assimilating to themselves the elements contained in the earth and air. The tree with its new set of leaves will however be the same tree, though it will have changed a part of its substance: this, indeed, it has been doing ever since it first sprouted from the seed. The tree, then, was in the seed before it grew; it is a part of the System of nature; and the best account we can give of its origin in common language is, that it is the nature (natura: that which we expect to be brought forth) of the seed, thus to germinate in the moist earth, and of the tree, thus set growing, to increase to perfection; and lastly, to form in itself other seeds, capable under circumstances which will always occur in the course of Nature (natura rerum : that which from our knowledge of the earth and seasons, we expect will be the concurrence of events) to continue the species.

In this account of some familiar natural effects, the word nature has been used in its proper acceptation; in the sense which, unless I am greatly misled by its etymology, the inventor of the term intended for it. But were I now to proceed to say that all this takes place, because Nature thus works, or because she

wills it, it would be but to run away from a plain and positive account of the matter, already on record, to a notion which is at best very obscure and indefinite. I might indeed imagine the existence of a power or principle, distinct from Omnipotence, and superseding the necessity of creation and Providence, subsisting in matter from all eternity, and manifesting itself in an infinite variety of forms and operations-I say I might choose to imagine this, but I could never demonstrate or render it probable. I should, then, have nothing solid to oppose to the positive authentie history of the matter, which is this, That "in the beginning" (of the system of nature as we now behold it) "GoD created the heaven and the earth”—that among other provisions for the use and sustenance of the future inhabitants, He caused the earth to bring forth the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after its kind." From which "beginning," by a succession of effects, which we can investigate and comprehend (though the created principle of vegetable life, immediately acting on matter to produce them be hidden from us) the " kind" or species has been continued to this day.

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Divine revelation was alone competent to furnish us with just conceptions, on points of knowledge, neither attainable by the observation of nature, nor demonstrable by just inference from its phenomena : and without this, it is difficult to conceive how the idea of a spiritual energy, pervading and governing matter, could ever have been formed by man. We have accordingly in the book of Genesis an account of the origin of Nature, which, while it stoops to the simplicity of the human mind, in its ignorance of physical science, is yet fraught with the substance of the sublimest truths that are attainable, in the sincere